Eighteen
Wyatt
I hadn’t meant to ask, but being out here was different than how I felt when I was indoors, and I didn’t want that feeling to end.
Being out here surrounded by trees, their scent heavy in the air, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.
Maybe being closer to the natural world was what my spirit called for to make me complete?
Or maybe I was losing my fucking mind, and all this clean air was making me loopy?
“What?” Gavin asked as we kept walking on the trail.
“Just thinking how much happier I am being outside,” I admitted.
“It suits you. You’re very good at learning new skills and you have a great instinct for what works and what doesn’t. Plus, you listen. Had you ever seen poison oak before coming here?” he asked.
“No. But I literally haven’t been anywhere to see it or avoid it since I was a kid and that was just going for a bike ride on the bike trail.”
“I’d love for you to spend more time here,” he murmured.
“Me too,” I whispered back and bumped his arm with mine.
We walked along the trail and since there were no more poison oak or tick incidents, we made it to where we’d be having lunch.
There was a small clearing with several picnic tables and a path that led to the lake.
It was beautiful, and I was more than ready to sit down for a while.
After slipping off my backpack I took a seat at the end of one of the tables and was soon joined by Dani and Timmy.
“Okay, everyone, we made it. Take a seat and eat your lunch. Be sure to drink plenty of water and relax. After we eat, we’ll be heading back to camp,” Gavin said.
“Does this look red?” Timmy asked Dani who kept her distance while she looked.
Everyone had their lunch out and was eating and chatting within a few minutes and looking none the worse for wear after the hike. Gavin walked over to our table and after giving me a look that asked if he could sit, I nodded.
“Are we going to do this hike again?” Timmy asked before taking a bite of his ham sandwich.
“Yes. We’ll do another longer hike before we go all the way to the end and stay overnight,” Gavin said.
“Overnight?” Dani asked.
“Yes, but don’t worry, you’ll all do great. We’re going to have a campout one night at camp where we’ll all sleep in tents. You’ll have time to practice putting up a tent and making sure you’re comfortable outside all night,” Gavin explained.
“Is there a bathroom at the camp?” Timmy asked.
“Yes, a pit toilet.”
“A what?” the three of us asked at once making everyone else turn to look.
“A pit toilet, like an outhouse.”
“Oh my god, that’s a thing?” Dani asked while Timmy was so horrified he couldn’t speak, making me laugh.
“It could be worse. On some trails you need to pack out everything to pack in.”
“What does that mean?” Timmy asked.
“You have to bring bags to store your poop and bring it back with you,” Gavin explained with a smile before taking another bite of his sandwich.
“Ew, is that really a thing?” Sal asked from the table next to ours.
“Oh yeah. You’d be surprised some of the things you have to do to hike some of the more desolate areas,” Gavin said and went into a whole conversation about how bad it is to poop in the middle of the forest, while everyone listened with a cringe on their lips.
“I think I’ll stick to short hikes,” Lyn said, making everyone laugh.
“What do you think? Want to go for a long hike sometime?” Gavin asked me.
“That depends.”
“Oh? No pooping in a bag?” Gavin said with a look like he’d just asked how’s your sandwich.
“I’d rather not if we can avoid it. I wouldn’t mind trying it though.” I tried to imagine us loaded down with heavy backpacks trekking through the deep forest with everything we needed on our backs and all alone with no one around for miles. It didn’t sound horrible.
“I’m going to ask you again once we spend the night in a tent. You might change your mind,” Gavin said, but all I could focus on was hoping it would be him and me alone in a tent.
“We’ll see.”
“Please don’t tell us if you end up packing out your own poop,” Timmy said. My eyes met Gavin’s, and it didn’t matter what we had to do, as long as we were together. What the—?