Wronged

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QOC: What's your favorite emoji?

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- Anna's POV -

I've never actually understood the phrase, "time flies when you're having fun." Actually, I do understand it, but I've never really experienced what it feels like. I've never had so much happiness filled in me to the point where I don't even realize the sun is going to down and hours have passed. And it's even more difficult for me to do because of my attentive personality. I notice everything.

But I think I finally have experienced it today. Right now. With my family and Aiden.

When Aiden took me to his mother's large incorporation building (whom I still haven't reintroduced myself to properly and probably should) on the roof, it was more intimate than anything else. It was eye-opening and truly dazzling. But this right now, is focusing more on forgetting any trials we've been put through and having fun. And I'm having fun with multiple persons, not just Aiden.

We've decided to pair up for a two way game of chicken. I've positioned myself on Dakota's shoulders, and he holds my legs steady. If I look at it metaphorically - like I always do - then I see he's not going to let go of me. He's holding me up too. But there is the literal side to that too, of course.

Anyway, Aiden is on Nico's shoulders (even though Nico whines and says it should be the other way around since he does nothing to produce any sort of muscle mass that could hold Aiden up) and Nico can't seem to hold his best friend upright for the life of him. He's wobbling left and right in the water as Hayley laughs at him from the side, pausing her painting on the white canvas before her.

Lyma said she had to make a phone call to her work office, so she took the Jeep and went down to the small log-made shack a little ways down the valley. They have a payphone there, and it's not too far away. Honestly, she could've walked and been there within twenty-one minutes. But that would spoil tomorrow's hike, apparently.

"You are so FAT!" Nico groans in annoyance as he tries to hold Aiden's weight. "I wanna turn on top!"

Aiden glares at him and reaches down to whack him upside the head. Nico lets out a very girlish yelp of pain before rubbing the spot where he was so fatally injured.

"That sounded so wrong," Hayley snickers. "Got anything you wanna tell me, Nico?"

We all start laughing, Dakota's shoulders shaking when he does so. I wobble a little, holding out my hands.

I am still chuckling loudly as I try to balance on my brother's shoulders carefully, reaching out with my fingers to grab Aiden somehow. He's smiling so very widely, his deep green orbs shining in a lighter tone I've never seen before. I mean, he's really lighting up with happiness. It's extremely contagious.

But then the smile dips into a smirk, and he reaches out for me too, just until our hands are clasp together. I try to shake and wobble him off of his support system below, but he's way stronger than me. So he instead drives my arms to the left, making Dakota and I fall into the water for the fifteenth time.

It's quiet underwater apart from some swishing sounds made from people kicking their legs to stay above water, but it's still peaceful. I, grinning, swim to the surface of the lake again just in time to take in oxygen before my lungs burst. Just when I do, I see Aiden has jumped off of Nico and begins swimming towards me.