Page 38 of Choose Us
It was torture. Actual torture in the form of sexual tension. I barely slept for the first two hours after our close encounter. She’d fallen asleep first, and as my eyelids finally felt the weight of the day’s events, she turned over to face me and wrapped her arm around my torso, just above my pelvic bone. She wasn’t conscious in her action. She was just reaching for some comfort, but her hand moved up and down causing my hoody to ride up and her soft skin to brush against mine. That was enough to stop sleep from pulling me under.
“Erm... yeah. Islept okay.”
Lienumber one.
“Do you want to talk about last night?” Brooke whispered.
I shrugged. “I’m not sure there’s anything to say.”
Lienumber two.
There was a lot to say. Novels upon novels could be written with the things I wanted to say, but it was ineffectual because I would always be powerless to the constraints placed on us.
“Oh.” She recoiled. “Okay.”
Brooke charged her phone for thirty minutes, and when it sprung to life the notifications immediately came pinging through. As I walked behind her, I noticed the caller ID on her screen; itwas Takara.
Brooke didn’t answer.
“Has she been calling youall night?”
“I probably should have told her I’d told my dad I was camping with her. She’ll be confused,”Brooke said.
“Why would she need to know? Surely your dad’s not calling all your friends to check up on you. You’re twenty-seven years old,” I scoffed. He was controlling enough when she was twenty-five. I hoped for her sake, he’d loosenedthe reigns.
“No, of course not, but I know Takara through her dad working with mine. We get invited to their house a lot for dinner as a family.”
The whole thing was strange to me. Brooke seemed cagey, but it wasn’t my place to pry.
“Whatever you say,” I replied sarcastically. I shouldn’t have, but a bitterness still stung whenever I thought about her dad. I would never forgive him for taking away our chanceto be happy.
“My dad doesn’t control my life anymore, Holly, before you start getting on your high horse.” Anymore being the key word. “I’m looking at moving out in a coupleof months.”
“Good for you.”
“Has anyone ever told you how annoying yoursarcasm is?”
“Yes.”
The conversation was interrupted by Hana, but I did want to know more about the moving out thing, so I made a mental note to broach that subject on the car ride home.
“We’re going kayaking today, if you guys would like to join?” Hana pointed towards the rest of the gang who were dragging large yellow kayaks towards the lake.
“That sounds amazing, but I do have to get back for work tonight. It was only supposed to be a day trip.” Brooke smiled politely.
“No problem. We are up here for the next seven days. If you guys fancy coming back, just let us know.” Brooke and Hana exchanged phone numbers. It was polite; maybe they could be friends, but as far as intimate tent encounters go, me and Brooke didn’t need another.
“I would take the bus back if I were you. There’s going to be a heatwave today, and five hours trekking will be tough,” Hana pointed out.Duly noted.
“Thank you.” My feet thanked her too.
The journey back to Nikko Station took over an hour. My phone still had 10 percent battery when we got back to the car. I had three missed calls from Paula and five text messages: one from my mum, two from Beth, each growing in urgency until I’d managed to reach her. In the last text message she mellowed out.
Beth
Holly, why aren’t you answeringyour phone?
Beth
