Her mum had always told her, if she wanted to get anywhere in life that was somewhat meaningful, she needed to come out of her shell. She needed to show the world who she really was, trust in them to believe in her to be her best self. Nevaeh did this, she did it to the upmost of her ability. She had followed every word, down to the letter, that Jamie Ewatt had said to her. Every word of wisdom that she spoke. But now, now she was fearing that's she had come out of her shell a bit too much. She was beginning to think that she was too loud, too forward, too over the top. She was beginning to think that maybe if she just went back in her shell, just a tiny little bit, people would like her more.

She had been thinking about this the whole way to the stream. It wasn't that far away, but it was a decent walk. She walked through the winding paths in the forest, her eyes taking in the sights of vibrantly coloured trees and sounds of crickets chirping around her. The forest around her felt like a vibrant, pulsing organism, full of life. She could feel it coursing through her veins, and she knew that this was where she belonged. She felt like she was at home here, more at home than she had ever felt in her life.

"Do you want any help?..." Elliott spoke, pausing after he had said his sentence. Neve had just bent down to wash the pans in the stream, but she jumped straight back up as soon as she saw him.

"Uh... Yeah, that would be great." She said, bending back down to continue what she started.

Elliott followed her, bending down beside Nevaeh. They both paused, just staring at the pans until he decided to break the silence.

"Are... Are you OK?" he asked Nevaeh, looking up at her. "You seem a bit off, that's all... I don't mean to be rude," she looked back at him, thinking about what she was going to say. Going through multiple scenarios in her head of every way this conversation could go with her answer.

"Yep, I'm fine." She answered bluntly, "Just been thinking about some things... that's all."

"OK, but just know. If you need to talk to anyone about anything, I'll always be here to listen to you." He said, smiling at Neve, but the smile had some sort of affect.

It was almost as if the affection he had just shown had bounced straight back off of her, hitting him back in the face. She just stared down at the pan, not knowing what to do. She didn't want to push her work onto Elliott, but she didn't have the energy to do it herself. She just stared. She looked at the trees, with the sunlight seeping through the canopy to fall on the grass-Strewn floor. The trees surrounded in the lightest of mists, their trunks owning sable cracks that gnarl the bark. She had to give in, before she became cracks, gnarling away at his skin, until she ripped him apart, bit by bit.

"You know... You know if you don't want to, I can wash these last dishes? There's only 4 left. It won't take long." He said, he saw the emotion draining from her face for every second that she stayed up.

"No... No it's fine. Honestly. We can do it together."

"Neve, I can see that you're tired. Please just go and get some rest."

As much as he didn't want to, he was starting to get annoyed with her stubbornness. Oh wait, maybe this would be Nevaeh's first opportunity to be less forward, less stubborn. If she went to bed now, maybe Elliott would like her more!

"Fine. I'll go to sleep. Please come and get me if you want any help, OK?"

"I promise."

"OK... I'll see you in the-" she was stopped in her tracks. So much that she couldn't even finish her sentence. Someone. Someone was standing there. Watching the two of them. A tall figure, dark hair, dark eyes, wearing old screwed up clothes as if they had just been thrown on them.

"El... Elliott."

"What's up Neve?" Elliott said, turning around to face her, also noticing the shadowy figure in the background. "Neve... go." He whispered, leaning over towards her as he spoke.

"What? No! I can't just leave you here!"

"Yes you can, and you're going to. You're going to leave me here and go and get the others. OK? Get N" she marvelled over the fact that Elliott could speak in such a calm tone when nothing about the situation they were in was calm. At all.

"No! You're younger than me, less experienced, you can't just-"

"Oh for Christ's sake Neve."

Before she could even realise what was happening he wrapped his arms around her waist, gently pressing his lips against hers, as light as a floating feather. Elliott pulled her underneath his body, clasping the nape of her neck between his grasp. He felt her breath upon his cheek, and her hand gently placed upon her back. She looked up at him, his eyes meeting hers. She had not noticed it before, amongst all the acne he had upon the corners of his skin, there were scars. Tiny little cuts not noticeable from far away. She wanted to know anything and everything about the boy standing in front of her. His hair was drenched, water pouring from every corner. As the rain dripped down his face, it slowly glided on to hers, down her cheek and the crook of her nose. She has only before wished to look at his face, never mind kiss it, but it felt nice. Warm, as if the sparks they felt were conducting through their lips. A million lightning bolts seeping to their skin. Nevaeh didn't even realise it, but she was kissing him back. Her lips slightly parted and shaking beneath his. He showed her his longing for her, still awaiting her answer. She didn't want to admit that she was 24 and had never kissed anyone, but he made her feel completely at ease with herself. Nothing mattered anymore. Just him. Just her.

"Is that enough for you?" he said sharply. "Now please Nevaeh... Go!"

She was still in shock, having not completely processed what had happened. She just ran. Ran back through the forest and to the site where they had set camp. She ran not even stopping to catch her breath. Suddenly all the tiredness she had felt earlier had left, it was as if she had been struck with a sudden surge of energy. She saw Marcus lay on the ground, and honestly wondered for a minute if she had got there too late. She rushed down, sliding on the grass to shake him awake.

"Marcus. Marcus please wake up!"

