Brendan was now becoming even more irritated. He tried to think of a statement that would make her leave him alone. The results were almost unrewarding. 'What about school?' he asked her, thinking this was the best question to launch.
'I left as soon as I heard that you thought I set you up with Thomas. And going back to Simon would be…' she shrugged, 'a complete nightmare.'
He sighed again but this time in agreement. Even though Brendan was still thinking about forgiving Samantha, there was still a long way to go for Simon. That was a lotto she didn't have a chance of winning. 'Let's go but..,' his face frowned suspiciously, a sudden thought occurring to him. He wondered why he hadn't thought of this before. 'How did you think of the forest as the right place to look for me? And how is it that I find you standing right at the same place I used to get in?'
'I just…guessed,' she shrugged.
This answer threw Brendan off the rails and he grabbed her by her arms and she immediately squeaked. 'Do I have "stupid" tattooed on my forehead!' he boomed. 'As big as this forest is, you just got lucky and found the exact same spot..!
'Brendan, please, you're hurting me,' she cried.
'Answer me, Samantha! How the hell did you know where to find me?'
'Brendan, please, calm down!' she begged, the first pair of tears running down her closed eyes, her face turning from Brendan like he was a monster.
'If you don't answer me now, Samantha, I swear I'll..!'
'I followed you!' she blurted it out, her body cringing even more.
He eased his hold a little. He hadn't been applying any effort on her arms now that he knew what he was physically capable of.
'When you ran out of the cafeteria, I followed a few minutes later all the way here,' she said.
Brendan's mind was now working. His heart missed a beat and his eyes grew. He shook her and said, 'What did you see?!'
'Please, Brendan, please let me go!'
'What did you see, Samantha?'
'What did I see where? I didn't see anything. I just stopped by that red rock and thought that maybe you'd used it as a mark or something. I saw you walk deeper into the forest but I didn't follow.'
Brendan began to relax a little, his hands finally but reluctantly letting her go. He didn't know if she was telling the truth. He cursed the fact that the potion hadn't given him the ability to read minds.
He walked towards the final trees that stood beside the gravel road. He stopped and turned around and saw her looking back at him; apologetically, pathetically and expectantly. Her arms were embracing themselves in a way to comfort herself, the tears on her eyes still fresh.
Brendan gestured her forward using his head and she strutted towards him obediently.
They walked together in the direction of her house; it was to the west of the forest.
'How did you manage to beat Thomas?' She tried to start a conversation.
'I just…' He began thinking of something to say that would not make her suspicious. 'I knew I could beat him all along, I was just waiting for the right moment to strike,' he answered her.
She gulped. 'So…when you raised your hand at me when you told me your father had died, were you going to…?'
'I wasn't going to smack you. I don't hit girls but what you said about him made me want to change my mind.'
'Oh,' she gulped again. 'I'm sorry about that.'
'Like I said; forgiving you won't be that easy.'
They arrived at her house. Her family's house was a three-storey mansion. Her father was the owner of a huge and successful multimillion dollar oil company called the Patricks' Oil Company and her mother was a reputable lawyer of the city.
'I guess this is where we say goodbye,' she told him as she unlocked the giant light-green gate.
'Yeah…I…uh…guess so,' he stuttered. 'Um…goodbye then.' He had noticed something strange on her that day. Her lips had been perfectly shaped into a friendly smile and her eyes had a certain kind of warmth in them, and she had not put on excessive makeup like she usually did.
When Brendan got home, he found the attic now full of heaps and heaps of hundred gem bills. His mind now at ease, he closed the door and headed for his room.
*
Brendan did not have breakfast the following morning. He just took a shower, got dressed and went to school. It seemed the only questions left to answer were about his real parents.
As he walked through the school corridor he could not help the feeling that something was going to happen. While pondering over this thought he saw the strangest and last thing he had expected to see; Samantha was embracing the stranger he had met in the forest, Flicker, and she was crying.
Whilst she was engulfed in his bony arms, she had her back towards Brendan and Flicker was facing him. He was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing the previous day. That is when it struck Brendan: This Flicker fellow could be Samantha's brother! Flicker grinned and winked his eye at him.
Mrs. Cooke opened the door. 'Samantha…Brendan, are you coming?' she asked them inquiringly whilst holding the door open.