Forest

Chapter Thirteen

    A teacher runs over, grabbing Forest and pulling him off Jackson. Grabbing them by the backs of their shirts, the teacher pulls them up and whisks them towards the main office. Before they disappear, Forest turns his head to look at me, concern for me in his eyes. He just got into a serious fight with his best friend, and yet he's still worried about me.

   It's in this moment that I know I'm falling for him, and hard. I know Forest, and I know it had to have been hard for him to cross his best friend like that. To give up his reputation, everything he's worked hard to keep under wraps, gone. The mask he's built was torn off today, and that must have been difficult for him to handle. Not to mention, he just broke a rule for me, which will inevitably be reported back to his parents. He's going to get in so much trouble, but he didn't care, because he was sticking up for me.

"What just happened?" Stacy asks from beside me, giving me her hand to help pull me off the ground. I stand up, grabbing my bag off the ground, and walk it off like nothing happened.

"I have no idea." I say, looking back to where Forest was just taken. I hope he will be okay.

Later that day, when I'm sitting outside, a knock sounds on my door. I startle, no one ever knocks on my bedroom door. I take a puff of the cigarette I had in my mouth one more time, then put it out, stuffing it in my pocket to deal with later. I climb off the roof and into my room through the window, shutting and locking it. I stalk over to my bedroom door just as someone knocks on it again, I open it, not shocked to see Athena standing on the other side.

"What?" I ask softly, never raising my voice.

"There's a very handsome boy downstairs, he said he was looking for you." She whispers back.

"You let him in the house?" I whisper yell. She shrugs, walking off to her room across the hall from mine. I sigh, practically running downstairs to get to him. Forest is standing in the entrance of my house, looking at the basically ancient photos hanging on the wall. He's looking at my childhood, which would make me extremely uncomfortable with anyone else, but nothing ever makes me uncomfortable when it's him.

He looks dangerous with a bruise on the side of his face and a frown tugging at his lips, his hair is wet from what must have been a shower. Dangerously hot, I must say. I grab his arm and pull him out of the house, embarrassed that he even saw it in the first place. It's not the house I'm embarrassed of, it's a normal looking house, it's the memories and the dark vibe it holds. All the secrets laying within. It's my motionless father rocking back and forth on a rocking chair right in the living room. And he saw it.

"You can't be here." I tell him softly, closing my front door and stepping out on the porch with him. His frown deepens. I'd do anything to wipe it off and make him smile again.

"Why not?" He runs his finger through his hair and I swear I almost die. Oh to replace his fingers with mine.

"Because....I..." I can't find the words right now. I can't focus with his eyes on me like this, all green and beautiful. "Because." Is all I end up saying. I'm an idiot. He grins, looking like a beautiful devil. His look catches me off guard, because he always carries the vibe of a golden retriever. This is not giving golden retriever. It's insanely attractive.

"Your eyes are pretty." He blurts out, as if our minds are linked. We were thinking the same thing. My insides melt, old wounds healing.

"People always call them freaky."

"People are stupid." People don't see me the way you see me, I want to say. His pretty eyes scan my face. His grin disappears, his eyes fill with concern again. "Have you not taken care of those wounds?"