by Maya Riley
“I’m okay,” I answered in an attempt to calm him down. His eyes were growing wild with each passing second I didn’t answer him. “Really. It’s a small sprain. It hurt a lot, but it’ll heal fast. Maybe even in just a few days.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “You’re in pain?” he repeated for clarification.
“Just a little. I have some pain meds.” I reached into my pocket with my free hand, pulled out the small bottle, and shook it, letting the pain meds rattle inside.
“You still didn’t answer my question,” he reminded me.
I looked up at him, confused.
“You didn’t tell me what actually happened,” he reiterated.
I said nothing, so he turned his head to Jenna, not once taking his hands away from mine.
She looked at me with a telepathic apology. “Sorry, Cam. Everyone’s going to know anyway,” she apologized. “This guy—”
Pete’s eyes flared with anger as his mind imagined the worst.
“No, it wasn’t like that,” I rushed to explain, but Jenna cut me off.
“This drunk guy stumbled out of the bushes with his pants around his ankles. We tried to get away, walk away, but he grabbed the back of her shirt and she fell. She caught her fall with her hand, but her wrist just barely managed to survive the impact,” she recounted.
Pete’s eyes flamed even more, if that was even possible. “Where was this?” he growled.
“It was about a mile northeast. I punched him and we got away, we went straight to the medic without looking back,” Jenna explained.
Pete slowly lowered my wrist and walked away without another word. His silence was so eerie. He was usually such a positive guy. He may not always talk a whole lot, but he was always so calm and positive. This new demeanor of his frightened me, and weirdly turned me on at the same time. I began to turn and head after him, but Jenna grabbed my other arm and pulled me more to the tents.
“Come on,” she insisted. “Let’s get this over with. Gary has already spotted you.” She tugged on my arm again.
I looked over and Gary, sure enough, was waving at us erratically like he tended to do. We moved closer and he ran over to meet us. “Hey, where’s Pete heading?” he asked. “The latrine is free if that’s—what happened?” he exclaimed, as he saw my wrist in a brace.
I sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“A drunk guy pulled her back and she fell to the ground. She threw a hand out to catch her fall and landed funny.” Well, I guess that was a much shorter story than I’d thought. Jenna continued, “We went to the medic immediately and they said it’s just a sprain. She has some pain meds and a brace, and now just has to wait a few days and see how it’s healing.”
“So, Pete is going out there to find the guy,” he concluded.
I nodded. “I think so.”
He placed a kiss to my cheek and headed off in the same direction that Pete did.
As soon as I turned around, Ryan and J.D. were standing in front of me, with Carson not far behind. I sighed. Once Carson caught up, Jenna told them the same story and they took off after Gary. Of course they would.
“So, should we tell the others? Maybe they want to go find this guy too?” I partly joked with Jenna, but I knew it wasn’t really a joke. I was worried about the consequences they may face. Assault was a big deal on the mountain. I’d told the medic what had happened, and they took a description and would have someone out looking for him. I shuddered to think how they’d find him if my guys found him first.
We reached the clearing where Steve and Dave were relaxing against some trees at the edge of the clearing.
“Hey Cam, how’s it—what the hell happened to you?” Dave reacted a little more than I’d expected him to. I mean, I didn’t really know the guy, so I didn’t expect him to respond like that. “Are you two alright? What happened here?” he asked again, when we both failed to answer.
Jenna quickly told him the story in an attempt to calm him. Steve listened intently, eyeing my wrist with a hardened look and his mouth turned into a straight line. He crushed his empty can in his hand, set it down, and took off after the other guys.
“Come on, let’s get you a cold pack,” Dave said, the only one thinking straight. Rather than going off on some macho manhunt, he was more concerned with taking care of us. Good man. “I assume the others wouldn’t need me. With six of them against this one guy, my time would be better spent here,” he explained, as though he could read minds. And for a moment, I kind of let myself wonder if he actually could.
We went over to his tent and he reached in and pulled out a small first aid kit. “A disposable and biodegradable cold pack. It’ll last about fifteen to twenty minutes. I have a few extras if needed too.” He snapped the small metal button inside of it to activate it, and handed it to me. I could feel the coolness spreading throughout the pack and placed it against my wrist. Within moments, my mom was standing in front of me, looking concerned.
“Why do you need the cold pack?” she questioned. “What happened?”
Her eyes landed on my wrist, and I internally groaned at having to hear the explanation yet again. We should have had them all together at once and explained it that way.
I reluctantly opened my mouth and told her the story, also explaining where all the others were. She looked at Jenna, who nodded, and then walked over to join us and sat down on a large rock beside me.
Carson moved over to my side, placed his arms around me, and pressed a kiss to my head. “The others have it taken care of. I came back to take care of you.”
Stan and Carrie walked over, saw the ice pack in my hand and the brace on my wrist, and asked what was wrong. I then proceeded to drop my head into my hand, banging it on the calloused flesh. It should be the last time either of us would have to explain it to anyone, but still. Luckily, Dave took over. They nodded and Carrie’s eyes flamed with anger. Dave took her by the shoulders and led her away.
