I sneak through the backdoor of my home, down to the hill, across from the river, and to the light shimmering at the end of the dark woods. To the ocean which my eyes can't find an end of.
It is blue. Only blue. A beautiful blue.
As my leg carried me further toward the ocean, I felt a salt breeze caress my face and make a smile bloom on my lips with its touch. I discarded my chappals and instantly felt the cool sand beneath my feet. As I walked forward, a wave swooshed toward me and washes my feet. With a smile, I breathe in a long puff of the salty fragrance of the ocean and fill my lungs. Soaking up every passing second in my heart and head.
I love it here. In here, I have no evil eyes pursuing my every move. No one to utter a word of hatred to wreck my day. Since wolves tend to spend more time in the woods than on the seashore no one comes here. Now I don't have a wolf yet, I'm the only one to have a piece of this.
I'm alone here, yet the whispering of the waves never let me feel that way.
This is my heaven on earth.
I come here when I'm home alone and I'm home alone every Friday. Both my parents work on Fridays. And Lilly is going to school. In Alvera, every child from four to fourteen goes to school and I just graduated last summer. I had gone to the Lethyr valley school in the mountains and Lilly goes to the same now.
I watched the waves that kept kissing the sand, fascinated just as the very first time my eyes laid on it. A low, contented sigh slipped past my lips and the wind carried it far away.
I put on my chappals back and head toward the old treehouse just thirty feet away from here, where I spend my time when it starts to ache my legs from standing for so long. I still remembered the day I first discovered that little treasure. Dusty and messy but it was enough to have all my attention. It is small but now neat with light-colored wood which had been darker before I wiped it clean.
I always sit on the tiny balcony of it and watch the ocean until the sun dips down the water level. Until the last ray of sunlight fades away. Until the last group of birds flies back to their nest. I will sit here and watch. Sometimes I fall asleep while listening to the music of the waves bussing the shore.
I climbed up the tiny ladder that leads to the top of the tree house and let my fingers run through the wooden railings as I stepped to the balcony, humming a quiet melody.
My heart drops to my stomach and my legs forget to work as my eyes land on the figure sitting on the balcony, in my space, just like I sit with my legs dangling down in the air. I can hear my own labored breath as I inspect the guy in front of me. My eyes ride down from the back of his head, the long wavy white blonde hair to the silk emerald shirt tucked loosely on his beige pants. And down to his bum meeting the wooden floor. I look away.
I felt a sudden sting in my chest. The thought of losing this place —the place I love with every fiber of my being—terrifies me. I stand dormant on my spot, eyes on him yet mind flooding with so many despised scenarios. I prepared myself to stay strong. To talk back if he says this is his place, that I'm not allowed to be here. I would not let this go like that. I don't want anything but this.
The guy in front of me turns his head back, his eyes finding me. And I forget to breathe, heart beating out of my chest as I stare into his eyes. God, his eyes…they are lavender.
Lavender? I've never seen anyone with lavender eyes.
What is he doing here?
A smile blossoms on his perfect pink lips as he stares at me, standing up and smoothing the front of his silk shirt as he walks toward me. A smile? Didn't he notice my eyes? The color? That I'm a Gray? Who would ever smile at me? No one ever did except for my parents and Lilly.
Is he insane?
I took some steps back, a growl rolling up to my throat when he kept coming forward. The youthfulness of his face tells me that he's just about the same age as me, however, the muscles that almost rippled his shirt made me second guess.
I bared my teeth at him as he came closer. But that only brings out a chuckle from him, his sharp, pearly canines flashing. I felt humiliated. I know my artificial fangs do nothing to scare off an alpha. But I tried.
"This is my place" I snarled. Yet kept stepping back.
He holds up his hands in surrender, "Is it? Then, you must be a lucky one. It's so serene." Each string of his words was like a melody, soft and steady, pleasuring my ears. I merely stare at him with closed lips as the words desert me.
His beauty takes my breath away. I have never laid my eyes on someone as handsome as him. All the blood in my body decided to steer to my face, heating it to the point I couldn't hold his gaze any longer.
"Who are you—and why are you here?" I managed to blurt out.
He shrugs his shoulders, "Was just wandering around until I found this," he looks around at the tree house, "I've no idea this had an owner here"
His eyes glided to my face, to my pursed lips, to my reddening cheeks, to my hair flowing down my shoulders, and then to my eyes. I felt him halt for a moment as if he stopped breathing. I watch his eyebrows creasing together with a painful twist in my belly.
"I've never seen a Gray as beautiful as you." His words weren't what I had been anticipating, and they made me go red from head to toe. They made my skin tingle and my heart spring. I thought he would leave or ask me to leave or maybe even curse at my face and this wasn't one of them. I was ready to fight but he didn't give me a reason to. I look down at my feet, my hair strands falling and hiding the side of my face as I mumbled out a quiet, unsure 'Thank you'.
No boys have ever looked my way yet alone to compliment me. Even if they did, it was until they got a glimpse of my eyes. No one wants to be intertwined with a Gray. I was miserable. I am miserable.
Several moments passed and no words drift past our lips. The sound of our breathing spiraling with the haul of the sea breeze was all I could hear as I lost myself in his lavender eyes…