by Bella King
I shouldn’t have been apologizing for him, but it was difficult not to when he glanced over at me and winked. I didn’t know whether that was a sexually suggestive wink, or an “I’m going to kill you in your sleep” wink, but did it matter? I felt all gooey inside the moment it happened.
Straighten up bitch. This is no time to get sucked into some stupid jock’s tricks.
I got the feeling I would have to remind myself of that often. As much as I detested Megan and her crew, I was having trouble keeping my head straight around Bradly. I mean, could you blame me? He was the definition of sex.
I had to remember that he had probably helped in my kidnapping the other day, and that under no circumstances could he be trusted. He may have even been the one to have snuck into my house, but I suspected that was a woman. Who else would think to write something in lipstick on the mirror? It was almost comical picturing Bradly hunched over in my bathroom with a tube of lipstick in his hand, trying to write a threatening message with it.
It must have been the work of a woman, especially with that theatric photo on my bed. The handwriting was too neat for a high school guy to have written it, especially for someone who focused on sports more than anything else.
Bradly may not have been the one with the keys to my house, but I still had to ask him. Maybe he knew who had them, and how I could get them back. A little seduction could go a long way, and I wouldn’t mind pushing a few boundaries to get what I wanted. I was dealing with some serious business, and desperate times called for desperate measures, as cliché as that was.
I wouldn’t get the chance to ask Bradly now, but perhaps on the hike I could get him alone. Right now, he was laughing and jeering with his jock friends, packing up their bags like they were about to go on a week-long safari instead of a simple three-hour hike.
I hoisted my bag onto my narrow shoulders. Jesus Christ, this thing weighed a ton. I would have serious trouble if we were traveling uphill, which is how it looked. The parking lot was at the base of a slope, and the path that we were taking went straight up the slope. I hoped it wasn’t like that the entire way.
I grabbed the metal water canister out of my car and attached it to my backpack. It was a full liter of water, but I suspected that I might need more at the rate things were going. It was late in the afternoon, but the sun was still glaring down on us at an angle. Summer wasn’t over.
I locked my car, reluctant to be leaving my gun inside. I really wanted to bring it, but I couldn’t justify it, especially since Megan wouldn’t even be on this trip. If there was a bear, it would probably be more fearful of Bradly than anything.
It took only a few more minutes for the rest of the campers to arrive. Everyone was coming from the same place, and leaving at the same time, so arrivals were swift. The only people who trailed behind were the ones that made last-minute stops at the store to grab things they had forgotten.
Once everyone was ready, we all began the slow ascent up the hill on the thin dirt path. There was only enough room in most places to walk single file. Even passing someone was difficult because of how close to the trees we were. Our oversized bags threatened to whack against anyone who got too close.
I was squarely behind a woman who wouldn’t stop talking about the health benefits of peanut butter, for God only knows what reason. I was pretty sure nothing she said was actually true, and that it was all just bad excuses to justify her horrific peanut butter consumption. She was on the cheer team, and just about as thin as a plastic straw, so I guess she managed to burn off all those calories during practice. I, for one, couldn’t afford to be on that kind of diet. I wasn’t nearly as active in my free time. Sewing wasn’t exactly a high-intensity workout.
I was sick of hearing about peanut butter, not because I didn’t like it, but because she was making me hungry and we had only just started the hike. I wanted to maneuver around her so that I could reach Bradly, who was at the front of the line, but her pink bag was three times as wide as she was and was blocking the way. I risked getting knocked out into the trees if I tried to pass her.
I had to walk behind this woman for a solid hour and a half until we came upon a clearing in the woods beside a river. Everyone unloaded for a moment and cooled off, dipping rags in the running water and wiping sweat off their brows.
I was already drenched. Wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top wasn’t doing much to cool me down, but at least I had the shade of the dense foliage to keep me from burning to a crisp during the hike.
Bradly was by the river, dipping a black bandana into the river and wiping his forehead with it. His muscular body glistened with sweat, and he looked almost too perfect to exist out here in the woods. His body was flawless.
I had to muster up the courage to go talk to him. It was so difficult to be firm with my words and actions because of the way he looked. I secretly hoped he would come off as an asshole so I wouldn’t be so attracted to him. It was the only way I would be able to get him to give me the information that I wanted.
“Hey, Bradly,” I said, trudging up to him and dropping my bag behind me.
He stood up from his bent position by the water, his eyes squinting through the sun that was shining off the river. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, sounding disappointed.
He was always so dismissive of me. I didn’t like it. “I need to ask you something,” I said.
“Okay,” he said, a tinge of irritation in his voice, as though I was wasting his time.
I placed my hands on my hips, spreading my legs out a bit in a power stance. I had learned that this was a good way to achieve confidence when you were short on it, but it wasn’t helping me much when the man standing in front of me towered at almost seven feet tall.
“You’re close with Megan, right?” I asked, confirming something I already knew.
“I’m not comfortable talking about that,” He snapped, turning back around toward the lake.
“Wait,” I blurted. “I just need your help.”
He chuckled but refused to look back at me when he spoke. “I can’t help you.”
