Forest Boy

[8] The Lake Part 2

I called out his name.

No reply.

It must've been almost a minute since he disappeared. I thought about everything I could do to help him, but I couldn't do any of them- I was too scared! 

Slowly, not far from the epicentre of the ripples, a white figure began to rise from the depths. After a few more seconds of watching and I made out that it was Rhyse. Swimming over cautiously, I realised he was face down in the water and still as a rock. When I got to him I flipped him over and began calling his name over and over again but he wasn't responding and his chest wasn't moving- he wasn't breathing! Was he already dead? 

I tried my hardest not to freak out as I tried dragging him back to dry land but he was heavier than I anticipated.

Suddenly I was tugged back and a startled yelp was forced out of me. I looked back at Rhyse whose eyes were open and he had the biggest grin on his face as he breathed in deeply. "Did I scare you?" He asked as he brushed away his brown curls from his face.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was this another prank? When I realised that it was, I shoved him away and flipped him off silently. He had my heart racing probably twice as fast as it was supposed to for a joke! This guy really had a sick sense of humour. 

"What is it with you and death? What kind of joke was that? You really had me worried, are you thick in the head?" I almost yelled at him. He seemed unphased by my response. 

"Aw, did you worry about me, Sophia?" He teased.

He smiled, mouth open and hand pointing at me when I didn't respond. Clearly, my face gave away that I was in fact worried. But who wouldn't be? If you thought someone had drowned in front of you, you'd be concerned too.

Rhyse laid on his back, floating on the water like nothing just happened. I watched him for a few moments. He wouldn't know this because his eyes were now closed and a serene smile stuck on his face. His mahogany hair floated around his head like Medusa's serpents.

"By the way," he peeked an eye open and glanced at me, "I'm not gay, and you look really good," then he closed his eye again.

I didn't even respond. I just closed my eyes and copied him and lying on my back too. It was so peaceful and quiet here. Being in the water was nice after a while; the sun's intensity and the water's crispness was a perfect middle-ground for relaxation.

I had to say, so far, it had been a very eventful summer holiday. I liked it. It was different.

Soon enough, the sun's heat became too much and we retreated to land. Rhyse and I were just sat on the grass with our feet still in the lake as we spoke about TV shows we enjoyed; he didn't watch a lot because they didn't always have a good connection so he mostly read books. It was so strange hearing about all the stuff he hadn't done before, the games he hadn't played, places he hadn't visited and food he hadn't tried. He'd never had ramen noodles before, he'd never seen or even heard of Titanic, he wasn't familiar with memes or any of the 21st-century things most teenagers were familiar with. He'd never even had alcohol or a girlfriend! He was, however, extremely good at maths and physics, and could speak Latin, French and Spanish pretty fluently because of the free time he had, and lack of city distractions. His parents took him out of the forest once a month to get supplies they needed to live out here since English forests didn't provide the most food and resources in the world.

My head turned in the direction of the sound of crunching leaves growing closer and closer. A pair of brown sandals gradually appeared through the dead foliage. The feet were white and the ankles skinny, meaning it could only be Rhyse's mom.

She had an aloof expression stapled to her face, that was, until, her eyes landed on me. They scanned me up and down and then looked to her son. We were still both in our underwear waiting for our clothes to dry off some more before we put them back on. She didn't take this into consideration as she yanked her son up and forced him to put his shorts back on. I sheepishly hurried back into my clothes and before I could even turn to say goodbye to Rhyse, he was off, dragged by his mother as she grunted something about chores and gave me one last glare.

I made my way to my cabin, where my family were now all up. I put one of the knives in the box on the front porch and kept the other so I could go wash it. My mother was in the kitchen making today's lunch which was probably some assortment of fish since my dad was out fishing earlier, I was informed.

She sat at the kitchen island facing me and slid over a much-needed cup of ice water.

"Your hair got wet," she said while reaching out and feeling the puff of curls cascading over my head. That was going to be a hot mess to comb out later. "Were you out with the neighbour's boy?"

"I don't know why you call them our neighbours when they're a half an hour walk away from us," I muttered.

"They're on the plot of land beside us so technically..." she trailed off with a smug smile and shoulder shrug. "You guys went swimming?" She continued and when I nodded, she asked where my swimsuit was.

"Just went in my undies," I responded simply while taking both my knife and cup to the sink to rinse them.

My mom gasped and laughed slightly: both amused and surprised. "You're bold, aren't you? I thought you didn't like him."

"Not like that," I responded a little too quickly. 

Her expression made it clear that she didn't believe me at all as she continued to busy herself in the kitchen. 

He was attractive, very attractive for a boy I found in the forest. He was nice too, an idiot, but a nice idiot.