Damaged - N.H.

22

I woke up to the incessant noise of someone's extremely aggressive knocking. I groaned, rolling out of bed and stumbling to the door, to look through the peephole. I pulled it open, rolling my eyes dramatically as Liz and Stacy barged in.

"Good morning, beautiful bride-to-be!" Stacy yelled, throwing a sash over my head.

I glared at her. "It's like 7 AM."

"Seven forty-five, actually." Liz chimed in. "The guys left at 5:45. We let you sleep in."

"Go get ready for the day because we have A LOT planned! Make sure you wear a swimsuit under your clothes!" Stacy smiled.

I didn't bother with much makeup because I knew I would be in the water, and when I wasn't I would be sweating for sure. It was beautiful here, but definitely hot. I changed quickly, throwing on some shorts and a tank top over my bikini and putting my hair up in a ponytail. I wasn't much of a girly-girl and they knew that, so we were in for an interesting day.

We made our way downstairs for breakfast and piled food onto our plates, and I desperately grabbed a coffee even though I was starting to wake up.

"So what's first on the agenda today?" I asked, biting into a croissant.

"Breakfast." Liz replied, giving me a look like I was ridiculous for not knowing that.

"Smart-ass." I muttered. "After breakfast?"

"We're taking a hike to one of the waterfalls around here. It's supposed to be beautiful!" Stacy chimed in.

"That sounds amazing." I smiled.

"For you." Liz scoffed. "Some of us hate the outdoors, remember?"

"You can suck it up for one day for your best friend!" Stacy scolded.

"Hey, I was made to lay on the beach and sunbathe. That is as close as I will ever be to 'outdoorsy'." She shot back.

"I'm sure it'll be worth it." I laughed.

"I'm just glad I talked Stacy down from the 5 mile waterfall hike to the 2 mile one." Liz muttered.

"Okay, I think the 5 mile one may have been a bit much." I laughed, taking a sip of my coffee.

"See!" Liz shrieked, throwing her hands up. "I told you!"

Stacy scoffed. "Well, I didn't want it to take up the entire day, either. I wanted time for us to do other things."

"I'm excited for all of it. Thank you both for doing this." I smiled.

After we finished our breakfast, the car Stacy arranged picked us up and drove us about twenty minutes away from the resort to where our hike would begin. We all packed a light bag with essentials. Water, wallet and phone, extra clothes, sunscreen, nothing too heavy. It wasn't a long hike, after all.We had been hiking for a just over half an hour when we heard running water. We all stopped, recognizing the sound at the same time.

"Thank God!" Liz said dramatically.

She had freaked out multiple times on the way here, mostly from thinking a bug had landed on her. However, she usually would take off running so it really only caused us to arrive faster. Minus the one time she ran the opposite way. We caught her before she went too far. Overall, I couldn't complain.

We picked up our pace as the fairly narrow hiking trail opened up into a beautiful view that I had never before witnessed. We stared in awe, completely silent for a moment before snapping out of our trance. I started walking towards the waterfall first, with Stacy and Liz following shortly after. The open area surrounding the waterfall wasn't very crowded, just a few other people hanging around or wading in the water.