"New car?" Ron pointed to my new car with his chin. "Nice choice." He complimented me with a smirk on his face. I gave him a smug look.

"Thanks. That's what I call a useful car," I wiggled my brow at him.

"Shut up." Rose shushed me and turned to Ron. "So, are you going to join us in Liza's car, or you'll bring yours?"

She was so lucky to express herself like that. I envied her.

"No, I'll bring mine." Ron pointed to those two hulks, who were standing obediently behind him. "They are also coming with us."

We all looked behind him to see those hulks. "Who are they?" I frowned. "Your friends?"

"No." Ron smiled serenely. "They are bodyguards. Mine and Oli's."

I pushed my glasses over my head and looked back and forth between Ron and Oli.

"Stop looking." Oli huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Wow, princess." I teased Oli with a sweet tone. "What service can I offer you!"

"Shut up!" Oli hissed at me. "I will kill you!" I started to laugh gleefully. And then just like that a light bulb lit on my head.

"How about Oli will come with me along with her bodyguard, and Rose can go with you." I batted my eyes innocently. "In this way, we all can have some safety, huh?" I added a sweet smile while on it.

Ron looked at me for a good few seconds, biting his bottom lip, and then he muttered something under his lips and chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds convenient enough." He said with an amused expression.

I winked at Rose. She gave me a flying kiss.

"Shall we get going?" Ron put on his glasses and looked around. "By the way, where are we going?"

"We haven't decided yet." I put on back my glasses. "We overlooked a few places on the internet."

"I know a nice place for camping." Ron took out his phone. "I can lead the way if you want me to."

"Sure," I shrugged my shoulders. "We are fine with anywhere as long as we can enjoy ourselves."

"Let's go then." Ron nodded his head and headed toward his car.

"Yeah, let's go." I gently bumped Rose with my waist and pushed her towards Ron. Rose gave me a fake glare. I chuckled and pulled Oli with me. One hulk started following us.

"Let me drive, please." The hulk asked me politely.

"No, it's ok, I'll drive, umm..." I looked keenly at him for his name. "What's your name?"

"James Harold." He answered. "But please call me James."

"Hi, I am Mona Lisa." I smiled brightly and reached out my hand. "You can call me Liza." James took my hand to shake.

"Miss Liza,....." James nearly said something else but I was first enough to cut him off.

"Right, James, so hop in and please guard us tight." I winked at him. A little smile curved at the corner of his lips for a mere second. I yanked open my car door and stopped right before to get in.

"We have to do the shopping before we get there." I yelled at Ron. Rose already got in the car. Ron was also putting his one leg inside the car, he looked up. "Are there any shops on the way?"

"Yeah, there are few."

"Cool." I showed my thumbs up and got in the car. Ron finally got in his car.

We drove our car away. As soon as we hit the road, I started my leg pulling to Oli.

"So, what's with that bodyguard thing suddenly?" I asked Oli. I saw from my rear mirror that James was scrupulously maintaining a poker face and was pretending that he was not listening to us.

"That's the same question I asked my shitty brother, and he told me I should always bring protection with me." Oli scoffed tiredly.

"Then he should buy you some condoms, instead of a bodyguard." I whispered to her with a grin on my face. "Or you could show him those ones you have in your backpack and tell him not to worry too much."

"Oh, fuck off." She glared at me. "Don't try me. I am already pissed off enough!"

I laughed merrily.

We pulled off in front of a convenience store to shop for everything we would need..

"You guys buy meat and fish." I instructed Ron and Rose while checking the list on my phone. "Oli and I will buy other things. Is that ok with you?"

"Fine by me." Ron said and looked at Rose.

"Me too〜," Rose said while grinning sweetly.

We entered the shop and went to different departments.

"Buy some bug repellent, hand sanitiser, and a body wash or shampoo." Oli told me while eyeing those snack shelves. "And some snacks too. I will buy a knife and other utensils."

"Why would we have to buy shampoo?" I was confused.

"In case of emergency." She shrugged her shoulders. "You never know."

"Ok." I nodded my head and went to the beauty and drug-section. After looking at a few products casually, I took orange-scented two bottles but with a different brand tag. I took a sniff at both of them and then put one in my bucket and one back in the self.

"You like the orange family?" someone asked from behind me.

"Oh, shit..." I instantly dropped the bottle and abruptly turned my face fast to Ron and he needed to step back to give me some space, "Don't scare me like that." I hissed at him. I carefully placed my right hand over my left chest. My poor heart started to pound like crazy because of his sudden appearance.

"Sorry." He smiled. "Did I scare you?"

"No shit, Sherlock." I glared at him. "Why are you here? Where is Rose?" I asked him grumpily.

"Rose suddenly tripped and hurt her ankle." He said as he slipped his hands in his trouser pockets. "So, I left her in the car with Ryder." He smiled amiably. "Don't worry. We purchased all the food we will need. I put them in a thermos along with some ice bags."

Grrr..... what should I do with that brainless girl. Nobody chooses stilettos for camping.

"So do you like orange-scented things or the colour?" Ron asked me as he was eyeing the things inside of my basket, "or you actually like the yellow colour?"

"I like anything with citrus flavour or scented." I informed him as I was eyeing the hand wash. "They are kind of refreshing."

"Well, that's true." He agreed with me.

