Page 26

When the other half of our Fellowship finally makes it back, they’re almost an hour late.

My imagination had been quick to conjure up all sorts of awful things that could have befallen them, so their return releases some of the tension in my twisted-up body.

Sore shoulders unhunching, I manage to summon up a smile.

Radhika and Keiffer offer small ones back, but their faces are drawn, shadowed by something I can’t name.

But other than that little detail, none of them look particularly worse for wear, which sets Kiara’s temper flaring.

“What happened? Did you get lost? Weren’t you keeping track of the time?” she shrieks. She’s changed into cozy clothing and is fresh faced, ready for winding down for the night, but the relief at seeing them back safe and unharmed has given way to anger. “We were worried sick!”

Evan stirs the beans to keep them from sticking, looking supremely unworried.

Again, I wonder what they know that the rest of us don’t.

Tayla’s face is contrite. There’s a leaf crumbled in her hair, which is tousled and a little frizzy in its high ponytail.

“It took me a while to find a stream,” she explains, rubbing her neck.

“The water was cool and clear, but I went ahead and started decontaminating everyone’s so we could rehydrate ASAP. ”

“And we ran into T on our way back,” says Radhika, shivering as she approaches the fire. “Oh my god, I’m so hungry. Can we eat?”

“And what were you two doing?” Kiara gestures at Radhika’s and Keiffer’s arms. They’re not empty-handed, but the amount of firewood they’ve collected is, well, pitiful.

“The two of them were making out,” Evan says without looking up.

At the same time:

“We were not,” Radhika says hotly.

“Yeah,” Keiffer says with a goofy grin.

Tayla sighs loudly, rolling her eyes into the next dimension, and starts handing out our water bottles. “None of the bottles were marked, so I had to draw things on them so we knew whose was whose.”

I stare at mine. “Um, I think I got the wrong one.”

Everyone looks at the metallic-silver symbols drawn on the side of their own bottles. Mine’s a heart, which means when Tayla drew it, it was either subconsciously or consciously meant for Kiara.

“Nope, that’s yours,” says Tayla.

I don’t trust her smile. I tilt the bottle closer to the fire.

Evan can’t hold back their laugh, almost dropping the pouch of just-add-water powdered eggs.

Yeah, this is definitely mine. “Thanks a lot, Tayla,” I grit out.

She’s drawn a freaking butt. I guess she or someone very corrupt could argue it was a heart, just a bit of a lumpy, misshapen one—an accident , really. Tough but fair, huh? Yeah right.

“You were saying?” I whisper, raising an eyebrow at Evan.

“We actually ran into some people,” says Keiffer, dumping the firewood too close to the fire. I nudge it safely away. “They were looking for the well, too, but they’d given up.”

“Anyone from the news?” I ask. “Or school?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, don’t think so. Just some bros in their thirties, maybe? Thought it would be funny to come here for a bachelor party.”

“What the fuck?” four of us say at once.

“Yeah, it was messed up,” says Keiffer. “They didn’t really seem all that friendly. Or too friendly, depending.”

Radhika frowns. “I told them there was no way they should be walking around in here in the dark, but they didn’t want to listen.

They asked us to come back to their campground with them, offered us a couple beers, but…

” She and Keiffer exchange a look, one of those wordless ones that couples have when there’s something they don’t know if they should share.

Questionable heart-butt forgotten but not forgiven, I point at Radhika’s face. “Wait, what was that expression?”

“I guess they just creeped me out,” she says. “They didn’t like that I was telling them what to do.”

Keiffer pulls his lips into his mouth and nods. “Yeah, it was uncomfortable. With so many of them and only two of us, there was no way I was going to just, like, stroll into their camp with my girlfriend.”

“Assholes,” spits Tayla, voicing what all of us are undoubtedly thinking.

“I was glad to see the back of them, to be honest,” he continues. “The way they laughed at us for saying no to drinking with them…like jackals.” He shudders. Then he sniffs the air, turning into a puppy the second he recognizes what’s for dinner. “Is that beans? Evan! Beans!”

On two stout branches hanging low over the embers of the fire as a makeshift grate, Evan’s got a pot of sweet and spicy beans simmering.

The liquid bubbles as they ladle out generous portions into our stainless-steel camping plates and top it with a hunk of fried bread and the powdered eggs they’d quickly scrambled up in the skillet when the Fellowship was back together again.

Soft and fluffy, the perfect doneness with a sprinkle of black pepper and sea salt.

