Are they even looking? I wouldn’t be surprised if the girls are at the bar right now, ordering another round.
At least, the sun is up and it’s nice and warm. My jumpsuit is dry but my socks and underwear are still wet underneath. I don’t even want to think about what tonight is going to feel like.
If the temperature drops, I’ll probably freeze to death.
My stomach growls with hunger. I haven’t eaten anything in over twenty-four hours. How can I get food? How can I get water?
Why didn’t I watch 127 Hours? I’m sure James Franco had a bunch of intelligent tricks to get nutrition. I was going to watch it on Netflix, but ended up watching Modern Family instead.
Screw it.
I pluck a couple of leaves off a nearby branch and put them in my mouth. Oh, ugh!
They taste even worse than I thought they would. I can’t eat the others, so I just let them drop and watch them float down to the ground, landing beside my busted-up phone.
I can’t believe this is my life now. This is what I’ve become.
I’m never going to get down from this motherfucking tree.
I’m going to die up here and no one is even going to care.
I’m twenty years old and I haven’t made a mark on this world. I’ll come and go and no one will even notice.
I’ve never fallen in love. I haven’t even had a first kiss.
I’m going to die a virgin up here.
Crows are going to peck my eyes out and I’ll be stuck in this ugly old jumpsuit for all of eternity.
A dead eyeless virgin.
My body shakes as a deep sob racks through it.
I’m full-on ugly crying and feeling maximum self-pity when a tree shakes in the distance.
“Hello!” I scream as I wipe the tears out of my eyes. “Over here!”
My voice sounds like I’ve been smoking two packs a day since I was a toddler. My throat feels like sandpaper.
But I scream anyway. It’s my only hope.
“Heeeelllllppppp!!!”
The shaking trees get closer.
Oh please…
It’s probably a couple of hikers. Maybe a park ranger or a rescue team out looking for me.
I hope they brought a ladder…
“Over here!”
I wave my arms and kick my numb legs as the people get closer.
My heart lifts and then sinks when I see that it’s no rescue party.
It’s a bear.
A big one.
He looks up at me with hungry brown eyes and I gulp, happy for the first time that I’m high up in a tree.
“Hey, bear!” I yell at it. “Go get some help will you?”
He huffs out a breath as his eyes leave me. He starts sniffing my phone and then steps toward the trunk.
“Wait…” I whisper to myself when he stands up and puts his front paws on the tree. Can bears climb trees?
I start rushing through all the bears I know (Yogi, Winnie the Pooh, the Charmin bears), trying to think if I’ve seen any of them climb a tree.
“Oh no!” I shout as he starts climbing up the trunk.
He’s so fast.
I start trying to sway my body from side to side to get away from him, but all I manage to do is turn myself in a circle and get even more tangled up.
His heavy breaths send shivers down my spine. He’s getting closer. Closer…
I thought dying up here in the tree was the worst fate ever, but I would take that any day over being an edible piñata for a freaking Kodiak bear!
“Go away!” I scream as he rushes up the trunk toward me.
I suck in a breath and squeeze my eyes shut as his face comes level with mine. He’s so close. I could reach out and touch his thick fur.
He turns to me, eyes burning into mine, and huffs out a breath. I can feel the heat of it on my cheek.
“Please don’t eat me,” I whisper.
Several tense seconds pass. It’s a standoff. Helpless girl vs hungry bear.
“Oh no,” I gasp when he starts moving around the tree to reach me.
I close my eyes as his head comes closer. His wet nose touches my neck and I bite back a scream. He sniffs under my ear, tickling me and sending shivers racing down my body.
The whole ordeal is terrifying.
But eventually, he starts to shuffle back down the tree. He never takes his eyes off me as he goes.
My heart is pounding like crazy.
How come he didn’t eat me? Do I really smell that bad?
I keep my eyes locked on him as he gets to the ground and backs up.
“That’s it,” I whisper to myself. “Back away. Go and steal honey from a wasp’s nest or something. You don’t want to eat me.”
He starts to shake all over.
“What the?”
His body looks like it’s imploding as he convulses violently. With a loud tear, a human male bursts out of him.