I wake up early the next morning to a mouthful of Shana's hair and bright sunlight streaming in an open window. Spitting out her hair, I sigh, that was definitely the last time I was sleeping beside her, I would rather not wake up to a mouthful of hair.
I sit up and throw my leg to the side, it was most likely 9-ish in the morning already because we stayed up a little late last night playing cards and I still had a date with Virgil.
Wait - why do I keep calling it a date? He never even mentioned it again, I sigh and rub my face, I need to get ready.
"Where are you going?" Shana asks sleepily, blinking open an eye.
I blush, I hadn't expected her to wake up because truly, she's a dead sleeper.
"Um, I-I h-have t-this t-t-hing." I immediately say without even thinking and I groan, that was the dumbest thing ever to say.
"You have a thing." She repeats drily, one eyebrow up.
I blush painfully at this and avert my face. "Yes." I whisper, squeezing my hands.
"Virgil asked you to go somewhere with him alone didn't he?" Shana sighs, falling back on the bed.
I start, looking behind me. "H-How did y-yo kn-know?"
"Because it's Virgil? He'd never let Dale get your first date." She says matter of factly.
I blink, never for once thinking about that. "H-He… that's what he's doing?!" I exclaim, standing up abruptly.
"You didn't know?" She asks blankly, sitting up, her wild hair obscuring part of her face.
The curtains are waving gently now and the sun's rays keep splashing over her sleepy face, pink bed hair clashing with my pastel blue sheets.
"No." I whisper, arms around myself, I'm facing her but I'm not looking at her, instead I'm looking out the open window, into the yard where Julia's garden is.
I can't believe I didn't realize it, it was so obvious… Virgil never showed any interest of that sort in me, sure he was so overprotective that it bordered on psychotic but have you met the rest of my family? But still, it's a little heartbreaking to realize that he only wants to take me on a date to beat Dale.
"Well, you better get cleaned up before he drags you away like this." Shana says, rolling over to get more comfortable and most likely fall back asleep.
The sun is shining brightly outside but I suddenly feel very cold, hugging myself, I make my way to the bathroom.
I stand in front of the mirror and stare at the sadness in my grey eyes, my tawny-gold hair all over the place. The pale brown strands of my hair are looking duller than usual or maybe it's just my mood.
I go through the motions of cleaning up gloomily, I had been so excited about the pseudo-date but now that my wishes had fallen apart like a house of cards I couldn't even bring myself to smile.
I get dressed in some comfy shorts and a top, I had planned to dress up a little even though it was to go show it off to the fishes and squirrels but now I can't even work up the energy to.
A gentle knocks drags my attention away from the dancing rays of sunlight splashing across the room and I stumble a little on my way to open it.
Virgil stares at me with a goofy grin on his face that quickly disappears as soon as he sees my expression.
His smile is all the more painful now because I know he's not doing this because he wants to but because he wants to beat Dale at whatever game they were playing at.
"Are you okay?" He asks, still frowning, pulling me into one of his usual hugs, his jaw resting on my curly hair.
This familiar gesture should be comforting but instead I find myself wanting to cry - maybe I'm on my period and I don't know it yet.
"Mmhmm." I hum, nodding slightly.
"Let's go then." He says, taking my hand gently like he thinks I'll break.
Now we're moving through the house quietly like he's scared of getting caught, My Aunt and Grammy left yesterday after having a heated conversation with Virgil and Dale, well mostly my Aunt but I was too occupied with Apple to be concerned.
My house is actually really close to the pine trees that start up into the forest that surrounds Pine Creek, there's still a long way to go before you get to the creek and that's most likely where we're headed.
As much as I liked to watch the colorful fish that floated around at the bottom of the little ponds beside the creek and even inside the creek, I know my body can't handle those miles.
We simply go down the street and walk a little to the right, Virgil is still holding on to my left hand and he decides that we should follow a well trodden path that hikers usually take and I'm definitely not complaining. As beautiful and scenic as it looks, tromping through the roots and vines littering the floor wasn't exactly fun.
We walk in complete silence, letting the sounds of the forest fill in the space between us.
I shake my head after the first couple kilometers, what was I doing here sulking about this not being a real date? When I should have been enjoying having some quality time with Virgil, I should even thank Dale because Virgil is obviously straight and I'm just his really good friend that he takes care of like a younger brother.
Ouch! - that thought actually hurt so hard that I have to rub my chest a little but I make an effort, closing my tiny hands to hold his.
He notices and I see the tension leave his shoulders and I internally coo, I should stop putting the poor thing through undue stress.
We're deep enough that the trodden path starts to fade away, Virgil walking very slowly to keep up with me because I'm starting to get breathless now and there's a stitch in my side and I'm pretty sure I look horrible.
There's shade from the trees but the weather is still warm enough, it's early summer anyway so my shirt is sticking to my skin and my toes are burning in my boots.
"Tired already?" Virgil teases, eyeing me.
I pout, resisting the urge to separate our hands so that I can cross my hands but I don't because holding him is the only thing keeping me upright. "No."
I'm not worried that we didn't carry any supplies because the creek would definitely have all we needed, the water was really clean and there was a huge ass apple tree close to it with lots of juicy red fruits.
"Are you in pain?" He asks carefully, slipping an arm around my shoulder to bring me closer. It's still overwhelming how tiny I am compared to him.
Reflexively I want to say 'no' but the serious look in his eyes loosens my mouth. "A-A little." I mumble.
"Want me to carry you the rest of the way?" He asks goodnaturedly.
It's really, really tempting but I can already hear the splashing of the creek and suddenly at the thought of possible relief there's a spring to my step.
