CHAPTER 6

I heard birds chirping, like literally inches away from my ears. I stirred and blinked my eyes against the bright sunlight that filtered amongst the leaves of the trees. I snuggled deeper and sighed contentedly. This is nice. Like really, really nice. I felt an arm tightened around me and a sleepy groan that rumbled the chest I was snuggled against... and I realized I was staring at someone's neck. My eyes blinked rapidly as I realized I was in Wes' arms, snuggling up to him as he was holding me even tighter. It's been years, literally years since I felt someone hugging me this way. Since mom died, I only get hugs from Grandma and I love her hugs a lot. But this...this is a on a whole different level... Wes' body against mine felt heavenly, and not in a sexual way, and he smelt so good it's almost illegal. And his strong arm around me made me feel protected and almost loved. And I haven't felt that in a long, long time, what with my dad being as loving as a robot. Being in Wes' arms made me miss mom more and I held tighter, my head buried deeper on Wes' shoulder. I could totally get used to this. I sighed contentedly as I closed my eyes. I totally didn't care that I was hugging the douche that I felt was too good-looking for humanity and who's pretty looks bother the hell outta me.

Just then, Wes stirred. He held me tighter and turned his face into my hair and put his chin on top of my head, inhaling deeply. He kinda groaned sleepily and his arm which was around my shoulder fell to my waist and he pulled closer. I kept still,afraid that if I move, Wes would wake up and knew that he was holding me, the loser, Addison Morgan. And then he would toss me to the ground. I won't be able to feel this safe anymore. But I knew I can't stay like this forever.

Just then Wes mumbled incoherently in his sleep and stretched his arms. I stilled, not wanting the moment to end but knowing that it had to end eventually. I sighed as I reluctantly pushed off Wes' body. Wes snapped his head at me and looked at my face, his eyes wide. He quickly sat up and took his arm away from around my shoulder, almost shoving me away. I jerked away from him and pretended nothing was wrong. I kinda glared at him as I scrambled to my feet. Good luck getting up a-hole, I sneered as I brushed my top which had leaves stuck to it. I walked away from him and started looking around. Suddenly I heard voices..Daisy? I rushed towards the hill and called out.

"Hello! Hello! Help! Help us!" I yelled as loud as I could. The voice stopped as I heard shuffling and footsteps running towards us. Jus then, Daisy poked her head down at us. Her eyes widen in surprise and she squealed.

"Addy! Oh my God? You're alright! Josh! They're in here!"Daisy called frantically. There were sounds of people running.

A few seconds later, Josh looked down towards us. He looked so relieved. He looked at me, his eyes wide.

"Thank God! Are you guys ok?" Josh asked, his face anxious. I was so happy to see his face.

"Yeah, but Wes sprained his ankle. I'm all fine, though." I said loudly.

"Hey man, you're alright?"Josh called and I saw Wes raised his right hand and smiled in relief. Wow, he smiled! I never knew he could do that! I thought he was dead inside.

We were finally rescued! Yahoo! When we were taken out of the ravine, Daisy jumped on me and hugged me tight. I almost fell backwards.

"Hey, hey.." I said with a chuckle.

Daisy let go of me and she was smiling with tears in her eyes.

"I thought you were dead. I was so scared something had happened to you. We looked for you guys for hours last night. What happened? How did you guys end up in the ravine?" Daisy asked as she put her arm around my waist and we walked towards a Range Rover waiting for us.

"Well, it wouldn't have happened if someone did not have to take a dump!" I said loudly as I turned towards Wes with a sneer on my face. His head snapped at me, his jaw clenched. Josh looked incredulously at Wes. Wes blanched and threw me a hateful look. I smirked and gave him the middle finger. His eyes widen and his jaw was set. That's for shoving me to the ground..heh heh.

Daisy and Josh laughed. The park ranger helping Wes also tried to hide his laughter as he helped Wes to walk to the Range Rover.

"Uhm, okay..so then, what happened?" Josh asked, trying to hide his smile as he opened the range rover door.

"I kinda slipped and fell in the ravine. And Addy kinda tried to help me, but she went all squeamish over some worm or something and fell in, too."Wes explained, staring at me accusingly.

"It was a snake, you moron!" I cried and stared at him venemously. Wes rolled his eyes.

"Worm, snake, same difference.." Wes muttered as he tried to climb up the range rover. He winced at the pain and I kinda pushed him in, stuffing him inside the back seat as he cried out from pain. Serves him right! Josh and Daisy looked on in amusement. I climbed in after Wes and shoved him at the side with my elbow. He stared at me in disbelief. Whatever, he asked for it! Jerk!

