The Trip

"Hey June. I heard about what happened. Want to get out of town for a bit?" Chris asked as he walked out the back door onto June's patio. She had a bottle of beer in her hand and was just staring into the fire as it blazed in her firepit.

"Yeah. What and where are you thinking?" she asked absentmindedly as he sat in the chair beside her. As Chris opened his mouth to respond, June's phone went off. He watched in silence as she looked at the screen, silenced the ringer, and set her phone back down, fighting tears the whole time.

"How about a camping trip? Maybe out off 50 near the peak. That area sound good? There's no phone service so he can't call or text you to get back together."

"That's fine. Thanks, Chris." She let out a sigh and took another swig of her beer. "When did you want to go?" Chris ignored his worry at how out of it she sounded and spoke up.

"Go pack a bag. We're going out of town now. You need to get away from here for a bit." June stood and reached for the hose, but Chris stopped her. "I'll put out the fire, you just go pack." June walked inside and packed a bag with some clothes for a week, then chugged the last of her beer as she walked back out onto the patio.

"Ready when you are." Chris rolled up the hose and they walked through her house, out the front door, and got in his car to head out to the camping area. They spent that first night just sitting around the campfire and making small talk, going to bed somewhere around two in the morning. As hard as June tried, she couldn't feel happy that she was on a camping trip with Chris. Tommy kept popping into her mind and she couldn't get over how hurt she was. The next morning, they went on a hike to the top of the nearby peak. As they reached the top, June let out a heavy sigh and Chris looked at her. She remained silent and just kept staring out at the horizon. As they started to make their way down, June spoke up. "Thanks, Chris. I needed this."

"No problem, June. You know I'd do anything for you. We've been best buds since elementary and you've been there for me the countless times my heart was broken. It's my turn to be there for you and I'm not backing away from the challenge of cheering you up. I'll put a real smile on your face by the end of the week." June smirked and shook her head. "Hmm. My skills you doubt," Chris said as he imitated Yoda, getting an instant laugh from June.

"Such a nerd," she muttered playfully as she walked past him, starting on their route back to the campground.

"Don't pretend like you aren't a bigger nerd," he said behind her. "I remember you dressing up as Yoda for Halloween all through elementary and middle school, and even going to a Comicon in college dressed as Ahsoka Tano." June laughed.

"Oh my god, I forgot about that."

"Yeah. I bet you also forgot how many people wanted to take your picture because they thought you were the actress that played her in the movie." June stalled and looked back at him. "Between 200 and 300." He laughed as her jaw fell open. "I told you you could make that a full-time job." She started heading back down the mountain trying to think if she had anything she needed for that look again.

"You know, Comicon is coming up again soon. Wanna go? I'll buy the tickets and book the room," she suggested.

"Hell yeah I wanna go. It's been years since we've had fun like that. They headed back to camp talking about their next trip and who they were going to dress up as for Comicon. They made it back to the camp just as the sun fell behind the trees, throwing them into an early evening. Chris quickly got a fire going as June made a note in her phone to remind herself to make the reservation and buy the tickets, before making their dinner since Chris had cooked the previous night, and they sat talking for a couple hours after dinner was done.

"You feel creeped out? Like there's something watching us?" June asked as the fire started to die down a bit.

"No, but I'm sure what you feel is nothing. It's probably just an owl or a bear trying to figure us out. We'll be fine. The dishes are clean and all the food's packed safely away so nothing's got a reason to come too close." June nodded but couldn't shake the feeling. They headed off to their tents for the night and even though June couldn't get the feeling off her mind, she found that she preferred this feeling to the heartache of her breakup with Tommy. After a couple more hours of jerking awake at every little sound, June finally fell asleep.

Waking up and crawling out of her tent about 6 the next morning, June found a severed arm lying on top of the ashes from last night's fire. "Chris?" No answer came from his tent so she peeked in to see if he was still asleep, but found no trace of him even though his duffel and sleeping bag were in there. "Chris!" Oh my god, where are you? Please still be safe. "Chris, quit playing around! Where are you?!"