"N-No." I refuse, walking so fast that I slip from underneath his shoulder and I'm pulling him forward. "We're almost there!" I announce, grinning brightly at the thought of seeing the rushing water.
"Calm down Hay, I don't want you tripping." Virgil says, hurrying to keep up with me.
But I'm already free of the cover of the trees and staring in wonder at the wide, flowing water over rocks that gives the town it's name. The pine trees line up all the way down the swirly creek, I sigh and plop down on the ground, already too sweaty to care about getting dirty.
I lean forward to rinse my sweaty face, panting heavily as Virgil casually strides up behind me, not even out of breath.
"I-It's be-been s-so long s-since I came here." I gasp, trying hard to calm my breathing down.
Virgil sits on a rock and watches me try to get some of the cool, clean water inside my mouth while talking from a higher part of the creek where the rocks are smooth. "You're going to choke, Hayden." He warns me but I've already gotten a taste of the sweet water and I'm not stopping till I'm full.
I walk over to sit beside him, my face and the edges of my hair still wet from earlier.
"You looked like you wanted to pour the water all over your body for a second there?" Virgil points out.
I just sigh, he knows me too much, it was so hot and I really want to pour some water all over to cool down but I'm not doing that with him staring at me, I didn't bring swimming trunks.
"How about you go cool off and I'll go get some apples?" He offers with a toothy smile, the stud in his ear today is black and glinting the sunlight in a way that's stopping and restarting my heart beat.
I almost kiss him for being so considerate but I tone it down at the last minute and switch up the loud smack I was going to give him for a quick hug. "Thank you!" I squeal, I am already hopping back in the direction of the creek.
My hair is going to be dripping after this but the promise of cooling down is enough to persuade me, after sneaking some quick peeks behind me to confirm that Virgil has truly gone on an 'Apple' hunt, I start to undress.
I can't leave anything on because it'll just get wet and it's not fun walking around with a cooling shirt sticking to your body, quickly I get out of my shirt and shorts, the tiny boxer briefs I have on following the pair.
The first dunk into the cool water is like ice on a bad burn and it has me sighing blissfully, I can't stay here long though and I know it so sooner than I'd like I'm already stepping out, wriggling a bit to reduce the water on my body.
I'm not bothered about being naked although it's pretty open because no one comes to this part of the woods and that's why my mom picked it as a perfect home so unless Virgil comes back early, I'm perfectly safe or so I think…
As soon as my briefs come on and I slip my shirt on, a low unfamiliar sound makes me pause in the motion of putting a bare foot into the pant-leg of my brown shorts.
I look up at the noise and the sight I see causes a scream to build rapidly at the back of my throat, a sound that dies almost as quickly as it built up.
A huge ass wolf is staring down at me, sniffing and making appreciative sounds with its nose - if you could call the dangerous sounding grunts and growls that and I'm frozen.
It moves a step closer and the reaction is instantaneous, a scream let's rip from my throat, so hard my throat immediately feels raw but this doesn't stop the unrealistically big animal - Wolves aren't supposed to be that big right?
Well, this one is, the brown wolf is easily taller than me and it's size is nothing that should be biologically possible. I clutch my shorts to myself, stepping backwards and with each step I make, the wolf makes one as well.
My shirt is long enough to protect me for now so I'm not particularly desperate to put on my shorts but the Godzilla-sized puppy in front of me is pushing me closer to the mouth of the creek.
Just when I thought I can't get happier by seeing Virgil show up, he blows my mind.
"What the fuck!?" His pissed off voice rings out, the pile of delicious looking apples - am I really thinking about that at a time like this?
The wolf turns to him and lets out a roar, loud into to send me crumbling, my arms wrapped around my head and body but the wolf wasn't looking at me anymore.
His full fascination is on Virgil who growls a little and let's his eyes blaze fiery gold for a while and the wolf immediately freezes up and takes off.
I sit, shaking, my arms still around me when Virgil touches my arm, making me flinch.
"Hey, it's okay, it's gone now." He says to me in a soothing voice, gathering my shaking self in his arms.
He settles on the broken trunk with me in his arms, trying to contain my wild shaking.
It takes a while and lots of petting to get me to calm down.
"W-What was t-that? I ask out of breath, clutching my shorts to myself.
"A wolf." Virgil says in clipped tones, staring down at me, his bright blue eyes stormy
I mumble something unintelligible and snuggle in closer, there's an odd scent coming from Virgil like Cocoa and strawberries but I just chalk it up as a new perfume or something.
Unconsciously I lean in closer, tucking my head into the crook of his neck where the mysterious but incredibly appealing perfume is coming from.
"What are you doing?" Virgil asks me quizzically, when I'm practically nuzzling his neck.
"I-I'm s-sorry." I apologise with color on my cheeks, bowing my head as low as I can.
"You don't need to be, I'm just curious."
"Um, I like your new perfume." I mutter under my breath, not stuttering but still barely legible.
Virgil frowns. "New perfume? Me! I didn't… put on any?"
I frown now, clearly the intriguing combination was coming from him. "Um, the one that smells like Cocoa and strawberries"
"You smell that?" Virgil asks with an expression of intense shock, I cringe backwards a little, making my shirt fall open a little.
Virgil glances down, once, the twice and leans closer in the third time. "Did you get a tattoo on your thigh?" He asks me, voice thick.
I blink dumbly, wondering what he's going on about. "Huh?"
"There's a crescent moon…" He trails off, lifting my legs to get a better view. I squeal at this, trying to retain some modesty.
I look down with him and clear as day there's a pretty little crescent moon on the inside on my thigh. "How did that get there?" I mumble in confusion.
Virgil's face tightens up and he suddenly looks very grave. "Is what I'd like to know."