I sat on my bed, feeling more alone than I ever had. I decided to take a walk and go see my mom.
My dad was in the kitchen getting a glass of water, and he seemed to be humming. I stopped on the stairs listening to him hum. I didn’t know the song, but I knew this was the first time I had heard my dad hum in eight months. I crept to the front door, as quietly as I was able, and stepped out the door. I wanted him to stay lost in whatever happy moment he was having. I sent him a quick text and headed off down the sidewalk. The town didn’t look different and yet it was. The smallness of it was stifling before I was drugged. I didn’t feel that way anymore. I liked the coziness. I liked knowing everyone. I missed Blake.
I walked and thought about the past year, and all the events that had shaped the time for me. I never noticed the trees or the road, just the seconds that fit together to make a year. Each of them seemed so different and complex, like a spider web. Some were horrid and others were unexplainable.
I looked around and realized that I had long passed my mom’s spot.
I was about to turn back when I saw him. He walked along the side of the road and disappeared into the thick woods. His tall, strong body would have been unmistakable in itself, but his face was one of a kind. I couldn’t see his eyes but I remembered what they looked like. My heart fluttered. I should have been afraid of him but it seemed I couldn’t make myself. I vaguely remembered the weird dream I'd had in the hospital, where he had vanished.
I almost chickened out, but then I just did it. “Wade,” I called out.
He never came back.
“Wade, wait up. It’s me, Aimee, from the party the other night. Wade.” I tried to run to where he had been but my side hurt. I got an instant cramp right where my liver was located. I decided running would take me a little longer to be able to attempt.
I walked into the dark woods, pushing myself past the initial thick and impassable brush. The bushes scratched me and pulled at my clothes and hair. I was determined to see him again. When I got inside the forest, I looked around but saw nothing. I stood perfectly still, feeling my heartbeat intensify as several possible outcomes sped through my mind.
Possibility number one—Wade might have been the pervert who drugged us and got me naked. Though the lovely and relaxing internal examination proved I was still a virgin. Thank you, God in Heaven, a female doctor did it.
Possibility number two—Wade might not even have been there and the poison was still wreaking havoc on my mind, and now I was alone in the dark forest hallucinating. Like I had at the hospital.
Possibility number three, and honestly the most likely—Wade was trying to go for a nice walk, when a strange girl he didn’t know starting yelling and running, albeit sadly, after him.
I thought about it for a second, while I stood perfectly still. I tried not to think about the fact he could very well be stalking me, after not getting what he had wanted at the party. I was uncertain about how to proceed; fleeing from the forest screaming like a banshee was definitely at the top of a very short list. That option was followed by pretending someone else was with me. I knew that would either scare him into thinking I was crazy, if he was watching me, or make him believe I wasn’t alone.
I stayed frozen like an idiot instead, with my heart racing like a rabbit. I heard a crunch off to the side and prepared myself for the worst.
“Aimee?” the voice was unmistakable.
I opened my eyes, which I hadn’t realized I had closed and started to breathe again. “Shane, what are you doing here?”
“It’s my yard.” He walked toward me laughing. "What are you doing standing there with your eyes closed?"
He looked amazing—chinos, a baby blue t-shirt, and his sandy hair was messy from whatever he had been doing. Seeing him made me want to smell him. I knew he would smell good. He always smelled like laundry soap and deodorant with a subtle mix of windblown sea air.
“I didn’t know your yard came over this way.” I looked around, trying to see his house.
He held a hand out to me when he got close. “Yeah, it's twelve acres. Let me get you out the easy way; you’re bleeding.” He pointed to my forearms. “Just there.”
I looked down, noticing my arms were scratched up very badly. How had I not felt it? I had been so insane to find Wade that I couldn’t feel the branches scratching me that badly? I started to worry about lasting side effects of the drugs, such as partial paralysis and hallucinations.
“Is Wade here with you?”
He shook his head, looking upset. “No, I’m alone. What the hell are you doing out of bed?”
“I needed some fresh air. I couldn’t stay cooped up anymore. I would really like to meet your friend Wade; can you take me there?” I asked.
Shane nodded looking down on me with his beautiful blue eyes. “Yeah for sure, we can go now.”
He seemed irritated with me for some reason.
“Really, you don’t mind?”
