“That’s too bad. I’m having a great time.”
“Ha! You couldn’t go without technology for a day!”
“Oh, really?” Raiden pulls his phone from his back pocket. Before I have a chance to say anything, he arches his arm back and throws it as hard as he can—and Raiden is seriously still very athletic—into the trees along the trail.
“Why would you do that!” I gasp. “You…you’re…that was seriously stupid! That doesn’t prove anything other than you have no regard for money because you make so much of it now, you don’t even have to work to earn it.”
I don’t wait for a response. I’m sure Raiden would love to remind me that he grew up with nothing, the same as me, and made it big. It’s the typical rags to riches, American Dream kind of story everyone loves to hear. Everyone but me. Right now, I just want to get on with my walk. I take off, leaving Raiden behind me. I tell myself that I hope he’s not following me, but I know it’s a lie.
The truth is, I’m kind of scared to walk alone. I mouthed off so much about the wild animals and bugs and everything that I’m now afraid of seeing a bear or getting bitten by a snake or something. Knowing Raiden is back there, far enough that I can’t see him and can barely hear him, makes me feel oddly and stupidly comforted even though he wouldn’t be able to protect me from a bear or a snake, and the best he could do is carry my lifeless body back to camp. It’s not exactly a comforting thought.
But still. I just feel… Way more okay than I should.
And way more excited than I should be. My heart rate has only increased, and now all of me is getting damp because I’m setting a pace fast enough to power walk my hips right off my body. I take a few turns when the path twists and veers off. It does the same thing far more frequently, and I twist and turn with it. I’ve got my head metaphorically so far up my butthole that I don’t even stop to think about how I’m lost until I stop dead in the middle of the trail.
It washes over me—the inescapable fact that I wasn’t even paying attention to all those turns I just took—like a tidal wave of frigid water.
Now my heart is pulsing wildly, and I’m drenched in sweat because I’m scared shitless. Yes, this calls for some swears. Fuck-a-luck, stick shits, damn it, bitchin, frickin, frackin, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! How could I get myself lost?
This is a new level of pathetic—a horrible low.
Of course, it only takes about two seconds for the panic to get its talons embedded deeply into me.
I’m going to die out here. Oh my god, they might never even find my body. If they do find me, it could take days. Are there really bears and cougars and stuff around here? My god, I don’t even know what stuff is. Stuff could be anything. I’ll probably get eaten alive by giant mosquitoes, ticks, and those weird sounding pine sawyers they warned us about at dinner the first night, all before help ever comes. This is humiliating.
The last thought sobers me up, and I spin in a slow circle, trying to get my bearings. Everything looks the same. Just…trees, trees, and more trees.
I try telling myself to calm down and think rationally, but I know it’s hopeless. I paid no attention at all to the path I was walking.
I’m so wound up that it doesn’t even cross my mind to think of calling out for Raiden in hopes that maybe he didn’t lose me in all those twists and turns I took. Yes, I’d stoop that low right about now. Instead of calming down and forcing myself to think of a game plan, I walk up and down the path, pacing in agitation and muttering under my breath.
Suddenly, a branch snaps a few feet back. I freeze. Oh god, this is it. This is how I meet my demise.
I turn slowly, bracing myself to meet whatever grisly end is coming for me in the form of something wild and toothy and scary.
When I spot Raiden coming around the bend in the path, my relief is so great that my lungs deflate, my whole body instantly comes mushy jelly, and the waterworks turn on. Big time. In short, I become a very unattractive, sobbing, blubbering, and snotting mess.
CHAPTER 11
Raiden
As soon as Zoe sees me, her face changes. I turned the bend in the path and found her standing there with her face red, her eyes big and scared. She looks like she might have just seen an angry mother bear, but a quick check tells me there aren’t any bears around. It’s silent in the small clearing. Just Zoe and yours truly.
Before I can even gather what the ever-living heck is going on, Zoe’s eyes get even bigger, and then they’re swimming with tears. Some of those tears drip down her cheek, and she sniffles loudly like she’s not even making an effort to contain it. Her face contracts and I realize she’s about to ugly cry. Not that Zoe could ever be ugly. She’s always beautiful. But I’m unprepared for the sudden extreme run Zoe does across the clearing. She comes at me, and I’m a big guy, and Zoe really isn’t big at all, but she knocks me back a step when her body collides with mine. She hits me like the force of a ten-ton truck. I’m astounded, to say the least.
Her arms go around my neck, and she clings to me while she tries to climb me like I’m one of the trees in the forest, and