“It’s much better now,” I told the few people around me. “I have a brace, an ice pack, and some pain pills. I’ll be okay, I promise. It just apparently needs a few days to heal, but I’ll be okay. I’m still climbing,” I looked over at my mother, “and nobody can stop me from that.”
She placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled. “I know you are, honey. I just want you to be safe while doing it. Of course you’re still going to climb. You’ll still have all of us to back you up.”
I undid the brace and set the ice pack directly on my wrist. After some time, it was pretty numb from the cold and seemed to have been enough time, so I set the brace back into place. Shoes on gravel alerted us to the others coming back, so we got up and turned around to greet them.
Pete strode over, holding a white rag to his hand with blood seeping through. He paid us no attention as he ran over to his pack, grabbed a water bottle, and began pouring water over his hand.
“What the hell happened?” Jenna asked.
“He found the guy,” J.D. answered succinctly.
“What happened to the guy?” Jenna pressed.
“He got taken care of,” J.D. stated.
My hand flew to my mouth. “He didn’t...”
Ryan saw the look of horror in my eyes and rushed to reassure me. “No, no.” He raised his hands and waved them in front of him. “He’s still alive. He shouldn’t be, but he is. He just roughed him up a bit.”
“I do have to say,” Steve spoke up, “it was impressive. I trust him with your protection. You’re in good hands with these guys.” With that, he went back toward his tent.
J.D. walked up to me, wrapped his arms around me with his hand pressed against the back of my head, and pulled me into his chest. I turned my head so that my ear was against his sternum and I could hear his heartbeat. It was a little faster than all the other times I’d listened to it. I hated the thought that it could be because of me.
I breathed in his lemon scent.
A hand rubbed up and down my back, and I opened my eyes to see Ryan b
efore me, looking at me with an intense stare.
“I’m okay,” I answered his unspoken question. “I promise. You guys don’t need to do all this comforting.”
“You’re our girl. We’ll comfort you when and how we damn well want to,” he responded, and continued to rub my back.
I huffed and pushed myself off of J.D’s chest. “I’m going to go check on Pete,” I told them, which was what I should have been doing. He was the one that needed comforting, not me.
I headed toward the direction Pete took off in, and jogged to catch up. He’d already made it to the spigot, a single pipe coming out of the rock that had running water from the stream running along another side of the Carbolitas.
I walked up and saw Pete standing over the spigot with his hands underneath the water. He was staring at the liquid washing over his hands, the blood now all gone, but something about him worried me.
I walked over to him and placed my hand on his back. “Hey,” I greeted, unsure exactly how to approach him. “How are you?”
He didn’t answer. He stayed standing there, watching the water.
“Pete?” I called softly. “You’re worrying me.”
He looked up. “I’m so sorry, Cam.”
My brows furrowed. “What are you sorry about?” I asked. “What would you possibly have to be sorry about?”
“I saw the guy and I remembered how he hurt you, and how far he could’ve tried to get if things had been different. He laughed when I confronted him about you, and then I just lost it. I went crazy. I pummeled him until I was dragged away. The other guys, they literally had to pull me off of him and drag me away. I don’t really want to think of what I would’ve done if they hadn’t been there,” he murmured.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’ll be okay,” I soothed, lacing my fingers through his. “It’s okay to be okay.”
We smiled at each other and headed back toward the little campsite where the others were.
We all sat in silence, aside from a few instances of awkward jokes and forced laughter. Nobody really seemed to be up for much conversation. We went to our tents shortly after and I fell asleep in the arms of Pete, surrounded by the rest of my guys. We had the most compact five-person tent we could find. Despite climbing being postponed for a couple extra days, it would be okay. As long as I had my guys by my side, nothing could bring me down.
The next day and a half went by quickly enough. The guys waited on me hand and foot, and I got annoyed at them for treating me like I was fragile. I could tell by the tightness of their eyes that Mom and Steve wanted me to give up on this with the slight injury, but they held back whatever they wanted to say.
Everyone knew how stubborn I was about this, and that no attempts at convincing to give up would work. Sure, it was only a mild sprain, but when fingers attached to that wrist were the only thing holding me up at any point, there could be a cause for concern.
My real concern, though, was Jenna. I’d noticed her not moving her arm much. They say I’m the stubborn one, but if she was injured and not saying anything, then she’d win the stubbornness award. The guys wouldn’t leave me alone long enough to talk to her.
Low sounds of snoring filled the tent and I smiled. All four of my guys demanded to sleep here. They took up so much space on our sleeping bags that I was never able to move. They’d tried to convince me that was actually a good thing, because then it meant I couldn’t bang my wrist on anything in my sleep. I called bullshit though, they just wanted to snuggle.
I lifted my arms in the air and undid the brace. I flexed my wrist and grinned at the lack of pain. It was so much better now. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty much mostly climbable.
The coloring looked mostly normal, with only some light bruising on the wrist.
“You doing alright?”
I looked over to see Pete still groggy from sleep, and he scrubbed his hand down his face to rub some wakefulness in.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I’m doing pretty good actually.”
He smiled and reached for my hand. “That’s good to hear.” He gently guided my hand to his mouth, his fingers on my forearm, and kissed my palm, and then placed another equally gentle kiss on my wrist.
