Summer Milestone

Thunderstruck

Chapter 28

~ZACK~

I wake up at seven in the morning the following day, as according to Josh's watch, because it's not like I was smart enough to bring my phone with me. I don't know why but I've always woken up before Josh. Never in all of our sleepovers has he ever woken up before me. Damn, I'm gonna miss those days so much when this summer's over. But now I guess I just have to accept that it's over.

I wake up by giving him a shove in the shoulder. I know I should just let him sleep but at this point, I really just want to get out of these fucking woods since I know there's really no chance of us reconciling anymore. "Get up, we gotta get moving so we can hopefully be outta these fucking woods by this afternoon," I say to him coldly.

"Five more minutes!" He groans.

"Just get up, man," I say, intentionally lacking all emotion so that he sees that I'm over him. "The sooner we get outta here, the sooner we'll both be out of each other's lives."

He then rises from his sleeping position and looks at me with sad eyes. Or maybe they're just groggy from his sleep. I doubt he'd be sad to see me exit his life. He's fucking done with me.

"Are we gonna stare at each other all day or are you gonna get up so we can get outta here?" I ask him. In his eyes, I can tell he wants to say something but he ultimately holds back, kinda like I did last night when we were talking about our summer milestones.

"Yeah," he finally answers, getting up from the tarp he was sleeping on and gathering his stuff. "Let's go, then."

For a long period of time, the two of us are just wandering the woods in total silence, neither of us having anything to say to each other. I most certainly don't and this time I am not going to be the one to break the ice.

We walk for hours, surrounded by a sea of trees as far as the eye can see and not a single person in sight. It's actually quite maddening; the utter silence and the feeling of being completely lost in an endless maze of tall, big trees, is starting to drive me slightly insane. So, only for the sake of my sanity, I open my mouth to say something—whatever pops into my head, just to pass the time and keep myself occupied, but to my surprise, Josh beats me to it.

"Hey, Z..." he begins, and I can't help but feel a glimmer of content at him referring to me as Z instead of Zack. It was always his thing.

I don't verbally reply and just look at him with a straight face to show that I'm listening but that I don't really care, even though I secretly do just because he called me by my nickname, suggesting that maybe he's had a change of heart.

"... I think..." he continues nervously. I don't understand why he's nervous but now it's making me nervous and my heart rate quickens with anticipation for his next couple of words. "... I think we should go that way."

Oh, that's all he had to say? I just scoff and roll my eyes as I follow him down whatever path he wants to go.

"Look, dude... I've been thinking..." he surprisingly continues talking. "... maybe I was a bit harsh last night..."

I stare at him blankly, waiting for him to go on, mentally saying, And?

"You know, it's just hard... to get that trust back..." And that just incites me to roll my eyes.

"Save it, man, if you're just gonna lecture me about how hard it is to trust me again then I don't want to hear it. I get that you don't want to be friends anymore so you don't have to force yourself. Let's just leave it at that and go our separate ways." Boy, was that hard to say, but if he truly finds it hard to trust me again then there's no point.

He scoffs, "Listen, I—"

A loud thunderclap suddenly cuts him off and grabs both of our attention, followed by a stronger wind and a few drops of rain.

"Oh shit," he mutters as we both stare up at the cloudy sky. "We're gonna get fuckin' drenched!"

It doesn't take long for the rain to pick up and the next thing we know we're caught in a thunderstorm with no shelter of any sort.

"We need to find shelter!" Josh exclaims over the loud rain and strong winds. Look who's being captain obvious now!

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!" I yell back at him, pushing forward as I'm completely unable to see what lies ahead.

"Listen, man. I take back what I said yesterday!" I hear him shout from behind me and all I can think about is, maybe this isn't the best time to talk about this, given our current situation.

"Now you decide to tell me this?!"

"I was trying to earlier but..."

Another thunderclap interrupts him.

"But what?!"

"But I'm willing to put it all behind us..."

"After all this fucking time, you finally decide that now's the best time to put it all behind us?! Man, if your stupid ass had decided this a bit sooner then we wouldn't even be in this goddamn mess!" I shout at him, enraged over the fact that we wouldn't even be in this situation, lost in the middle of the woods during a thunderstorm had he just made this decision while we were in the tent for fuck's sake! It's a little late, buddy! I've got worse concerns now and it's all thanks to your stubborn ass.

"Well, can you blame me?! After everything that's happened?!"

I don't know how this happens but before I can say something back to him, I trip over a branch or something on the ground and end up tumbling down a small hill and into the river below.

I hear Josh shout my name, but the next thing I know I'm submerged beneath the surface of the water, struggling to keep myself from sinking. But even once I do reach the surface I find myself still struggling to make it back to the bank as the water flows too rapidly for me to move against it. From what I've learned from Josh, I manage to float and swim just a small distance, but not enough to get myself back to the bank. And that's where Josh comes in. I watch him jump into the river and swim like a pro in my direction. He grabs me and since I'm closer to the other end of the river he pulls me toward the opposite bank from which we came from. Since I didn't fall unconscious, CPR is obviously not necessary, which means no mouth to mouth to both of our advantages because that would have been awkward as fuck.

I guess my falling into the river was a blessing in disguise because on the other side of the waters we find ourselves a place to take shelter from the storm beneath a series of rocks in a small den-like cavity. Fuck, I hope we don't encounter any wild animals again.

We sit in silence for a period of time to give each other a second or two to recover, occasionally exchanging glances but still remaining quiet.

"Thanks," I finally say.

"That's what friends are for," he replies.