Chapter 22
Luke
It feels like Harper is breaking up with me. It shouldn’t feel that way, seeing as we’ve never been a couple, but it feels like a punch to the gut to hear her tell me to be with Cassie.
I know I need to go out with Cassie to get over Harper, but I didn’t expect the process to feel so. . . final.
Harper’s a good friend. I know she doesn’t want to explore Iceland alone, but she thinks I want to go out with Cassie. I should want to go out with Cassie, but it feels forced.
So here I am, trying to be into a girl for the sake of trying not to fall in love with my best friend.
Harper gives me a quick wave goodbye when we get to the bottom of the waterfall. She gives me a reassuring smile as she makes her way back to the rental car. I know I’ll see her again tonight at the Airbnb, but I can’t help but feel like I miss her already.
But again, that’s why I need to do this. I need to get Harper out of my head.
Cassie gives me the cold shoulder when I get back to the van. She’d been in the middle of making me ramen noodles for lunch when I noticed Harper walking up the steps, so I booked it out the door, telling Cassie I’d be back soon.
“Lunch is ready,” she says, her voice heavy with annoyance as she points to the small bowl of noodles.
“Thanks.” I pick it up. The bowl is room temperature now from sitting so long.
“Luke, if you and Harper are a thing—”
“We’re not a thing,” I say, perhaps a little too harshly.
I put a hand over my face. “I’m sorry, I’m just tired.
Harper’s my friend, and I feel like we keep ditching her today, so I wanted to do one thing with her.
But Harper wants to go do her own thing now.
So we can just explore the rest of the day the two of us. ”
This perks her up. “Really?”
Another heavy sigh from me. “Yeah, whatever you want.”
Cassie is the most excited I’ve seen her all day.
She looks up different things we can do while I eat my lunch.
Cassie starts naming off a few places, but I know Harper is planning on going to some of them today, so I try to look uninterested so Cassie won’t want to go and we can give Harper some space.
“There’s this Viking grave. You have to hike up to it,” Cassie says.
That’s not anything Harper mentioned. “How long is the hike?”
“Two miles. It’s on top of a mountain though.” Cassie doesn’t seem completely sold on the idea as she swipes through the photos on her phone. “Looks kind of steep too.”
She passes me the phone so I can check it out.
Based on the photos, it doesn’t look horrible, but it’s definitely not going to be a leisurely walk.
No, this is a full-blown mountain with a gravesite at the top.
Harper wouldn’t want to do this. She prefers sightseeing where the destination is a short walk from the parking lot.
“Let’s do it!” I say, passing the phone back.
Cassie’s still wary but settles in on the idea. After I finish eating, we pull out of the lot. When I glance out to where Harper had been parked, she’s long gone.
§
The hiking trail climbs straight up a cliff.
I was confused when we first pulled into the parking lot because there didn’t seem to be anywhere to go, but that’s because we’re supposed to go straight up.
No warm-up or slow introduction. There’s just a sign with a map of the trail, pointing us forward up a steep dirt path that we climb, using our hands to help.
For about a half mile, Cassie doesn’t say a word to me as we climb up. The trail that we’re supposed to be taking is so old and worn that the walking path is about a foot deeper than the surrounding landscape, which is coated with a thick coating of mossy grass.
It’s mystical enough that I can see why there are so many legends of trolls and elves. I can imagine these massive mountains hiding secrets of magic in the grasses.
Eventually the trail evens out and we don’t need to use our hands to pull ourselves upward.
And lucky for us, the sky is clear, meaning we can see 360 degrees around us.
This mountain is so different from everything else in Iceland, mainly because it quite literally stands on its own.
While most of Iceland’s mountain range is inland, this mountain sits in the middle of a sandy beach.
The ocean is in front of us, and sand is on our left and right.
The mountain doesn’t build up to a peak either. It’s like the massive structure had been a part of the other mountain range and someone had taken a slice out and dragged it to the sandy beach. It’s just a tall chunk of rock sitting in the middle of nowhere, cliffs on all sides.
Getting up those cliffs? Not so great. But now that we’re up here, it’s more like walking across a rolling hill with the ocean in front of us and mountain ranges off in the distance to our back.
“I think I see it!” Cassie shouts. She’s a few paces in front of me, pointing to what looks like a massive pile of rocks at the highest point.
We pick up the pace from there, and it isn’t long until we make it to the stone structure with a large sign that reads Hjorleifshofei.
“I’m not even going to attempt that one,” I say.
Stone steps lead up to the grave itself, which is a tall pile of perfectly laid rocks.
“Isn’t it crazy to imagine how long this has all been here?
” Cassie says, stepping up onto the stone platform that leads to the grave.
“Like, this is way older than anything I’ve seen.
I was reading about the grave when I was looking it up.
It’s from 875 AD, which doesn’t even feel logical to think about. ”
“Wow,” I say, taking it all in.
We soak in the views and take a quick break before we make our way back down, taking a different route that’s a little longer but less steep. Cassie’s in a better mood on the way down, but I don’t blame her. We don’t have to fight to catch our breath.
“If you could travel anywhere in the world and money wasn’t an issue, where would you go?” she asks.
Cassie strikes me as the type of girl who doesn’t like to sit in her thoughts. Except for the hike up, she’s managed to find talking points all day. I feel like most of the time when I’m around someone new, there’s awkwardness or a lull in conversation, but not with Cassie.
