Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sunny with a Chance of Showers
“I thought you said this was an easy hike.”
“It is.”
Tina stands on a boulder at the top of a steep part of the trail. I’m on my hands and knees, grabbing at rocks and tree limbs, trying to pull myself up to the top.
“You know you could just walk up, right?” Tina says.
“No, I can’t. It’s not safe.”
“It’s what I did,” she says.
“Not everyone is built like a superhero, Tina.” I pull on a root that juts out of the ground and hoist myself up a little higher. I’m starting to regret all the times that I declined her offers to work out in her home gym with her.
Tina squats down and holds her hand out to me. “At least take my hand and let me pull you the rest of the way up.”
“No. I can do this on my own. I’ve made it this far.” I look up. If I just grab one more rock and one more tree branch, I’ll be at the top.
“You’ve barely moved in the last two minutes,” Tina says.
I look back. Oliver and Ryan are at the bottom, only a few feet behind me. Oliver watches with his arms crossed, shaking his head. He has a smirk on his face like this is amusing to him. “I can push you up the rest of the way if you want,” he offers.
“That won’t be necessary.” I need this embarrassment to be over, so I grab the next branch and the next rock and pull myself the rest of the way up. When I get to the top, Tina jumps off the boulder and squeals. She holds both of her hands up to high-five me.
“I don’t deserve a high-five for that,” I say.
“You conquered a fear,” she says. “That’s worthy of a high-five.” She grabs my wrist and forces me to slap her hand.
Oliver and Ryan climb the small hill behind me seemingly effortlessly. I decide not to remark on how easy they make it look. Oliver comes up to my side while Ryan takes Tina’s hand. They continue on ahead of us while we follow a short distance behind.
“Good job back there,” he says.
I elbow him. “You were laughing at me.”
He looks genuinely shocked. “I was not.”
“You were smiling.”
He lowers his voice. “Only because your ass looked great from that angle.”
I snort out a laugh.
“But really,” he says. “You may have climbed up very slowly, but you didn’t give up.”
I smile, looking down at my shoes for a moment as we hike. Even though I don’t want to take the compliment because I still feel embarrassed, his encouragement makes me feel a little better.
I look up at him. “Thanks.”
He smiles at me. I smile back down at my shoes.
We continue up the trail for another mile or so.
“I thought you said this was a two-mile hike,” I say to Tina. Then I add, “Roundtrip.”
“I might have underestimated just a little,” she says.
“We’ve covered at least two miles and we’re not even at the top yet. How much further?”
“We still have another mile,” Ryan answers for her.
“Another mile?” I exclaim. “That’s three miles one way, Tina.
Which makes this three times as long as you said it would be.
” She looks back and sticks her tongue out at me.
I laugh. “You know, this is the second time today that you’ve lied about how long it would take to get somewhere.
I don’t know if I can trust you anymore. ”
“Stop complaining. The trail is shorter if you walk faster,” she says.
“That doesn’t make any sense. A mile is a mile no matter how fast you hike.” I look back at Oliver, who’s right behind me. “You’ve done this trail before. You couldn’t have told me it wasn’t as short as Tina said?”
He scratches the back of his neck. “It’s been years since I hiked this mountain. I honestly don’t remember it being this long.”
There aren’t any more spots quite like the one that had me crawling up what felt like the side of a mountain, but it’s all uphill and by the time we make it to the summit, my legs are burning.
“Check out that view,” Tina says. “Was it worth it?”
I step up to the edge of the cliff. The view takes my breath away.
I look out at the tree-covered hills below us and the mountain ranges in the distance.
There’s a lake in the middle, no roads or civilization in sight.
Birds fly from one tree to another, chirping and filling the valley with echoes of their songs.
“Wow. This is amazing.”
“Worth it?” she asks again.
“So worth it.”
While I’m standing there enjoying the view, I feel a hand snaking around the back of my waist and holding onto my hip.
I look down, then up at Oliver. He keeps his arm around me, smiling and looking out at the scenery in front of us.
I lean my head against his shoulder, allowing myself to relax into him.
“My legs are like jelly,” I tell him. “You guys are going to need to leave me behind.”
“Sit down on the bench,” he says.
“What bench?”
He gestures behind us. I look back, and for the first time I notice an old wooden bench a few feet behind us. The wood is aged and weathered, but it looks sturdy and solid. I leave Tina and Ryan at the edge of the cliff and I head over to the bench. Oliver sits down next to me.