I groaned. “Well, can you at least tell me who has the keys to my house. I know Megan made a copy of them and got in the other day.”
He turned his head toward me while he dipped his bandana back into the cool water. “What part of ‘I can’t help you’ don’t you understand?”
“Come on. I know you know something about this,” I said.
I smirked at me, standing up and turning around again. “If I did know something about it, which I don’t, I wouldn’t tell you. I know better than to cross Megan.”
“You’re scared of her?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. I had trouble believing that a man as large as him would be intimidated by someone like Megan. He had to be dating her or something. That was the only way he would be defending her like this.
“Shut the fuck up, Ava, before I throw you in the damn river,” he said, balling up his fists.
Looks like I hit a sensitive spot.
There was something going on with them, but Bradly was uncomfortable telling me what it was. I didn’t think that they were romantically involved, not with how he talked to other women, but she could have a hold of him in some other way. For him to be afraid of her though, that was odd.
“I shrugged. I didn’t know you were such a pussy,” I teased.
He didn’t look amused. His cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink, which was clearly from more than physical exertion. He was pissed, and I had crossed a line.
I watch him with my hand still firmly planted on my hips. What would he do in front of all these people? He couldn’t get violent with me.
Bradly lurched at me, or so I thought. I didn’t have time to move out of the way, but that didn’t matter. He wasn’t actually reaching toward me. His bulging arm wrapped around the back of me, grabbing the handle to my backpack and swinging it around to him. He pulled it up into the air, looking me dead in the eyes as he threw it back behind him into the river.
My mouth dropped open. All of my stuff was in there. My sleeping bag, my tent, and the food that I had brought were now sunk into the bottom of the river. Even if I did manage to fish it out, it would be useless to me.
“My bag,” I shouted, rushing to the water and looking over the edge. I could see it deep in the running water, resting against the smooth stones that cover the riverbed. It was too deep for me to reach in and grab.
“That should teach you to bother me,” Bradly said, dusting his hands off together and turning to leave.
“You’re an asshole,” I spat, hoping to get some kind of support from the people around me. I looked around, but they just ignored the situation, talking and laughing amongst themselves like nothing out of the ordinary had even happened. Perhaps this wasn’t out of the norm for Bradly.
I charged up behind him, beating a fist into his back impulsively. He ignored me, walked up to his own bag and throwing it over his shoulder, knocking me aside with it as he did so. I fell to the dirt, my knee hitting a small stone and cutting it.
“Ouch,” I cried out, looking around again to see if anyone saw what he had done, but again, nobody cared. They all had their backs to me, already starting back on the trail again. Fuck, what was I supposed to do now?
I ran back to the river, wading in and grabbing the handle of my bag. It was twice as heavy now that it was soaked in water, but I managed to drag it out to the shore. For a moment I had some hope that it was a waterproof bag, but that hope was squashed when I saw water leaking out of the bottom and running through the dirt back toward the bank.
I sighed, looking back at the crowd of people that had already left. They had all but disappeared into the woods again, well on their way to the second half of the hike. I had a choice to make now. Either I could go back the way I had come, dragging my soaked bag with me to the car, or I could continue to the camping site and hope that my belongings were dry enough to use by the time night fell.
I imagined myself hanging everything to dry beside a roaring fire. It could work, and I still needed to bother Bradly about Megan. He clearly knew more than he was letting on, and I was very curious as to why he was intimidated by her. Maybe I could convince him to talk if I bothered him enough. It was worth a try.
I threw the soaking wet backpack onto my shoulders, grimacing at the extra weight, and hurried off into the woods to catch up with the rest of the students.
Chapter 14
Trust is a hard thing to earn.
The second half of the hike was considerably more difficult than the first one. I was at the back of the line, and I kept trailing behind due to how heavy my bag was. Bradly must have added another ten pounds by throwing it in the water, and it didn’t dry very well in the shade. It was still soaked when we arrived at the camping grounds.
I wished I had someone other than Bradly to talk to. Molly would have made this trip a thousand times better, but she had gotten sick. I wonder if she just wanted to avoid Bradly or something, but that seemed unlikely. It was probably just a cold.
I took my bag over to a clear spot on the grounds and began unpacking my belongings. I was relieved to find that the contents at the center of the bag were relatively dry, which was where most of my food was. Unfortunately, my tent and sleeping bag were wet all the way through, including my clothes.
There was another river nearby, which some of the girls went to in order to bathe and change, but I didn’t have that pleasure. I would have had to put on the same sweaty clothes when I got done, and that was worse than keeping them on and opting for a shower of deodorant instead. I sprayed myself down, hoping that I didn’t smell too bad. Maybe when the fire was going, I could have some dry clothes to change into.
The only place to make a fire was right in the center of the clearing. There were already rocks piled up in a large circle, perfect for keeping a fire contained. Bradly tent was close to it, but I had arrived later than the others, so mine was anywhere close enough to get dry by proximity.
The tent would dry itself once set up because it was made of nylon, which barely absorbed any water. The sleeping bag needed to be kept by the fire if there was any hope that I would be able to sleep in it tonight. Even with the fire, I doubted it. The sun was already starting to set as I assembled my tent.
