Closed Crossing the Creek

Susie tried to help Eoghan onto the bank. Sheesh. He was gonna be super cold. She looked at Lili, chewing her lip. They could go home, probably should go home, but the diner was just as close in the other direction, and he'd probably still dry off there. It was like Luke said - the hot chocolate would warm him up. "Yeah," she said. She was the oldest person here who knew the way through the woods, so that probably made her the leader, and she'd made her decision. "The diner's, like, five minutes that way." She pointed up the hill. "We'll get there real fast. Luke, give him your coat."
 
Luke immediately turned round and headed in the direction Susie had pointed, pretending he hadn't heard his sister.
 
Eoghan appreciated that Lilith gave him her scarf, although he was nervous she was going to get cold too since she'd also dipped into the water on his behalf. "I..it's.. o..kay," he got out through stuttering breaths, although he was too cold to try and hand it back. As Luke and Susie mentioned they needed to get to the diner, Eoghan could only trust that it really was that close. He didn't really feel like retracing their steps back the way they'd come, it felt like it would be so far away now and besides, he didn't want to ruin the trip for anyone else.
 
Five minutes? The diner wasn't five minutes away. That was a lie. Susie just didn't wanna go home 'cause she wouldn't get her hot chocolate. Like that was super important. Freddie stood on the opposite bank, quiet for a moment. They were all bigger than him. They wouldn't listen to him. But he didn't wanna go. Eoghan couldn't even breathe properly. "It's twenty minutes," he said. A bit louder. "It's twenty minutes. And then twenty plus twenty - forty - to come back again. That's an hour of walking."
 
Susie rolled her eyes. Yeah, it was an hour of walking in total. But Eoghan would dry off at the diner after the first twenty. If they went home now, it'd be twenty plus twenty plus twenty plus twenty plus twenty. That's if they even bothered to come out again after. She really, really wanted to show Lili and Eoghan the mall. "Freddie, it's ten at the most," she said. "Come on. It'll be fine - look, Luke's gonna give him his-" She turned around, but her other little brother had wandered off. Ugh! Why were they so annoying? They were gonna embarrass her in front of her friends. She looked at Freddie. It was tempting to just leave him behind, but Aunt Thalia would kill her. "Everyone else is ready to go. Come on."
 
Lilith's eyes were ping ponging between the siblings as they bickered about the best course of action. She then looked at her boyfriend that didn't look too well off in the moment. Yeah there was no way they were going to make the walk there and then back again. He'd get very sick it was better to just go straight back, that way they wouldn't have o do it later. No amount of hot chocolate was going to prevent him from getting sick and the longer they stood there bickering in the cold wind, the worse off Eoghan was. "Susie I'm sorry, I know how excited you were to show us this and I really wanted to see it but given the situation it would be very careless to go there considering then we'd have to make the trip back. Dry or not its still extra walking, Eoghan could get very very sick." She hoped Susie wouldn't get mad at her, but making the trip there now and then back was extremely careless.
 
Susie looked at Lili, and Eoghan, and then at Freddie, who still hadn't moved. Seriously? He was gonna ruin another walk for her? The last one wasn't really his fault, but...

She held her hat, trying very hard not to scream. Okay. Whatever. Eoghan would've been fine, but whatever - maybe Lili was right. His clothes probably wouldn't dry all the way, and it was a long walk back in the cold. Even if he didn't get sick, it probably sucked. "Yeah. Yeah, fine. LUKE!" she yelled. "WE'RE GOING HOME!"

Back over the log, then. As she passed Freddie, she glared at him. "It was. Ten. Minutes. I hope you're happy."
 
It was true that it would be extra walking, there and back again, but couldn't Eoghan dry off at the diner? Surely there were other shops around there too, places he could get other clothes or sit near a fireplace for an hour. "Ten... mins doesn't sound, too, bad," he didn't look at Lili who'd been fighting his case to go home. Eoghan didn't want to go home, he never had the chance to see new places and he'd never actually had a hot chocolate that wasn't full of instant chocolate powder. He looked in the direction Susie's youngest brother had gone, "Besides, he's already, over the hill," it was true, the Hufflepuff had called for him but the boy had already dropped out of sight. "I'll be... fine," his skin was turning paler than was even usual for him, but ten minutes and they'd be back in the warm. Besides, he was the one who was most wet, shouldn't it have been his decision? He knew he wasn't the loudest of a group, but he could still talk for himself. Eoghan was still feeling a bit freaked out about the whole thing, so if nothing else the hot chocolate was a good distraction too.
 

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