None of them seemed to know she was gone. The only sound she heard was the crunching of stale, autumn leaves under her feet. It was growing night and as the sun went down her breathing got heavier. She wasn't into walking very much, or any movement whatsoever. She just needed to get away from them. She knew she shouldn't have come on this trip. The ride had been excrutiating enough, now she had a week with these imbeciles camping in a field a million miles away from society. The more she thought about how alone she was, the more she started getting worked up. 'Stop thinking about this, you're fine. You know exactly where you are.' The more she lied to herself the more she realized she had no idea where she was. All she heard was the leaves and her breathing, but strangely that was enough for her. She wrapped her arms close around her chest, feeling her heartbeats weird pattern. She decided to sit down and rest for a few minutes before heading back. The last drops of sunlight oozed through the vacant, bare trees and shone on the forest floor. As the sunlight whisped away, the light she needed to get back was fading too. Sitting on a large rotten stump, she put her head in her hands and started crying. 'Why? Why am I being this emotional? Stop crying.' She looked up and wiped the tears away quickly as though she didn't want anyone to see, as if there was anyone out here. She thought about what happened, the reason she walked away from her brother and his friends at the campsite, the nagging voice of her mother saying 'it'd be good for you to spend time with him', her stupidity for trying to please her mother. She was the awkward, ugly duckling. She was the wallflower. No one has ever told her she was beautiful except her family. She has never been in love, and she doesn't think anyone will ever fall in love with her. She felt as though she was the beast on Beauty and the Beast, except one day her princess might not come. It was a year ago, when she was sixteen, that she came out to her parents and her brother. They all looked at her with wide eyes and although trying to be accepting, they lacked the ability to comfort her. She thought that moment would be exhilerating, freeing. It ended up being a trap, an emotional tragedy, waiting to happen. She knew she would have told them eventually, you know, coming home with a girl and such but she thought telling them would be better. She thought her life was hell before, but she was wrong. Teasing jokes from her brother and from people at school. It was bad that she was already an outcast but now she was more than that. She quickly snapped back into reality when she heard thunder. When she looked up, she realized she'd been thinking and crying for a while. It was almost pitch black and now it was starting to rain. She didn't want to go back, she'd rather stay on this stump for the night. So she did.