“Let’s get in a tiny practice climb today, or at least some small bouldering,” I suggested. “I want to see if it’ll hold up. I don’t do too well staying on the ground. Hiking doesn’t cut it. I need some vertical exercise.”
His eyes flared. “I can give you some vertical exercise,” he purred.
I laughed and smacked his chest with my free hand. He let my arm go, and I rolled over J.D., who gave an, “Oomph,” as I slid over him and then onto the ground. Standing up, I looked around, grabbed my climbing shorts and a sports bra, and proceeded to change clothes right there with Pete watching from the middle of the boy pile. I was enjoying teasing him. He was trapped in a sea of guys and couldn’t do anything about it.
Once dressed—or perhaps barely dressed in shorts and a sports bra—I opened the tent flap and bounded across the ground to the fire pit to boil some water for coffee, and prepare to get on the wall again. There were enough people here that one of them would belay me.
I had a bounce in my step when I reached the supplies, and placed some water over the already stoked fire to boil. Someone else was up. Watching the tiny bubbles rise, my mouth nearly watered just thinking of the mug of beautiful amazingness that I would soon be consuming.
I added the salted caramel powdered coffee to the cup, poured water into it, stirred, set it down to settle, and turned around in search of some food. There were some muffins the guys had brought up, which were leftover from another breakfast. How they were still around with this many people here was beyond me. I was certainly baffled.
Lifting the tin foil cover, I snagged a muffin and skipped back over to my steaming cup of coffee. Sitting down, I stirred the caffeinated liquid and took a small sip.
I then proceeded to enjoy my breakfast of coffee and muffins. I was surprised Pete hadn’t made it out yet, and I snickered at the thought of him being trapped in a pile of men. Perhaps he tried to get off the bed, got stuck, and then gave up and just went back to sleep. That wouldn’t surprise me. Why would anyone in their right mind wake up any earlier than they really had to? I was just an odd salamander that never made any sense. I ran more on dreams than logic.
I sipped my coffee and watched the wildlife play. Squirrels scampered across the ground, their cheeks puffed out with acorns to take back to their homes. Birds pecked at the damp soil, working to get their morning worms. One bird stood out from the others, a bluebird. They were pretty much the mascot for Clif and me when we were younger. When we’d read about the mountains where the blue thorns grew, the only place in the world where you could see them, we also read about the bluebirds that hung out around here. I’d seen quite a few since we’d started this trip, They reminded me to never give up and the reason I was doing this climb—for both Clif and myself.
I looked down at my wrist where I had a small tattoo of a bluebird and some blue thorns. In a small, fancy script, were the words “You are not in the mountains. The mountains are in you.” It was one of my favorite quotes, penned by John Muir, the Father of National Parks and the person of whom Muir Valley in the Red River Gorge is named after.
The tattoo was a reminder to always keep climbing higher, to always have my hands above my head, pulling me farther up. Although, technically with rock climbing you pushed with your legs, but still, it was the meaning behind it that mattered more, along with the actual words.
I was about to take the first bite of my blueberry muffin when I heard footsteps approaching me from behind.
I turned my head to greet my new companion and froze. It was the drunk guy from a couple days ago. His face was twisted up into a gruesome smile, and he was sporting a blackened eye and his arm was in a sling. He walked with a limp and his scowl deepened with every step he took.
“You bitch,” he gritted out between clenche
d teeth, and then spit off to the side. How unsanitary. “You see what you did to me? You ruined everything. I just got out of medical today and I can’t climb.”
“How is that my fault?” I shot back. That’s right, Cam, upset the angry guy even more. You’re really rocking this common sense stuff. “You’re the one who attacked me first. If it weren’t for you, I’d be at the top of the Carbolitas by now.”
“You just had to send your hellhounds after me?” he snarled, increasing his limped speed, and I got up off the ground and stumbled to my feet, spilling my coffee everywhere. The mug fell to the ground with a clatter and I cursed at the wasted coffee. This guy really had a knack for pissing me off.
I raised my hands, ready to fight, but was concerned with getting injured again and being set back even more. Every minor injury could have a grand effect up here. So instead of using my own body, I looked around. There really wasn’t anything nearby to use, so I grabbed the log I’d been leaning against and raised it up and over my shoulder, ready to throw if needed. It was a whole lot heavier than I anticipated, so hopefully I’d get this over with soon.
He chuckled. “Come on. Attack me,” he goaded, his malicious grin deepening. He limped a few steps closer and I threw the log with all my might. He simply raised a hand and knocked it away. Well, so much for that.
“Looks like you’re all out of tricks, little girl,” he sneered, as he moved even nearer, and I took a step back to get away from his rancid breath that carried across the distance between us.
He reached out and I stepped back again, my foot meeting nothing but air. Pulling my foot back to the rocky ground, I ran and ducked underneath his arms. I kept running until I barreled right into Pete’s chest. He wrapped his hands around my biceps and glared over my shoulder at the strange guy. I didn’t want him to always have to fight my battles for me, so I reached around him, grabbed the hiking pole that was resting up against another log with some of the packs, and turned around.