“Ryan’s grandfather built that bench,” Tina says, looking over her shoulder at us.
I look down at the weathered wood. I trace a pair of etched initials with my fingertips. “How many people hike out here?” I ask, feeling the R and T with my index finger. “Are these your initials?”
Tina and Ryan exchange a look, and then they both laugh. “Ryan and Tiffany ,” she says.
“Oh.” I pull my hand off the initials like I’m doing something wrong. “Different girlfriend?”
“Tiffany was Ryan’s dog,” Oliver says.
I frown. “Wait. What?”
When I realize that he’s serious, I burst out laughing too, and then all four of us are laughing. The sound echoes throughout the valley below us.
I look at Ryan when I finally calm down. “You wrote your dog’s initial on a wooden bench?”
“She was a really good dog, okay?” he says defensively.
Oliver nods. “She was a good dog.”
“I thought he was lying the first time I saw those initials on that bench,” Tina says. “I didn’t believe him until he took me back to his family’s home and showed me a picture of a golden retriever with the name Tiffany on her tag.”
“He still could have been lying,” I say with a shrug. “The T might have been for Tatiana. Maybe Tiffany was just a convenient excuse.”
“Hey. Stop trying to put doubt in my girlfriend’s mind,” Ryan says. I notice how they both flinch slightly at the word “girlfriend,” like they’re both dying for the proposal to happen already so they can use the word they want to use—fiancé—and then eventually husband and wife.
It’s funny to me how everyone on this mountaintop knows about the proposal in some form or another, and yet all four of us have to pretend like we don’t know a thing.
“At least you haven’t noticed Oliver’s initial yet,” Tina says.
“What? Oliver’s on here too?” I look back down at the bench.
For some reason I don’t like the idea of Oliver’s initial on here with some other girl.
It’s not like I’ve never seen him with a girlfriend, so I can’t explain why his initial with someone else’s would make me jealous.
Maybe it’s the permanence of putting his initials on an old bench built by his best friend’s grandfather at the top of a treacherous three-mile trail.
I stand up, looking closer at the part of the bench where I was sitting, and then I spot it: a single O, not followed by a plus sign or a heart or any other initial.
I snort. I look at Oliver, still sitting on the bench. “Just an O?”
“I was seventeen,” he says with a smirk. “I hadn’t met the right girl yet.” He kicks my foot lightly.
“You’re right,” I say, nodding. “You have to be really careful about whose initials you choose to put next to yours. You don’t want to end up like Ryan and Tatiana.”
Oliver and I both laugh, but Tina and Ryan don’t look amused.
“Are we ready to head back yet?” Tina asks. “I’m starving.”
I sigh. “I guess so.” I look back at the trail where we came from. I’m not looking forward to doing all of that again.
“It’s easier going downhill,” Oliver reminds me.
“True.”
About ten paces onto the trail, Oliver stops.
“I left my water up by the bench. I’ll catch up with you guys.
” He turns around and takes off in a jog.
Tina and Ryan keep going, but I slow down for him even though he’s in shape and should have no trouble catching up with me at a normal speed.
He comes back to me a minute later and takes my hand.
When his palm meets mine, I feel this odd warmth rise up through my arm that floods into the rest of my body. It feels… right. I feel relaxed.
The way back is easier and seems much shorter. Maybe Tina is onto something with her weird trail math. When we get to the steep part that I had so much trouble with earlier, Oliver stops me.
“Get on my back,” he says. He bends down, turning his back to me.
I wrap my arms around his shoulders and lean into him.
Even through our clothes, being this close to him with my chest against his back sparks this need I have inside me to touch him.
He grabs onto my legs to steady me, then stands up straight and gives me a piggyback ride down the hill.
He carries me so effortlessly that I feel like I’m weightless.
I don’t want to let go of him even when we reach the bottom.
He bends down again so that I can slide off.
It takes every little bit of willpower I have to separate my body from his.
When my feet hit the ground, the only thing that saves me from this strange feeling of loss is when he takes my hand again before we continue on.
I look up at him. I want to know that we’re not only putting on a show for our friends. I want to hear him tell me that when he kisses me or even just holds my hand it’s because he wants to. Because he wants me. I let myself pretend that it’s just us walking through these beautiful woods.