A Second To Understand

Chapter Three

The next morning, I woke up with the early morning rays of sunshine beaming down on my eyelids. I groggily sat up and stretched my extremely stiff limbs. Man, laying on the ground all night can really work wonders on spinal alignment. I huffed and pushed myself into a sitting position.

     "Good morning." Grayson came up to me and crouched down kissing me on the cheek, making a grin spread with the faint heat that was already making its way up my face.

     "Good morning. I would ask how you slept, but I feel like a slept on a rock. I thought the earth was supposed to be soft?" I put emphasis on the soft part as I laughed and took the water bottle Grayson offered me and put down about half of it in a couple swallows.

     "Come on you two. We need to get back to camp before Blake sends out a search party after us." Nelson jogged up to us as I gripped Grayson's forearm and he hefted me to my feet.

     "This is supposed to be our trip. This is supposed to be a trip full of memories that I can carry with me the rest of my life. I refuse to take orders and have zero fun on a trip meant specifically for fun. If you choose to reprimand me for that then so be it." I crossed my arms and glared at the assistant coach.

     He sighed exasperatedly and pursed his lips, "We can take it slow going back, but please do not give me a hard time about this, we need to go, now."

     Since he wasn't being an ass, he seemed to be making a genuine effort, I relented and nodded slowly. "Okay let's pack this up and leave then."

     I helped the guys shuffle through our little camping area and when no one was paying me any attention, I stashed the machete back in my pack and folded up the blanket. It took us a few hours of trudging and tumbling through the wooded trial Grayson and I made the day before, until we finally made our way back to the others. As we broke through the tree line of the meadow, I was laughing about something Grayson said when one of the Ballerinas shouted, "There they are Coach Blake!"

It became painfully obvious we were about to receive the first degree on where we were all night when Blake stormed our way, until he noticed Nelson walking through the trees behind us. Although he still looked extremely pissed, he seemed less so just knowing that we were not alone together all night and that we were safe with his precious job intact. "Hendrix, Aniello! Where have you two been?" he barged over to us with a clipboard in his hands. It took every ounce of self control not to laugh at how goofy he looked in his vacation attire. He had on short white board shorts that rode up his thighs making them look shorter than they actually were, with a pink flowery shirt that buttoned all the way up to his neck, and his long white tube socks were tucked into white sneakers that looked brand new. Who brings brand new white shoes to an uninhabited island? He looked like someone out of one of those of Chevy Chase Vacation movies, you know the ones. The crazy family does hilariously unbelievable weird shit to entrance it's audience, but that mans wardrobe was seriously lacking in the modernism era we're in now.

Nelson looked over at me and sighed, "It was our fault. They were on the way back, but the guys wanted to see the falls too and I let time get away from us. We ended up sleeping against the falls." I raised my eyebrow at him and he just nodded me towards my tent. The ballerinas gave me a dirty look as Grayson walked me to my tent. He squeezed my hand gently and brushed his lips against my cheek.

"See you in a little while then?"

I smiled sheepishly at him and nodded before unzipping my tent and shuffling inside. I sat down on the sleeping bag that was laid across my cot and crossed my hands over my knees. What just happened? I laid my head on my arms and sighed, am I really going to let myself fall for a guy whose known me for years, but hasn't said a word to me before this trip? I just need a little R&R to make myself think clearly. I rummaged through my bags until I found a big towel and grabbed one of the books I brought along then slid my sandals on and stepped out of my tent. How convenient that I was already in my swim suit.