"Those" people

Chapter 4: Calm before the storm

I was too tired after driving so early in the morning to do any work, so whilst Toby tried to teach Arina Eve and Delilah how to chop a piece of woof I lounged lazily on the thick logs lain around the outdoor fireplace just at the crest of the wood and skimmed through an Agatha Christie book that I had read a few years ago. The dogs were running around me trying to get me to play with them. I was mostly listening to the rustling of the trees and the occasional exclamations of success whenever one of the others cut the wood. Once most of the wood was chopped up, we started the indoor fire and decided to start on lunch.

In the other room, we started cooking some pasta. We added some pesto and had a rather enjoyable lunch. We were sat on the logs I had sat on. Everyone was tired from cutting logs, except me of course, so I was talking more than everyone. We poured out just a little bit of beer for everyone just enough that we were all softly tipsy. We decided that they had cut enough wood, and it wouldn't be safe considering the alcohol. We threw the saw carelessly into the edge of the woods for further use.

After our meal, Toby decided to get us to hike a little bit in the woods. We agreed reluctantly. We grabbed Artemis, Mania and Gamzee, not even needing to put them on a leash. They just followed us around wagging their tails in pleasure. Eve threw an arm around Toby and threw her head back, laughing at a joke Arina had muttered. Delilah poked me and we agreed on how pretty Eve really was. We walked for about an hour, Delilah screaming songs the entire time. The forest was gorgeous. I kept stopping to pick tiny flowers to press in my books and write down the different mushrooms we saw. Arina dragged me along, but she too kept stopping when we caught sight of a hare running away from us. Toby pointed at the trees explaining the different types. Eve definitely wasn't listening. I knew she was comparing the landscape to Animal Crossing. We were all slightly winded when we arrived to the top of one of the hills. It was a breathtaking view. We stood there for a moment, silent, just staring.

'What if we all just jumped.' I whispered

'We could stay like this forever.' Delilah responded, also quiet.

Arina interrupted us telling us to shut up and not think about those things.
We laughed and played it off as a joke for her. We decided to sit down there, our legs dangling off the side of the hill. Delilah slowly started to sing "I'm still standing".

'Don't you know I'm still standing...' She sang tentatively 

'better than I ever did!' I continued

'Looking like a true survivor!' Eve joined in

'feeling like a,' Arina started 

'LITTLE KID!' Toby interrupted 

We all laughed and sang 'I'm still standing after all this time.' We sang off key but at the same time. 

We sang different songs that we could think of, standing up occasionally for a solo that we screamed into the forest below. We stood at the very edge of the hill drunk of the adrenaline and high on the very presence of each other. We threw sticks around for the dogs. The orange light of sunset started to trickle down the tips of the trees, so we finally decided to go back to the cabin. We stood up reluctantly. If it wasn't for Toby we would't have been able to find our way back. 

We got back to the bothy around  7 PM, just as the sun was disappearing over the hill we had just scrambled down from. We decided not to have a proper dinner considering we had a heavy late lunch. We grabbed a few bags of crisps from the food we had packed. We grabbed a few packs of beers and sat down on the logs around the fireplace. Arina ran to the back of the cabin and grabbed the firewood that they had cut earlier that day. We lit the open campfire and settled next to it. We started talking, beers in our hands, except Arina who was sipping iced tea instead. Artemis was lain on my lap, exhausted from a day of running around. Gamzee was sat next to Toby, and Mania was staring at the fire, obviously confused. 

'Hey Arina, how is it going with Luna? You guys have been dating for nearly six months right?' I prompted her.

Arina giggled. 'It's going amazing. You guys have absolutely no idea! She's so perfect for me. Last week, I took her to a concert, and after she dragged me to a beautiful bar by Piccadilly. I took her back to ours around 4 and we had the most amazing night. We slow danced in the living room to old records. She fell asleep on the sofa and I tucked her in. It was so adorable I definitely love her.'

A collective 'AWWWW' rang out from all of us. They seemed like the perfect couple honestly. We talked about Elliott and Maria and Asher and... John? James? I honestly can't remember who Eve fancied at the time, but whoever he was, he was in love with her and he was also very hot. Elliott and Delilah had been dating for a year by then, and they too just felt like the perfect couple. I kept hearing complaints from Eve about the couple laughing and playing their loud music late at night when Eve was trying to sleep. Asher and I had been going strong, even though we had only been dating for two months. We tried to drag Toby and Maria to museums with us but they preferred going to the park and sitting under the trees. 

We got quite hammered that night. Eve even whipped out some illegal substances... They weren't super dangerous, and we only had a tiny bit, but it still got our heads a bit messed up.

'Guys,' I grinned 'I have an idea.'

Everyone leaned in slightly. 

'Let's play hide and seek. In the woods.'