"Huh... What- what's going on..." he mumbled, still half asleep.

"I- I- uh... El-" she stuttered. She didn't know what to say or how to say it.

"Hey, it's ok. Take your time." Marcus said, putting his hand on Neve's shoulder.

"We... we were washing the dishes, and there was someone... watching us." His face dropped. He immediately knew what she was going to say but let her finish anyway. "El.. Elliotts handling them now. We need- we need to go!"

"OK, uh yeah we need to go. I'll start running. You wake the others. Alright?" He said, gradually turning his back as he ran towards Elliott. She nodded back at him, knowing that he couldn't see her.

~

Elliott Wickham had never felt braver in his life. He had just mildly confessed his feelings to the girl he liked and was now fighting a man probably 3 times older than him.

"Who are you?" Elliott said. Staring at the man with a curious intent.

"None of your business." The croaked voice spoke back, blasting Elliott back to the trunk of a tree in one gust of wind. Smacking his back against it. He whimpered, struggling to stand up.

"Fucking arse." He said, grabbing the longest stick he could find.

He planted it into the ground and the stick began to grow, multiplying by the minute. Elliott yanked it out of the ground and used it as a staff. He had used it to block the man's attacks until he could get up close enough to him, and when he did, he punched him. It was a stern blow to his cheekbone, just missing the lip. Yet the man just stood. Completely unaffected. He chuckled. He wiped the blood slowly dripping from his cheekbone and stared at it upon his finger. He raised his eyebrows and then turned back to look down at Elliott, his blood pumping with adrenaline.

He couldn't run away. There was nowhere to go to. He was stuck. He had to fight. He grabbed the stick, and it grew thicker. He could not think of anything else but to hit him. He certainly wasn't strong enough without itz

The hit came a lot quicker than he'd expected. The man wasn't floored, but his legs were growing more and more unsteady the more he was hit. Believe it or not, it was working. Apparently he planned to walk through him like a pair of doors in those old timey American bars. With the little energy the man had left, he surged up one last gust of wind, forcing Elliott to the floor. Before he hit the ground, a rumbling had come from beside him. The ground was lifting up in a straight line all the way to the man. Knocking him clean off his feet and out cold onto the ground. It was Marcus. That punch took a lot more energy out of Elliott than he had thought. And it damn hurt his knuckles.

"Fucking arse," Marcus said.

"Already... said that one," he replied, squirming around trying to sit up against the tree.

"Hey hey," Marcus said, quickly rushing to Elliott's aid and helping him to sit still. "You OK?" he asked, even though he knew that the answer was obvious. I mean, his face was all busted up from this dude smacking his own weapon in his face. He certainly didn't feel it.

"Yeah... I- I guess," he said, rubbing the bottom of his neck, and chuckling as he spoke, "My neck hurts a little. He blew me straight into that tree."

"Let me look," Marcus said, lifting up the little hair he had at the back of his neck so that he could see. His neck was bruised, just like the rest of his back. And it was bleeding a little, especially towards the sides. The two of them turned sharply, they had heard some commotion behind the bushes. They didn't know who it was, if it was one of this dudes 'friends'. Marcus rushed to his feet, looking around frantically to see if they could use anything as a weapon, eventually settling for the pots and pans Elliott had just come to wash. But when their 4 friends came running through the bushes to their help, they were quite frankly surprised. They both eased their shoulders back up and stared at the four of them.

"Oh my GOD you scared us," Marcus shouted glancing around not knowing what to say.

“We scared you? You God damn scared us! Neve just came running to wake us up because you were in trouble!” Lucas said. He obviously wasn’t happy about being woken up but was glad to see both of them safe.

“Elliott, are you ok?” Alania asked, staring at the series of cuts above his eyebrow, and his busted lip.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Elliott said, looking up at Neve. She stared back, not knowing what to say or do. She had still barely managed to process what had just happened. She was confused, but happy. Excited that she had found someone who liked her but upset that now was probably one of the only times in her life that she would be too shy to say something. Elliott also felt confused, but also happy that he had actually plucked up the courage, and he also felt as if he would never do something like that again. He was overthinking it a lot.

“Come on El…” Nathaniel whispered, “Let me help you up…”

He held on to Nathaniels hand, pulling himself up with him. He stood, for a moment, before his legs gave in. His legs failed to support him and he crashed back down, clasping his side as he plummeted; Marcus rushing back down to his aid.

“Elliott! El what’s wrong?” He said, that odd, concerned look on his face.

He slowly peeled his hands off of his side, feeling a sharp object impaling his skin, a pool of blood seeping around it. He looked up at Marcus, concerned, and then at Neve, worried what had happened. He felt the warmth of the blood on his skin, both his hands and his side, as he started to breathe heavier in a panic.

“Oh my- does… does it hurt?”

"Well what do you fucking think?!" Nathaniel said.

“I cant… feel anything. Whats going on Marcus?...”

His face grew paler every second as the blood left his body. However it was soon wrapped back up in a bandage, and he was helped back to camp; overthinking his decisions the whole way.

‘Well she hasn’t said anything, does that mean that she doesn’t like me? Have I just made a huge fool out of myself? What have I done?!’ He thought, a bundle of thoughts, which was too much effort too late at night for him to decipher.