*Matt's POV*
"Home sweet home," Josh praised the very lodge he was walking into.
I shook my head, not exactly sure how I felt coming back in.
"Sweet is not the word I used," I replied as I placed down mine and Emily's bag down by the wall.
"Oh my gosh," Ashley sighed. "It's so good to be inside. Even if it's still kinda freezing in here."
"I'll get a fire going," Josh replied.
I looked around, seeing that there exactly wasn't much difference in this place, despite seeing some sheets on top of some furniture.
"This place barely looks any different," I said.
"Nobody's been up here," Josh said.
"Even with all the police coming on and out?" Ashley asked.
"Not a lot of action up here lately," Chris added.
"Nope," Josh agreed.
"Nothing really happened here," Imi added.
We were getting settled in until we were interrupted.
"What's up party people!" Mike shouted.
"Hey!" Jess greeted with a wave.
"Hey," Josh said happily.
I turned to Mike then a sudden vision of a memory came into my head.
I was looking through the telescope when I saw Emily and Mike hugging each other. I was fuming, thinking Emily was doing something I never thought she'd do.
My eyes narrowed darkly at him, ready for when I would get a chance to confront him about what happened earlier.
"Make yourself at home bro," Josh said.
"Will do," Mike replied.
I had enough and I was ready to confront him.
"Yeah," I grumbled. "Come on it. Take a load off, have whatever you want. You just take whatever you want anyways, right?"
I stood up and walked up to Mike, squaring my shoulders in the process, ready for a fight.
Mike backed up, looking a bit startled at my sudden action.
"Whoa, easy there cowboy," he tried to calm me down.
I didn't want to exactly push him but I was curious about why he was with Emily down at the trail.
"What the hell were you doing with Em out on the trail, huh?" I asked.
"What?" Mike was surprised.
"I saw you and Em, thought the telescope."
"Before? We just ran into each other. It'd been a while so we hugged and I said hello. Is that against the law?"
I took some time to think about it, deciding to just not push him. Maybe he did want to say hi to Emily and that was it. At least I hoped that's what he was doing.
"Right," I sighed, scratching the back of my neck awkwardly. "Yeah. Duh. Sorry, it's been kind of a long day. I overreacted."
"Nah man," Mike brushed it off. "Don't worry about it."
"We cool?"
"Yeah, yeah, totally."
I went ahead and took a seat where I was sitting before. I watched Mike sit and cuddle with Jess and I couldn't help but smile a little.
"Oh my god, that is so gross," I heard Emily say as she made her way in the lodge. "Are you trying to swallow his face whole?"
"Em..." I began.
"Seriously can she be any more obvious?" Emily continued, not even listening to me. "No one wants in on your territory, honey."
"Excuse me, did you say something?" Jess asked, looking confused as she stood up.
"Did you not hear me?" Emily complained. "Was your sluttiness too loud?"
"Sounds like someone's bitter she didn't make the cut."
"Yeah. It's all a big cattle call with that dreamboat. Congrats, you're top cow."
"Cuts real deep calling Miss Homecoming a cow."
I was conflicted. I really didn't want to see anyone fight but at the same time, I was far too loyal to Emily to stand against her.
"H-hey," I slight stammered to Jess. "You're making everyone uncomfortable, Jess-"
"Jealous much?" She snarled. "Emily too frigid for you too?"
"That's uncalled for," I protested. "Look-"
"Whatever," Jess sighed, turning away from Emily. "I don't give a crap what you think."
"At least I can think," Emily boasted. "4.0 bitch, honor roll. Suck on that while you're trying to sleep your way into a job."
I watched this catfight, feeling extremely uncomfortable with it. Mike looked like he didn't even care, Josh didn't pay attention, Chris, Ashley Sam seemed to watch with eyes wide and Imi looked like she was ready to intervene.
"Who needs grades when you got all the natural advantages you can handle," Jess said boastfully.
"Oh please," Emily groaned.
"You couldn't buy a moldy loaf of bread with your skanky ass," Jess insulted.
"Are you serious? You think that's insulting?"
"That bitch is on crack or something," Jess said turning to Mike.
I didn't like where this was going and Jess needed to stop.
"Jessica, you need to shut your mouth, okay?" I snapped.
"No," she replied, holding her finger in disapproval. "You're the one who needs to keep your nose out of other people's business!"
"Jess, that's not nice," I heard Imi chime in, standing between Emily and Jess. "He asked you to do a simple thing and if you'd kindly do it, I assure you nothing ain't gonna go wrong."
Jess looked like she was seething towards Imi.