He shook his head. “No. Since your sister started dating that nerd friend of yours, my calendar is wide open.”
My heart stopped. “Dating? He isn’t a nerd—he’s a nice boy.” I was freaking out inside; no wonder he was angry with me—my sister had broken his heart. I couldn’t believe her and Blake were dating. I didn’t believe it. My heart should have been broken, but something seemed wrong inside of me. My reactions weren’t what they used to be. I was more upset that Shane was hurt than anything.
Shane laughed again, squeezing my hand, which I didn’t realize he was still holding. I blushed looking at it.
“Yeah, I guess they’ve been secretly dating for a few days or whatever. She’s been lying and saying she was going to her friend's place to your dad, but meeting him this last week. I guess something happened yesterday that sealed the deal.”
His grip tightened on my hand as he pulled me through the woods.
I pulled back a bit. “Shane, I know she hurt you, but it is hard for me to walk fast like that. My body is still exhausted.”
He let go of my hand. “Oh my God—I’m such an idiot. Here let me help you.” He reached down and picked me up, before I could protest. He looked into my eyes. "Your sister never hurt me, Aimee. I knew what she was like all along."
I gulped feeling the heat radiate from him. I changed the subject. "This isn’t necessary. I can walk, just slowly.”
“This is faster, Aimes, and I am not a patient guy,” he said it in a throaty way, which I chalked up to him exerting a lot of energy to carry me through the woods.
I had managed to gain back four pounds of the fourteen I was down. I was disgusted when I had weighed myself. I weighed what an eight-year-old should weigh.
“Can you tell I’ve gained weight?”
He laughed as we reached the forest’s edge and he placed me down on the grass. “No. You’re still light as a feather.”
I straightened my jacket and smiled. “I’m trying to get back up. I might even go about ten over my healthy weight, in case something like this happens again. I didn’t have any extra weight to lose.”
"Protein shakes and meal replacements. It's what we use on the football team to gain."
"I might have to try that. I hate being this thin."
He nodded looking serious now. “Yeah, Giselle is pretty tiny now too, huh?”
I looked down at my feet. “Yeah, she isn’t doing well. They have her on some meds now, but they’re discovering she has allergies to quite a few things. I’m going in a week with Alise to see her.”
“Is Blake going?” Shane sounded jealous.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I didn’t know they were dating. I’m sorry she hurt you, I know you liked her.”
He scoffed at it again. “Like I said before, she didn’t hurt me, just embarrassed me. I hate that she hurt you, her and that friend of yours.”
I was taken aback. “You’re worried about me?”
He nodded and I felt the air between us fill with something I couldn’t name, tension perhaps. His eyes were definitely full of an intensity I had never seen before.
We walked the huge backyard to his truck in the driveway. He pulled out a first aid kit and cleaned my scratches. I felt winded and exhausted from all the exercise, but I didn’t want the moment to end.
“You and I laid out on the grass the night of the party. We talked for a long time. Then we sat in silence. Do you remember that?” He opened the door for me to get in, when he was done.
I shook my head. I still felt lost with the details of the dreaded night. “I’m hoping by seeing Wade, it will trigger some memories. Something about him is so familiar and he is all I really remember about that night.”
I attempted to climb into the huge truck, but my side felt like stitches were being ripped out slowly. I winced and inhaled sharply. His huge warm hands were on me, as he lifted me carefully. I didn’t notice the pain, just the warmth of his hands on me.
As he closed the door for me, I realized I had become an invalid, not that I minded. The tragedy had brought us closer together. It was nice, always being close to him and not feeling guilty about him dating my sister.
I smiled. "Thanks for taking me; I can't seem to get his face out of my mind."
Shane got into the driver side and looked puzzled. “See, that’s the weird part—I don’t remember you even talking to him. I asked him about it and he doesn’t remember you, either.” He started the truck and drove around the circle driveway.
“That is weird. Maybe it was a ghost.” I laughed.
He smiled. “Hey, don’t kid. My mom said our yard used to be some ancient native shaman's land. My great granddad's family bought the land from the shaman's family, but I guess the old shaman was pretty pissed that they sold the land. I guess they were starving out here though and felt it was cursed or some crap.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. So, your yard is like a pet cemetery?”
