The Gold and the Forest

IX

He stopped.

"Am I not enough to entertain you?" She jeered. "What a bad boy!"

He slammed her against the nearest wall, eyes narrowed in anger. "Stop it."

She was only shocked for a moment before she went right back to it. "Trying to threaten me, Mr. Wolfie?"

She watched him get angrier, and she felt almost triumphant before she realized how close he was.

A thousand memories flooded back into her head and she did the only thing her body was autopiloted to do. She kissed him.

---

She felt him stiffened, but they have done this often before, he closed in upon her and kissed her right back.

Her hands fell to his waist and she gripped at the fabric of his clothes, pulling him closer. His hands went to her hair, and he did the thing he always did. His hands ran through her hair, he touched her neck.

And then he pulled back. His eyes frantically met hers in fear.

"Forrest." She whispered quietly.

His mind was thrown back to senior year, to her bare skin, to her eyes hungry. To the quiet room, and sun filtering through a window. To her gasp, and the hand on his chest.

He wiped at his lips hastily, and ran off.

She was left at the wall, and her body felt invaded by the summer air that had turned cold. She looked up, and then realized she was blinking back tears. She thought back to the jarring fear in his eyes and she subsequently wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

He was just the same. The same feeling in her arms, the same scared boy.

And she wanted him so badly.

---

Shouldn't have done it. Shouldn't have done it.

He ran, with no sense of direction where he was running. His breath was erratic, and his mind even more. Without knowing it, he ran to the place where he had always returned to. He picked up his phone and called, standing there, forlorn.

"Carl?"

He could only breathe shallowly.

There was a bit of silence. "I'll be down in a bit."

When she finally came out of her house, he attacked her in a hug. "Whoa!" She laughed, patting him on the back. "Walk?"

He nodded in her shoulder.

She took him down the streets, pointing out the leaves, the shapes of trees, the color schemes of the houses she liked. And the orange of the night lights beginning to glow. With each step, his breathing calmed. And when they finally stopped walking, he began to talk.

"I did it again. She kissed me and then I just... I just."

"Kissed her back?" Min finished for him, she was trying to memorize the shape of a house, so she could illustrate it later. She looked back at him, offering a smile. "Who kissed you?"

"Vivien."

"Did it scare you?"

He breathed in. "A lot."

"So, you ran?"

He nodded.

Min pondered for a long minute. "What do you think you should've done?"

"I—I don't know."

"Well, then you're not ready." She replied. "You could run, think a little, and then come back."

"Really?" His voice was quiet, unsure.

She nodded.

"Everyone has their own pace. Sometimes it's a frantic run! Sometimes it's a drag." She patted his face a few times. "Sometimes it's in the opposite direction."

"Min." He complained, brushing her hand aside.

"Don't be scared about which way you're doing it." She finishes. "You big woofer."

He smiled. And then he laughed.

"Min."

☙⚘☘