"You know what? Imi, you need to stay out of it!" she shouted.
"Don't be harsh on my girl, Jess," Emily snapped.
"You know what?" Jess protested. "If Imi dated Mike, none of this would've happened!"
I became extremely uncomfortable hearing that. I remembered Imi had told me in English that Mike asked her out and they almost dated but she backed out because she thought that she wasn't Mike's type at all.
"Jess," Imi said. "You do realize why I backed out. I kinda figured out his type but I'm not spilling any beans about it. I was not his type so it's high time you learn a damn thing about me!"
"She has a point Jess," Emily said.
"Sad that you're coming in without a boyfriend," Jess snarled to Imi.
"Shut your fucking mouth, Jessica!" Emily snapped. "It's time you learn that Imi is nothing like you!"
"Oh please," Jess huffed, annoyed.
"Jess, you have to understand," Imi began. "You need to understand exactly where I'm coming from-"
"That's enough of you trying to walk into our business you bitch!" Jess grumbled before pushing Imi back down to her seat hard.
It hurt to watch Jess do this to Imi. They weren't exactly closest friends but Jess went way too far.
"And you deserve this!" Jess snapped at Imi before slapping her hard.
I noticed that everyone seemed to tense up a bit over Jess slapping Imi.
"That was uncalled for Jess!" Emily complained. "You knew she didn't deserve that! You can try pushing her out but I'm about to get right up in your business you bitch!"
"Are we about to get real?" Jess argued back. "Cause I am down to get real!"
"Stop it!" Josh suddenly yelled.
Everyone got quiet. It was strange since it was never really Josh's way to yell at anyone.
"This is not why we came up here," he continued. "This is not helping. It's not what I wanted. If we can't get along for ten minutes then maybe we need a little bit of a break, right?"
He turned to Mike.
"Mike, why don't you check out the guest cabin, the one I told you about."
Mike agreed before holding out his hand for Jess to take it.
"Want to go do that?" He asked her.
"Any place without that whore," she replied, pointing to Emily.
"It's right up the trail," Josh told Mike and Jess.
Mike and Jess walked out of the lodge before I turned to Josh who walked up to Imi who was still holding her cheek in shock.
"Are you okay?" he asked her while he comforted her.
"I think so," she replied. "Maybe I deserved it for being brave enough to walk into a catfight."
I shook my head in disagreement, still hating what I saw between three women.
"No you don't," Josh disagreed. "I get why Jess doesn't like you that much but she just needs to ease off on you."
She nodded before he turned to the fire place.
I sighed in relief, happy that now the catfight was done.
"Glad that's over."
I then turned to Josh who was trying to get the fire going.
"So, Josh, Uh..." I said awkwardly, knowing that he didn't like me very much at all but I didn't want it to end in a conflict. "Should we get this fire going?"
Before Josh could answer, Emily of course had to interrupt.
"Where's my bag?" she asked.
"Huh?" I wondered.
"My bag! The little bag worn the pink pattern, the one I got on Rodeo."
I sighed, not wanting to hear another word about Emily's shopping trips. They would get annoying.
"Matt, are you listening?" she continued. "Oh my god, don't you remember? Next to the Italian shoe place where I got the stilettos and you knocked over the rack while you were drooling all over that girl at the counter?"
"Well, I mean, she was asking about my letter jacket-"
"Right, because she gave a shit about your "designer" letter jacket."
"Why do you hate my jacket?"
"Matt, I need my bag!"
"Oh my god Em," I sighed, wanting it to end already. "May be you just forgot it-"
"Do you seriously think I'd forget my bag?" she protested.
"Well, I-"
"Do you?"
"Guess not."
"You must've left it down by the cable car station."
"Ugh!" I sighed.
"Come on hun, we'll be back soon."
We were just about to leave until I had one final question for Emily.
"And then we can warm?"
"We can get very warm," she smiled before we headed out of the lodge.
"Let's go," I said.
I followed her out of the lodge to go find her bag.
*Imi's POV*
I walked over to Josh to help him with the fire, hoping to do something that would distract me over what just happened.
I turned to the others briefly when I saw Sam stand up from where she was sitting.
"Okay, I'm gonna go take a bath," she sighed as she walked upstairs, leaving just me, Josh, Ashley and Chris.
I was just about to turn back to the fire until Josh turned to me, concerned.
"Fuck!" he whispered furiously. "I should've intervened sooner. Your cheek is pretty red. Hopefully it'll heal up. I'll make sure Jess apologizes to you when we see her again."
I nodded before turning back to the fire, hoping to get done with it.