The Woods ~ 5sos

0.1

The sun seeps through the trees above me, waking me out of a deep sleep.

I take in my surroundings, the dirt and grass standing my light wash jeans, the extremely tall trees that might as well be touching the sky.

It's still so hard to comprehend that my parents kicked me out of the house only last night, it feels like ages ago. I guess whenever something has a big effect on you time moves slower than normal.

Explains every day at school.

School, how I don't want to think of that place ever again, it's the reason I'm in this mess. Everything that has happened in the last twenty four hours has some correlation to that awful place. If I could turn back time and drop out two years earlier I would do it in a heartbeat.

Sadly, time travel does not exist so I'm stuck wandering through these woods with only my thoughts. Hopefully I'll find a city of some sort soon so I can scavenge for food, I'm so stupid for not bringing a bag of some sort.

My black boots crunch the twigs under me feet, making the sounds he only company I have. I'm trying to avoid my thoughts as long as possible so the noises will keep me company. All I have to do is picture the noises like me banging my drums, but they happen to be extremely broken.

I keep my game up for about ten more minutes until I hear music. I stop straight in my tracks to make sure I'm not hallucinating. Whoever it is is playing an acoustic guitar, but I can't recognise the song.

That shows how much I want companionship if I care about the song I'm hearing rather than the fact that there's a person playing guitar in the middle of the forest.

My body stays frozen as the music gets closer and closer; I want to run away, but I can't. I guess I'll face whoever this person is face on. Oh how I hope he's not scary and comes and murders me.

That's when I see him.

He spots me the same time I spot him and his green eyes go wide. He pulls his guitar over his shoulders and puts it on the ground next to him. I cock my head to the side and raise one eyebrow, but he's not done yet.

His body starts shaking and he gets down on the ground in a ball, his large backpack making him look like a turtle.

He thinks I'm going to hurt him, I'd never hurt someone, unless it was self defence of course. I can't believe he thinks I'm going to hurt him, he looks stronger than me, and his fringe game is through the roof.

I approach him and get down on my knees so I'm at his level. "Please don't hurt me, I'll leave right now." He must've been wandering for a while, his voice sound tired and dead."I don't have anything valuable enough for you to take."

I place my hand on his back and his body goes rigid, curse my extremely large hands. "Mate I'm not going to hurt you, I'm in the same boat as you; although you're luckier than me because you have supplies."

He moves his head up, his eyes red with tears. His long dirty blonde fringe falls over his face a bit but he pushes it away a bit. This guy has to have been here for a while, now that I can see his face he looks so lifeless.

I extend my hand out to him and help him stand up. "I'm Ashton, my parents kicked me out of the house so now I'm here, trying to survive."

His face pales at the word parents but I choose to ignore it, he's probably already had a heart attack this morning.

"Michael." He says, still not making eye contact with me. "There's a town about ten minutes from here so I can help you with survival using there. I still don't trust you just so you know, but I honestly don't trust anyone."

He picks up the guitar and starts playing the song again. I follow him through the woods and try to recognise the melody.

"You're really good Michael." I compliment him, trying to get on his good side. If I'm going to be spending possibly the rest of my life with him.

"Shut up," he says. I can literally hear his eye roll. Something tells me that he doesn't like me.

He keeps playing the song so I pass the time trying to recognise the tune. It's definitely a song that should be played on an electric because it doesn't sound right.

Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day, that's exactly what it is.

"So Ashton why don't you tell me a bit more about yourself and why I should help you out." Michael says slyly. This kid is strange, one minute he's telling me to shut up, the next he's telling me to talk.

"Um I'm Ashton Irwin and I'm seventeen turning eighteen this year. My parents kicked me out of the house because I was framed for a crime committed by my so called best friend."

Michael strums loudly and then throws his head backwards. "That's not what I meant you idiot, tell me about yourself, not things that have happened." He starts to play a new song before I can open my mouth. "I want to know you, not your story."

I like that saying, I want to know you not your story. Your story doesn't define you, you define yourself. Michael is extremely smart for someone who has most likely dropped out of school.

"I like music and art. I feel like both are ways of expressing ourselves and I want people to get to see who I truly am. I'm a drummer that sits at home playing horrible covers of Green Day and Nirvana, two of my favourite groups. Before I was kicked out of my house I was in a band and I was the one who did that "cover artwork" for our little eps and things."

I got to say more but Michael cuts me off. "Did your band get far? If you have eps you must be pretty good."

I laugh at him and he looks back at me, very confused. I didn't mean for the laugh to come out in a mean way, but it was funny to me. Poor Michael probably doesn't understand while I'm laughing, but I can't stop.

"Dude what was that laugh?" He makes fun of me and starts laughing himself. "One minute you're all tough guy manly man," He makes fake muscles with his arms to get his point across. "but now you sound like a grade school girl."

I know I have a funny laugh, I've been told it a million times, but it's not something I can control. I can't go and change my laugh one day because I don't like it. Although I do kinda like it, it just makes me feel like me.

I contain my laughter so I can finish my story. "Getting back on topic, no we didn't get far, not even close. The eps out band made were burned CDs off a laptop and we gave them out to our families and friends. We were far from good Michael, we sucked."

"I'll tell you about me later, I just have trust issues. Thanks for telling me about you a bit now I can look at you more as a person and figure out who you really are."