Living the Dream

part 5

I was beginning to get curious to this guy. I also noticed we were falling behind as the both of us walked slower than the group in front of us. Not that it really mattered, but if we lost sight of them we were definitely in trouble. I picked up the pace while we were talking in order to catch up. After only a few steps I noticed that Steve wasn’t following my lead.

“Come on, slowpoke! I don’t want to be stuck out here in the middle of now where!” I joked, reaching out my hand to pull him along if necessary. Something really out of character for me, but it kind of felt natural too. Grabbing his sleeve I pulled him along as I made my way towards the others.

Only he wasn’t giving in. So I stopped and looked at him. He had stopped walking all together and I couldn’t help look towards the others as they disappeared in to the trees. This was not good.

Why was even I standing here? I should let him be and follow the rest. But I was a ‘stick together' kind of person and I hated to leave someone behind.

“What’s wrong?" I asked, hands on my hips like the little lady I was, "Do you want to be stuck out here?” He shrugged, raising one eyebrow he watched me in a funny way. It felt like he was sizing me up.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” he replied. My mouth dropped open.

“Excuses me? This is not funny. We should find the others.”

“Why don’t we make our own adventure? Come with me. We’ll go exploring and have loads of fun.” “You are nuts, Steve!” I replied as I walked away from him. He clearly must have lost his mind. Maybe he had walked into a tree and I had failed to notice. But the 'leaving him alone out here' part nagged at me. Even though I knew fully well I was not responsible for him. I didn’t, really didn’t, want to leave him behind.

I turned around. And to my shock he was gone. My breath caught as my eyes sought through the trees. But I couldn’t see him. Turning around to find the others who were long gone by now, my heart started racing with the realization that I was on my own now.

I felt exhausted. I had walked and walked, knowing I should have caught up with the other by now. But I didn’t see anyone and no one had replied to my calls for help. I was in full distress, sitting on my suitcase, catching my breath, not knowing where to go or what to do.

I was used to being on my own, but this was a bit extreme even for my taste. I sighed heavily, feeling weary. But giving up was not something I wanted to do. I needed a plan of action!

“You look beyond lost.” The sudden sound of Steve's voice from behind me startled me so, that I lost my balance and fell, suitcase and all.

“Fuck off, weirdo. It’s your fault I’m lost in the freaking first place!” I replied angry, but weirdly happy I could at least blame it on someone else than me for this dilemma I found myself in. He reached out and pulled me up. The look he gave me made me wonder if he would let go on my hand and let me drop to the ground again. Wearily I took it. He didn’t let me fall.

“You can blame me all you want. You’re on adventure now.” He even had the audacity to smile about it.

“Hope you don’t expect a thank you for it,” I growled.

“Come on, let’s find our way out of those trees and into something with some more civilization.” I made a mock sound. Yeah, adventure my ass.

Not feeling at ease we walked around some more. Twilight was already falling when we made it out of the woods and found a road. Following the road a car stopped. The driver was flagged down by Steve. I didn’t know if flagged down was the right word for it. Steve just laid all of our luggage on the road and stood in front of it, holding on to my arm pulling me and keeping me on the road too. I could just stand there, trying to pull myself loose and look wide eyed in horror as the vehicle came closer and closer at a speed that looked way too fast. The car really had no choice to stop, unless it wanted to kill us and out luggage.