A Breath of Fresh Air

The sun beats down on us as we reach a ridge, and the dirt track in front of us mercifully flattens out somewhat. I put my hands on my knees and take a couple of deep breaths, wiping sweat from my forehead and lamenting the sand that has wormed its way into my hiking shoes. Amy passes me, slapping my ass on the way, and I glare at her, but she just giggles and sticks out her tongue.

The constant uphill of the hike so far left little room for talking and lots more room for thinking. Inevitably, my thoughts kept returning to last night - specifically Jack’s hurt expression after I laid into him about the facial. Sure, I was pissed off - I wasn’t kidding when I said I wasn’t a fan - but I could just as easily have left it there instead of attacking him for it. Then again, he did cum in my fucking eye. It was still a little bloodshot when I woke up this morning.

I adjust my cap to keep the sun out of my eyes, and catch Jack giving me a sidelong look. I wave at him and smile like nothing is wrong, and he quickly looks at the floor, a sullen expression weighing on his face. Cool. Nothing awkward about that. Briefly, I consider going and talking to him, but then it occurs to me that I really can’t be bothered right now. If he wants to sulk, he can damn well sulk.

Standing up straight, I wait for Freddie to catch up to me and fall into step beside him. "How you doing, Freddie?"

He smiles and adjusts his backpack, seemingly unfazed by the hike. "Yeah, I'm good! I didn't realize the views would be so good up here."

I look behind me. I've been so focused on getting up the damn hill that I haven't once looked at the view, but now I drink it in. Cabins and small houses nestle at the base of the hill - I can guess roughly which one is ours - and the thin strip of white beach shines in the sun. Beyond that, the ocean stretches away into the distance, broken only by a few ships and the island we paddled to the other day. From up here, it barely looks bigger than a dime.

"Wow." I whistle and pull out my phone, snapping a picture quickly. "Oh hey, how's it going with Piper?"

Freddie shrugs, a nonchalant smile on his lips. "Yeah, fine. She's in Palm Springs with some friends - one of them is loaded - so they're having a good time."

I raise my eyebrows. "Damn. No wonder she didn't want to come with us. Plus, I guess you've only been dating for, what, four months?"

"Five," Freddie nods. "So yeah, when we booked we had only been together for a month. A week on spring break together could have been a lot."

My gaze drifts to Jack at that, as he walks next to Elijah at the head of the pack. "Yeah. That could have been ... intense."

We finally make it to the top of the hill, and I stumble to one of the benches and plonk my ass down gratefully. Amy sits down next to me, red in the face and breathing heavily, and holds out her fist. I bump it, grinning.

"Move over," Elijah says, giving his sister a light shove so that there's enough space on the bench for him to sit, too. "Thanks."

"Hey, get your own bench!" Amy jostles him in protest, but he doesn't budge.

"Nah, I'm good." He grins, leaning back and spreading his arms out so that Amy is **** to squeeze up against me.

I grin. This is the perfect opportunity to get back at her for squeezing my boob.

"God, Amy, stop trying to hit on me," I squeal in feigned repulsion. I shove her back towards Elijah, who catches on and gives her a push, and within moments we're playing tennis with her across the bench.

"Ow - Hey -" Amy tries to protest as she's jostled from side-to-side. Then she balls her hands into fists and slams them simultaneously into our crotches.

I flinch backwards just in time, receiving only a glancing blow, but from the way Elijah doubles over it seems like he wasn't so lucky. "Ooh ... Mother of Jesus ..." he groans. His eyes bulge from his face, with water pooling in the corners.

Amy glares at him triumphantly, then turns to me and raises a fist again. I quickly shoot my hands up in surrender, giggling slightly at the whimpers coming from Elijah. "Sorry, Amy! We're square!" I say.

She narrows her eyes, but lowers her fist. The smile tweaking at the corner of her mouth tells me she punished who she really wanted to punish anyway, so when I giggle slightly, she does too.

"Not funny," Elijah gasps.

"Very funny," I say in unison with Amy. We grin at each other and exchange another fist bump.

Dani appears in front of us, arms folded and eyebrows raised. For a split second, she reminds me of one of my teachers back in high school, and my grin slips off my face. "What did you do to my boyfriend?" she asks coolly.

"He deserved it," Amy smiles.

I shrug. "Kinda."

"Fair enough," Dani laughs, unfolding her arms and crouching down next to Elijah. She pats him on the back, but I can tell she too is trying to stifle a giggle.

"Don't worry, Elijah, I'm sure Dani can kiss it better later," I say in a soothing voice, before miming a cock going in and out of my mouth.