It’s nice for the most part, but after being around her all day, I’m starting to miss the comfortable silence that Harper and I have.
“I don’t know. Guess I’ve never really thought of it.” I almost add that the only reason I’m on this trip now is because of Harper, but I decide that’s probably better left kept to myself.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Australia, but the flights are so expensive!”
“Oh!” I say, the thought sparking an idea.
“What about New Zealand?” I don’t know if I’d say New Zealand is on my bucket list, but if the opportunity came up, I’d jump on it.
My dad and I used to live and breathe The Lord of the Rings movies.
He was a huge fan of the books, but I never got further than 100 pages before losing interest. For my dad, at least, New Zealand was on his bucket list.
“It is pretty there,” she says.
“Plus it has Hobbiton.”
“What’s that?” she asks.
“It’s part of the filming set for The Lord of the Rings movies.”
“Eww, no. I wouldn’t go there.” She launches off into a different conversation, going on about why she’d rather go to Australia.
I try to shake off the conversation, trying not to think about how if it were Harper I was talking to, she’d start to fantasize about going to New Zealand herself. She’s not into Lord of the Rings the same way I am, but she’s watched the movies with me a time or two because I wanted to.
Stop thinking about Harper, I tell myself.
We arrive back at her van. “So, you staying in Reykjavik still?” she asks, unlocking the sliding door and pulling out a bag of trail mix, offering me some as well.
I shake my head. “No, we’ve got an Airbnb in Vik.”
“Oh, we drove through that town on the way here. Maybe we can go out for dinner and then hang out at your place.”
The thought alone makes me recoil. Having Cassie and Harper in the same room feels like dangerous territory.
Not only because I think the girls have grown to dislike each other as the day has gone on, but because if Cassie comes to the Airbnb there will be no hiding the fact that there’s only one bed.
“Actually, would you mind if Harper comes with us to eat? She ate alone last night while we went to dinner, so I feel bad ditching for two nights in a row.” Especially after having ditched her all day.
Cassie makes a face, her eyebrows scrunching up. “Don’t you think that’s a little weird?” She pauses in front of the van, turning to stare at me.
“What’s so weird about it? I feel like it’d be weirder to let her eat alone when we’re supposed to be going on this trip together.”
“Is she your girlfriend?” she asks, her voice raising an octave.
“No, but neither are you.” I let my irritation get the better of me, and the words come out sharp and fast.
Her face goes flush, and she pauses before putting the bag of trail mix away. “I’ll drop you back off at your place,” she says, closing the door to the van with a little too much force.
I let out a hefty sigh and walk to the passenger door. Cassie’s already in the driver’s seat by the time I climb in.
“What’s the address?” she asks.
I give her the same information Harper sent me, and we drive off in silence, the anger radiating off Cassie as she drives. The Airbnb isn’t far from where the hike was, so we don’t have to suffer in silence long.
“Is it this place?” Cassie says, pulling into the driveway of a tiny house. It’s just a square little building, the walls all black with large windows lining the front.
“I think so,” I say, double checking the address on my phone.
“Is it just you staying here?” Her voice is calmer now, like the drive helped her cool down after the small spat.
I can tell what she’s thinking—that Harper and I aren’t staying at the tiny house together. It’s too small for both of us. She sees it as a good sign, and I don’t want to be the one to have to break the truth to her.
“No, Harper’s staying here too.” I try to say the words gently, but it’s like salt in the wound.
“Seriously?” Cassie says. Her anger has been replaced by laughter.
Not joyous, but sarcastic, borderline hysterical.
“You realize this is weird, right? Not just that you and your best not-girlfriend are sharing rooms together on vacation, but that while on vacation, you’re going out with another girl.
It’s. . . gross. How am I not supposed to be jealous when you’re literally sharing a place with another girl? ”
“I know it’s weird. It wasn’t planned this way. I was just taking the spot of her roommate. If I had planned to come originally, we would have gotten separate beds.”
“Would have gotten separate beds?” Cassie’s voice somehow raises another octave.
I curse mentally for letting the info slip.
She looks at the tiny house again and sees it for what it is: a building where the guy she’s been talking to goes to bed with another woman.
“Oh my god,” she says, laughing again. “Get out of my van.”
“Cassie,” I say, trying to talk her down.
“No. Get out. I don’t want to be a part of this. Clearly you and your friend have something going on and I don’t want to get wrapped up in it. You two can sort out your feelings for each other on your own.”
“We don’t have feelings for each other.”
“Yeah? Then why did Harper interrupt our kiss? Or why did she refuse to give us a moment alone together? She doesn’t like me because she’s jealous.”
Hearing her berate Harper ignites something inside me. “Harper was the one who insisted I spend the rest of the day with you! And the only reason she doesn’t like you is because you made me ditch her over and over again.”
“Because you wouldn’t stop looking at her!” Cassie snaps. “I know that look, Luke. Deny it all you want, but you clearly have feelings for Harper. Stop wasting my time and get out of my van.” She points outside the van, holding her arm in the air until I turn away, pulling the door open.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, and I mean it, even if she doesn’t believe me.
“Just delete my number from your phone,” she says.
I take that as my cue to go. I push the van door closed, and Cassie pulls out of the driveway.