The Road Trip

Chapter 15 - Waterfall Disaster

Chapter 15

Waterfall Disaster

When I woke up the next morning I was smashed up against Trent, which was kind of awkward. Our tent didn't have dividers, so we just lined up the sleeping bags and fell asleep. In the middle of the night I had gotten too hot, so I decided to sleep on top of the covers. I must've rolled over or something because when I opened my eyes Trent was using me as a teddy bear. "Hey," I whispered, wiggling in his arms. He groaned, snuggling his head into my neck, "Trent," I said a little louder, resisting the urge to giggle.

"Shh," He mumbled back, groggily, "I'm trying to sleep." I rolled my eyes, maneuvering my arms so I could slap his bare chest.

"Let go of me, I'm not a freaking teddy bear, I giggled. He moaned, releasing me and rolling over. He grabbed his pillow and clamped it over his head, and I laughed. Wow, he really wasn't a morning person. I ran a hand through my hair, glancing at Holden. He actually looked peaceful and sweet when he was asleep.

Luke was gone, which surprised me. The sun was pretty high in the sky, so I was guessing I had slept later than I intended so. Why was Trent asleep, then? Usually, he woke up early. Silently, I slipped out of the tent. The sun immediately beat down on my shoulders and back, making me groan. The sun, I swear, is evil. It burns us and makes humans sweat. Not cool.

Luke was sitting at a picnic table; a bag of marsh mellows in his lap. He was wearing a pair of sweat pants without a shirt, just like his sleeping brother. I smiled at him, sitting down and grabbing the bag from him.

He smirked at me, 'Nice pajamas.' With burning cheeks, I glanced down at my attire. It was a tank top that had Betty Boop on it, and the shorts also had Betty on them. My mother had gotten them for me last Christmas, I did not pick them out. Luke knew this, and he knew they weren't my favorite things to sleep in, but he still liked to make fun of me.

'Says the boy in the sweat pants,' I replied, kicking myself for the comeback. I could never think of good insults; it was one of my many flaws.

'Nice comeback, Addie,' He scoffed, snatching the marsh mellows back from my grasp. I frowned and put a marsh mellow in my mouth, savoring the sweet taste.

'So what are we doing today?' I asked, biting the inside of my cheek. We had one more full day of camping, then we were moving on. Personally, I would be content to just sunbathe all day, but I didn't think the boys would be cool with that.

'Maybe go for a hike?' Luke asked, 'I know that about a mile up the river there's this waterfall they let you jump off of,'I felt my stomach flutter at the idea. It sounded like a rush, and I loved those. The adrenaline high that you get when you do something exciting, or get scared, always put me in a good mood. I was addicted to them like you would be to drugs.

But mine was harmless. All I had to do was do scary things or have someone scare me.

'Sounds like fun!' I exclaimed, smiling. He rolled his eyes, tossing the now empty marsh mellow bag into the trash.

'Yeah, I thought you'd like that.' He smiled, and I smiled back. I turned my head as I heard someone exiting the tent, smiling when I saw Trent. His hair was all messed up and he looked like he was half dead.

"God, Addie, why did you wake me up?" He asked, sitting down across from me, "It's too freaking early." I giggled, reaching out and ruffling his hair. He groaned but made no other response.

"I'm sorry that you decided to use me like your teddy bear," I said and signed, making sure Luke knew what we were talking about.

'Yeah,' Said Luke, 'I saw that. It was cute.' I blushed and quickly looked away.

“Don't get me started, dude," Trent said, and I assumed he was signing as well, "You're like a stalker with Caitlin." Caitlin? Who the heck was Caitlin? I turned my head quickly to look at Luke, who was ducking his head. Despite the fact I couldn't see his face, I could see his bright red ears. Gasping, I slapped his shoulder.

"Who is Caitlin?!" I asked Trent when Luke wouldn't look at me. Trent smirked.

"His crush, he keeps pictures of her on his phone," He explained, and I slapped Luke again. This time he looked up at me, slowly, and his face was redder than a tomato.

"You didn't tell me about Caitlin?!" I asked him, speaking so Trent could hear. This multitasking was kind of confusing, but I was getting used to signing and speaking at the same time. "Why the heck not?!"

