Stop hurting yourself...

The next morning, I woke up before anyone else. Whatever happened yesterday was surely a false alarm, but it did terrify me. I thought I would not be able to protect Richa, just as I failed to protect Jennie. But thankfully, Richa is sleeping soundly next to me.

I got up and went to help Ms. Emily, who was busy preparing breakfast for everyone.

"Morning Ms. Emily, do you need my help?" I asked her.

"Morning April, you seem polite after a day's trip," she looked at me with a smiling face.

"The place did its magic," I smiled back at her.

"Then come on give me a hand, boil those eggs till I go wake others," she assigned me my task while she went to wake my classmates.

I got to work without speaking anything further.

Ms. Emily went to each tent calling out the names, to ensure everyone was there.

Mr. Henry came out of his tent, with his hair looking like a bird's nest.

I laughed at him as I said, "Good morning, Mr. Henry, looks like you slept the best of us all."

"Not that well, the sleeping bag was a bit small in size," he said in a very serious tone which I found funny and laughed more.

"Look at you Mr. Henry you even drooled, yet you say you didn't sleep well," Ms. Emily came laughing at him as well.

"Morning, April," Richa came and clinging to my arm again.

Jose almost dragged Jake out of the tent in a half-asleep condition.

Everyone had their breakfast. We had boiled eggs, cereals, and milk.

With full stomachs and happy hearts, we set off for our activities for today.

"Those who want to go river rafting can follow Mr. Henry and those who wish to go bungee jumping must follow me," Ms Emily told us.

"But Ms. Emily, what about those who don't want to do either, what about them?" Jake said looking very worried, and everyone started laughing at him.

"Why? You scared?" Richa said mischievously.

"Who said? I am not scared, no one can be as brave as me," Jake tried justifying, but we again started laughing at him.

He looked so scared that I was worried if he did bungee jumping, he would faint.

"April, let's go bungee jumping," Richa came and clung to my arm as always, and this time I looked at her and smiled.

"I am scared of water, I don't know how to swim," I told her in a low voice, but everyone heard it.

"Woah! Ms. April can fear things too," Kristen taunted me.

"Why are you lying April? You just wanted to accompany me for bungee jumping, you do not have to say that you are scared," Jose barged in, most probably trying to quiet down Kristen.

"What? When did I ..." I looked at him weirdly, and before I completed speaking, he came and stood next to me, holding my hand.

"WOAH!" Jake and Jose started hooting I don't know why?

"Leave my hand," I asked Jose in a normal tone and he did.

"April, then I cannot go with you, I fear heights, and I want to do river rafting. I will make do with Jake then," she dragged Jake with her, while he was reluctant to leave.

Kristen and her friends went river rafting as well.

I headed to the bungee jumping area with Jose and the rest.

"Please stand in order," the moderator told us.

Jose stood behind me. Instead of looking ahead, I was looking down the balcony, staring at the river.

Richa was waving at me, sitting on the boat. I waved at her back with a smile.

I turned to stand straight when I saw Jose looking at me with a smile on his face.

"What are you doing? Is there something on my face?" I asked him.

"You look normal now," he told me keeping his smile as it was.

"What do you mean normal? Was I abnormal before?" I felt kind of weird and offensive.

"I did not mean that," he said while laughing at me.

"What did you mean then?" I asked him again.

"I meant that you started accepting people and relations," he told me but his words left me confused.

"Umm?" I was clueless.

"Look you are slowly-slowly letting time heal the past," he explained.

"What healing? I was not the one hurt, why do I need healing?" I sighed.

"You were hurt the most," he looked at me with sympathy.

"Me? No, you are wrong, her mother, her father, and her brother were hurt the most, I saved my ass, but I ruined their family," I was feeling guilty and it showed in my words.

"It was not your fault, to begin with."

"It was entirely my fault, I should have tried more, I shouldn't have escaped, I should have stayed back."

"Stop hurting yourself, nobody blames you," he grabbed my hand, while he said it.

