How it All Started (A One Direction fanfiction)

Chapter 15

"We'll that was rude!" Louis huffed as he pushed himself off of the ground and back into his feet. He wiped some dirt off of his shirt and looked up at me, waiting to an answer.

"That's what you get for insulting my peanut butter and jelly making skills. So no I'm not sorry." I said in a matter-of-factly tone.

"Touché." He said as he started to jump up and down for no apparent reason.

"You guys are so immature it's not even funny." Harry mentioned as he walked in between us, putting his arm around both of our shoulders.

"No were not!" Louis and I screamed at the exact same time.

"JINX"
"JINX"
"JINX" we both say repeatedly at the same time until Harry kicks Louis leg, which causes him to stop talking.

"Haha I win loser." I stick my tongue out as he sighs in defeat.

I have that strange feeling that someone is watching me again, so I look around to see if it's who I think it is, and it is. Niall, again.

I lock eyes with him for a split second, until he whips his head away and turns his attention to the ground. He starts kicking some rocks around angrily, and I try to figure out why. Just as I'm thinking, I realize that Harry's arm is still locked around me and Louis' shoulders. Even though it's just in a friendly way, I can tell that Niall doesn't like it.

"I'll be right back." I say as I walk out of Harry's grip and make my way over to Niall. When I get there, I don't think Niall heard me coming because he doesn't even bother to look up.

"Boo." I say nonchalantly, which still makes him jump.

"Brooke what the hell you scared the crap out of me!" He huffs as he recovers from the fright.

"You didn't notice I was standing here so I needed a way to get your attention." I tell him honestly.

"Looks like you've already gotten Harry's attention." He mumbles quietly with his head down. I put my hand under his chin and tilt his head up so he's eye level with me.

"Listen, Harry and I are just friends. I only have eyes for you, anyways." I tell him, looking straight into his beautiful blue eyes.

"Really?" He says softly.

"Really." I say as I lean in and give his a soft peck on the lips. I'm pretty impressed with myself for making the first move on only our second kiss, and I think he liked it too considering he's blushing like crazy.

"So who's the one who can't stop blushing now, huh?" I giggle at him as he tries to stop his face from turning any more red than it already is.

"Stop ittttt." He whines jokingly as he takes my hand and leads me to the rest of the group. They're all standing in a big huddle, which makes me feel kind of weird that we just shared that moment with all of them waiting for us.

"So I see the lovebirds are finally back, huh?" Liam says as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"Shut up Liam." Niall says jokingly as he nudges his fellow band mate.

"Are you guys even like official yet? It's about time." Zayn adds.

"No, Zayn. Not yet." Niall states, putting an emphasis on yet, which makes the group go crazy. And out course, makes me blush as always. Niall can definitely tell that this made me giddy because he gave my hand a gentle squeeze, which I retired after. He really wants to make me his girlfriend.

"Okay guys now that they're done, I think we should start heading back so we can get back in time to get our stuff together to leave tomorrow." Harry offers first. This gives me the bitter-sweet reminder that we have to leave tomorrow, which makes me upset. On the bright side of this all though, is that I know we will continue hanging out together. And not just me and Niall, but all of the guys and El. Probably Perrie too, because I know Zayn wanted me to meet her sometime.

"Okay, I'll lead the way." Louis says as he starts to head down the trail. No one follows him, so he's starts to walk alone for a few paces.

"Um, guys, lets go." He snaps, obviously unhappy that no one followed him.

"The way back is that way." Niall points in a different direction than Louis is going.

"No, Louis is right." Zayn states, which gets everyone in a fight about which way is the way down.

"Guys, even if we don't agree on which way to go, the worst thing that we can do is split up. We need to stay together. Let's take a vote on which way to explore first. All in favor of Louis's way, to the right, raise your hands," Liam said taking charge.

Louis, Eleanor, Zayn, and Liam raised their hands. Niall, Harry, and I all looked the other way, where we thought it should go.

"Let's go this way first and see where it goes. Lead on, Louis," Zayn said.

We started walking into the small path and clearing of trees that may or may not lead to the campsite. It was now fairly dark considering we watched the sun set. The only light was the single luminous stream from the full moon. The lunar glow cast shadows off the scraggly branches of the trees that seemed to reach out to us.

I bit my lip and grabbed the hands of the closest people to me, Niall and Harry. They seemed to understand how this was making me uneasy, I could that they were a little spooked by the appearance of the mountain at night too, by the way they gratefully gave my hand a little squeeze back.

