The Girl in the Hoodie

39

[Chapter thirty-nine]

-Nevaeh-

Tuesday, 3 PM

"I spy with my little eye—"

"I spy a sharp ass twig I'm about to stick in your little eye if you don't shut the fuck up!" I snap.

"Jeez, I was just trying to lighten the mood." Max throws his arms up in defence.

"The mood doesn't need lightening." Noah grumbles.

"Yeah, it sucks." Megan adds, Dylan nodding in agreement.

"Well, damn. Sorry for trying." Max mumbles.

A few moments pass as we walk in silence. The only sounds being the snapping of twigs as we step on them, the crunching of leaves, and the chirping of birds.

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer. Take one down—"

"SHUT UP, MAX!"

*~*

"This is nice." Megan shrugs as we all sit on the edge of a bluff overlooking the gorge. There's a river rushing beneath us surrounded by trees.

"It is. Apart from the fact that we're lost in the middle of a forest, downstate, in a town we've never even heard of." Noah says casually.

"Positivity, Noah." I roll my eyes. "Look it up."

"Which way's North again, Max?" Dylan questions.

"North would be—oh fuck."

There's a clattering and falling sound.

"Oh fuck?" I repeat, my heart stopping. "'Oh fuck' what?"

"I may or may not have just dropped the compass." Max rushes out, scooting away from the edge.

"Great." Noah laughs humourlessly. "Fucking great!"

"It's okay, though." Max laughs nervously as we all get away from the edge and stand up. "We know which way North is, right?"

"We know which way North is?" I hiss. "We having no fucking clue which way North is, you idiot!"

"If we did, we wouldn't have asked!" Megan screeches as Dylan tugs at his hair in frustration.

"We're going to die out here." Dylan mumbles. "We're going to die out here, then some weird, satanic, cannibalistic tribe that lives in a cave is going to find us, sacrifice us to their deer lord, then eat our remains!"

"Dylan, we'll be fine." Max tries to console him before turning to the rest of us. "The sun sets in the North, right? We'll just go that way."

I stare at him, my eye twitching. "The sun sets iN THE WEST, YOU MORON!"

"We're going to fucking die out here." Noah shakes his head. "All thanks to Max's master outdoorsmen skills."

"No, we're not." Max denies, ignoring the last part of Noah's statement. "We have food that'll last us at least another two days."

"Okay, yeah," Dylan starts. "But what about the weather, exposure, bears?"

"We've got a hammock." Max answers as if it were the answer to everything. "We can all squish in there if we tried."

"Oh, great." I laugh, sounding like someone on the edge of insanity. "So instead of being a bear hamburger, we'll be a bear taco."

"Then we can hang it higher in the trees."