by Mia Ford
Now, it was me who rolled my eyes, “God, Johnathan! It’s always about you, isn’t it? For a loner, you are one of the neediest people I have ever met. You always need to feel justified. Holy crap! You made a fire…do you want a medal? When we get back to civilization, I’ll find you a medal, alright?”
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Johnathan barked, “If you didn’t need to keep score all the time, I wouldn’t need to remind you of how many times I’m the reason you’re not dead…Or worse.”
As we bantered, Johnathan continued to set up camp skillfully, ensuring that everything was safe, and we were able to even have some shelter.
I wasn’t going to tell him this, but I was impressed by his resourcefulness.
He was even able to find a source of water, which he offered to me first, before giving Jake some and going back to fill up himself.
I continually huffed and puffed as he moved around the campsite, ensuring everything was appropriate. I still wasn’t ready to forgive him for what he said, though I was happy he was here.
I wanted an apology, but I wasn’t sure I was going to get one, so I settled on allowing time to heal the hurt.
When he was finished, Johnathan came over to me and moved toward my leg, as though he wanted to check it but I roughly pulled it out of his grasp.
“I’m still angry with you!” I exclaimed, meeting his narrowed eyes with my angry gaze.
Immediately, he backed away from me and shrugged, “Fine,” he retorted, “But if it swells up and falls off, it’s not my fault.” He grumbled and griped for a moment, before he continued, “We’ll rest here for the night and we’ll carry on in the morning.”
Again, I rolled my eyes. “You’re not the boss of me. If I don’t want to leave, I’m not going to leave and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.”
I expected him to return some snide comment, but instead, he looked utterly surprised and kind of angry by the way I reacted.
I had kind of thought we had a thing going here, so I wasn’t sure what had changed. Either way, he was still in trouble for what he had said, so he wasn’t going to get off that easy, regardless of what he had done to help me. So, I stood my ground, staring him down as I awaited his answer.
“Okay, um…I realize that, but I think if you’d stop being so damn stubborn, you’d see that I have done everything to try to help you,” as he spoke this time, the roughness had seemed to ease a little leaving a soured tone, that seemed slightly put off. He spoke through gritted teeth as he forced himself to remain calm. “Look, I know I’m an asshole. I try my best to be an asshole. That is literally the only thing in this world that I have had all that much success in being, but I am not the monster you seem to think I am. Yes, I said what I said, and it was a dick thing to say, but don’t my actions account for anything?”
Could it be that he was actually trying to open up to me? I thought, now starting to feel bad for the way I had treated him. He was right. He had done everything he possibly could to keep me safe. He had gone above and beyond normal human decency, even risking his life to get me away from someone who really did want to do me harm.
However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was still abundantly hurt by what he had said to me earlier, so I tried to convince myself it didn’t matter. I still didn’t deserve to be treated this way and since he couldn’t even give me so much as an apology, I didn’t have to feel bad.
“You know,” I finally spoke, trying to explain myself without starting another round of hurtful insults, “You seem to have convinced yourself, for whatever reason, that the whole world is against you and there is nothing I can do to change that. The reason I am so angry and so hurt is because I care and what you say influences me.”
“Yeah, words have meaning, I get it,” he hissed snidely, “But being spiteful about it isn’t helping either of us.”
“I’m not being spiteful,” I insisted, trying my best to remain calm. “I’m being honest with you. This is my attempt at a normal conversation, between two adults. I tell you how I feel and you tell me how you feel. It’s effective, I promise.”
“Oh, for the love of God, forget it! I’m not a fucking cave man. Now, you’re just insulting my intelligence.”
“No, I’m not. You just seem to take everything I say the wrong way,” I insisted.
“I understand how human interaction works, and I understand the words coward, and pitiful and everything else you were saying to me back there in the cabin, so don’t you sit there and try to convince me that I was slinging insults at you without provocation. You got a few good below the belt hits in there too.”
“This isn’t about who insulted who better, Johnathan!”
“Then, what is it about? I’m not stupid. I know that I was an asshole. I told you that I know that and yet, you keep beating the same damn, dead horse we’ve been kicking around all day.”
“You haven’t once said you’re sorry,” I insisted, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Well, neither have you,” he replied.
I went to speak, but stopped short, causing a cruel sneer to curl around the corner of his mouth.
“Yeah, that’s because you’re not,” he insisted, before standing up and walking over to the other side of the camp. “Try to get some sleep, princess, because I’m going to the ranger’s station tomorrow, whether you’re with me or not.”
I huffed and narrowed my eyes. I was angry, more now because he had called me out and I couldn’t retort.
The reason that I hadn’t apologized was because I was trying to get him to admit something about himself. I was trying to get him to open up and I thought if I gave the truth a little extra-insolent flair, he might get fired up enough to abandon his resolve. I thought I might be able to break down his walls and make him see what I was trying to get him to tell me.
