Frigid Flora

fifteen - camping trip

Chapter Fifteen

Some people wake up to birds chirping outside of their window, a few to their mothers snatching the blanket from them and yelling about having slept in, others with the sound of their screeching alarm clock. As pleasant as the first sounded, I hadn't once experienced it. The other two were the norm for me. Today? Today I woke up with something else quite entirely.

I rubbed at my eyes with the backs of my hands. "Tell me again why you're here?"

"We just told you," Axel trailed off looking surprisingly rather concerned. "Several times actually."

"Well obviously I can't quite recall so would you mind repeating it?" I squinted at the harsh sunlight, shying away from it behind the safety of my front door that I was leaving open just a crack in order to communicate. All I wanted was to crawl back into bed. I was beyond groggy and had absolutely no idea what time it was but judging from the sun that looked as though it had barely risen, I reckoned it to be ridiculously early. Certainly too early to have been dragged out of bed by the sound of banging on the door, stones being thrown at the window - not the romantic kind - and loud arguing from outside, that's for sure.

"We're going camping!" I heard Matthew shout enthusiastically from behind him.

"That's nice to know." I responded before attempting to close the door. A combat boot clad foot got in the way and I glared at it, following the line of the person's leg up until I'd reached the foot owner's face.

"Can we come in?" Topher asked. It sounded as if it were a genuine question but the foot wedged between the door and its frame stated otherwise - it wasn't optional.

"Why?" My sleepy stupor was gradually wearing off only to be replaced with crushing embarrassment. It was one thing having Parker see me in my childish cupcake pyjamas consisting of a thin tank and boy shorts but I didn't need his equally attractive friends seeing me this way too.

It made it worse that Topher was there. It wasn't that I was attracted to him - even though he did have that Greek god look going for him - but he owned that type of intimidating beauty. The sort that made you feel like you had to present your best self in front of them or else you would look like you'd just ran through a spiky, hundred metre long bush in comparison - such as my current state.

As if reading my mind, Topher smiled and shook his head. "I've seen you in your cute pyjamas before, remember? I still think your legs look killer so stop being all self conscious and let us in."

I let out a reluctant sigh and swung the door open, inviting them inside. "I'm surprised you guys used the doorbell instead of picking some locks or climbling through any windows." I stared pointedly at Topher once mentioning windows, vividly remembering how he'd crawled through my smashed one after the brick incident had occurred. It also happened to be the horrific day he was referring to when he said he'd already seen my pyjamas. "Did the criminals get bored? Develop a guilty conscience for the poor people being subjected to their forced company?"

"I'm going to ignore your patronising tone because I'm here to discuss some important issues." Axel cleared his throat. After a minute or so of silence he dug his elbow into Matthew's ribs.

The blond cursed under his breath before fumbling over his phone. A few moments later there was faint music playing in the background, some kind of dramatic instrumental piece with trumpets.

"Flora Montgomery, strange girlfriend to our friend-"

"I'm not his-" I began but both Axel and Matthew sent me a glare for interrupting the apparent speech that was taking place. I glanced at Topher - the most sane out of the three - to see that he had his head in his hands as though this was simply beyond his control.