It'll Be Okay

And so it begins

Soon enough, Friday rolled around and we all rushed home to get our things and meet Coby at his house.
I was the last one to show up. Everyone else was packing their things into the  jeep. I hugged my mom goodbye and walked up the gravel path to join my friends. I threw my things in the back and said hello to everyone before climbing into the front seat of the jeep.
Zachary, Melissa, and Bryce all squeezed into the back seat. Coby backed out of the driveway and I blasted some music from the radio. I put my feet on the dashboard and smiled, this was going to be fun.
Not too long after we got on the road, we started talking about what we were going to do when we got to the campsite.
"Oooh!" Melissa squealed. "We should roast marshmallows!"
"Yeah, and stargaze!" Bryce added.
"Well I don't know about you guys but I'm going to set up the tents so we actually have somewhere to sleep." Zachary said sarcastically. We all laughed.
I turned my head and looked out the window, the sun was getting lower and I had an odd feeling in my stomach.
"I feel like I forgot something." I said.
"Do you want your bag to look through?" Melissa asked.
"Sure." Melissa handed me my bag and I rummaged through, thinking what I possibly could've forgotten. Checking off my mental list, I found that everything was there. I felt my pockets for my phone, finding that it was there too. I zipped my bag back up and shrugged.
"I guess I have everything," I said, handing the duffle back to Melissa to put in the back. Coby reached into his pocket and dug out his wallet and tossed it into my lap.
"Brynn can you count how much cash I have real quick?" He asked.
"Uhh," I opened his wallet and pulled out a couple of crisp bills, "it looks like 26 dollars. Why?"
"There's some fast food places coming up, I'll buy y'all dinner since it's probably gonna be a long trip ahead." We all agreed to the idea while simultaneously offering in money to pay for our own food. "Chill guys, it's not gonna cost me my whole bank account to get you food," Coby laughed as we rolled into a McDonalds drive-thru. After we got our food, we sped off down the road.
My eyes got heavy as we reached the long open roads that would take us to the forest. The 5 of us were relaxing and listening to the radio, talking about whatever. I rested my head on my seat belt and fell asleep to the sound of the chitter chatter of my best friends.

*Two Hours Later*
I awoke to silence. Rubbing my eyes, I turned around to find everybody asleep. Melissa was squished in between Zach and Bryce with her eyes half open. The boys' heads were lying against Melissa's shoulders. I turned to Coby who had one arm out the window, and the other on the steering wheel.
"Morning, Sunshine." He smirked. I rolled my eyes and stretched my arms. There was little light left in the sky, but I couldn't really tell because we were completely surrounded by trees. We drove along a narrow dirt path that made a crunching sound under our tires. I rolled down my window and leaned my head against the door. The wind pushed the flyaway hairs out of my face. Smells of pine trees and dirt filled my nose and made me sneeze. Zachary woke up with a start. He sat straight up, eyes darting back and forth. Coby and I laughed, and Zachary furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"What time is it?" he asked, still groggy.
I looked below the radio, which was turned off, and read off the numbers, "7:36."
Zach groaned and leaned forward to stretch his back, "I gotta pee, man," he tapped Coby's shoulder, "can you pull over?" Coby glared at him through the mirror and sighed.
"We're almost there, can you hold it for another 30-40 minutes?"
"Almost there? That's gonna take forever. Please?"
"Fine, but make it quick." Coby pushed on the brakes and drifted to the side of the dirt path. Zach opened the door and ran out of the jeep before we had even come to a complete stop. Coby and I got out of the car to move our legs.
"Are we gonna set up tents this late?" I asked, seeing that the sky was beginning to look darker and darker by the minute.
"No, I figure we sleep in the car tonight and then first thing tomorrow we-" He was cut off by a rustling deep in the trees to our right. Zach had gone to the left.
"What was that?" I stepped closer to Coby.
"Zach?" He called out, looking at me with worry. No response. "Zachary?" He tried again, this time louder. No response. "Come on, man, this isn't funny." The rustling became louder, closer to the road this time. At this point I had stepped closer to the car, ready to jump inside.
From behind me I heard Zach's voice, "Okay y'all, ready to head out?" I snapped my head around to find him standing at the road. The rustling wasn't him. I met Coby's eyes and he opened his mouth to speak, but I put my finger to my lips, telling him to shush. I motioned to the car, implying for him to get us the hell out of there before we were bamboozled by the boogeyman. He rushed to the driver side and quietly opened the door. I did the same, staring daggers into Zach, letting him know he had to be quiet. He nodded and got in the car. We drove away quickly, leaving whatever monster that lie in the brush behind us.