“I wish we had real eggs,” says Tayla, poking at hers.

“Evan, ignore her,” says Kiara. “Everything tastes amazing.”

“Next time,” Evan says pleasantly, “if you want real eggs so very much, I suggest you store them in your cheeks like a squirrel.”

I laugh. “How about ‘Next time, everyone carries their own chicken.’?”

“Nova,” says Keiffer, “the chickens are perfectly capable of walking.”

Kiara catches my eye, lips twitching.

“The fuck are you all talking about?” says Radhika. “We are never doing this again.”

A second later, everyone but Radhika and Tayla bursts into uncontrollable laughter.

It feels good to laugh after the day we’ve had. Evan swipes at their eyes, and even Tayla reluctantly smiles and admits the eggs aren’t that bad. Keiffer, still laughing, wraps his arm around Radhika’s waist and tucks her into his side, erasing her pout.

In that moment, I can see exactly what attracted me to all of them. They might get cranky, but they forgive each other just as easily, and camaraderie sweeps over us once again. Even my shoulders feel lighter.

Though we’ve long lost the light, sunshine seems to beam from Kiara’s smile, casting us all in its perfect glow. It’s not just me who’s affected; the entire Fellowship of the Fling falls under her spell.

We circle around the fire, which has burned down considerably, so Evan feeds it the extra wood Keiffer and Radhika brought back.

If Tayla’s peeved that Kiara sat between me and Evan, I can only imagine how she’s going to seethe when she realizes she’s not the one bunking with Kiara, either. I hide my smile just thinking about it.

Kiara sighs as she scoops beans onto her bread, a blissful little sound that makes my stomach feel funny.

Must be hungrier than I thought. I should get this food down me before those tummy rumbles get worse.

Fingers clenching tight around my spoon, I attack my eggs, shoveling in a bigger-than-usual bite.

God, this is good. Incredibly good. And not just because I get to enjoy a meal that I didn’t have to cook myself.

Evan’s YouTube cooking skills are definitely not just theoretical.

Everyone else looks satisfied, too, like we’d all moan around every mouthful if we weren’t conscious of the others’ presence.

Even Tayla shuts up and eats everything on her plate without another complaint.

Is there anything better than a tasty meal after an excruciatingly long day?

“Delicious,” Radhika proclaims, sopping up the last of her beans with her crust. “Thanks, Evan.”

“And thanks also go to Keiffer for being the superhero who carried the most preposterous ingredients on his back for a whole day,” I say, raising my water bottle to him.

The heart-butt comes into my eye line, and I twist it away from me.

I can’t believe I bought this brand new and it’s already defaced.

“The only thing I needed more than a good night’s sleep was a hot dinner. So.” I clear my throat. “Thanks, dude.”

Keiffer acknowledges my toast with a bashful grin but ducks his head when everyone else chimes in with their own appreciation.

He scratches the back of his neck, and I just know the flush on his cheeks is from embarrassment, not the warmth of the fire.

His thoughtfulness aside, his shyness is even more endearing.

“It was worth it,” he says, staring at his empty plate rather than at us. “Anyone mind if I wipe the pot clean with that last slice of bread?”

No one does, so while he reaches for the insulated handle to start mopping up all the saucy bits, Kiara and I get to cleaning the plates and utensils.

We do it far enough away from our sleeping area just in case any lingering smells draw the wildlife but not so far that we can’t still see the others.

There’s just enough firelight to see by, and as we fall into a rhythm my skin tingles with every plate she hands me to dry.

“After that story Radhika and Keiffer told us, I wanted to throw ash on the fire. Douse it,” I murmur.

Kiara’s eyes fly to mine. “Oh my god, you too? I had the same impulse, but I thought maybe I was overreacting.” She absently swirls the sponge, sudsy with just a drop or two of biodegradable dish soap, over the back of a spoon, biting her bottom lip.

As if she’s about to tell me a secret, she leans closer.

“I watch a lot of horror movies that I probably shouldn’t. ”

“Yeah, I get pretty jumpy after a slasher, too.” I dunk the last plate into the collapsible camping sink Kiara brought. With limited water, it’s a pain to rotate the plate all over until its good and wet. Once soaked, I press a microfiber cloth against the plate, letting it absorb the water.

“It’s even worse when I’m alone at night because my parents are at work,” she says after we get through all the utensils, the ladle, and, finally, the collapsible pot Keiffer brings over.

“Why do you do it, then?”