The park ranger drove us back to camp. Josh sat in front as Daisy and I sat in the back with Wes between us. Wes shoved me at the side one last time and closed his eyes as he leaned back, folding his arms to his chest. I glared at him and Daisy caught my eyes. She grinned and shook her head, marvelling at how immature we were being.

Once at the camp ground, I saw it was all packed up. I was so relieved. But I really needed a bath. I almost kissed Josh when he drove us to a nice, decent hotel to freshen up after getting Wes' ankle treated at the ranger's clinic.

Once we checked in, Josh helped Wes to their room while Daisy and I ran to ours. After we threw our bags on the carpeted floor, we flew onto our beds and groaned happily. I felt all my bones and muscles literally melted into the plush mattress and soft duvet. My body ached from sleeping upright on the ground. Well, although I had bolster kinda thing... I suddenly remembered sleeping against Wes with his arm wrapped around me...sent shivers down my spine. I sat up and shook my head in panic. Whoa, my heart just beat faster when I recalled how comfortable it was to be in Wes' arms and be engulfed in his yummy scent...I must be out of my mind thinking about Wes like that. Must snap out of it!

"Hey, Addy why don't you go have a shower first? Josh just texted me, asking for me to go with him to get us all something to eat. You want anything?" Daisy asked as she got up from her slightly rumpled bed.

"Coffee..lots and lots of coffee..please," I said tiredly as I stretched and took off my stinky hoodie. Daisy smiled and nodded as she got out if the room.

I took a long, luxurious bath and sat in the huge bathtub, thinking back about last night. I sighed as I recalled how nice Wes was when he saw how scared I was. Maybe he's human after all. I don't know what to make of him. Since we never spoke in school before, despite being in the same school since 1st grade. We never spoke to each other much until last night. From what I know, Layne and him dated on and off ever since sophomore year. And judging from the spectacle I saw in the cafeteria a week before summer vacation, it's probably back to the off status. I wonder why Layne was so angry. She rarely reacts to anything so it must be something really big for her to react like that.

After my bath, I switched on the tv and sat on tbe bed, channel surfing. My stomach growled and right at that moment, Daisy came in bearing goodies. She put the coffee and paper bags on the breakfast table nearby. I practically ran to her and grabbed a huge cup of coffee. I took a sip, and sighed in satisfaction...ahhh..that's the stuff. Nothing beats black coffee.. Daisy chuckled at me and sat on one of the chairs and tear open the bags. Bagels! And pastry stuff..yum! I grabbed one. Whoah, chocolate danish..I chewed blissfully.

"Oh God, I'm starving!" Daisy said, her mouth full of onion and cream cheese bagel.

"You said it..I haven't eaten anything since Josh's sandwiches." I said, chewing the flaky danish happily.

"So, how was it, stranded in the woods with Mr Gorgeous?" Daisy asked casually as I was sipping my coffee. Her question almost made me spit out the coffee. Daisy chuckled at my red face.

"Very funny." I said as I glared at her.

"Sorry. But seriously, what happened?" Daisy asked. I took a deep breath and told her everything. Even my fear of being alone in the woods. She was really sympathetic about it. But she went all giddy when I told her about how I practically hand-raped Wes and how he let me hold onto him the whole night. She knew our history, so she was amazed he did that. Heck, I was too.

"Wow, you are so lucky to be stranded in the woods with such a gorgeous understanding guy. And he never mentioned that at all. I mean he never told anybody that you're so scared that you basically kept him in a vice grip the whole night. That's a gentleman right there." Daisy said with a sly smile.

" So, how did you and Josh realize that we were lost?" I asked Daisy.

"Well, we were walking up the hill a d we saw you guys behind us. At first. But when we reached th peak, we didn't see you. So, we decided to look for you. We looked for you for hours. Josh was so worried, I mean Wes is his cousin. And he kept calling you, but I guess your phone had no service. We reported you guys missing to the park ranger and they helped us look for you for hours. Until almost midnight. The park ranger kinda made us stop searching for a while and promised to continue to look for you the next morning. And then, we found you in the morning. I cannot imagine if we never found you." Daisy said and shuddered at the end.

I shuddered, too. The night was so scary and I shook my head to get rid of the memory.

We stayed in the room and lazed around. It was fun to have a girlie time with Daisy.

We checked out the next day. Wes acknowledged me with a nod when our eyes met at Josh's SUV and I gave him a small smile. Well, at least he didn't ignore me. Maybe Wes wasn't so bad after all.