At The (Smaller) Cabin

Zack let out a short exhale and stepped further into the counselor's cabin, heading over to the fireplace, he knelt down by it and turned the knob opening the top. A pile of dust fell onto the ground but as he peeked up inside, it looked clear enough, "Okay, that looks good," Zack coughed out while waving his hand, keeping the dust from his face,

"That might, but all the furniture..." Ashley pointed out, looking towards the now rotted out cots, broken wood chairs, and a toppled over metal desk, "We're gonna be sleeping on the floor tonight, huh,"

"Yeah, more than likely on that," Zack agreed as he pointed over to the old sleeping bag the pair found earlier in their search, "It's gonna suck, but at the very least I think I can get us a fire going so we don't freeze, the furniture may be destroyed, but it's still good for firewood,"

"At least the roofs not leaking," Ashley shrugged with a chipper tone, "Honestly it could be a lot worse,"

Zack looked back at her then around the cabin slowly, "How?!" He asked with a near comical level of confusion,

"Well you could be stuck here all night without me to keep you company for starters," Ashley sweetly replied,

Zack couldn't help but smile back at her, "A very fair point, I've got to admit,"

In the following hours, Zack broke down what he could inside the cabin building them a nice pile of dry wood that would hopefully last them throughout the evening. Meanwhile, Ashley did her best to clear them out a clean spot near the fireplace. She did scrounge up a very old and frayed hand broom to help sweep the dust into a corner of the small cabin along with shoving the old metal desk into another. She unzipped their sleeping bag and laid it out flat just a little distance from the fireplace just as Zack started to get the fire going.

"When you think about it, people plan and pay for whole vacations to do stuff like this, we're doing it for free," Ashley told Zack with a short sigh while finally sitting down,

"People pay to be in decrepit buildings in a thunderstorm?" Zack sarcastically asked back,

"Camping, dummy," Ashley giggled in response, "And yes, this does count as camping, we're out in the woods, we have a sleeping bag, and we're keeping warm by a fire,"

"Ooooh, yeah so we're camping then," Zack replied with a playful toss of his eyes. He placed a few final bits of the broken chairs on the fire before joining Ashley on the sleeping bag, "I never was a big fan of camping when I was younger,"

"Really? I figure you, Chloe, and Gavin would have gone a bunch of times," Ashley said in surprise,

"No, we're much more homebodies," Zack chuckled back, "But...I will say that this time...it's actually not that bad,"

Ashley let out a long, warm smile at Zack, "See, I told you," She said while reaching out for his hand. However, just as Zack reached out to take it, Ashley pulled back. The blonde girl's smile faded away and she blinked rapidly a few quick times before hanging her head, "Z-Zack I...I'm sorry, I've been...god, I've been a real burden to you this trip,"

"What?" Zack asked in a near scoff, "Why would you say that?"

"From the very moment our trip started I've been nothing but a nuisance to you. I brought you into the problems of my relationship, I definitely put you and Brandon at odds, even though you've been close friends for years. Hell, I did all this to you when we've never been especially close together, you heard me earlier, you were just Taylor's little brother in my mind, and I still-" Ashley lowly started to explain, her tone dropping with each sentence,

"Ash, stop it," Zack gently interrupted, "None of this has even come close to being a bother to me. It's actually been...well, pretty great. You're my friend, I don't care that you weren't my best friend, you are my friend and when you need support I'm gonna be there for you with no hesitation." Zack then brought a hand up and rubbed to the back of his neck, "Not to mention that I...I also got to kiss you, so yeah, definitely all worth it," Ashley looked back over to Zack, her sadness already being replaced by some level of glee, "Eeeeexcept for Brandon wanting to kick my ass, I mean that was just awful and I can't believe you'd do that to me," Zack swiftly teased,

"Oh shut up," Ashley grinned while shoving the teen, she then took out a quick calming breath, "So, what now? We have a bed, a fire, and plenty of wood. What should we do for the rest of the night?"