WHEN I FELT the rain droplet on my lip, my eyes widened and I gasped. "See? Do you see that?" I asked him, and Finn nodded, eyes falling to my lips for a second before he looked up at the sky again.

I felt my ears heat up for some reason, and I quickly wiped the tiny drop away. That was when the wind started to pick up, and then, just a bit, the clouds started to gather and darken. No one else at the bonfire noticed. 

Finn turned back to me. "It looks like you're right." 

"Checking the weather app is the secret of my success," I deadpanned.

His lips parted in realization before they slightly lifted at the corners. "Wiser words were never said, ma'am," he played along, grinning. He gave my shoulder a nudge, his smile playful, and I just rolled my eyes, hiding my own smile. 

We told Jolene and Renzo about the current situation, and we all started to walk back from the bonfire. I could feel a chill in the air, and the soundscape shifted, too: the gentle whisper of the breeze transformed into a persistent whooshing sound, getting punctuated occasionally by sharper, more forceful gusts. A couple of the people around the bonfire started to notice, but I guessed that the heat of the fire and the burn of the alcohol must have made them mostly oblivious. 

Just then, the air began to stir with an increased urgency, as if it were gathering momentum. Finn broke out in a jog and the rest of us followed. But halfway to the jeep, the clouds opened suddenly, and it started to rain. 

"Uh-oh," I heard Renzo mutter, and we quickly went and huddled under a place where there was a bench with a wooden ceiling-type structure covering it. Except the wood was just beams at the top, and there was no cover over it, so rainwater fell harshly through the even spaces. 

And so I pulled out my favourite cardigan; it was my favourite for a reason. Why? Because when you pulled an elastic on the left hand sleeve, it opened and expanded into a sort of cover. You couldn't even tell the material was waterproof, and when I'd gotten it on sale for 50 percent off, I knew I had found a treasure of some sort. I liked it because you wouldn't guess upon first sight that it could do all that. 

"Woah!" Jolene grinned, then clapped her hands. "Thank goodness for you, Cora." She grabbed a hold of one corner of the (now large) lavender coloured material, and soon enough, the guys had stopped staring in awe to follow along as well. 

"Cora-bean," Renzo sighed as he practically wringed out the entire Nile from his shirt, "this is why I love you."

"Aww, I love you too," I giggled, and Renzo winked at me. I grinned to myself; who would'a thunk my little bought-on-sale shapeshifting cardigan would save the day?!

We waited there for a while, looking out for even a small break when the rain was lighter so we could make a run for the jeep, but the rain seemed to pelt down even harder. 

I sighed quietly, tiredly running a hand through my damp hair as I held the cover up with my other hand. I looked out from under the cover again, to no avail. 

"Are you always this prepared?" I heard someone ask, and it was none other than Finn. I turned slightly to look at him and he stepped closer to me so we could hear each other better over the rain. 

"I try to be," I said, lifting a shoulder casually. 

"Yeah, you always seem to be..." Finn looked at me curiously. "How do you do it?"

I felt my face heat up a bit. "Well...personally, it's kind of a mindset I just have to have. Thinking ahead, guessing what could go wrong, and having a solution ready." 

It slightly pained me to say it out loud because I totally felt like a pessimistically cynical naysayer, but it was mostly the truth. I worried like the Easter bunny with an empty basket or a penguin in the Sahara.  I worried like worry was oxygen and I was a drowning rat, which, by the way, was what I probably looked like right now. I suppressed a gloomy sigh.

Finn sighed instead, and for a second I wondered if he was reading my thoughts, but when I looked at him I noticed he wasn't even looking at me. "I wish I was as half as prepared as you," he admitted. "Especially since I..."

"Since you...?"

"I kind of just want to...travel, you know? There's so much out there, and wouldn't it be cool to just see as much of it as we can?"

I nodded with understanding. Well, with as much understanding as I could, because just thinking about the type of planning traveling for someone like me would require made me want to cartwheel straight into the ocean. 

But then Finn's eyes lit up. "You know, Carol―"

"Cora." 

He just grinned.

"―Jolene and Renzo and I are going on a trip to Anaril― which is a mountain town by the way― and Cora...you should come with us. It'll be fun, trust me." Finn's eyes held their usual brightness, except now, excitement made his dark gaze draw me in with an intensity that spoke volumes. I looked away for a moment, letting all my rational considerations flood to the forefront of my thoughts.

"Well, when is this whole trip happening?" I questioned, and Finn hesitated. I raised my eyebrows. "Well?" 

"We leave tomorrow." His noncommittal shrug pained me so much I swear it made my esophagus hurt.

"Tomorrow?" I repeated, mouth parting in surprise. 

Finn grimaced, then gave me a sheepish smile as he added, "...Morning."

"Morning?" I all but screeched. I took a breath to centre myself. "Um, okay, morning could mean, like eight-thirty or something, right, Finn? It's not, like―"

"Four-thirty, early morning."

"Four-thirty? Early morning?!" My jaw practically hit the floor.

Finn gave me an amused look. "So you're just going to repeat everything I'm saying?"

I snapped out of my surprise and I rolled my eyes instead. "It's called being in shock, Not-Neel. Puh-lease. I don't know if you've noticed, but most normal people don't invite people to run away with them―"

"I was not offering to, like, elope with me―"

"―to a foreign land at two in the morning."

"Four thirty, actually―"

"Exactly. Like, I rest my case, your honor! I rest my case." 

"All you have to do is pack your bag, Cora. Now, is that so hard?"

I gaped at Finn. "What do you mean, 'all I have to do'? It's not that simple, Finneas―"

"Woah, bringing out the full first name was uncalled for." He looked at me faux-innocently, totally enjoying this. "Am I in trouble?"

