The Summer to Remember

The Black Hills, South Dakota - Part 2

Anthony:

Ian woke me up this morning, because he told me last night that if I wasn't up by ten, he would. And when I checked the time, it was exactly ten o'clock and he was already showered and ready to go, so I knew he'd been up for a while. Which was understandable, considering how excited he was for this part of the trip. He had told me before that he's always wanted to come here and all this stuff about how his dad was obsessed with this place, so even though I didn't find everything as exciting as him, it was still pretty cool.

So, we sat down to a breakfast of complimentary muffins that were left in our room.

"Alright, what are we doing today?" I asked, yawning. I couldn't really sleep last night, because I was up thinking. Trying to sort out my thoughts. Yesterday, when we were at Mount Rushmore, I had another really strange thought about Ian. When we were just sitting in the grass, I felt the urge to... kiss him. Which made no sense, because I didn't like Ian. At all. He was my best friend, and I'm one hundred percent sure I'm straight. After many hours of thinking last night, I came to the conclusion that I just missed kissing someone and, well, he was the only person around. So, it was no big deal.

"I thought we could just hike around the badlands a little this morning, and then at four I already made reservations to go down in Jewel Cave," he responded, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Jewel Cave?"

"Yeah. It's like, the coolest cave in the area. We get to go down in it and... I don't know, I heard it was cool."

I shrugged and bit into my muffin. "Alright, cool."

*

The Badlands were the defintion of "middle of nowhere."

Driving there, I was terrified we would get lost. I mean, there were no other cars in sight; just miles and miles of desolate rock-mountains. Ian navigated for me, and even though I trusted him and he seemed extremely confident with his directions, I couldn't help but worry since I watched that one episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive where the two friends got trapped out here.

And then, when I was just about to make us turn around, we reached the sign reading BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK.

"There's like, five hundred trails out here, dude. Which one?" I asked, observing how there were only a few other cars in the lot.

"It's over there," he responded, pointing to the right. "There's supposed to be this really cool waterfall at the end."

"Oh, that's cool. It better not be too long, though. It's fucking hot."

He laughed a little. "I know. It's the shortest one. Only a mile or so."

*

And it sure as hell felt like a lot more than a mile. Like, sure, it was good exercise that I very much needed, but it was just so hot. I mean, it was basically just a flat walk to the waterfall, but I was sweating buckets. And we saw no other people, so that was kinda scary. But, eventually, the trail dead-ended into a scene that may have just been the coolest thing I've ever seen. Like, an oil painting came to life. 

It was an oasis. This huge waterfall that deposited into a lake of water, about the size of three or four swimming pools. It was surrounded by a wall of orangish rock; wrapped around it like a protective blanket, shielding it from the sun. 

I felt my mouth drop open when my eyes found it, and my feet stop in my tracks. It was just so gorgeous.

"Told you it would be worth it," Ian said next to me, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

I didn't even know what to say.

We walked up to it, and found this really cool place to sit next to the waterfall. It was shady and the perfect temperature, and little water droplets splashed us every once and a while, making sure we wouldn't overheat. 

We ate our sandwiches we made out of the food stock pile this morning, leaning back against the rock. The waterfall was too loud to make any sort of conversation, but it was just fine without it. We just took in the view, eating our crappy turkey sanwiches and downing our water bottles.

I drank mine too fast, though, because it was gone in seconds and I was still parched. So, I grabbed Ian's and opened the lid, but he reached for it.

"Hey! I'm thirsty too!" he yelled over the patter of water hitting water, and leaned over to grab it.

I leaned the other way and sipped at it, mainly because I wanted to see him mad. He was always so funny mad. 

He climbed over me and reached for it, but I stood up, laughing, and held it above my head. He punched me playfully and reached for it, and I laughed because he was too short, and then he pushed against my chest, making me lose my balance, and I pushed back, and soon we were basically wrestling along the ledge of our little oasis, and then I victoriously pushed him over the edge, sending him splashing to the water.

I laughed and jumped up and down happily. I scanned the water for him, and felt the worry bubble in my stomach when I didn't see his head emerge.

And just when I was about to jump in after him, his head shot out of the water and he gasped for air, laughing. I threw the bottle down and took my shirt off, then jumped in after him.

It was a shallow pool, and I winced a little as my feet hit the bottom. But it wasn't too bad. The water was really cold, but refreshing. It felt amazing. 

I came back up, and coughed as I felt a wave of water splash my vision. I splashed back, laughing, and laughed even harder as Ian's contagious laughter filled the whole area.

Still splashing, I swam over behind the waterfall, because I just wanted to. And eventually, we both got tired, and the splashing slowed, until there was nothing at all.

And then the laughter stopped as I looked up at him. He was staring at me, his lips slightly parted, eyes wide open, water droplets dripping off his hair. I stared back, hard, because I couldn't get myself to look away. The roaring of the waterfall faded, and all I could focus on was Ian. How perfect he looked at that very moment. And we just stared at each other like that for a really long time, because... I don't know why. 

And at that moment, I had never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my life.

But I didn't, because I didn't want to kiss Ian. Well, of course I did, but only because he was there. I would probably feel the urge to kiss anyone who was standing right in front of me. It was probably just the scenery; giving off the "romantic" feel.

I looked down, breaking the moment, as the sound of the waterfall filled my ears again. Our perfect moment was over, and I instantly missed it. And I scolded myself for it, because we shouldn't have even had that moment in the first place. I should never get that close to kissing my best friend. Best friends don't kiss.

Best friends don't kiss.

A/N: Yes, this waterfall thing is an actual place, and so is Jewel Cave. I experienced both of them ^_^ So, uh, yeah. Not much to say today! Happy late Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans out there! See ya latah c: