Into The Wild

F O U R

    When I woke up the next morning, I was finally able to check the texts on my phone, ignoring all the social media notifications. Mom texted me ten times, while dad on the other hand only sent one, which asked when his package was coming.

    I snicker, replying to them immediately. I’ve been away from home many times before, but this time was different. This time I’m with friends and I’m busy. I haven’t even thoroughly checked my notifications yet, and it's already been a week at Camp Wild. The week buzzed by so fast, I didn’t even see it coming.

    I look down from my top bunk and notice Carly is already up, typing away on her laptop. Madison is forced to wake up early every morning to clean up the bathrooms and help out the kitchen staff, so we all see her when it's almost midnight. I try to stay up and talk with her, but I end up sleeping after tiring days of hiking and sweating jars of water.

    When I jump down from the bed, I almost have a heart attack when I see Aria sprawled across the wooden floor. “What in heaven’s name are you doing?”

    She lifts her head up and grins. “I’m stretching. Can you help me massage my back?”

    I place my hands on her back and roll it in a continuous position, then switching to rubbing her shoulders. When she starts moaning, I slap her arm which makes her laugh and we both stand up from the hard wooden floor.

    “I feel bad for Madison. She was only hanging out with her boyfriend innocently and she gets such a cruel punishment,” Aria says with pity as she looks at her top bunk which is clearly deserted and not-so-clean like on the first day. Madison’s pillows are all over her bunk and her bag’s contents are spilled out everywhere. I choke on a laugh until I hear someone knock on our cabin door.

    When I look through the small window, I notice its Amber Cohen, the counselor that gave us our camp shirts and bags earlier this week. I open the door almost immediately, sucking in her wavy auburn curls and tall height. She may just be a tad bit shorter than Luke, and that's saying a lot considering his crazy-tall height- well, compared to me. She stares at me in my blue tank top and shorts, clearing her throat as she looks behind me at Aria who’s fixing her bedsheets.
   
    “I am looking for a Madison Epps, Jay’s girlfriend. I heard they both got punished,” Amber says, her eyes wandering around the room in search of her.

    “You can find her cleaning the bathroom,” Aria pipes up from behind me. “But, why are you looking for her?”

    Amber eyes her carefully before saying, “I need to have a little talk with her.”

    Aria leans against the wall and stares at Amber, trying to figure her out. I’ve seen that look many times which most of the time are aimed at boys. Her eyes light up as she realizes something, pointing at Amber. “Aren’t you Luke’s girlfriend?”

    I stare at Aria in confusion, eyebrows raised. Luke’s girlfriend?

    Amber turns red at the question, completely humiliated by the question aimed at her. I turn to Aria with hard eyes, glaring at her. “What in the world are you saying, Aria? How can she be Luke’s girlfrie-” I cut my sentence off when Amber nods.

    She fiddles with the knot on her green shirt, staring at Aria with confidence. “That, I am,” she replies which makes Aria’s face turn red in similarity to her earlier. I laugh awkwardly, not sure of how to process this new information. Luke has a girlfriend? Well, it wasn’t completely impossible, considering his annoyingly handsome face. But did it really have to be another camp counselor?

    When Amber leaves our cabin, I notice the pain in Aria’s eyes as she sits down on the floor, crossing her arms over her legs. I take a deep breath before sitting next to her, rubbing her back supportingly. “I knew she looked familiar,” Aria says with a sigh. “I saw her and Luke a few days ago sitting together by the river when I was wandering around that night, their arms wrapped around each other.”