Everyone else seemed to have an easy time getting their stuff set up, but I wasn’t experienced with camping. I had only ever gone once, and even then, I wasn’t the one who set up the tent. I struggled with all the sticks and poles to get it standing properly.
With time and determination, I did manage to get it up, turning down help from one of the jocks. I didn’t need a man to do things for me. I was capable all by myself, even if it did take a bit of extra time.
I figured that my sleeping bag wasn’t going to be dry by nightfall, but my clothes might if I hung them up by the fire. There were already people gathered around it, warming their tired feet next to the growing flames. The jocks were having a blast piling on as much wood as they could manage to get into the fire pit, and drinks were already starting to appear in people’s hands.
I brought my pajamas over to the fire, but I had nothing to dry them on. Ideally, they should be hung on a rack next to the flames.
Bradly saw me struggling and gave me a sympathetic look. “You need something to hang those on?”
I nodded, waving my clothes next to the fire. A few of the cheerleaders wrinkled their noses at me, but I ignored them.
“I can hang them for you,” Bradly said, waving a hand for me to hand the clothes over to him.
I was reluctant, but he kept waving his hand, beckoning me to give him the clothes. His face was soft, and maybe he felt bad about tossing all my stuff into the river. It had been a harsh move, even for someone sided with Megan.
“Okay, I just need them to be dry before I go to sleep,” I explained, leaning around the fire and giving them to him.
Bradly’s large hand clasped over mine as he took the clothes, his fingers lingering on mine for a second longer than they normally would have. He smiled at me, his eyes dancing in the flames. I saw something sinister in them, and I immediately regretted handing over the clothes.
He picked up the clothes, separating them in his hands and examining what I had brought. He smirked when he found a small pair of black panties in the pile. “Look at this,” he said, pinching the fabric between two fingers and holding them up for everyone to see.
The cheerleaders ignored him, but the jocks cheered and laughed.
“Not funny, Bradly. Give those back,” I said, stepping toward him to try to snatch them out of his hand.
He swiped them away, holding them higher than I could reach. “Not so fast, babe. You said you wanted me to dry them for you,” he said with a sly smirk.
“Yes,” I said, crossing my arms. “Please hang them by the fire.”
He chuckled. “You don’t need these little things those. Too small for such wide hips,” he teased, looking me up and down with greedy eyes and waving the panties around in the air.
This got another round of laughter from the jocks, but I wasn’t having it. “Would you stop it. I need those,” I said, taking another grab at them.
Bradly frowned. “Go get them then,” he said, flinging them into the fire.
In an instant, the only other pair of panties I had brought went up in a ball of flames. Even wet, they were no match for the heat of the blazing fire that had been built. I watched with wide eyes as they burned to ashes in front of me.
“Stop it, Bradly,” one of the girls said, standing up from a rock by the fire. “That’s not nice.”
Finally, someone here to defend me. I was beginning to wonder if the cheerleaders were just as cruel as the rest of Megan’s crew. They were part of her alliance, but I doubted all of them were involved in the feud between Megan and me. I knew that Bradly was aware of it though, which may have been why he was such a jerk.
“She told me to dry them off,” Bradly said with an arro
gant smile. He was still shirtless, but his handsome face was a bit too cocky for my liking. He looked more like a stupid douchebag now than a handsome hero. I didn’t like him.
The cheerleader shook her head and sat back down. I held up my hands in frustration. “Would you give my clothes back if you’re not going to help me dry them.”
“Hold up,” Bradly replied, grabbing my bra from the pile and throwing it into the fire with my panties. “Here you go,” he said, handing me just a shirt and pajama shorts.
I glared at him. “Real funny, asshole. How would you like it if I burned your fucking dick off in the fire?” I snarled.
A few of the jocks made low jeering sounds, but Bradly waved at them to hush. “Listen, Ava. I know you think you’re all tough trying to stand up to Megan at school, but out here in the woods, there are no principals walking the halls to keep you safe. You’re on thin ice as is,” he said, stepping close to me and speaking in a low voice.
I glared at him but didn’t respond.
“Go dry your clothes before I decide to throw you in the fire with your cute little underwear,” he said, his eyes dancing with the devil again.
I huffed hot air through my nose and turned around sharply, charging back to my soggy tent to fasten my clothes to a stick so that I could dry them. I was done with Bradly for today. I didn’t even want to look at him anymore. I didn’t care how attractive he was.
I felt close to tears as I struggled to get my clothes to fit on the dirty stick I picked up near the outskirts of the camp. It seemed hopeless trying to dry my clothes, and I regretted continuing the hike to the camp instead of turning around and going home. Now it was already too dark to head back. I would have to wait until morning.
So, there I was, stuck in a camp with a bunch of useless cheerleaders and jeering jocks, my clean underwear burned to ashes and the only clean clothes that I had soaked through. Tonight couldn’t get much worse.
I gave up on the clothes and joined the women on the opposite side of the fire pit as the guys. I sat next to the cheerleader who had spoken up for me, plopping down with a pack of hotdogs that had been safely sealed in plastic in my backpack.