However, unfortunately, my idea had backfired.
“Hey! Wait a minute!” I called across the campsite, “Does that mean that you meant everything you said to me? I just thought you were trying to be hurtful.”
There was silence, at first, and I thought he was going to ignore me, but when he did respond, I couldn’t figure out exactly how he thought his answer would be the least bit helpful.
“I told you, Carrie, I’m an asshole.”
Yeah, I know that… I thought, but did you mean what you said?
Settling on the notion that was going to be his parting words to me that evening, I didn’t bother to respond. I simply huffed, loud enough so that he had a chance of hearing it and curled up on the bed of leaves, hoping to get some sleep.
Chapter 16:
Johnathan
Hearing Carrie sigh from across the campsite made me wonder if she knew what I meant by my last comment.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to apologize, and I knew why she had said what she did. I knew that I had screwed up when I reacted to her true claims by trying to respond in an equally insulting way but tonight, I couldn’t bring myself to apologize.
After all, I wasn’t even sure if I should even try to make things right. I couldn’t imagine what good it would do.
In my experience, I’m sorry always led to something more and I wasn’t ready for any of that shit. I don’t know about most people, but I know that pouring my heart out to some stranger, only to have her leave wasn’t exactly the therapeutic outlet I needed; and that’s if I was even looking.
Right now, I didn’t want therapy. I didn’t even want to get better, because I figured the journey, if a better mental state was even possible, was going to be far more painful than simply cutting our losses.
Granted, for me, cutting losses meant everything, since she was the only human I had even considered wanting to get to know in a long time, but for her, it wasn’t all that bad. It was a mistake, at most. She could go back to her life and be perfectly fine. If I tried to be the sensitive, apologetic man she seemed to want, I felt I would be apologizing more than I would be doing anything else.
I didn�
��t want to hurt her. I simply wanted to part ways, before I ended up ruining her life.
However, as I lay across the campsite from her, I still couldn’t help the knowledge of how attracted I was to her. After everything that had happened, the allure I felt went far beyond the idea that I was still responsible for her, safety, or even that of her beauty. Of course, I wanted to see that she was safe, but I knew that I would never forgive myself if something were to happen to her.
I didn’t want to follow her today, because I didn’t want to be in her life anymore than I was already, but now that I had, I was glad to be here with her.
Even though we were arguing, and I was the one being stubborn, I was content, in a way. Whatever we had, being close to her, in any capacity felt right.
I liked doing things for her. As much as I complained and teased her about not making a camp for herself, I was pleased to have the excuse to make my presence known. I was happy to help her, and I wanted to always be the one to help her.
Yet, that intense sense of commitment to her was only a portion of what I was feeling. The other part of me still wanted to leave her as quickly as possible, though I know that I would never actually do it.
Even if I tried, apparently, Jake wouldn’t let me do it.
So, after heavily contemplating all of this, my mind wandered into the idea of what it will really mean when Carrie returns to her normal life.
Am I going to want to visit her? I thought. Am I going to yearn for her, like I do now? I contemplated, even though I knew it was best for me to stay away.
I also wondered if knowing that I was still capable of these feelings would change the way I felt about everyone else. Do I want to return to live a normal life? Should I try to move on, or would I just be setting myself up for failure?
Really, though, what do you have to lose? I thought, this time growing slightly annoyed. I roughly turned on my side, so that the fire, and the small outline of Carrie across the campsite was at my back. I didn’t want to look at her, because I didn’t want to be drawn in by her charm.
Why the hell does this woman make me want to be back in the society that I had completely, successfully disowned? I wondered, shutting my eyes tightly and grinding my teeth with aggravation.
Even though I thought about all of this for far too long, I was even more frustrated by the fact that I never was able to come up with an answer. I still couldn’t understand why this woman was so special to me, when I really didn’t know her much at all.
It was almost as though I was put under a spell that I both loved and hated. Perhaps it was what I needed, but maybe it was going to be the death of me.
I supposed that only time would tell, since I clearly wasn’t able to figure it out for myself.
For a long time, I tossed and turned, annoyed by the glow of the fire and the hardness of the ground, but kept awake by the racing of my thoughts.
However, eventually, I was finally able to fall asleep, thankfully allowing me to escape my thoughts and fall dreamlessly into a deep, encompassing slumber.
Chapter 17:
Carrie
The following morning, I awoke, feeling eyes on me.
I tried to ignore it and turn over, but I continued to feel the eyes piercing into the back of my head.
Eventually, the feeling became too much. I groaned and rolled over. Johnathan was sitting there, staring at me, possibly watching me sleep. I wasn’t sure how I should feel about this, though I couldn’t help an initial sense of comfort flow over me.
While I was still curious as to why he was staring at me, I was pleased that he was there.
I started to grin at him but then, I remembered everything that transpired.
I narrowed my eyes and started to get up.
“Whoa, be careful. What are you doing?” He insisted.
