Free The Remedy by Asher Ellis

the entire time.
    “C’mon, you guys,” she said, backing up to take a group shot of her three companions. “When else are we ever going to find ourselves smuggling pot through the woods? These are memories, people!” Her finger pressed down on the shutter button with an audible
click
. “Besides, it’s so beautiful here!”
    Sam nodded. “You guys did choose a good time to travel through this way, while the summer’s still holding on.”
    “We didn’t ‘choose’ anything,” Rob muttered, taking the lead as he pushed his way in between Sam and Leigh. “Labor Day was just our last chance before school started.”
    Leigh let Rob walk ahead and didn’t bothering commenting that he didn’t know the way. Instead, she turned to Sam and asked, “What day does your semester start?”
    Sam hesitated, biting his lip. “Actually, JCV’s fall semester is already in session. We began August 25.”
    “So why were you home? Did you get Labor Day off?”
    “Not exactly.” Sam’s voice lowered. “I’m at the end of serving a campus suspension.”
    Rob stopped in his tracks and spun a sneakered heel. “Hey, now!” Despite Sam’s best effort to keep the comment between himself and Leigh, Rob’s keen ears had picked up every word. “Things just got a little more interesting! All right, Sam, let’s hear it.”
    Even in the dim light, Leigh could see the red blossoming in Sam’s cheeks. “It’s nothing, really,” he said. But Leigh knew from experience that Rob wasn’t about to let him off the hook that easy.
    “Sam…”
    Leigh stepped in front of him. “He obviously doesn’t want to get into it. So let’s just leave him alone.”
    “No, it’s all right.” Sam pulled on the brim of his cap, a nonchalant gesture that Leigh couldn’t help but notice helped conceal his eyes. “Let’s just say I was defending the honor of a lady…and I may have gone a little too far.”
    Rob gave Sam an approving slap on the back and shook him playfully. “Sammy! Kicking ass for the ladies! How chivalrous. Fuckin’ Knights of the Round Table and shit.”
    “Ha,” Sam gave a forced, unenthusiastic laugh. “No, it was nothing like that. Just a brief loss of control that I’ve paid dearly for.”
    Leigh gently placed a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
    He returned her gesture with a warm smile. “Thanks, but it’s in the past. And believe me, I won’t ever make the same mistake.” He seemed momentarily lost in the troubling memory, but with a shake of his head pulled himself back. “Let’s keep going.”
    “Lead the way, Sir Sam,” Rob said. Usually, Rob’s sarcasm bothered Leigh to no end, but she found this comment quite comforting. All it took was one vague fight story to turn Sam into “one of the guys.”
    Leigh looked back down the trail to see that Eliza had wandered a little off the path to take a picture of two squirrels chasing each other up a tree. She circled the trunk, trying to catch the rodents in a still frame.
    “Eliza!” Leigh shouted. “Let’s go!” Her loud voice froze the squirrels in their dance; they became statues at the threat of a nearby predator. It was just the moment Eliza was waiting for. With a quick zoom in on their furry faces, she was able to capture a succession of perfectly framed pictures.
    The squirrels eventually finished their frenzied race up the tree and galloped off across the awning of tangled branches and leaves, leaving Eliza satisfied for having captured such a spontaneous moment. Snapping the cap back on her lens, she ran to catch up to her friends.
    She reached Rob first and was just about to wrap her hands around his eyes and whisper “Guess who?” when he walked through and then let go a thin branch stretching out into the middle of the path. The branch whipped back at Eliza, lashing the flesh of her neck just below her jaw.
    “Ow!” she shrieked as the scratch created a line of stinging pain that coursed across her skin.
    Leigh twirled