(Author's POV)
Lucy and the stranger walked back along the stone path toward camp. He had both hands in his pockets, his pace unhurried.
"Did you just get here today?" he asked.
"This afternoon," Lucy said. "With some friends. We want to catch the sunrise."
She kept it short. She didn't know this man.
He nodded and didn't push further.
They walked in silence for a moment. The path was uneven in places, the stones laid unevenly across the hillside, and the light from the dining tent was just bright enough to see by.
Then it wasn't.
The lights cut out. One second the whole ridge was lit up, and the next second it was gone - total darkness, the kind that has weight to it. Lucy's foot came down wrong. The edge of a stone caught the side of her shoe and her body tipped sideways before she could stop it.
She grabbed the nearest tree trunk. The bark scraped across her palm and she gripped it hard, holding still until the ground felt solid again. Then she let go and pressed her hand flat against her chest. Her pulse was going. That had been close.
She became aware that the man's hand was extended toward her. When she looked up and their eyes met, he pulled it back.
"You alright?" he said. His voice was the same - low, even.
"Fine," she said. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
A few seconds later, the lights in the dining tent flickered and came back on. Probably someone testing a circuit. The ridge reappeared around them, the path clear again.
They kept walking.
When they reached the end of the path, Lucy turned and pointed out the layout - the grill tent to the left, the rest area further along the row.
He looked where she pointed, then looked back at her.
"Thank you," he said. "For walking back with me."
"It was on my way," she said. "Good night."
She turned and walked toward the light and noise of the dining tent, leaving him standing at the edge of the path.
The tent was loud when she pushed through the entrance. Someone had put a pot of hot cocoa on one of the portable burners, and it was bubbling steadily, the smell of it warm and sweet in the cold air. The ribs on the grill had gone dark and crisp, still sizzling. A row of corn cobs sat beside them, the husks charred black at the edges.
Lucy's chair was taken.
Nina had moved into it while she was gone. She was sitting right next to Brian, shoulder to shoulder, her elbow bumping his every time she shifted. She was eating a rib and hadn't looked up.
Brian was leaning slightly toward her. He didn't seem to know he was doing it.
Lucy didn't say anything. She found the empty chair next to Owen and sat down.
Brian saw her. He started to push his chair back.
"-and then the dog just came out of nowhere," Nina said, her voice going up. "And Owen just took off. Full sprint across the field."
Brian stopped moving.
Nina reached over and tugged his arm. "Do you remember? Last summer, at the apple orchard?"
"Yeah," Brian said. He glanced at Lucy, then settled back into his chair.
"The dog was massive," Nina continued. "And Owen was running, and his hat was basically flying off his head, and he was-"
"I wasn't screaming," Owen said flatly.
"You were absolutely screaming."
"I was calling for help. There's a difference."
Nina laughed and grabbed Brian's arm. "Tell him. You were there. Back me up."
Brian said, "Your voice was pretty loud, man."
"There it is." Nina pointed at Owen with her fork. "Witness testimony."
Owen looked at Lucy with the expression of someone who had heard this story at least four times and was done with it.
"Can we talk about literally anything else," he said.
Lucy leaned back in her chair and pulled out her phone. She found the campsite's website and started reading through it. The whole mountain was a large commercial operation - tents from the summit down to the midpoint, prices tiered by elevation. Cheaper than she'd expected.
Owen slid a plate toward her. Grilled corn and a coleslaw, pushed to the edge of the table closest to her.
"Eat something," he said. "We're all friends here."
"Thanks," Lucy said. "I'm not really hungry."
Nina didn't look up. "She's watching what she eats. Girls do that."
She reached across and tapped Owen's arm, signaling for him to pass her the ribs.
Cole, sitting across from Nina, shook his head. "Some people just think about what they put in their bodies. You're on your fourth rib."
"Fifth," Owen said.
"It's a camping trip," Nina said. "I'm not going to sit here counting calories." She set down her fork. "I hate that, honestly. Girls who make eating into this whole production. Every bite is a big deal, they're talking about their skincare routines - I just live my life. I don't have time for all that."
She waved her fork in Lucy's direction.
"This afternoon I watched you put on sunscreen at least three times. Like, layering it. Who does that?"
A few people around the table laughed.
Lucy looked up from her phone.
"You don't wear sunscreen?" she asked.
"Never." Nina shrugged. "It's sticky, it smells weird. I'm not going to bother with all that. Unlike some people who have to make a whole thing out of every little detail."
Lucy looked at her for a moment.
"I can tell," she said, "that you really don't care what other people think."
The laughter around the table didn't stop. It just shifted slightly - the way a sound changes when something moves through it. No one could have said exactly what was different.
Nina's expression flickered. Her brow pulled together, just a fraction. She opened her mouth, then closed it.
Lucy gave her a small, easy smile and looked back down at her phone.
Nina sat there. She picked up her fork. She turned the words over, looking for the edge, the place where she could push back. The sentence had the shape of a compliment. It had sounded like one. But something in it sat wrong, and she couldn't find where to put her finger on it.