“I’m sure you want to get a move on, so let’s go. The sooner we get to the ranger’s station, the sooner you can get me out of your hair.”
At first, Johnathan didn’t answer me, and I wasn’t sure why. After all, the night before, he had made it crystal clear that he was going whether I was ready to go or not. So, I was simply trying to comply, knowing that the sooner we were able to get going, the sooner I could return to civilization and put this whole experience behind me.
Still, it appeared he was searching through the insults I had flung at him to figure out an appropriate way to respond.
He wasn’t usually so careful with his words, so I was curious about what made him be so cautious now.
“Okay, so, I’m not good at this anyway, but you just made it a little harder. Thank you, very much. You seem to have a talent for that,” he hissed, but didn’t give me time to rebuke before he replied, “I’m trying to say, I’m sorry. You were right. I was out of line and I didn’t mean what I said. I was reacting to what you were telling me. I was angry that you had figured me out so easily, and because you were showing me a part of myself that I don’t like. I thought a lot about this last night and I figured that the decent thing to do would be to tell you the truth. If this is going to be the last time we see each other, I don’t want you to remember me as a total asshole.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I…Work really hard at being the right…a specific…You know what, never mind. Any way I say that is going to sound awful,” he insisted and this time, he let out a small chuckle that I believed might actually be genuine.
I grinned back at him, pleased that he was finally opening up to me. I was so excited, that the anger I felt dissipated completely.
“It’s okay. I forgive you…and I am sorry for giving you the truth in such a hurtful manner,” I answered in a slightly teasing voice.
“Well, that was probably the worst apology I’ve ever heard,” he answered, but continued to keep a small grin curled in the corner of his mouth, which made my heart flutter.
I giggled, “No, but seriously, I am sorry if I hurt you. That wasn’t my intention.”
“Yeah, I know,” he insisted, folding his hands together in a manner that made me feel as though he had more that he wanted to get off his chest.
I was cautious, not wanting to be too pushy, so I simply waited and listened, hoping that I came across as welcoming.
“The truth is…that I’m still not sure I should be telling you this…but here it goes. You are right. I have written off humanity, completely, for about five years now. I only go into town when I really need food, or when I am starting to get cabin fever. I was never much of a people person to begin with but after…an incident, my ability to cope was…bad. I was suicidal, anti-social and, just a burden on anyone who tried to help me. I would show up drunk to the friends that I still had and did a few…regrettable things in pursuit of closure. I never hurt anyone, or anything like that, but eventually, I decided that it was better for everyone if I wasn’t around anymore. Honestly, I’m too much of a coward to kill myself, besides, the dog needs me.”
At this, as though knowing he was being referred to, Jake groaned in his sleep and turned over, his large body thudding down on the ground, shaking it slightly.
“I’m sorry,” I answered quietly, carefully getting to my feet and hobbling over to sit beside him.
“Yeah, it sucked. I didn’t want anything to do with anyone. I chased away anyone who tried to visit me and eventually, people got the hint. I’m not hiding from anything, except maybe responsibility,” he chuckled, “But meeting you, it’s given me a new perspective. There is something about you that I can’t put out of my mind.”
“Awe,” I insisted, placing my hand overtop his as a smile overtook my features.
“No, please don’t be happy about that. It’s been a pain in the ass,” he insisted and then, quickly added, “Remember, I’m being honest here. I don’t want to lie to you.” With that, he pulled his hand out of my grasp and looked down, between his knees, as though he was truly ashamed of something, “You’re right. I have been trying to push you away and that is the rea
son I said those things to you. I’ve been trying to pick a fight with you, trying to get you out of my head.” At this, he looked at me through a sideways glance and let out a long breath, “I didn’t know how to handle these feelings. I thought that there was no way I could ever feel that way again and then, with you, it was just so damn easy. I wanted you from the first time I saw you, but it was more than just sexual…which was strange, because I didn’t even know you…Then, I got to know you a little better and there wasn’t anything that you did that turned me off…Trust me, I tried to find something, but even your honesty was a turn-on.” His shoulders rose and fell as he spoke, as though he wasn’t quite sure how to continue.
I didn’t want to interrupt him, but briefly wondered if he was looking for encouragement.
However, before I could think of anything I deemed appropriate to say, he started to speak again, “I mean, it’s weird to me, having someone give a shit about me. Most of my friends just eventually left me to my own devices, or would agree with me, trying to make me feel better. There wasn’t one person I knew who had the balls to tell me what they felt, how they perceived how I was acting, so I eventually didn’t want anything to do with any of them. I moved up here and things got better. I wasn’t so hateful. Then, the loneliness got to me and to combat that, I convinced myself that there was no way I would let anyone do anything like this to me again. So, I cut myself off from everyone I knew. Then, you came along and screwed it all up,” at that, he chuckled, and his eyes were alight with humor as they gazed at me.