*okay, let me just say I had the absolute WORST time writing this chapter, and I don't really like how it came out. But thank you for all your reviews, and I was wondering why there's been such a lack of DxG stories lately...just busy writers, I guess. Oh well, enjoy and review if you could please.*
"Guys! Guys!" Was what Gwen heard as she slowly began to regain consciousness. She struggled to open her eyes fully, but when she did she had realized someone was calling for her. Wearily looking around, she saw Trent crouched down in front of the pair of them and sighed. (Duncan was still sleeping peacefully next to her.)
"What time is it?" She croaked. She rubbed at her face to remove any dirt marks or runny make-up stains and looked around. She was still bleary-eyed from her slumber, but she noticed their fire crackling brightly and with life nearby.
"Judging by the position of the sun, it's about nine AM." Harold's scratchy voice called over to them. He had obviously overheard. Gwen groaned as the sun began to beat down on her relentlessly and slammed her head down, forgetting it would collide with Duncan's shoulder. She heard him hiss and saw his eyes shoot open.
"Good morning to you, too." He greeted sarcastically, rubbing the spot she hit. She gave him a small smile and stood up to go to the campfire. It crackled furiously in the wind as she plopped down next to LeShawna, who handed her an energy bar.
"I'm getting sick of these." She whispered to herself, though LeShawna must've heard her.
"Harold's going to go out and look for some coconuts or something when we stop for the night. Ain't that right, Baby?" LeShawna looked over to the scrawny boy, who gave her a big, cheesy grin and nodded.
"Anything for you, fair LeShawna." She grinned at him and turned back to Gwen.
"Sorry for leaving you alone with Trent last night." She apologized to the other girl in a whisper. "Everything was fine though, right?" Gwen nodded. She wasn't going to say anything about the kiss, especially to LeShawna. Gwen loved her friend and trusted her just fine, but she feared that LeShawna would be unable to keep something this scandalous to herself. Everybody was finished soon and moved to the rock wall that was standing in their way of possible rescue.
"Do you think we need a rope?" Trent asked after a while. He was studying it with slitted eyes while his head was cocked to the side.
"Nah." Duncan responded, wiping his hands on his jeans. "We could just climb it." Before anyone could object, Duncan lunged himself at the rock wall, attaching himself to it a foot or so above everyone's heads.
"You're crazy!" Trent yelled, his eyes now slitted with annoyance rather than confusion. "We could fall at any moment!"
"Please." He responded in an unamused tone. "I've scaled up and down the walls of the Toronto Juvenile Detention Center more times than I'll ever admit to. I think I can handle a stupid cliff." And with that, he continued to tame the seemingly daunting rocks with ease. Harold screeched something about geology before throwing on his backpack and climbing up after Duncan, surprisingly with much agility.
"I'm coming, Harold Baby!" LeShawna screamed. With a head start, she was soon scaling up the wall easily.
"I guess I'll go up." Gwen sighed quietly.
"Do you want me to-t" Trent stammered. She soured up and glared at him.
"You've done enough." She informed him bitterly. Gwen had a little trouble finding something to grab onto, but once she did she found herself climbing easily. While she was making her third advance she heard Trent latch onto the wall some distance below her.
"Will you talk to me?" He asked her, his voice holding the slightest bit of annoyance. "I didn't do anything that wrong!" Gwen scowled immediately and whipped her head around to face him.
"Are you kidding me? You kissed me while I have..." She searched her mind frantically for the perfect word. "something going on with someone else!" Gwen whisper-yelled, her anger at the guitarist unmasked. He frowned while he climbed.
"So? You're calling it a something! It's not even a relationship, you told me!" He argued. She scoffed. He just wasn't getting it.
"Yeah, but we're kind of exclusive to each other, Trent! He's not going around kissing other girls and expecting me to have no problem with it!" Gwen shot back in an agitated whisper.
