Chapter 10 #2
Nate zones out about five minutes into our walk. Our tour guide is telling us the history of the area. He’s decently engaging, but Nate hates listening to someone talk for too long. In high school, he preferred teaching himself rather than sitting in class.
He’s putting on a good show, though. Nate is looking in the general direction of the tour guide, but his eyes are glassy and I can tell he’s somewhere else in his mind. I can follow just fine, but I’m more worried about him having fun too.
My hand closes around his arm and his eyes go wide. “What are you doing?” he asks.
I immediately take my hand away, trying not to think too hard about the alarm in his voice. I jerk my head to a path behind us and start walking.
“Is this where you drag me off to kill me?” he asks.
“No. This is where we do something else.”
“Why would we do something else? You were enjoying that.”
“And you weren’t.” I cross my arms. “This place is cool, but I doubt you’re gonna give a flying fuck about ruins if you’re bored. So let’s go find some and look up the history ourselves.”
“Our phones won’t work out here.”
I pause. “Oh, well. I didn’t think of that.”
He laughs. “But the gift shop might have something for us to use. Come on.” I perk up and follow him. We make it a few feet before he pauses. “Oh, and berry?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
“I’m not the only one on this trip who should be having fun.” I’m tempted to bump his shoulder with mine, but I resist the urge. Being physical with him feels so natural, but I don’t want to ruin a good thing. So, I hide it and follow him back to the gift shop.
“Apparently, the steps to this used to be decorated by human faces.”
I’m sweating from the hot sun and I can’t tell if Nate is joking. I turn to him with a bewildered expression and he shows me the guided map we got from the gift shop.
“It’s right here, berry. I’m not making it up.”
“Well, this temple is rumored to be to the goddess of fertility,” I say. I get out my phone and take a picture. I’m tempted to turn the camera around to me, but I know that I look like death warmed over.
Nate is simply glistening in the sun. It’s so fucking unfair. My eyes want to linger on him and I’m not sure why. I already know how he looks.
With us adventuring on our own, we’ve covered a lot of ground. We’ve also gotten lost a few times. The sun is high in the sky and I’ve not seen the main group for a while, but the peace and quiet is nice.
Even if I feel like I could melt.
“I bet the view up there is pretty. ”
I wipe sweat from my brow. “Climbing ancient sites will get you arrested, Nate.”
“Hey, I’m just thinking about it. I would never do it.”
I level him with a glare before I go in search of shade. I find it under a tree and finally sit.
“Affected by the heat already? Or was it sleeping on that couch?”
“The air is wet . Wet and hot.”
“We’re from Nashville. We’re used to this.”
“Not without air conditioning to run to.” I sigh. “Is this why you don’t mind swimming? Because it cools you off? I think I’d be fine with drowning right now.”
“Want me to go find you some water?” he asks.
“No, just sit with me a minute. I need some time out of the sun.” I’m going to be a mess of dirt when I get up, but it’s worth it to be able to breathe for a second. Nate sits next to me and we’re enveloped in a nice silence.
The ship is a lot of moving parts, and while I’m used to that with living in a city, there’s something nice about being in a jungle near no one else for a while.
Even though it’s hot, I’m surrounded with the sounds of nature that are unfamiliar to me, and I can’t help but take in every moment of it.
“Is this what the beach is like?” I ask.
“There’s usually the sound of the water too, but yeah. Basically.”
“It’s nice,” I reply. “Even though I might melt into the ground.”
“Looks like the heat wins.”
“It does. I’m a big baby.” My eyes shut as I lie back. The hair clip I’m using pokes me in the back of the head and I sigh and sit back up.
“Take your hair down.” Nate says it like it’s simple.
I immediately shake my head. “No way. It’ll be a mess if I do that. ”
“We’re both sitting in dirt on a forest floor. Why are you worried about being messy?”
He has a point, and I bite my lip before slowly grabbing the clip to let my hair tumble down. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I wouldn’t do this for anyone else, but here in this moment, I’m safe with Nate.
My dark hair falls in waves around me, but I’m able to lie back. Nate chuckles before going quiet. I lift one eyelid, seeing him gazing at me.
“What?” I ask.
“It’s rare to see you with your hair down these days,” he says. “You’ve even had it in a bun to sleep. I’m not sure how your scalp can take it.”
“Worried about my hair’s health, are we?”
“It just looks ...” He trails off.
“Frizzy. Or it gets in my face. It’s okay, you can say it.”
“Berry, it looks beautiful. It always has.”
I feel a heat that has nothing to do with the weather rush through my body.
“It’s just in the way.”
“Fair enough. You used to wear it down more when we were younger. Before Rob.”
I close my eyes, hoping that I can keep my face straight. “He made a comment about it once or twice.”
“Asshole,” he mutters. “You know you can do what you want, right?”
“I do. And that’s why it’s down right now.”
“Good,” he replies. “It’s gotten so long.”
This should be casual, but it doesn’t feel like it. I know Nate’s eyes are still on me, and I hope he’s staring right at my hair. I don’t know why I want him to, but it’s satisfying.
I let him watch me and I settle in. Slowly, I relax.
There’s no telling how much time passes, but Nate lets me lounge. It might be the first time I’ve truly felt calm on the whole trip. I’m pretty sure that I doze off a few times.
The sun eventually moves and I can feel it burning my exposed leg. That’s when I finally sit up.
“This is nice, but I don’t want a sunburn.”
Nate has laid back too, covering his eyes with his arm. “Ugh. Ten more minutes.”
“What time is it anyway?”
“No idea.”
I hum and pull out my phone. It’s late in the afternoon.
“Hey,” I say. “Do you know when the bus is supposed to leave?”
Nate slowly moves his arm with a frown. “Um, no.”
“Do you know when the ship is supposed to pull away from the dock?”
“Four, I think.”
Slowly, I turn my phone around. Nate and I share a moment of panic before we scramble off the ground.