“Assholes …” Jonathan mutters as his friends run off ahead.
Well, his friend and the unpleasant girl he has brought along. Thomas is his best friend, but he seems to have no bar when it comes to women. Which is a shame, as it will probably make the hiking trip another memory of something fun ruined by Thomas’s floozies. It was supposed to be just the three of them, like it used to be. Thomas, Jonathan, and …
“Where are they running off to?”
Olivia puts a hand on his shoulder, throwing a final glance at the steep path they just climbed.
“They’re … I don’t know. They know the way. Do you want some water?”
He holds out the open canteen to her. She takes a long draught. For one instant, the sun catching her dark bob cut and her slender neck exposed, he is mesmerized. He has known her since they were toddlers, and he likes her, loves her even. But in this moment, standing on top of a small mountain, dirt and sweat caked to their bodies, it seems as if he sees her for the first time. Not who she was all those years ago, but who she is right now.