"How do you know?" He questioned below her. Her mouth hung open, shocked that he would stoop so low. She felt her stomach sink to her feet and tears prickle the back of her eyes at the thought of Duncan even doing such a thing. In an attempt to regain composure, she blinked quickly and scoffed shakily, making sure to kick pebbles and dirt in Trent's face as she advanced.
The group made it up the wall in good time, having only spent thirty or forty-five minutes climbing. Unfortunately, it appeared to be thirty or forty-five minutes wasted, as the area turned out to be only a yard or so big and empty at that. They climbed back down halfway before simply hopping off and beginning to walk straight again. The morning was uneventful but tiresome, so they had decided to take a longer break than usual at a small clearing they had stopped at for lunch. Gwen ate her bar in solitude, mulling over her own contradictory thoughts. Her eyes would wander to her fellow castaways every now and again, erupting different thoughts each time.
Her eyes focused in on Trent and her first instinct was to scowl. What he had done last night was horrible, she was sure of it! But still, her mind couldn't help but mull over his offer at a relationship. He was right that they wouldn't be in competition anymore; maintaining their happiness with one another would be a lot easier. Lately she couldn't help but think about what made her like him in the first place, too. Like how he was smart but not a total brainiac, how his enchanting words played out softly by the plucks of a guitar string, the smooth green of his round eyes. the mysterious aura he drowned her in when he looked up her through shaggy black bangs...she shook her head to clear her mind. She had to remember what he did. Had to remember. She watched him for a minute longer as a small bit of granola smacked the side of his head. He picked it up and growled at a laughing Duncan.
Her eyes stayed glued on Duncan for a moment. He's the reason she's so confused, right? If he wasn't here, she would be happy with Trent. But him not being here...her heart dropped. How much could she bear and have bared if he wasn't here? Some days on that stupid plane the only thing that kept her going was the prospect of seeing Duncan on the Aftermath show or even seeing him in person (which she had never expected to actually come true, but...). And for another thing, he was hot.Anyone would be attracted to him; what with his amazing sense of humor, I-don't-care attitude, teal eyes gleaming with danger, the green mohawk! She was obviously losing herself again.
Suddenly, she heard Harold cry out and looked over him just in time to see him dart into a nearby cave. The others around him glanced curiously in that direction before doing the exact same thing. Gwen stood up unsurely, hesitantly tilting her head to look. Then, she saw it.
A bear.
It was standing there, staring right at Gwen. Her breath caught in her throat and she backed away as fast as she could, inevitably backing into the same cave the other three had ventured into.
"W-was that a bear?" Gwen stammered nervously.
"Yes. More specifically, an Ursus arc-" Harold was cut off by Duncan aggressively clamping a hand over his mouth.
"No one cares, Dweeb." He informed him. With his hand still on Harold's mouth, he looked at the other three. "Anyone know how to get that thing away from us?" LeShawna gulped and held up Harold's raggedy backpack.
"We could give him the backpack." She suggested.
"What about all the food?" Gwen asked, pointing to the small stash of energy bars poking out of the top. "Maybe we could scare it away?"
"How?" Trent wondered aloud.
"Maybe a loud noise?" Duncan suggested. Harold began to gab under Duncan's hand again, to which the delinquent only tightened his grip. The other three thought over his idea for a moment.
"I guess it'd work." LeShawna replied. "But how're we 'gonna make a loud noise?" Again, the thought.
"What if we smash something against these rocks?" Trent proposed as he rubbed a hand against the side of the cave. Suddenly, Gwen's eyes lit up with an idea.
"Duncan! Give me your dog collar." Duncan looked at her as if she had grown another head.
"I don't think so sister!" He answered with a humorless laugh. His free hand was clamped protectively over his choker. "It took three days of quality dumpster diving to find this!"
"Seriously?" Trent yelled. "We could die!"
"If I'm going down, I'm going down with my dog collar!" Harold yelled again underneath Duncan's palm and soon everyone was yelling.
