10

The afternoon sun beats down on the group of friends as they trek up the mountain. A film of sweat resides on Nicholas' forehead. When one bead of sweat moves to drip down the side of his face, Nick reaches up with his hand to swipe it away. His heartbeat is even, albeit a little sped up. He notices how apart from him in the group, there's Stella, who seems to be doing fine more or less, and then there's Keithia, who hasn't even broken a sweat as if she has barely walked a mile instead of having climbed up a mountain. Nick shakes his head.

He shifts his focus, his gaze then settling down on Valeria. She's stopped walking and is now hunched over, hands over thighs, breathing hard. Instinctively Nicholas shuffles over to her.

"You okay there?" he asks quietly. Still not having forgotten about last night, he makes sure they're not touching.

She stiffens for a second before she relaxes again; Nick notices this. "I, um," she sniffs and then stands up straight. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks," she says, and then starts walking again, not quite waiting for him.

"Okay so, uh," he begins, but then notices that Val has walked ahead of him. "Hey, wait up!" he says. She doesn't slow down, though he catches up to her. This time he almost reaches out to touch her elbow before he stops himself from doing so. Nicholas swallows before speaking again, his tone almost curious. "You didn't come out last night," he says, dropping his sentence abruptly and then waiting for her response.

Finally Valeria turns to look at him, her face flushed and eyes shifty. "Yeah, I was... sleeping," she says.

Nicholas can't help but let out a small laugh. "Sleeping, huh?" he asks. "You've never slept that early before."

Valeria suddenly stops walking and turns to look at him, her eyes flashing dangerously, throwing him off. "I was sleeping, okay? I was tired so I went to bed," she says a little loudly. In the next moment her eyes soften as if she's just realised the implication of her tone and her words, but by then she's a moment too late.

"Alright," Nick says curtly. He turns around and walks off.

He couldn't pin down the reason for his discomfort last night, but right now he knows very well as to why he's stomping off. He picks up speed, ignoring the questioning looks from his friends as he surpasses them and takes the lead for the group.

~~~~~~~~~~

Valeria thinks that she has messed up.

"You're an idiot, is what you are," Stella announces, rolling her eyes at Val in the security of their tent.

Valeria thinks that she most probably has messed up.

"I mean I know that you have issues, Val," Stella continues her verbal assault of smacking some sense into the blonde's head. "But then again, who doesn't? Still doesn't give you the permission to go about being a git though."

This causes Valeria to raise her brows at her friend, displeased.

Stella raises her hands in defence. "Okay, probably shouldn't have said that. But," she points a perfectly red painted nail at Val, and Valeria wonders for just a moment as to how dedicated Stella must be to maintain her painted nails in such pristine condition even in when they're in the wild such as they are. "You are a knob-head. You don't befriend someone like Nicholas only to just step back and cut ties later on!"

"I haven't cut any ties, Ella," Valeria says, bringing her head to hold it in her hands, feeling the onslaught of a headache.

Stella sighs, finally calming down for the first after having forced Valeria to talk about all her problems — the issues featuring Nick, quite a fair bit. "Look, what I'm saying is that," Stella says, her tone kinder this time around, "Nicholas doesn't let people in easily. I'm sure you've noticed that." Though Val nods in affirmation, Stella doesn't really wait for her response before continuing. "So, if for whatever reason, you have managed to weasel your way into his circle, all I'm saying is that you shouldn't give up that space." She pauses before speaking again, "Because if you do, you're likely to never get it again."

Valeria let's out a heavy breath of air, loaded with guilt and dread. I most definitely have messed up, she thinks bitterly.