I cackle through the chorus of disgusted "Ew"s and gags, and duck Amy's attempted swipe. Meanwhile, Dani fixes me with a withering stare that would have had more of an impact if she didn't glance at Elijah's crotch and lick her lips beforehand. I wiggle my eyebrows, and the Latina blushes slightly.

Freddie and Jack glance over at the ruckus. Still grinning, I catch Jack's eye for a moment, and I swear I see him struggling to tear his gaze away from my smile. Yeah, he still wants me. Part of me wants to look away in embarrassment, but I **** myself to smile like nothing's wrong - at least until he finally looks down.

"What are you guys doing?" Freddie asks, wandering over.

"Nothing. Alicia just has her mind in the gutter," Amy says, giving me a playful shove.

"Do not!" I grin, shoving her back. "Ooh, we should get a group photo while we're up here!" I pull out my phone and ready up a selfie, positioning the view down to the beach behind us. "Everyone get in!"

Feet scuffle behind me, and gradually everyone fills the frame. Jack lingers awkwardly for a moment, then sidles up next to me, although still standing a little apart from us all. There's a clear gap on the photo preview between him and everyone else - like he's afraid to be included.

I glance at him over my shoulder and gesture for him to squeeze in a little more. "You getting in the photo or what?" I ask with a warm smile.

A small but genuine smile flashes across Jack's lips. He shifts a little closer, his arm brushing my back, and my breath catches for a brief instant.

Then Freddie breaks the moment by wrapping his arms around everyone's shoulders. Raising my phone, I smile at the camera. "Alright, everyone say cheese!" Unsurprisingly, the others made stupid faces instead, but I snapped the picture anyway, followed by a few more where everyone is actually smiling.

They all crowd around as I look through the pictures. Every single one has Elijah holding bunny ears up behind Freddie.

"You bastard," Freddie laughs when Dani points it out. Elijah just snickers.

Going back down the hill is far easier than the hike up, meaning there's a little more room for conversation. Jack still seems to be actively avoiding talking to me - he strikes up a conversation with the boys at the first opportunity - so I linger at the back of the group with Amy and Dani, listening to Amy wax on about the latest crime series she's watching on Netflix.

"Honestly, I don't get the appeal," Dani says once Amy finally stops to breathe. "Like, doesn't that just creep you out?"

"Oh my god, that's the point!" Amy giggles. "Like, the tension throughout the whole thing is insane - you're just constantly like 'oh shit, when is he going to snap?' Seriously, you should give it a try! It might make you even more afraid to walk home alone at night, but it's sooo worth it."

"I mean, I'll try it," Dani says reluctantly. "But I don't think it's really my thing."

"What is your thing, then?" I ask. I've seen a couple of episodes of Amy's series, and I'm firmly with Dani in the camp of 'not really my thing'.

The Latina's eyes light up. "So, have you guys ever heard of this niche thing called Star Wars?" she says with a sly smile. I roll my eyes. "Okay, okay, I know, it's nerdy, but you have got to watch Andor - you want tension, that is exactly where you get it. And Diego Luna is cute."

I raise an eyebrow. "Who's that?"

Her jaw drops. "You don't ... Alright, one sec."

She quickly pulls out her phone and taps it a few times, then shows it to me. A Mexican guy with big brown eyes and designer stubble stares out at me from the screen. Amy peeks over my shoulder as I flick through a couple more photos, and I glance at her for her opinion. She shrugs.

"I mean, like, I wouldn't say no," Amy giggles.

"You wouldn't say no to anything above a five, though," I smirk, nudging her with an elbow. She gives me a look of feigned outrage, and I laugh. "Am I wrong?"

"Excuse you, I have standards, thank you very much!" She holds up two fingers and counts them off. "Are they alive? And do they have a six-pack? Besides, six-packs count as at least three points on the hotness scale, so unless they're really 'attractively challenged', they'll be at least a five."

I tilt my head, unconvinced. "Hmm ... I'd say six-packs are only worth two points. You can't see them half the time, anyway."

"But you can tell," Amy says, tapping the side of her nose. "It's like big dick energy. You can just tell."

An image of Jack's enormous cock pops into my head, and I bite my lip. Could you tell, really? Because from the way he acts - the entitlement, the false-bravado - I wouldn't have had him pegged as 'big dick energy'. I glance ahead at the group of boys as they laugh about something we can't hear. And yet ... I had proof. "Sure," I say, still unconvinced.

Amy looks to Dani for support. "Back me up, here. You can tell, right?"

"Do you really want me to answer that question?" Dani asks, nodding towards Elijah and grinning.

Amy blanches. "On second thoughts, maybe not."