Page 22 of Into the Mountains (Blue Grove Mountain #3)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHARLOTTE
A satisfying thud comes from my bag as I throw another pair of leggings into it from a few feet away.
“Easy there, killer.” Avery is perched at my headboard, knees bent as she flips through her current book.
I’m standing at my dresser with too many drawers open, trying to pack for this ridiculous camping trip. At this point, I don’t really care what I have in my bag as long as I have clothes. Fashionista Charlotte is completely gone for the weekend.
“I’m just frustrated.”
“Clearly. But your poor clothes don’t deserve the abuse.”
“Well, it’s better I take it out on them and not the person I want to.
” Even though lately, I haven’t felt that.
The need to take out my anger on Elias. I’ve felt more friendly.
Like I’ve finally decided to wave my white flag and see if he accepts my surrender.
It seemed like he did the other night on his couch while we watched TV, but I still can’t fully get a read on him.
“I thought you had started getting along a little bit better?”
“Not really? Honestly, at this point, I don’t even know. We still haven’t even really talked about what happened between us.”
“Do you think you need to?”
I wish we didn’t have to. But I think we both owe it to ourselves to hash things out.
There’s so much pain and discomfort wrapped up together for me in that year and he deserves to know why.
And I deserve the closure I refused to let the both of us have when he tried to get in touch with me after I left.
“I don’t know.” The sigh that escapes me is slow to release and I try to let all of the anxiety from the past release along with it like air from a balloon.
But all I feel is empty. With Sky springing this camping trip onto us, I’m not really sure what to expect.
I’ve been camping a dozen times throughout my life.
My family used to go on an annual trip to the mountains similar to Blue Grove.
One of the reasons I decided to move here with Avery was because it made me feel closer to them than I had in years.
I haven’t been camping since our last trip. The one during the summer before I left for college. We didn’t take the one we planned to that summer I visited afterwards, because of Mom’s health.
“Are you okay?” Avery always looks out for everyone around her and she’s been doing it since the day I met her.
Sometimes I feel like I’ll never measure up to the level of friendship she offers me.
It’s not until she asks me if I’m okay that I realize I’m not really sure that I am.
And it’s then that the tears start to fall and pain starts to crackle in my chest.
Lightning in an overcast sky, a warning of things to come. Thunder rolls through my body as I let the sobs overtake me. Avery just holds me and lets me cry, soaking her shoulder with a mix of tears and the mascara from this morning I hadn’t had a chance to wipe off yet.