“It’s fine. It’s only a mild sprain … remember?”
I went to take a step and nearly let out another girlish scream.
“Josh!” Heather gasped.
Reaching out, I stated, “Give me the damn crutches.”
Without even attempting to hide her smile, Heather handed me the crutches.
I dragged in a deep breath and motioned for her to open the door. “It’s stiff that’s all. The quicker I get this over with … the better.”
“It’ll be fine. Everyone’s glad you’re not hurt. That’s all that matters,” Heather said as she walked next to me. The closer we got to the doors that lead to the waiting room, the more I dreaded my decision to run up that damn hill. Why did Jeff always try to one-up me?
Bastard.
Heather pushed the doors open and I maneuvered through them. I didn’t see anyone in the waiting room and breathed a sigh of relief.
“They must have all gone back to the campsite,” Heather stated.
“Good.”
As we headed to the doors to leave, Heather asked, “Do you want to go home? I’m sure Gunner and Jeff wouldn’t mind taking down our stuff.”
I let out a gruff laugh. “There is no way I’m going home. Jeff would never let me live it down. I just need to take some Advil and I’ll be fine.”
We walked outside and Jeff was standing there with a giant bouquet of balloons. All of them were in a different shape and color of butterfly.
My mouth dropped open when he pulled out from behind his back a My First Butterfly Collection box.
“To help you get over your fear,” he stated with a huge smile.
Lifting my crutch, I started after him as Heather cried out for me to stop.
Jeff laughed as he started to walk backwards while I hopped on one foot toward him.
I launched my weapon of choice, actually my only weapon, at him and he ducked. Unfortunately, Ari didn’t.
Heather gasped when the crutch made contact.
My heart dropped as I whispered, “Oh. Shit.”
Ari was covering her eye as she let out every curse word known to man. When she dropped her hand, I only saw evil coming from her one good eye.
Turning to Heather, I said, “Maybe we should go home … like now.”
I made my way out of our tent and headed to the table. Josh refused to make eye contact with me, which was probably a good thing.
“How’s your eye, Ari?” Ellie asked.
Stopping directly in front of Josh, I smiled. “Good. You know what strikes me as funny?”
Josh glanced up at me and smiled. “What’s that?”
I tilted my head and lifted my eyes up as if I was in deep thought before turning my attention back on him. “That you screamed like a scared little girl because you had a … butterfly … on your leg. And I get a crutch hurled at me and it strikes my eye, causing it to swell up and turn black, yet I didn’t utter a p
eep.”
Gunner lifted his hand and stated, “Um, I’d like to correct you on that, Ari. You did let out a rather scary sounding growl.”