"Yes," I huffed, "you are! Like, seriously, do you know how hard it is to―"

"You getting heated 'bout this, Cora?"

"Of course I am!"

"Well, dang. Anger looks hot on you."

"Wha- Excuse you?"

"Sorry, ma'am," he said sarcastically, pulling his lower lip between his teeth as he hid a grin. "Please continue."

"Very―"

"Don't tell me you're going to say 'very well'."

What the- How'd he know? 

"I admit to nothing," I mumbled, glaring at him as a telltale heat crawled up my neck. "Um, as I was saying―"

"Uh...guys? The rain's letting up a bit." We turned to see Jolene looking at us with her eyebrows raised. 

"Oh-" I started. 

"Let's go, then." Finn interrupted me, cheekily ignoring the look I gave him.

"Please don't mind us though," Jolene said sarcastically, grinning as she let go of her corner of the cover and stepped out from under it. "Sorry if we were interrupting something. Continue, don't stop on our behalf."

Confusedly, I opened my mouth to say that it was alright and she wasn't interrupting anything, when Renzo snickered, "And get a room while you're at it."

Oh. 

Oh. 

I blushed, face blazing like someone had poured molten lava over me, and my mouth fell open, but no sound came out. I shut my trap and swallowed, not daring to look at Finn. 

Because, oh.

"It's not like that," I squeaked, mortified, but Jolene and Renzo just hooted with laughter and set down the path to the parking lot. Finn slowly let go of his corner of the lavender cover, and I hastily pulled it towards me, tugging on the sleeve elastic so that it returned to its normal size. 

"Sorry about that," he said finally, and I just shook my head like, Oh it's totally fine. Supposed sexual tension all the way, hurrah. 

The weirdness didn't last because as soon as we started walking, Finn commented on how slow I was walking ("I'm pretty sure I just saw a snail pass us, Miss A.B.," he just had to say, and then offered to carry me back to the jeep). Sigh. 

At home that night, I sat on my bed, contemplating. 

Because it wasn't after dinner that the outcome of the games at the bonfire really struck. I really didn't think the Memory Jar/Never Have I Ever game was something anyone wanted to win with their cup still completely full. Not to mention the first game: the way everyone turned to me, it was almost scary, especially when I played it over and over in my head. 

And then, during dinner, Finn mentioned the Anaril camping-slash-trekking trip again, and when Renzo tried to bamboozle me into joining them I'd just laughed at his antics. But that wasn't the issue; far from it, actually. I was surprised by the fact that Aunt Cheryl didn't even react to that. Well, she'd laughed along with me, swatting at Renzo's shoulder playfully, but I was sitting there, kind of expecting some concern, or maybe some sort of expression that told me she wanted me to go or expected me to. But she'd just passed the potato salad bowl along to Jolene, oblivious to the fact that I'd almost choked on my garlic bread from confusion. 

After dinner, Jolene had given me one of the small information flyers about the trip. Anaril, it read in bold letters, your one-stop mountain town for the ultimate trek. The cute purple flyer continued on with what to expect, including starry nights and amazing local food, and with information on things one might want to bring along. There would be tickets available for the train until the last boarding minute, which was quite strange to me, because all that last minute planning for the extra people? Oof. 

But at one a.m., after hours of laying awake on my bed, I suddenly wanted to go to this foreign, exotic, starry-night-filled mountain town, Anaril. 

I needed a vacation. A true one, not just sitting around, letting Aunt Cheryl take me to plant stores. Sure, it was fun, but it was a universally acknowledged truth that no one could stand watching me fawning over plants for too long, for they would turn crazy too. 

I wanted a thrill. Over the years, I had built a cocoon around me, and I was starting to realize it, and maybe, just maybe, I didn't want this cocoon for myself. Not anymore. 

And so I got up and packed my bags. 

If anyone was watching me then, they would have thought that I was fleeing the country or something. I shoved in clothes and shoes and toiletries in every available space, muttering to myself about how many pairs of socks I had and whether I would actually need my fresh lavender hand sanitizer. 

I ended up packing it. 

I then scrounged around in the dark for something more suitable for the train station. Ditching my pajamas, I pulled on a pink button down blouse and high waisted trousers, and then a pink headband in my hair to keep it out of my face. I was ready to do this. 

I didn't wake Aunt Cheryl up. I grabbed my bags and tiptoed downstairs in my socks. Once I was in the kitchen, I grabbed a bunch of candy bars from the red bowl inside the cabinet and stuffed them into my bag. Then, I went to where Aunt Cheryl and I had put all the plants we had brought the other day, picked up two of the smallest ones. I carefully wrapped them in small separate damp bags before packing them into my bag.

I checked (for the fifth time that minute) if I had my purse and money before I made my way to the entrance. After I shoved my shoes on, I wrote a long text to Aunt Cheryl and then set it so that it would send at a specific time; precisely, after she woke up and had breakfast, which was around eight thirty. It would be a shock to her, one she didn't need first thing in the morning or while she was eating. Sure, she wasn't the one with a choking problem (cough cough), but alas, I couldn't help but be considerate that way, ahem. 

I looked around at the house one last time before I prayed to my stars, grabbed my bags, quietly opened the door, and left. 

A/N: There are only three types of people:

a) those who like camping; ✨⛺😻
b)  those who don't; 🏕️⛔🙈
c) and those who've never tried it
    because stories of Bigfoot scarred them as a child,
& they'd rather fulfill their werewolf fantasies through books,
            thank you very much. 🥲🐺💅

Have you ever snuck out somewhere?