Just The Two Of Us <Sweet Pea FF>

65. Friends

A couple hours later I wake up, it is half past 2 in the morning. I crawl out of the tent, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Sweet pea looks at me, he is sitting alone at the fire.

"Where are Jug and Betty?" I ask, my voice a bit raspy
"They went to get some more wood" with the stick in his hand he points to the fire that is about to die.

I put on another jacket and sit down next to him.
"You must be freezing" I notice, since he is only wearing a hoodie and his serpent jacket over it.
"It's alright" his brief response ends my attempt to start a conversation.

We fall into silence and only the fire crackles in front of us, projecting long shadows on the surrounding area. The light cast by the flames dances across the dark trunks of the trees, twisting and curling in obscure shapes and providing a small radius of light. The fire itself is pulsating, the glowing embers seem to move in rhythm with the flames, matching every dip and sweep. It is mesmerizing to watch, colours of orange and red gave way to yellow and white near the centre, where the emanating heat is the greatest.

"So, you know what they did?" He asks, poking the fire with a stick, a subtle tone of angryness sounding in his voice.
"What?"
"They set everything up. The tent situation and everything. This whole trip is to get us to make up" he still doesn't look at me.

"I didn't even know you were coming until I saw you standing there next to Archie. But if you knew all along, why did you come? Do you want to-"

"Make up?" He laughs, the fire shining on his features.
"Of course you don't need it" my voice dripping from exaggeration "you have Joanne and Hanna and Stephanie and oh yeah Luciana"

"So what? Are you jealous?" His eyebrows knitted together, he turns his face to finally look at me.
"No" my voice so small it could've been just a thought I never said out loud.

"But do you think it is easy for me to see you with somebody else?" The pain speaking from my inside.

"You're the one who ended it" with a quick movement he stands up.
"Yeah, because I was mad at you, not because I stopped loving you" I as well get up.

Silence spreads again and his face softens.
"You still love me?"
I can't answer. I can't even look at him, my eyes locked to the fire.

"Then why did you leave?" It would sound like an accusation if it wasn't for his calm, soft tone.

"There are times my brain fries up. It's no excuse I know; I own my behaviour. I try to help, try to be good, and then a trigger is flicked. My emotions turn - cold, fearful, anxious... I back away, flee or strike out at someone who loves me. In these moments I am least proud of who I am, for I fail to be the warrior I was born to be, the strong woman with the softness of a mother. Instead I show the frightened child within, damaged and afraid, the one still hiding in the dark under the train table, awaiting the next beating. I know these are things for me to work on, not for others to mitigate, I am an adult after all. Yet I ask for consideration, that my fear triggers are left alone until my body stops living in a state of flight or fight, until I find a way back to being calm and steady. I have been stable many years, caring for others, pouring out love without measure, yet never knowing how to ask for it. It is the only medicine that can heal this fractured soul. So like a stupid child I-"
I gulp, he doesn't say anything but keeps looking at me.
"Julia..."

His sentence is interrupted by a distant but fearful scream.

The scream pierces the cold morning. It echoes through the woods making the origin hard to pin-point. It was like one of those shrill cries of a movie theatre, the cries of one with eyes locked wide and every muscle rigid.

I turn to look at sweet pea, fear and adrenaline rushing through my veins.
Ronnie and Archie get out of their tent, looking really sleepy.
"What is going on?"

The question is soon to be answered as flashlights flickering in the distance, Betty and Jughead running towards us.
"Run"
"What?"
"Run!" They scream again and we all start sprinting out of the forest, leaving all our things behind.

In the dark we stumble over roots and slip on the moist leaves. We run without even knowing what is following us. Maybe a serial killer or a magical creature. None of these would surprise me to be honest.

Totally out of breath we reach Archie's car and jump inside. For a moment we can't talk. Muscle pain and a lack of air make it impossible for us to talk.

"What- what happened?" Archie asks.
"Me and betty went to get some sticks and then we saw a bear" jug coughs
"A bear?" Sweet pea asks
"And where is your bear? He sure as hell wasn't behind us" I say looking out of the window into the dark.

And I think either Archie was messing with us or he accidentally walked us in a circle because we weren't as deep in the forest as we thought. There is no other explanation that we were running 15 minutes for what we needed hours earlier.

We fell asleep in the car and went to get our stuff the next day. Everything was still there except for the food. The bear must have eaten it instead of us.
Cool cool cool.