Once we get dressed, it’s nearly time for fireworks. We spent way more time at the waterfall than I thought we did, but that’s okay. I enjoyed it.
We leave the camper just as the sky starts to darken, the last bit of sunlight bleeding out behind the trees. Brady grabs a blanket and tosses it over his shoulder while Luke locks up behind us, and I hover for half a second on the step, glancing back inside like something might change if I just stay. It doesn’t. It never does. I step down anyway.
“Still good?” Luke asks quietly.
“Yeah,” I say, even though that tight feeling in my chest hasn’t gone anywhere. “I’m good.”
The walk down is short, but it feels longer. There are people scattered around now. Everyone is moving around to do the same thing we are doing. It’s loud compared to the woods, but in a normal way. Laughter, music, chatting. It should make me feel better. It almost does.
Brady leads us a little off from the main crowd, far enough that we’re not packed in with everyone, but close enough to still see everything clearly. He drops the blanket and smooths it out, then flops down on his back like he owns the place. Luke sits first, then pulls me down with him until I’m between them again, my shoulder brushing his, my leg pressed against Brady’s.
“Better?” Brady asks.
I nod, lying back and staring up at the sky. “Yeah. This is… nice.”
It is nice. The grass is cool beneath me, the air soft, the kind of night that feels easy if you let it. The first firework goes off, loud enough to make me flinch, but then color bursts across the sky, bright and beautiful, and the sound blends into everything else. More follow, one after another, lighting up the dark in flashes of red and gold and blue.
For a minute, I forget. Not everything. Not completely. But enough.
Luke’s fingers trace absent patterns along my arm, slow and grounding, while Brady shifts closer so our shoulders press together. No one is rushing me, no one is asking for anything. We’re just… here. Watching. Breathing. Living.
“This is better than the camper,” Brady mutters.
“Don’t say that,” I murmur, but there’s no bite to it.
Luke huffs out a quiet laugh. “She’s right. Camper’s got emotional support vibes right now.”
“Fair,” Brady says. That tells me that we all feel it. We are all waiting for something bad to happen. Another firework explodes overhead, brighter than the rest, and I smile without thinking. It feels strange on my face, but not wrong. Just unfamiliar.
I let my eyes drift from the sky, just for a second. That’s when it hits. It's not a sound. Not a movement. It's a feeling. My body goes still, and I can't shake it. It feels too familiar. I sit up slowly, my heart starting to pound before my brain catches up. My eyes scan the tree line behind the scattered groups of people, moving without thinking, searching for... There. About twenty feet away, leaning against a tree like he has nowhere else to be. Austin. He isn’t looking at the fireworks. He’s looking at us. At me. My stomach drops so hard it feels like I might be sick. My pulse roars in my ears, drowning out everything else, even the explosions overhead.
Anxiety bubbles up, and for a second... I can’t breathe.
Can’t think.
Can’t move.
He doesn’t wave.
Doesn’t shout.
He just watches.
Smiles.
He fucking smiles.
He’s been here the whole time.
Like he knew exactly where I’d be.
Like he followed me.
Us.
He saw everything.
Knows… Everything.