I didn’t move at first. My legs had stopped listening to me sometime between the arugula salad and Jack’s flask and now Ryan was standing there like a question I wasn’t ready to answer. The fire behind me crackled like it was mocking the silence. Jack gave me a look... the kind that said go, but also you don’t owe anyone a goddamn thing, and then he turned back to the flames like he hadn’t just handed me over like a gentleman in a Jane Austen fever dream.
I stood up.
Ryan didn’t smile. He just nodded his head toward the trail.
I followed.
We walked in silence... down the narrow dirt path past glowing lamp posts that looked like they belonged in a horror movie where the final girl doesn’t even try to run. Trees towered on both sides like judgmental witnesses. The night smelled like pine
