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Six

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Javier

Javier grabbed nothing but a jacket, in case it got cold. He knew April would need it at some point, and what better way was there to charm a girl than the oldest trick in the books; girl gets cold, guy gives her jacket and boom, they fall in love—or she falls back in love with him, whatever the case may be.

As he closed the tent flap behind him, he caught sight of Nathan, watching Paige and Amanda tie knots on tent ropes. Their eyes met after a few beats.

"You're leaving already?"

He nodded. "She probably wants to get a head start, and I don't wanna keep her waiting too long."

His friend gave him the rare, yet recognisable look where he crossed his arms over his chest and held his chin in one hand.

"What?"

"Don't try anything stupid."

"How often do I do stupid things?" Everyday, yesterday, today, tomorrow, if you live to see it.

He snapped out of his thoughts when Amanda suddenly squealed from behind Nathan. She had her hands up like a trophy winner, only to retract them and look down when she noticed everyone staring at her. He chuckled and turned to finish his conversation, but Nathan was on another planet by then. Uh-oh.

He smirked. "Remind me what you said about not doing anything stupid."

"Hm...huh? What are you talking about?"

"Last I checked, Malia and Amanda are two different girls you stare at in the exact same way." If that wouldn't lead his friend into some shitty problem in future, he didn't know what would.

Nathan scowled. "Don't you have some place to be?"

"Alright!" He chuckled and went on his way.

•~❉᯽❉~•

He waited outside April's tent, having knocked and since gotten the 'almost ready' announcement that obviously meant she wasn't even halfway done. Girls could be the worst at time conservation, especially when it came to getting ready. He was a hundred percent sure the term 'fashionably late' was designed by a woman as an excuse to waste more time by her vanity.

When she finally came out, the breath was knocked out of him. He'd take seeing her legs like this as compensation for waiting fifteen minutes under the sun any time, any day.

She was wearing a white tee-shirt that had the words 'let me breathe' printed in front with black ink.

The 'Let me' spread across her moderately endowed breasts, and the 'breathe', while legible, was halfway tucked into a pair of black, thigh high shorts. Her long, slender legs were exposed, and whatever moisturizer she'd used had really made its sheen, all the way down to her calf length black boots.

One tiny problem, though, she'd worn a camouflage jacket.

"If you're done staring at me, can we go?" She asked, bringing his attention up to her face.

She'd applied little makeup too, and he couldn't help wondering if she'd done it because of him. She knew he loved it when she wore short shorts, meaning she had to have done it on purpose...right?

"Javier!" She called again.

He snapped out of his trance.
"You em... You look—"

"Don't start talking, let's go."

Okay, maybe liking this sight wasn't the best idea when his plan was to not fall for the girl. "Are you sure you wanna be wearing that in a forest?"

She turned around to face him. "You're not here to control my choice of clothing, are you?"

Was she angry? He hadn't meant to make her mad, he was only trying to avoid complications as a result of attraction that may or may not be enhanced by the shorts she had on. If she saw it as an insult, he was sorry. "No, of course not, let's go."

She turned around again, letting her small, black backpack bump against her butt. Fuck him.

"Do you know the way?" He asked, adding fuel to his steps. He needed to walk beside her to reduce his chances of staring again.

"You know you can back out now right?" She replied, skipping anthills on the ground as they continued farther away from camp grounds.

He crinkled his brows at her tone, hoping she hadn't taken his comment the wrong way. An apology readied on the tip of his tongue, but he withheld it, on the off chance that she wasn't mad over that. He could wing it. "Yeah, but you know you don't wanna do this without me."

His worry was alleviated when she smiled at him, pushing strands of her long brown hair behind her ear. He smiled back, not like he could help it anyway. Her smile was always mirrored by him.

People feel better attached when you smile back at them, she'd once told him, along with 'leaning in during conversation makes people want to kiss you', and 'it's better to be wearing flats than heels when you meet guys for the first time, in case they turn out short'.

She'd had a lot of quotes back then. The clever, quirky, sometimes even pervy quotes, but that was April for him—or had been. Sometimes it was hard to separate the April he'd loved from her evil side. If this was going to work, he had to keep his mind—and eyes on that evil side.

Their welcome to the forest came in the form of even higher towering lifeforms. The line of trees at the entrance casted a dark shadow, in contrast to the bright light they had just been under.

He looked to the sides of the same entrance, at some kind of rusted crumple of iron which most likely used to be the gate to the place. Patrick had been right about nearly everything being guarded. They would have to be careful.

He casted a glance her way, just in time to catch her smile at the sight above them.

"Ready?" She asked, barely sparing him her eyes.

He nodded. "Of course."

The trees greeted them with the sight of their dry, slightly withering barks. As she passed these, she ran her fingers over one of them, then the next, before looking up again.

