chapter six:
The lodge

nine hours till dawn

Hazel missed summer, the warmth of him. The way he'd smile and make her chest wanna burst apart. She missed Josh, and what they had before everything went into utter chaos. It's not like she knew he'd break up with her and ditch her for most of the year. The second she shows up to the lodge of course he's acting as if nothing happened. He practically flirted and it was oddly weird seeing him that way.

As if things didn't end so suddenly between them, he even grabbed her bags after they approached the gateway near the lodge. She pulled it back making sure it clicked in place as they neared the steps "it's oddly still creepy here" she whispered as she looked at the place with a sense of unease.

A year ago Hannah would've run out that door and shortly after Beth followed after. They'd never be seen again and that scared Hazel more than her pregnancy. Josh chuckled as he set her bags down on the steps, a slight glance and she picked up on his cocky behavior as he looked her up and down.

"Still scared of the dark then, that's like the lamest thing to be scared of" she heard the gate behind them open and she turned to see Ashley and Matt. While Ashley was smiling and awkwardly eye stalking Chris as the boy walked in behind them. Matt looked like he wanted to punch someone, he was clearly upset about something and it wasn't hard to miss.

"Hey Haze! Getting an early start on bundling up I see" Hazel smiled as she approached Sam. "You know I'm always cold, especially up here. I see you're still wearing dead animal fur on your head". Sam touched her hat and leaned forward "wanna know a little secret?". Hazel nodded "it's fake, not even real fur. Guess that makes me a fraud".

Hazel chuckled "I like the idea of being a fraud, means no poor animal got hurt for that hat. I'm kinda surprised I even showed up to be honest, I was gonna decline since things are weird with me and Josh".

"So what exactly happened? No one will tell me when I ask about it" Hazel shifted slightly pushing her boot into the ground. She looked at Josh as he talked with Chris, the two boys goofing around as they made jokes. "Well I'd like to know that as well, it just happened so suddenly. He just ended things and left without so much of a phone call or text. That video was the first thing he sent in over a year".

Chris looked at Hazel then at Josh "so what's the deal with you two? Cause I heard that you dumped her". Josh looked almost miserable as he shrugged "let's just focus on the general thing here, getting inside".

"Come on man, you two have been together for years and you're just gonna not talk about it. It was always Josh and Hazel, the two people of the group we all knew would never break up. It was a pretty big deal when Emily of all people texted me about it. She nearly tweeted but then Jessica beat her to it".

"I don't know man, there's nothing to talk about, we broke up and that's all there is to be said about it". Hazel neared the steps and sat down beside Ashley as she fixed her hair. "You alright Matthew?" The boy was standing beside the girls staring at the gate.

"Yeah, don't worry about it Hazel" he walked off towards the gate and she sighed as she looked at the doorway. Chris ran up the stairs "Yo yo! Are we gonna get things moving up here or what? It's freezing out here". Josh smirked as he patted Chris's shoulder "yeah man" he approached the door.

Hazel, who was eager to get inside approached the boys as she held onto her bags eagerly. Chris's tone dropped from goofy to serious "Hey... you doin' alright? I mean it must be really tough without your sis-" Josh sneered angrily "stop".

" just meant that-" Josh sighed in annoyance "no I know what you meant.You know, seriously, I'm over it, and I just want us to have a really good time, you know? Like we always used to". Hazel leaned against the wall beside the door as she watched him try to open it.

It was amusing watching him struggle as he smacked at the doorknob slightly. "Maybe there's another way in, I'm sure Hazel can have another window incident". She huffed at Chris's comment "I was drunk and it's not my fault the window decided to break the second I opened it".

Josh chuckled "breaking a window won't work this time, there's like a million ways in. They're just all locked. And my parents got stronger windows". Chris shrugged "technically there's a bunch of windows around here, ones gotta be open and if it isn't then Hazel can wiggle her way inside and open the door".

"Wait a second, are you saying we should break in?" Hazel rolled her eyes "I'm not gonna wiggle into a small ass window. I'm sure you boys can figure it out yourselves". Josh moved away from the door "you heard the lady, we can handle this ourselves. Lead the way Cochise". The duo walked off and Hazel turned the doorknob just to be sure they weren't lying.

It was freezing and didn't budge. She looked at Chris as he awkwardly attempted to speak with Ashley. Josh stood near the side of the lodge waiting for the boy, Hazel wiped her hands off on her jeans nervously before she walked down the steps towards Josh.

"Hey uh, I was actually kinda hoping we could talk about a few things or just in general". It was like ripping a bandaid off, that's what she kept repeating inside her head as she looked at the boy. She could see him thinking as he looked at her, this entire situation wouldn't be so awkward if she generally didn't have big news to tell him. "Hazel" he sounded annoyed almost and she stepped back.

"Don't Hazel me, that might've worked in the past but it won't tonight. One conversation, that's all I'm asking for Joshua, because you owe me". He scoffed "sure because you're just gonna mention everything I did wrong, that's not what tonight's about".

"I deserve some sort of answer, I mean you didn't return my calls or answer my messages. I even sent an email once and I hate sending emails. I was worried about you, and your parents wouldn't tell me anything when I called and asked how you were".

"I'm fine, why does everyone keep asking me that. Tonight is supposed to be fun and not..." Hazel sighed softly "just forget it, I shouldn't have come here" she walked off and she passed Chris who side eyed her slightly. She ignored everyone as she pulled open the gate and began to walk down the pathway.

She didn't like the idea of walking all the way back down to the cable car alone. She was actually terrified the more she walked in the darkness. The generator was off which meant the pathway didn't have any source of light. "Haze come on, you can't just leave" she turned as Josh ran towards her quickly.

He had caught up pretty fast and nearly slipped when he finally caught her arm. "The bus might not show up but I'll walk all the way back home if I have to and you can't stop me Joshua". He tugged at her arm "but you can't leave, everyone's supposed to be here".

"I don't have time for this, I don't even know why I came here in the first place, it's creepy and everyone is acting all weird because of what happened last year. I thought you'd finally talk to me for once, I mean you've ignored me for months, I thought we had something special going on together".

"Why don't we just go back, get inside the lodge and I'll talk to you all you want. It's freezing out here and we both know you hate the cold". His hand grasped hers and she sighed softly "do you think things would've been different if Beth and Hannah".

He stopped her from talking by making her follow him back towards the lodge. "Josh there's something I should tell you, it's really important" her words get cut off by a bird flying straight at her face. She yelled in distress as she moved back her hands flying towards the bird as it flew off.

She tripped over a branch landing straight on her back making her groan as Josh kneeled down smirking. "Looks like a tweety bird has it out for you. You didn't hurt yourself did you?" He helped her stand up as she wiped the snow off her pants angrily "I swear by the end of the night my jeans are gonna be absolutely ruined, they can't handle this much snow".

"You're gonna have a lot more ruined than those jeans if you kept tripping around here like that" he laughed to himself almost as she walked back towards the lodge. "I'm only staying because it's cold out here and there's no way I'm walking back home, that's like a good few hours of walking and it's dark out here".

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authors notes:
This chapter would've been way longer if I kept going so I cut it short. Also I spent so many nights on this chapter alone so it just made sense to make it short so I don't gotta stress over editing it after the fact. Anyways enjoy!