bitter | e.d

| forty-one

my eyes peel open, and I find myself staring at the trees through the netted skylight in the tent.

I blink multiple times, taking a few seconds to remember where I am. I'm in a tent, I inform myself. it's morning. today is the last day of the senior trip. today, I go home.

as feeling starts to come back to my body, spreading through me slowly, I push myself up to lean onto my elbows with a groggy head. I wet my dry lips with the tip of my tongue and bring a knuckle to rub at my tired eyes. it feels entirely too early considering how late I fell asleep last night.

last night.

it was very eventful, to say the least.

a smile ghosts on my lips before a twinge in my chest where my heart should be threatens to turn it into a frown. I'm not sure how I feel about last night yet.

the amount of noise outside distracts me; that of the wind rustling the trees, the crunch of leaves from dozens of people walking around, and muddles of voices from ongoing conversations. suddenly, I hear the sound of a zipper next to me, and it startles me momentarily before I remind myself that I do not have this tent all to myself. 

I turn my head, my vision still narrowed from my squinty eyes averting the light, and nearly choke on air when the other person in the tent is reese and not lana, as I expected. the sound I make catches her attention, and she pauses from stuffing things—my things—into the grey duffle bag.

"oh, you're up," she glances at me a second, giving a quick raise of her eyebrows, before returning to packing my stuff at a rather quick  pace. "I was just about to wake you."

"what..." I pause to clear my throat and sit up more completely. "what's going on? what are you doing in here?" the questions seems silly because clearly, she's packing my bag, but my brain is still waking up. what I should've asked is why.

once the last of my stuff is in the bag, she zips it sealed and slides it towards the half-opened flap of the tent door. "you're late," she mumbles and turns to face me now. "not surprisingly. the buses leave in twenty minutes. mostly everyone's already turned in their tents and sleeping bags. when I didn't see you at breakfast, I asked around with no luck, so I assumed lana snuck out without waking you."

sounds about right, I think to myself. besides, she didn't lift a finger to help assemble the tent, obviously she never planned on helping return it, either. it's no wonder she rushed out without me.

I'm sitting up now, lifting the sleeping bag cover off of my legs. "I swear I put an alarm," I grumble more to myself, but even I start to doubt it. had I been that exhausted? "I must've slept through it."

"or lana shut it off on her way out. I knew she seemed a little too chipper this morning in the lodge." reese gives a shake of her head before returning her gaze to me. "anyway, you went through a lot last night. I'm glad you got any sleep at all."

hard to believe I managed when my thoughts were swimming nonstop from the moment ethan walked me safely to the tent and said his goodbyes. I distinctly remember lying awake for too long, absolutely and pathetically smitten, before apparently blacking out and succumbing to my exhaustion.

I sigh at the recollection. "now I'm paying the price, though." I missed breakfast, including any opportunities to get some clarity, and have to disassemble the tent and rush to the bus without so much as a minute to brush through my tangled hair. 

reese has other plans, though. "that's why I'm here. your stuff is already packed, and I'll handle the tent. you go take your bag to the bathroom and finish waking up. you look dead."