'.... Because, I know she doesn't like me.' He signed with a frown, 'Why should I tell everyone if she isn't a possible girlfriend?' My heart literally squeezed in pain at that moment. Luke was my best friend and almost brother, I hated it when he put himself down like that. He thinks his deafness makes him ugly, he thinks of it as a disability. Technically it is, but he is just as good a human as any hearing person.

'You know how I feel when you talk like that,' I said, narrowing my eyebrows. Luke just rolled his eyes and scoffed, picking up the granola bar box. I felt arms wrap around my waist, and I squealed as Holden picked me up.

"Morning," He whispered groggily, kissing my cheek. I twisted around and pecked him on the lips, giving him a smile. It almost made me sick to my stomach, but for now, I had to pretend like everything was normal. "What're we doing today?"

"Going waterfall jumping!" I exclaimed with a giggle. I must admit, I was jumping for joy. Eagerness was starting to make me a little antsy. "You guys wait here, I'm going to change." As I started to walk off, Holden slapped my butt.

"I could change with you, then we could go faster." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and I burst out laughing.

"You pervert!" I screeched, diving into the tent. I could hear the boys laughing outside as I stripped from my pajamas. The bathing suit that I chose was a white bikini that was covered in ruffles. I threw on my pink cover-up, my white Guess flip flops, put my curly blond hair into a messy bun, and shoved my pink sunglasses on my face.

When I went back outside, the boys were all sitting at the table. It was deadly silent; I swear you could cut the tension with a knife. Slowly I sat down, tapping Holden on the shoulder. He jumped, averting his gaze to me. What the heck had he been staring at?

"Hey, you guys go change and we can go," I said, glancing at Luke. He looked really uncomfortable and was the first one to dive into the tent. Well, huh, that's really weird. What did I miss?

After Trent grilled us some hot dogs, and we had packed our lunch, we started our hike. Luke had said it was about a mile, but I swear it was more. The rocks and branches under my feet were killing me. I almost fell on my face several times. Flip flops were defiantly not my wisest decision.

Finally, we found the waterfall. It was a small pool in the middle of the freaking forest. The pounding of water filled my ears as I took in the scene. There were only about five other people there, all of which were jumping off of the waterfall. I watched them jump, and then waited, holding my breath, until they came back up to the surface.

"Oh my god, this is going to be awesome!" I squeaked, stripping from my cover-up. I set it on a rock and waited for the boys to take off their shirts. Every time I moved my body hurt from my major sunburn, but I had made sure to smother myself in sunscreen before we left.

"Yeah," Holden said, wrapping his arm around my waist, "This is so something you would love." I smiled up at him, and he smiled back. Holden had never been a fan of heights, and even though it wasn't a big waterfall, it was pretty high up. I wasn't sure if he was actually going to jump, but at least he was willing to try for me.

"Let's do this!" Trent said and started running up the little hill. There was a small pathway where the grass and weeds had been beaten down, so we quickly made our way up that. Luke followed behind us; he didn't look too happy. I shrugged out of Holden's grasp and slowed down to where I was next to Luke.

'You okay?' I asked. Usually, he was happier than this. Today he hadn’t been smiling, not since the awkward silence after I had changed clothes.

'Yeah,' He shrugged, giving me a small smile. But the smile didn't reach his eyes. 'But I need to talk to you later.'

'Okay,' I nodded. What could he possibly need to talk to me about? Was it something bad? Something to do with the tension that had suddenly appeared between the boys? I was jolted from my thoughts as I heard Trent screaming, and then a splash a second later. Giggling, I ran up to the edge of the cliff. "How was it?" I yelled down as soon as his head popped up.

"Amazing!" He called back, giving me a thumbs up. I smiled, glancing at Holden. He had turned a little white as he looked down.

"Hey, it's alright," I said, lightly squeezing his shoulder. He nodded, giving me a small smile, before thrusting himself over the side. I jumped slightly, my heart racing. I hadn’t expected him to jump so suddenly, it was weird. Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. Holden fell to the water, as expected, and before he even hit, I knew what would happen.

I screamed as Holden landed on top of Trent, making both of them go under.

What.

The.

Fuck.

"Trent!" I screamed, my heart pounding. Holden came up, but Trent was nowhere to be found. To make matters worse Holden didn't even seem to be affected. He didn't look for Trent, he didn't do anything. He just swam to the side like nothing happened. I waited for a few agonizing seconds, glancing at Luke every so often. He looked just as worried. But Trent didn't come up.

And without even thinking I jumped.