"Hmm.." I hummed a little before I turned around again and caused Ron to take a step backwards or else my forehead would hit with his chest. We were standing in an extremely squeezed place.

"Oh hey, this is citrus-scented," Ron said as he reached his hand out to the rack behind me, just beside my head to get another citrus-scented hand wash. His slender fingers slightly brushed my ear, which gave a tingling feeling to my brain. He collected the bottle and gave it to me.

"I didn't know it existed tho...." I said as I turned the bottle around to read the writings on it.

"Isn't it for the kid? But the brand..." I said as I opened the lid and sniffed it cautiously. "I'll try this one, then." I closed the lid and as I looked up to Ron, "Thank-.."

Ron was staring thoughtfully at the bottle on my hand too but our faces were only inches from each other. Ron looked up from the bottle, to face me. We could feel each other's breath and body warmth.

"You like the scent?" Ron asked as he stepped back and took another one from the rack behind me casually. Then he opened the lid and sniffed it. He had blinked hesitantly before he closed the lid and read the writings on it. He was reading the writing on a freaking citrus-scented hand wash's bottle, but he looked so serious.

"Do you like the scent, Liza?" Ron asked again and looked up at my eyes.

"I don't know." I said as I turned around and hastily started to walk from there. I didn't know why, but I felt kind of weird and I had to walk away from there. ASAP. I could feel Ron was walking behind me. We found Oli at the snack section, where she was picking up snacks. We paid and reached our cars. Rose was sitting helplessly inside the car already.

When we made it to the camping site, I was really excited and happy. It had been many years since my last camping trip. We unloaded the supplies from my truck and eagerly started the preparation for the barbecue. Rose was sitting tiredly on a tree log.

"You guys can marinade the meat and fish," I set Rose and Ron to prepare the food. "While Oli and I will set the barbecue pit. Is that ok with you."

"Yeah, sure." Ron picked up a few packets and sat with Rose on the same log.

"Umm, can you guys please set those tents up." I politely asked James and Ryder(the other hulk) politely.

"Sure." They both nodded their heads slightly and started working immediately. They were very fast with their hands.

"We bought charcoal for the pit, but they are not sufficient for fire. We need some twigs or tree branches for the fire starter." I informed them while taking off my denim jacket and took a carry bag.

"You guys just wait here, I'll find some." I got up from my sitting position and swatted some dust from my hips.

"I'll go with you." Oli also got up to come with me. "I have nothing to do anyway."

"Wait." Ron suddenly got up and looked at Oli. "I will go with her. You stay here with Rose and take care of her."

"It's ok." I said. "We can manage. You stay here with Rose."

"I am acquainted with this place." He said. "And I think Rose will be more comfortable with her than me."

"Ok, you guys go." Oli nodded her head and sat down with Rose. "I will stay with Rose." She picked up the ginger paste bottle and scooped out a big spoonful one.

Ron turned to Ryder, who also got up to come along with us. "You don't have to go, we won't go too far."

Ryder hesitated.

"It's ok, I got this." Ron assured him.

Tsk. I had nothing to say, so I just looked at Rose with a grim expression. We gradually began to walk along a visible trail which was most probably formed by walking on many times by pedestrians, Ron turned off the trail and went to an end at the grassy edge of a peaceful meadow of multi coloured wildflowers, we slowly entered into the area of the countless trees which leads us to a flowing stream. We were a little far away from our base location.

"Isn't this place too far to collect the twigs?" I asked him with a confused tone. "We could look around near our base."

"Yeah, I know." He smiled indulgently at me. "I just wanted to show you this lovely place."

Well, that place was indeed as pretty as a picture, I couldn't deny that.

"Yeah, it's really lovely." I looked around to take a good look at my picturesque surroundings. Those graceful hanging branches of those willow trees and the light rays in between them were giving a fairy tale look to that place.

We started to collect the twigs and put them into the bag. I couldn't avert my eyes from that stream. It was so aesthetic and sparkling. I stood at ease at the very end of the riverside and looked down. It didn't look too deep, but the steam kind of looked fast flowing. How about a little swimming?

"Liza, be careful." Ron warned me and hastily came towards me. "I am not sure about those edges."

"Of course, I am." I look at him angrily. "Do you think I'm clumsy?"

"Yes." He smirked. He also stood carefully at the edge.

"EXCUSE ME?" I tried to pierce him with my glares.

He chuckled delightedly. "Alright lets..." he didn't have a chance to finish his words. Suddenly the soil beneath his feet gave away, and he started to fall down with those loose soils. And finally he fell into the stream with a loud splash. It all happened so fast that I couldn't grasp the situation at first.

And then, I was genuinely shocked.

"Are you alright?" I shouted at him worriedly. He resurfaced and shook the water off from his hair. When I saw him, I started to laugh mockingly, so hard that my head fell back and my eyes got teared up.

"HAHAHA, who is clumsy now?" My stomach started to hurt.

He looked at me un-amused. "What? You are going to stand there and laugh, not going to help me?"

"Alright, alright." I wiped the tears off and squatted down to extend my hand to him. "Come on, big guy, let's get you out of there before you get swept away by the current." I carefully put my weight on the edge and got a hold of some of those hanging willow branches to get some support. Ron swam towards me and reached out his hand to catch mine.

As soon as he grasped my hand, he jerked it towards the stream forcefully, pulling me in the water with those willow branches...to him.

Oh no!!

**********

Author's Note:

OH YES....!!

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