"Hey!" LeShawna yelled a few minutes later. "SHUT UP!" Everyone's jaws snapped shut immediately and their eyes turned to the girl. "Why don't we just make a run for it?" The five shared glances of agreement before peeking out of the cave. The bear was turned away from them, though the group could still hear its low, sinister growl just begging to eat them for lunch.
"Well, if we're gonna do this..." Duncan sighed. In one swift motion, he had slung Harold over his shoulder and dashed out of the cave, not stopping until he was (much to Gwen's relief,) a safe distance from the grizzly brown beast. Gwen gulped and looked at the other remaining two before nodding and doing the same thing as Duncan, though with her eyes squeezed shut in terror. She was panting heavily by the time she reached Duncan and Harold.
"You alright?" Duncan gasped for breath.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She responded. They stood there together with Harold rested and wheezing against a tree while they watched Trent and LeShawna debate over who went next.
"He kissed you, didn't he?" Duncan finally asked. Gwen's heart stopped.
"How did you know that?" She wondered sheepishly.
"I read you like a book, Sweetheart. You've been acting nutty all day, and Trent's been going gaga over you whenever you weren't looking at him, so...I kind of just put two and two together." He explained. Gwen was a little happy, yet also a bit suspicious over his cocky tone. It was unsettling to say the least. "You know, I have half a mind to bash his head into his skull." He informed her calmly.
"I thought you would." She sighed in response. He was quiet and Gwen began to wonder aloud. "Are you going to?"
"Do you want me to?" He shot back. "'Cause if you want to be with him or whatever I won't mess with-" Gwen knew the second she had done it it was a mistake, but she just wanted him to stop talking, to stop insinuating something might happen between her and Trent. It was when she actually started to enjoy the feeling of his lips on hers again that she realized that this was what she wanted; she wanted Duncan to start rambling on some nonsense no one cared about then stop him in the middle of it by planting one on his lips. It felt right, good even.
"Uh, what's going on here?" Trent's confused voice snapped Gwen out of it and she pulled herself from Duncan's embrace, her cheeks ablaze.
"N-nothing." She lied, suddenly taking interest in a shredded blade of grass beneath her feet.
"Mhm." LeShawna hummed, obviously not convinced.
"Is everyone okay?" Gwen changed to subject. "Good, then, let's go!"
Weary from their encounter with the bear, the teens stopped for the night after only a few minutes more of walking. It would still be light out for a couple hours so the five were hanging out around their bonfire, simply enjoying each other's company, all except for Gwen. She had wandered a yard or so from their camp, planting herself on a tree stump deep in thought.
"You planning on telling me what that was back by the cave?" A voice awokened her from her stupor and she smiled a bit as Duncan plopped himself in the grass diagonal from her. "Not that it wasn't incredibly hot, but it was sort of random." Gwen felt her cheeks darken and she quickly covered them with her palms, resting them on either side of her face.
"Sorry, I just, don't need to hear about how everyone's okay with me doing what I want! Ugh, I just wish someone would give me a more biased opinion! Maybe then I'd have some actual advice to help me figure this out!" She ranted until she was out of breath, adding a frustrated grunt at the end for emphasis.
"Whoa, don't go psycho on me! I could be biased and say I'd way rather have you doing inappropriate things in the forest with me but then you'd hit me." Was Duncan's reply, to which Gwen gave him a good smack on the arm. "See! like that!" He complained, but he was laughing. It took a minute, but their laughter soon died.
"Seriously, Babe, do what you want, I won't stop you." He admitted with outstretched hands as he walked back to the campfire. Gwen let out a puff of air and watched as her bangs danced in it.
"What if you arewhat I want?" She mumbled to herself. Then, looking around another moment, she added, "but what if you're not?" That was met with a facepalm and groan as she lay down to get some sleep, or at least try.
*Like I said, don't have much to say...I'm not satisfied with ittt! D: But could you all please review anyway? Even if it's just one word, I'll love you forever for it.*