My Summer Love Story | ✔️

ch. 7 ✰ hiking with the enemy

The alarm blares rapidly, making me scrunch up my face in annoyance. Grumbling to myself, I reach under my pillow to grab my phone and make out the words Hiking at 7!! on my phone. Ugh, we're going hiking in one hour. I thought this was vacation, man!

I get out of bed and stretch, not wanting to get out of bed. It would be around 8 o clock in New York, but Costa Rica is two hours behind, so it's 6 o clock here. I walk over the window perched beside my bed, sighing as I look at the beautiful view. The sun is slowly rising above the horizon, the sky blood red and fading to a sunset orange. I hear the birds chirping in the distance and distant chatter. Even this early in the morning, there are people walking around and enjoying the naturistic presence.

When we go hiking, I plan to wear a navy-blue spaghetti strapped tank top and black Nike shorts and my Nike shoes on the bottom. Ayushi told us that it is going to be blazing hot outside, even this early in the morning, so it would probably be a good idea to wear clothes that are fit for the hot weather.

I climb into the shower and let the warm water hit my back. Taking a deep breath, I run my fingers through my wet hair and feel my worries slowly slip away. In this trip, I will not let my parents, my ex and Chelsea, and me getting fired get into my head. I am going to be worry free and enjoy my two weeks here as much as possible.

Five minutes later, I trudge out of the shower and wrap my hair and body up into my towels. After I apply light make up, I change into my clothes and dry my wet hair. The time shows up to be 6:23am, which means I am running just on time. Ayushi and Manav had told everyone that we will be departing around 6:45am, since the hiking trail is only a few minutes from here.

Then, I walk out of the bathroom and grab my mini backpack, which I plan to pack some water bottles and a few granola bars into it, a sunscreen bottle, a pair of sunglasses and even a hat, and bug spray. I'm pretty sure Ayushi also told us to be prepared to go hiking because she told us we would be walking around 5 miles, while hiking in the bursting heat, so I am not trying to take any chances.

I close my bedroom door and suddenly run into Suhana. Her long, luscious jet-black hair is done in a wondrous braid as she has sunglasses perched on her head. She seems to be wearing skintight ankle leggings and a loose shirt. "You ready?" I grin.

"Definitely," she shares a grin. "The hiking part I am not too excited about, but at least I can get some steps in."

"Right?" I chuckle. We both start to walk downstairs. "I honestly can't wait 'til tonight so I can drown my sorrows by partying and stuffing my face in alcohol."

She nods her head, bursting out in laughter. "We just have to go through these five miles and I'm pretty sure we'll be great."

Suhana and I talk until we reach the front entrance of the villa. I see that everyone else is already downstairs: Ali and Neha are having one of their many arguments and Ayushi and Manav are recklessly flirting with each other as Akash awkwardly third wheels. As both of us walk in, Ayushi notices us and gasps. "Okay, everyone is here! Huddle around, y'all!"

As we gather around, I catch Akash's eyes. A playful grin is placed on his luscious pink lips as I annoyingly scowl at him. As much as I hate the dude, I gotta admit—he is hot as hell. He's wearing a loose black tank top that has these huge underarm circles reaching all the way to his shorts. There is a white Nike hat placed backwards on his head and he has these ovular black sunglasses clinging on to the collar of his shirt. His silver chain dangles out of his shirt, and as I look back to his face again, I notice that he is still looking at me. I can't really tell if it's because he's admiring my physique or silently insulting me in his mind. God, I sure hope it's the first option.