Page 49 of Hide And Seek

“Probably around the time we saw Delia pinned to that wall,” Tamsin snapped. “I know you didn’t like her, but for fuck’s sake, Jasmine… you can still have a little empathy, you know?”

Jasmine’s expression hardened. For a second, it looked like she was about to fire back, but the words didn’t come. Or maybe she just swallowed them.

“Whatever,” she ended up muttering.

The silence that followed felt heavier than anything that had come before it. Around us, the low hum of conversation from the other nearby groups had started to taper off, people glancingover as they sensed the awkward shift. Even the crackle of the fire suddenly seemed louder, filling the space where our laughter had been a few minutes ago.

Tamsin exhaled slowly and pushed herself to her feet. “I think I’ll call it a night,” she said, brushing her hands off on her jeans. “It’s getting late, and I still need to shower.”

Wren stood almost immediately. “Yeah. Same,” she said, avoiding Jasmine’s eyes.

Jesse glanced between them, then nodded. “I’ll go find Simon and see if he’s ready to head off too.”

Tamsin looked down at me. “Are you coming?” she asked. “We can all just go together.”

I hesitated. Jasmine was still sitting stiffly beside me, jaw tight as she glared into the fire, making it all too obvious she didn’t intend to go with the others.

Part of me wanted to go with them anyway, because of her bad mood. But she was still my cabinmate, and the idea of leaving her didn’t sit right with me.

I lifted my can slightly and forced a small, neutral shrug. “I’ll hang out here a little longer,” I said. “I still need to finish my drink.”

Tamsin gave me a tight smile. “Okay.”

“Don’t stay out too late,” Wren added.

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “Stay safe. Both of you.”

“We will,” I said.

They lingered for a second longer, like they weren’t entirely sure about leaving. Then they turned and headed off toward the path, their figures quickly swallowed by the dark.

I spent the next few minutes quietly finishing my drink, eyes fixed on the fire as it shifted and crackled in front of us. Jasmine didn’t say anything either. Just picked at a loose thread on her jeans until she finally let out a sharp breath.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “That was bad, wasn’t it?”

“Um. Kinda, yeah.”

She huffed out a humorless laugh, snapping a twig between her fingers. “You don’t have to tiptoe around me. I know what I’m like,” she said. “I just… I go from zero to a hundred over nothing. And then I hear myself halfway through and it’s like—” She made a face. “Too late.”

“It’s been a messed-up couple of days,” I said, reaching over to give her shoulder a quick squeeze. “Everyone’s on edge.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve always been like this,” she said, a little more quietly. “I get pissed off, I snap and say shit I don’t mean, and then I don’t wanna back down and say sorry because I think it makes me look like an idiot.” Another small shrug. “It’s a great system. Really working for me.”

I smiled faintly. “Well, you did apologize. To me, at least. So that’s a start.”

She sighed and glanced toward the cabins, then back at the fire. “I’ll say something to the others tomorrow.”

“Good idea.”

She nodded, then leaned back on her hands, staring into the flames. After a second, she looked at me again. “Thanks for not ditching me.”

For a while, neither of us said anything else. The fire burned down a little, and around us, conversations started to thin out, voices dropping as more and more people drifted off in small groups toward the bathroom blocks or the cabins.

Jasmine finally shifted beside me, glancing toward the dark stretch of path that led toward our cabin. “We should probably shower before we sleep,” she said after a moment. “I feel like I’ve got half the forest on me.”

“Yeah, same,” I said. “Let’s go grab our stuff.”

We stepped away from the fire together, the warmth falling off almost immediately as we moved into the darker stretch of ground beyond.