Be Careful What You Wish For CH. 4: The Camping Trip

As it was nearing the end of her fourth day camping, Alice was starting to feel very upset. She was roasting marshmallows with Haley, and as it's been every night since they started camping, the heat from the fire was causing her feet to once again sweat profusely. She intentionally sat a little further away from Haley than she had been because she could very noticeably smell the stench of feet pouring out of her shoes. Shoes that haven't been taken off since she had gotten here. She couldn't help but to keep wiggling her feet in disgust, as if wiggling her feet would free them from the sweaty torment that was her socks. What she wouldn't give for a nice cool shower and a fresh pair of socks right now.

    Meanwhile under her toe, Steve was wishing very much the same thing, but far worse than she was. He hadn't gotten a single whiff of fresh air since she put her shoe back on days ago. Because of her shoes still being in such awful shape when she put them back on her feet quickly went back to smelling just as bad as they did before she took her shower. The worst part was that her feet had reached that point by the time she finished helping set up camp, so it's only grown far worse since. He still had three more days of this growing agony to continue, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to mentally cope with it. He would give anything just to be able to sleep to make time go faster, but he wasn't even granted that luxury.

    Being in the woods made it far worse too. As she hiked through the woods walking on rough terrain, the bottoms of her toes pressed into her insoles far more often and harder than they did during normal walking. This meant far more pressure being placed on poor Steve at a much more frequent rate, and every time her toes pushed into her insole, sweat was forced up and into poor Steve. And there was still three more days with no break for Steve to look foreword too.

    "What's the matter?" Haley asked Alice. "You look really bummed out."

    "It's nothing," Alice responded quietly.

    "My parents are already sleeping in the camper, you can tell me what's bothering you. I won't tell anybody."

    "I forgot to do laundry before I left," she admitted, "now I've been stuck in the same socks since we left and my feet stink, and they're so wet and gross and horrible, and it's just so embarrassing because I can smell them from here, and.. and.." She just sighed and looked at the ground.

    "Is that why you haven't taken your shoes off since we got here? Because you're embarrassed?"

    Alice just nodded in response.

    "Ok listen. I'm going to tell you something, and I don't want you to get upset or freaked out ok?"

    "We've been best friends since the second grade, I won't get freaked out or upset. I promise."

    "Well for starters, from the day we met you had stinky feet. I don't know why, but honestly, it's one of the reasons I originally liked hanging out with you. I don't know what it is about girls feet, but I just find them very intriguing. I know you have cute feet, remember when we were younger and I used to paint your toenails all the time?"

    "Was that because you liked my feet!?"

    "Yea.. I don't know why you hide them in your shoes all day. You have very cute feet."

    "I don't know about all that, but I do know they smell, now more than ever. I hate it."
 

   "Well I enjoy the way they smell. I don't know what it is about the smell that fascinates me so much. You know all the times you come over and sleep with your shoes on so that I don't have to suffer from the smell of your feet? Although I always play along, I've really been secretly wishing you would take your shoes off so I could see just how bad your feet really smell."

    "You know, it's kind of funny that you say that. I've noticed my brother is kind of like that. Always making excuses to get close to my feet, trying hard to hide the deep breath he takes in through his nose. Actually, right before I left I thought it would be funny to hide my dirty pair of socks from last week under his pillow so he could smell my feet while he slept!"

    The girls both laughed for a second at what she had done.

    "Well if he's anything like me, I'm sure he'll be very thankful for the gift you left him," Haley said. "I just hope I'm not weirding you out or anything.."

    "No, not really," Alice responded, "dealing with it with Steve makes it a little easier to understand it. It's just a lot to take in, and a little hard to believe. Like, if i took my foot out of my shoe right now and put your nose directly under my toes, you would enjoy that? That would make you happy?"

    "Honestly, yes. Very much so. I've wished for that for a long time."

    "You know what, maybe this could be fun. You wanna do it?"

    Haley's face lit up with excitement. "Yes yes yes yes yes. But can we do it in the tent, I don't want my parents to wake up or something and see."
   

 "That'll stink up the whole tent though!"

    "I'm fine with that," Haley replied with a grin.

    Alice shrugged her shoulders as she started to get up. "Ok I guess. If this is what you really want."

    "Oh it is," said Haley who's grin had now grown to a smile.

    Alice was still a little unsure and self conscious. She didn't know if this was a good idea. What if she completely disgusted Haley and hurt their friendship? On the other hand, maybe if she really enjoyed it Alice would be able to not be so self conscious and embarrassed by the smell of her feet all the time. They both climbed into the tent, and Haley zipped the door shut.

    As Steve was getting squashed about by her ever flexing toes he could hear the girls muffled voices talking above him. As disgusting as his situation was, he was able to temporarily distract himself from, well, most of the torture. He heard as Haley started telling Alice that she loved feet. Steve felt maybe a little less foolish. She sounded much like him, so given she chance she might have been foolish enough to make the same stupid mistake he did.

    Then he heard as Alice started talking about him and how she noticed all his attempts to sneak in whiffs of her feet. He felt embarrassed and outraged. How could he have been so careless. And after hearing what she did with her dirty socks, the time spent in his room with her laughing made far more sense now. And he realized something that shattered his heart. Had he never made that wish, a matter of days later, his sister would have left the dirtiest pair she ever made for him to have and enjoy. He could have gotten exactly what he wanted had he just waited.

    His own thoughts distracted him from the conversation going on between the girls. He was brought back to attention as he felt is whole world start flying again. He could hear the crinkle of the tent under her shoe as she stepped inside. He figured she must be going to bed. He heard the tent zip shut and started to ready himself for a long, smelly, disgusting tasting, boring night of being stuck to her horrid sleeping feet. But as she settled to a stop her feet remained flat on the ground, not upright as she normally would when going to bed. Then he heard an odd, almost sniffing sound above him.

    Could it be? Is Haley sniffing Alice's feet? This proceeded on for about another minute before he felt Alice lift her foot slightly off the ground. He could hear the sound of the slight pop as Haley removed Alice's shoe from around her heel and he was instantly met with a rapid burst of fresh air. Well, the air may not have been much more fresh, it was more that the stench was now less concentrated. As Alice rested her foot back down, when it came to a stop there was something now pushing up hard on Steve. Without warning there was a large gust of air that was pulling away from the underside of her toes and it dawned on Steve. The thing that he was getting crushed into was Haley's nose, and the long gust of wind was her breathing. Steve was in utter shock. He wasn't quite sure where this was headed, but he hoped and prayed that it would end with him being found...

To be continued...