Rays of yolk sunlight filtered through the verdurous canopy, penetrating through the leaves and casting an unearthly green-gold luminescence over the ground like polka dots, even on the areas that had assortments of leaves, twigs, anthills and flowers with no idea the right place to grow.

The sweet smell of forest flowers gave him a reason to take a deep breath, and just as he exhaled, he saw that she'd done the exact same thing with yet another smile on her face.

Eyes on the evil side.

It could've been the way she bit her lower lip as she smiled round them, or the way she crossed her legs against each other as she walked through twigs and leaves, crunching them under her feet, but it was getting increasingly difficult not to enjoy her reaction to this. It was like he should take her somewhere else, just so he could watch this reaction all over again.

Gnarled roots dipped into and out of the ground, giving her the chance to climb on them, gracefully moving from root to root. The way she threw her legs while walking before him reminded him of a model on the runway, and the way she kept gracefully leaping over rocks and big sticks reminded him that she was a dancer. She was beautiful, but it wasn't enough to mask the completely heartless personality that was April.

"This is beautiful," he heard her mutter, and no, she hadn't been looking in the mirror.

He nodded, looking straight at her. "It really is."

She turned to him, then tucked hair behind her ear. "You don't have to be like that. If you don't appreciate nature then leave it alone."

She was still in a mood.

"What's wrong?" he asked, inching closer to her. "Did I say something?" Don't say the clothes.

The deep green carpet of grass below them was as annoying as it was uncomfortable to walk on. Nearly all the trees inside the enclosed, thick aired landscape had moss of some kind growing on them. While he was rather unimpressed by this, His ex seemed very intrigued.

"Nothing," she muttered back. "And no, it's not something you said."

"Then what is it?"

She shrugged. "Not sure."

"Let's do something together," he suggested. At least it'd help calm their tense air.

"Nature is entertaining enough," she replied curtly, reaching up to touch a weird, plastic looking tree branch.

"When'd you get so poetic?" He asked, determined to get at least a conversation out of her.

She exhaled and looked back at him.

"At least say something," he nudged. "Even if you're not playing a game with me."

She sighed again, picking her pace up. "While I was at dance academy. Turns out there's a lot more to dance than you'd think."

Okay, topic found!

"Tell me more," he moved closer again, and she didn't seem to notice. If she did, then she clearly didn't mind.

"Dancing is an art. All artists are connected one way or another, whether visual arts or performing. It means there ought to be a starting line, right?"

He nodded, but just to get her to keep talking.

"Right. So in similarities we have beauty. I personally think all art is beautiful."

"What has that got to do with you liking trees?"

"Art. Nature is the purest form of art. It's beautiful and innocent. Things just...exist."

Funny she would find something to appreciate, he thought.

"You went last year, right?" He sunk both hands in his pockets.

She gestured in the affirmative. "Um...yeah, I did."

"Was that your method of getting over me?" He asked, not being able to help it. While he could barely pay any focus for weeks after the break, she'd found something else to occupy her time—and grown to love it, seeing the way she talked about it.

She looked at him, then back down at the ground. "No, it wasn't."

Before he could speak again, she pointed towards a shrivelled, moss covered plant. "We should be about half a block in. It's time to make our first marking."

She was holding him away. Hadn't she liked it so far? Hadn't she missed him at all?
The way she'd reacted to his kiss that other night was far different from the resistant, entitled persona she now assumed. He had to up his game.

He stood in silence as she pulled off the blue bandana she'd tied around her left wrist, transferring it onto a branch of a bent tree, making two firm knots. When she looked up and smiled at him, he doubled back. She chuckled. "We'll mark the rest with masking tape. I used the bandana so we'd know our starting point."

He pretended not to hear her.

"Javier?"

"Let's play a game."

"I already said no."

"Twenty questions," he suggested, walking even closer to her. If he remembered correctly, she broke quicker this way.

"I already-" She bantered, but he moved even forward, prompting her to take several steps back as he came closer, so that her back was now against a tree.
He continued to lean in, even when he knew there was no more room. It would only take a second for their lips to touch, which he hoped she wanted. He didn't want to, but he wasn't sure he would mind it if she initiated anything.

Before he could make the move, however, she pushed him off her. "Fine, I'll play your stupid game."

He smirked in triumph, offering her his hand as support to straighten up with.

She lightly slapped it away from her. "Since when did you get this cocky? I thought you were the geeky, nonviolent-video-games-only kind."

Since he had to move to LA, he wanted to say, but held his tongue. "Since now, plus you once said you liked guys who never gave up."

She kept silent for a while, but when he finally saw her lips curl up, he knew he'd gotten his reaction.

Let the games begin!