Under the Lights | j.b

za lights

"Sasha." 

"Mmmmm."

Soft, light fingertips stroked my cheek gently. 

"Sash," he tried again hoarsely, indicting he was barely awake himself. 

Pushing through the sleepy grogginess, it took me a second to remember where I was. 

After Justin and I had given up on trying to catch a fish, we'd gorged on snacks we picked up from a local supermarket after landing, and then played uno in the warm confines of our tent until we fell asleep.

Warm lips pressed to my forehead, further compelling me out of my haze.

"We have to get up, lucky."

I did the opposite of getting up. I snuggled further into Justin's warm chest. "What time is it?" I mumbled against him. 

Justin continued stroking my hair. "It's almost three am."

Pressing a kiss to the bare skin on the base of his neck, I let out a low groan. "What? Why so early?" 

The fingers splayed in my hair stopped moving, "What about the lights?"  Justin questioned, tone laced with confusion. 

"The lights?" It took a second for awareness to overtake me. "The lights!" 

I scrambled to get up. My legs tangled in the blankets and I fell over. 

Justin's laughter filled the tent, but he made no move to help me. 

"Shut up asshole," I scowled, reaching for my jacket. 

My energy intensified as I laced my boots on, and suddenly, my sleepiness melted to excitement. 

--------

By four am, my excitement had pretty much completely dissipated. 

By five, my aching legs were begging me to give up and go back to our tent. 

"Lucky," Justin started tentatively, like his next words would hurt my feelings. "I don't think we're going to see anything." 

I aimed to sound cheerful. "We will. We just," puff, "have to," pant, "keep looking." I breathed out harshly. "Seriously?" I complained, noticing Justin wasn't even slightly out of breath.

He shrugged smugly in response as we kept walking.

The Min Min lights were an unexplained phenomenon depicted by witnesses as a set of lights that appear as orbs, only to disappear and reappear randomly.

I had picked this particular camp ground solely because of the sheer number of reviewers claiming to have seen them.

The owner of our camp ground had set up in ground lights to mark out paths throughout the forest, but the light emanating was dim and our torches only provided so much light. 

It wasn't too cold, thankfully.

 But I was getting restless. 

"Relax," Justin said comfortingly from beside me. "You're so impatient," he teased. 

How was I meant to explain that I was disappointed? I wanted his birthday to be unforgettable. I wanted our trip together to be exciting and adventurous, for it to be as embedded in his mind as it would be in mine. 

His hand found mine, and he held it firmly. "Whether we see them or we don't, it doesn't matter." Justin gazed reassuringly. 

My heart leapt. Of course he knew.