"If no one blames me, then why you never spoke to me after that incident, why you only talked to me till Jennie was here, and then also why does Kristen hate me so much, if she doesn't blame me," I said in self-guilt.

"I don't know what Kristen thinks, but after that incident, you became cold and stopped talking to anyone around you," he told me pressing my hands, trying to comfort me.

I slowly pulled back my hand, saying nothing in return, looking at a distance vaguely.

"Let me give you some advice, April, look here," he turned me to look at him, "when you jump leave all the guilt behind, because it is not your fault, it had never been and it will never be."

I stood there looking at him, I felt kind of comforted, and for the first time, I wanted to listen to him.

It was finally my turn to jump off the bridge. The moderators did a safety check and told me to stand at the end. I turned back and looked at Jose, he smiled at me and I smiled at him back, I turned and at the count of three jumped off the bridge.

As I fell, I let all the thoughts go away from my head. I forgave myself, and a sense of relief went down my spine as I came flying down.

After all of that, we returned to the campsite, Richa who was waiting for us came running to me, and I smiled at her.

"Wow! You learned to smile just by jumping off the bridge, I should've thrown you off the school building instead of giving you chocolates and strawberry milk, to become your friend," we started laughing at her words, she is cute indeed.

"You are shameless enough to laugh again Ms. April," Kristen came from behind taunting me.

"What's it with you?" Richa turned and almost shouted at Kristen when I stopped her and dragged her away, so she does not start a fight.

"See you later Princess," I said to Kristen as I passed by her.

"Get lost," she replied enraged by my comment.

I went inside my tent to lie down, while the other three stayed outside to bring wood for the bonfire. It was their job as they cannot cook.

I don't know when I fell asleep. When I woke up, I saw Richa sitting next to me reading some programming book.

I got up and sat next to her, trying to look in her book, when she got alarmed.

"You are awake, did you sleep well?" she asked me.

"I did," I replied, and then asked her, "Do you like programming?"

"Yes, I love it," she seemed happy talking about it.

She kept on talking, as she always does. She told me a bunch of things about programming, most of which I did not understand, but the surprise was; I listened to her rant today.

"Come on out, dinner time, and April, you will help me," Ms. Emily came inside our tent and called us for dinner.

"Yes, I'll be there right away," I told her.

Richa kept her book back in her bag, I tied my hair with a hair tie into a high ponytail, and we went out of the tent.

"Woah! The sunset is so pretty, look," she shook my hand as she said this to me.

"I am looking at it, but don't dislocate my hand," I told her.

"Oops! Sorry," she took her hand away.

"Go and sit with Jake, I will go and grill the meat," I sent her away and then went back to my work.

I was grilling the meat, when I saw Jose coming out of the tent, I don't know why I kept staring at him. I almost burned the meat. Thankfully he did not notice me staring, otherwise, it would have been embarrassing. Why did I even look at him?

"Jose, come here," Mr. Henry who was standing next to me, called Jose. Did he notice something?

Jose came up to us, I tried not to have any eye contact with him.

"Yes, Mr. Henry," Jose came and stood right in front of me.

"Help us serve the meat to the students," Mr. Henry asked him to help with the serving.

"Sure," he complied and got to his work.

He went back and forth with the serving plate in his hands. This one time, I was not yet done with the next batch of meat, so he stood next to me and waited for me to finish.

I feel uncomfortable when someone stands like this, it felt like he was supervising my work.

"Can you not stand and stare at me like that," I told him without looking at him.

"Why?" he asked.

"I feel a bit uncomfortable; it is distracting me a little," again without looking at him.

"Oh! Okay, then call me when you are done, I'll be there," he said very nonchalantly.

After dinner, everyone sang and danced around the bonfire, Jake even played guitar.

Everyone praised him, except Richa, she liked it but still refused to compliment him.

Everyone went to sleep, but we stayed up because Richa suggested playing, truth and dare.

The bottle was spun and it stopped pointing at me. It was my turn to choose and I chose truth.

"I will ask, I will," Richa jumped and stood in excitement, "Tell us who is closer to you me or Jose?"

