The Right Guy | Jelsa/Helsa

Chapter Nine

The blue sky had transformed to an angry red sunset, indicating darkness would soon consume the roads. Elsa and Jack had swapped places at lunch time, so Jack was driving. He looked over at Elsa, about to ask where they could stop and realised she was asleep. He took everything about her in. The little wisps of hair that escaped her braids, the tiny freckles scattered on her nose, the way his sweatshirt was far too big for her, almost drowning her in fabric. She'd gotten cold as the day stretched on and had taken it out of his bag.

As he looked back at the road he tried his hardest to suppress those familiar feelings creeping up again. But he couldn't help it. Elsa just felt like home to him. It was simple as that. He dreaded the day where he looked at her and felt anything but warmth in his heart and happiness in his fingertips.

However, he pushed these thoughts down as his mind was overtaken by fears of having to drive somewhere unknown in the dark. His mother warned him 100 times when he got his driver's license that most car accidents happen at night. Of course, he had no idea if this was true or not, but he didn't like to risk it, especially on long journeys.

"Elsa?" He whispered softly. "Hey, Snowflake, wake up." After a couple of gentle nudges, her eyelids fluttered open.

"How long have I been sleeping?" She yawned.

"I don't know. Not long, I don't think."

"Where are we?" She frowned, looking out the window. Outside, it seemed like there were endless stretches of rocky, uneven ground.

"Edge of Utah." Jack replied.

"Oh my God, the sky is really beautiful." Elsa commented. Jack looked up at it, and noticed that it did in fact look really beautiful.

"Yeah, it does." He smiled. "Hey, can you search for a campsite nearby? It's gonna get dark pretty soon."

"Yeah sure thing." She grinned. This was all so exciting to Elsa. Their first ever independent road trip, camping under the stars in a different state, it was the stuff you only ever saw in movies.

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"How skilled are you at putting up tents?" Jack frowned, examining the poles and pegs that fell out of Elsa's tent bag as he sat cross legged on the ground. "Because, on a scale of one to ten I would have to be a big fat zero."

"Don't worry Frost, I am an expert camper. I know all the top tips for survival." She joked.

Jack didn't laugh, however. In fact, he went rigid all over, his eyes as big as light bulbs as he felt every hair on his body stand up on end.

"Well, expert camper," he said quietly and calmly, "don't freak out... But do you happen to know any survival tips... about snakes?"

Elsa looked at him with wide eyes, and slowly followed his gaze. Sure enough, there on the ground, opposite Jack, was a large, striped, tent rope.

"Jack," she walked over to it and abruptly picked it up, "it's a tent rope."

"No!" Jack held his arms out as she picked it up, and then realised that it was indeed, a tent rope. "Haha, got you! Good one me, let's move on."

"You thought this was a snake?" Elsa smirked at him, holding the rope in her hands. She waved it in his face mockingly. "You thought it was a big scary snake coming to poison you?"

"Shut up. I've never been in the wild on my own before, it's scary." Jack cradled his knees.

"Jack it's a campsite, why would they set up a campsite when there are snakes around?" She stared at him with a smug look on her face.