She Won't Be Lonely Long

The morning came soon, and although the previous night was late for the entire group, Sergio and Maral were cuddling by the fire at 8:30. Xabi was also awake early, but he knew that Hannah wouldn't be and chose staying in bed with her over stepping out of the tent to be scolded by the awaiting couple for making so much noise last night.

Considering Hannahs past of being bashful and distant around Xabi, he wondered how she would behave when she woke up to find herself in his arms. Hopefully she wouldn't see last night as a total mistake, ode to the four shots of straights whiskey she had taken to calm her nerves.

The scene didn't iron out that way at all. At eleven when she awoke, the feeling of him breathing under her drew images of their night to her mind and made her tired lips curl instantly against his chest. He returned the smile although she couldn't see it and ran his thumb along her arm in slow strokes. Making sure to keep the blanket wrapped around her in place, she leaned up and peered down to him.

He was perfect, she thought again and for once this didn't make her uncomfortable. The feeling was pure bliss, perhaps an after-shock from the night before but strong all the same.

"Hi." she whispered lightly, squinting her eyes away from the golden sun light thrusting its way through the tents thin wall and into her vision.

He laughed and pulled her down, out of the sun's wrath and into his arms again. Luckily, it was exactly where she wanted to be.

"Is all sex supposed to feel like that?" she asked, and he laughed again knowing exactly what she had meant when saying that. It couldn't possibly have been misconstrued; Her moaning from last night was still etched into his memory and certainly wasn't the noise of unsatisfaction.

"You have never had sex before that?"

"Well, yeah... but it never felt like that." The butterflies in her stomach went berserck just as she thought about it.

"Well," he smiled. "You know how to make someone feel proud."

There wasn't much conversation before they drifted off to sleep again, and when he woke up next she had dissapeared.

"Where is Hannah?" Xabi asked once he was outside, facing the campfire and the pair sitting behind it.

A smirked played with Maral's lips as Sergio blankly stared at the core of the fire, wide-eyed as the sweltering purple and orange ribbons of flame danced together.

"Good morning, Xabi." she said, utterly dismissing his question. "Sleep well?"

He couldn't help but catch on to her train of thought and lightly smiled. "Yes, thank you..."

"Yeah? Well I didn't." Sergio spoke quickly, snapping out of his zombie-like transe and shocking the both of them. "How did you do that? "

Although slight indications of the night before sparkled in his eye, his exact technique wasn't something Xabi would discuss. "Where is she?"

"She's gone swimming somewhere." Sergio answered dolefully, his mind absolutely wild thinking about what he had heard the night before. "But honestly, tell me how you do it--"

"No." Xabi laughed and shook his head, dissapearing into the woods.

To reach the river, Xabi took an easier route than the one Hannah had shown him. It was a crumbling dirt hill that was relatively steep and bedecked with thissle and weeds, but nowhere near as trecherous as the latter cliff. He marched the riverside for a short minute before she was in view, sitting on the dry half of a rounded grey boulder poking out of the water not three meters in. Her face was veiled with a book and she was soaking wet but wrapped in a towell. As for her clothes, they were shed and cushioning where she sat.

The river was calm, it's shadowy sorrel water affiably travelling around the boulder and dissapearing into the far distance. From the near stagnant water and piping sun came an unpleasant amount of humidity that only put a miniscule dent on the beauty of their surroundings.

"Hannah," he called lightly from the clay bed where he stood.

At the sound of his voice, she gasped and quickly turned her body to face him. "You scared the hell out of me!" she exclaimed, pressing her book to her chest and weakly smiling.

"Lo siento." he murmered, kicking his shoes off and trekking through the water for her.

Once they shared the boulder and a few seconds of nothing had passed, he had drawn together what he was meaning to say.

"Tell me why you enjoy living in America and I won't ask you to stay."

She glared to him abhoringly. "You don't even live in Spain, Xabi. How are you going to ask me to move to Spain for you, when you live in England?"

He ignored that and returned an even more piercing glare so that her thoughts would be redirected to the question at hand.

She let out a sigh of defeat. "It's not an option; Michigan is where I grew up, and it's where I'm from. And I can't leave there. I wouldn't know how to live if it isn't in Michigan."

"But you are not happy there."

Her jaw fell and her brows rose, yet her lips turned in irritation to resemble a smile. "How do you know?!"

He shrugged, staring into the water at his feet. "I just do."

"Xabi, stop." she let out an exasperated chuckle. "Just... stop. I am going home next week, and so are you-- To England. So lets just enjoy the rest of our week."

He nodded and wrapped his right arm around around her frame to pull her closer. Despite the many conversations held about her living arrangements, her three friends somehow maintained hope of her staying although in her mind it wasn't negotiable.