"You didn't even take my name," Jake started sulking.

"Leave him be, he doesn't stand any chance anyways," Richa's sarcasm on Jake always makes us laugh.

"The answer is..." I paused and looked back and forth between Richa and Jose.

"Speak quickly," Richa hurried me, Jose also looked at me with hopeful eyes.

"Answer is Jake," I chose a third name, to annoy her.

"That's not fair," she sulked and sat back down, Jose smiled, while Jake jumped in gratefulness and ran to hug me in excitement, but before he did that, he fell on his knees, getting badly hurt.

Guess what? The most worried one was the one, who was teasing him the most; Richa.

Jose helped him disinfect his wound.

"Does it hurt?" Richa asked this question to Jake but it felt like, it hurt her more by her face.

"I will take him inside, to rest," Jose took Jake inside their tent.

I and Richa also went inside our tent to sleep.

We were making our beds to lie down, when she asked me, "Will he be fine?"

"Yes, it's a small scratch, don't worry," I comforted her.

"He cannot stop jumping around," she still looked uneasy.

"Well! Don't make it too obvious," I said to her.

"What do you mean?" she is just oblivious.

"Everyone can see your feelings for him," I told her straightforwardly.

"What are you talking about? She looked away awkwardly, her face was red.

"It is true, accept it or not, Good night," I lay down with my back facing her.

"You know nothing," she tried refuting again and again feeling all shy.

I smirked and closed my eyes, trying to sleep.

After a while, I turned and saw she is already asleep.

I felt kind of hungry, I checked my phone for time, it was already 2 o'clock.

I got up and went out to make some instant noodles for me. To my surprise, I saw Jose sitting on the chair facing toward the stream. He had a blanket wrapped around him because it was chilly.

I tried to move as quietly as I can, while I rummaged through the box to find some cup noodle packs. I kept some water to boil, the water kettle was of steel, and even if I tried to keep it low, it still made a little sound.

On hearing its sound, Jose turned back to see who it was. He looked at me and I looked back in an awkward state. I went to him, to lessen the awkwardness.

"What are you doing this late?" he asked me.

"I can ask the same," I was still trying to answer coolly.

"I was not sleepy," he answered.

"So, was I, I slept in the afternoon," I explained as well.

"What's in your hand?" he asked.

"I cannot sleep, as well as felt a little hungry, so some noodles," I told him feeling embarrassed, and he laughed without making any noise.

"Stop laughing, or you will lose your jaw," I turned to go back when he stopped me and said,

"Sit and eat here, I won't laugh, promise."

Without saying anything I sat down quietly and finished eating my noodles.

"The moon is pretty, and it looks prettier with the mountains," he said to me gazing at the moon.

"It is," I complied.

"Let's go for a walk, along the stream, let's go all the way to the river," he said looking at me expecting a yes from me.

I thought for a few seconds, then looking at his hopeful eyes, I said, "Okay."

We walked to the river, following the stream, without speaking a word to each other.

How can you speak anything when you have such a beautiful view in front of you?

"Look there is a bench made of stone, who would come here to make a stone bench," he showed me the bench-like stone.

"Idiot!" I spoke.

"What?" he reacted.

"That isn't a bench, someone just kept two stones together," I clarified it for him.

"Whatever, we can still take a rest there," he looked at me hopefully again, expecting a yes.

I looked at him, he looked tired but did not want to say it.

"Okay!"

We sat there doing nothing, just looking at the beautiful river.

After a while, I felt him leaning against me, I was going to push him, thinking he was joking with me. Then I saw him sleeping soundly, and I didn't want to push him anymore.

I let him sleep soundly, for a few hours till sunrise. I did not sleep at all.

At sunrise, I woke him up, and guess what he was drooling.

"Did I sleep leaning on you? Why did you not wake me up?" he asked me.

"I could not bring myself to do that, you looked like a kindergarten kid." I laughed as I told him.

"Stop laughing," he felt embarrassed, but he looked cute, sorry, did I just say cute? I take it back.

***