Oww... I sat up and rubbed my head. I guess I had fallen asleep on the couch in the tunnels last night after I finished decorating the tree.. Everything was kind of fuzzy, I had that gross morning feeling you get when you wake up weird.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and gasped. It was eleven o'clock! I had like- three hundred text messages.

Hey, I'm here, where are you? ~ Josh 7:43PM Yesterday

Umm.. Skye? I know I had a few bad ideas but come on! ~ Josh 9:24PM Yesterday

Hello? Skye? Where are you? Please come home or text soon. ~Dad 9:32PM Yesterday

Ok, so, I may or may not have accidentally told your dad I couldn't find you, sorry bout that. ~Josh 9:34PM Yesterday

Hey Skye, I'm sorry if me and Sean made you upset yesterday, I've been looking for you all morning to apologize but haven't been able to find you anywhere? You alright? ~Ben 7:43AM Today

I just found out that Josh and your Dad can't find you either? Please tell me you're ok. ~Ben 7:51AM Today

Hey, everyone's looking for you? Are you ok? ~ Sean 8:15AM Today

Skye? You've never been missing overnight. Please call me as soon as you get this. Please be ok. ~ Dad 9:34AM Today

Is anyone able to find Skye? ~ Ben to the Lodge Group Chat 9:40AM Today

No, her dad told us she was missing, he said they had already checked the tree, the tunnels, and her room, they haven't been able to find her. ~ Noah to the Lodge Group Chat 9:41AM Today

Has anyone checked all the places again since then? ~ Sean to the Lodge Group Chat 9:45AM Today

No, I've got her room. Ben, you go check the tree. ~ Kaylee to the Lodge Group Chat 9:47AM Today

Skye I'm going to spam you until you reply ~Josh 10:04AM Today

Skye ~ Josh

Skye ~Josh

Skye ~Josh

I stopped reading the texts after I had fourteen other texts from Josh and quickly got up from the couch. I guess he gave up after twenty minutes of spamming me every few minutes. Ben was going to the tree! I didn't want anyone to see it yet! I can't believe they didn't find me when they checked the tunnels! I must have been at the tree when they checked..

I turned as I heard footsteps coming from the tunnel entrance. I fixed my hair as best as I could and straightened myself out a bit. It didn't really do much since I had slept on the couch and I needed a brush to properly fix this mess. Ben came into view, I could see worry and confusion on his face already, though that faded quickly when he saw me.

He ran over to me and hugged me tightly, nearly knocking me over, had to rock back and forth to keep my balance.

"You had me worried sick... When I went to find you and couldn't, I assumed you had gone to town but then everyone else said they couldn't find you. I thought they had already searched here so I didn't bother to look. But I asked everyone and they said to check the tree again so I went and came back this way through here /just/ to be safe and God Skye you scared everyone." He said, out of breath from clearly running around. He pulled away, looking at me seriously.

"Thank you guys for worrying. I've been here all night. I must have been at the tree when they came in the tunnels to look for me. I just fell asleep in here I guess. I'm sorry I made everyone worry- wait... you saw the tree already?" I asked him. He nodded at me.

"Oh yeah, I wasn't really looking at the tree, though, I was looking for you naturally. I do like what you did though. That reminds me, I need to show you something. I got something that might help with that. But first. I am so sorry about what happened yesterday. Me and Sean shouldn't have gotten upset with you, or stressed you out in any way. If you want to just be friends..." He paused and I could actually see his gaze move to my lips for a moment. "Then I guess we'll just have to accept that.." He said with a small, weak smile.

I returned a smile to him, he was so nice about it, even though I could tell it hurt him to say it. I moved to go towards the tree so he could show me what he wanted to show me but he gently grabbed my arm. "You should probably let everyone know you're ok." He told me.

Oh, yeah that was a good idea. I pulled my phone out and looked at everything again.

To the Group Chat~ Hey guys! I'm ok! Thank you all for worrying. I just fell asleep in the tunnels last night. I'll explain more in a bit, meet at the tree in half an hour? ~ Skye

To Dad~ I'm alright, I just fell asleep in the tunnels last night, everything is fine. Don't worry. I came up with a new idea for the lodge with Josh and I stayed up late writing stuff out for it. I'll be home in a bit to explain it, just going to do stuff with the group first. ~ Skye

Ben's phone went off when I sent the message in the group chat but he ignored it and pulled me along to go to show me what he wanted to show me. Which I had no idea what it was, I was the one who decorated the tree so it couldn't be anything about that, unless he had changed something.

He seemed weird as he pulled me along with him though, not really too excited for whatever it was.

When we finally got to the tree he walked to the back of the tree. "I saw that one of the lights had unplugged, so I tried to go fix it, don't really know why. But when I was climbing up there, a piece of bark fell off the tree and this is what I found." He told me as he pointed to the spot of the tree where the bark fell off.

"Is that....?" I moved forward to see my name carved into the tree.

"Yep." He answered.

"Who put it there? Did you?" I asked him.

"No," He said seriously, then continued in a mumble. "I'm guessing Sean did..." He finished. I nudged him with my elbow to get him to hush, I didn't need them to start fighting again. They were too close to get into another argument over me.

My phone buzzed again, stopping me from replying to him.

Glad you're ok, this is pretty much everyone from my phone. We'll be there once we finish up what we're working on here. Kind of behind in work since we spent a lot of the morning looking for you. Glad you're safe though. ~ Sean to the Group Chat, Now

Ben sighed a bit as he looked at his own phone, slipping it back into his pocket and looking back to me.

"You ok?" I asked him. He nodded and gave me that fake smile he'd been giving me since I chose. I looked at him dully. "You really think that you can fake things with me?" I asked him as I turned to face him fully.

"I'm fine." He answered, his smile seemed more real. He turned to look at the tree. I took his jaw and had him look back at me.
"You sure..?" I asked him, giving him a chance to answer me on his own. Knowing me I would push the questions further if he didn't answer soon.

"Like I said, I'm fine Skye." He told me, he was still lying though. I could tell. I put my other hand on the other side of his jaw as he tried to pull away.

"Ben." I said firmly. His eyes flicked between mine, his expression almost blank. "It's me, you can tell me anything Ben..." I whispered. His eyes glanced down to my lips again before he closed them and pulled away, moving towards the woods.
"Ben!" I called.
He turned back and came back over to him upsetly. "You really think I can be friends with you when you do things like that!? Skye- you must not realize how much I like you. I can't just sit here and wait forever, Skye. It's getting to be too much to just be here and not be able to-" He motioned at me, moving in close enough to kiss me before he turned around again and made his way towards the woods once more.

This time I didn't stop him because everyone else had finally arrived and I needed to tell all of them about the Lodge Games... I'd just have to talk to Ben later...