I was not going to let go if either of them. Well I never want to let go of Niall's hand, but I didn't want either of them or me to get lost. I think that Harry was relieved that I was keeping him with us because Louis was practically carrying Eleanor and Liam and Zayn were clutching on to each other as well.

We moved on into the path that was overgrown with other vegetation.

"Snap!"

I let out a little scream and felt Niall and Harry jump besides me. The others in front of us whipped their heads around in panic.

We all surveyed the area near us, but didn't find anything that could have made that noise. Harry let go of my hand and went to join Liam and Zayn.

"Someone must have stepped on a stick...," Niall said trailing off at the end. He was trying to comfort everyone but we all still had on looks of unease.

We eventually continued down the path and I felt myself shake as I remembered every scary movie, story, and nightmare I had experienced.

By now I was hyperventilating so I tried to steady my breathing.

In through the nose, out through the mouth, I repeated again and again in my mind trying to calm down.

In. Out. In. Out. What if we get lost and can't find the camp again. In. Out. In. Out. What kind of animals live on the mountain. In. Out. In. Out. They probably don't appreciate us being in their home. In. Out. In. Out.

This isn't working, I realized as my thoughts were wandering to all the possible bad scenarios.

Think happy thoughts. Rainbows. Puppies. Bubbles. Lollipops. Summer vacations. Hello Kitty. Teddy bears.

While I tried to think of things that make me happy we continued down the twisting path. It seemed to never end. With the roots and rocks sticking out of the uneven dirt and grass we all began to stumble.

My foot caught on something in the path and I jerked forward. Niall's fingers tangled together with mine kept me from tumbling down the whole mountain, but I was still startled by the sudden movement that I was was not expecting.

I thought that night was still and quiet before now, but I was wrong.
I heard an owl "Who", the rustling of the trees against each other from the light wind, the chirping of the crickets and cicadas, and something that I could not place, all of which had me worrying.

I reached into my backpack and pulled out a flashlight, as it was continuously getting darker. The others who had flashlights did the same.

A breeze blew across, pushing my hair out my face and giving me the chills. I felt goosebumps rise on my arms and let out a little shiver. None of us were dressed for this crisp weather.

I heard a low growl behind. I jumped in surprise before burying my head in Niall's chest. I felt his other arm not holding my hand go around me, while he held me in his embrace.

"Shhhhh, it's okay," he whispered in my ear while he stroked my hair.

I felt like screaming and crying. At the same time. Walking int he dark with all these noises in an unfamiliar place was giving me anxiety that I just could not overcome. I felt a knot in my stomach and could not relax at all.

I slowly backed out of Niall's protective hug to see the others in similar situations. El and Lou were hiding behind each other an Liam was comforting both Harry and Zayn.

We kept walking only to stop every few minutes because of an unexpected noise or movement that sent us all into a wave of panic.

It felt like we had been walking for hours but in reality I had no idea how far or long we had travelled. I was beginning to feel a strain on my calves and thighs from the challenging terrain.

I stopped walking for a bit to look at a tree we had just passed and Niall sensing my halt, ceased walking as well.

The tree was twisted within itself but also curved as it went up. The branches were low to the ground and had vines growing on them. The roots came above ground in several places just waiting for someone to twist their ankle on it. A lone bird sat in the tree. I couldn't tell if it was sleeping or just looking into the distance. There were 2 bushes that say at the bottom of the trunk that were slightly dead probably because the tree was taking up all the sunlight and water.

Although the tree was scary and beautiful at the same time, neither was the reason for my inspection of it.

We had passed this tree 40 minutes ago.

"Niall, do you recognize this tree?" I asked.

"Yeah, did we see it on the way up?" He asked excitedly.

"No, we've been going in circles, we passed this tree ages ago!" I exclaimed.

"Are you sure?" He wondered.

"Yeah this is where Zayn fell on Harry who fell on Liam. I remember looking at the tree and wondering how old it could be," I told him.

"Then we better tell the others... Hey! Where did the others go?" Niall said, panic in at the end.

We whipped out heads around, looking for them in every direction, but there was no sight of them.

Then my flashlight went out.


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Hey guys! Did you like the chapter? We loved writing it. Sorry it was so late, but school has started for Emily and I :(. It's been a busy time. Did any of you see This Is Us? We are going to see it soon and are so excited. We are gonna cry, but that's okay. Please comment and vote. Love you!!!!!!