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When the sun was up, the coffee cups had been washed and the mess of boxed foods were put back where they belonged.
Nathan was free again. For now.
Putting on shorts, a red shirt and sneakers, he picked up his phone, pulled up the new playlist he’d just made and headed out the back door. A fence blocked off access from the woods in the back, but Nathan had installed a gate, hidden unless you were close to it. His father didn’t even know it was there.
An escape route. Just in case.
The sight of it had him thinking about the reason it really needed to be there. More than once he’d been cornered in some way by his father, physically assaulted or even just shouted at. That’s usually how his father chose to fight. Blocked you in. Made you back up.
Nathan blinked a few times, put his music on a little louder and put the earbuds into his ears. Forget about it. He was gone again. He probably wouldn’t be back for weeks.
The air was thick and already warm. Only in the shadows of the trees was there a taste of anything cool left from the night. The leaves were damp, and the dirt was sticking to his shoes in clumps. The rain from last night would make the ground a bit softer. Sometimes it was slippery with the leaves, but he liked the sound of his sneakers padding against softened dirt.
Not many people used the trails. Nathan hadn’t installed them, but once he found them, he did his part to use them and keep them clean. Sometimes he caught neighborhood boys building stuff in the woods with scraps they found. Occasionally, he’d found strips of house siding or planks along the paths.
He took the longest path around this part of the woods. The trail was wider this way.
Just as he started a brisk walk to warm up, his phone buzzed. He checked it, an incoming call from North.
Odd. He answered. “Hey.”
“Your dad gone yet?” North asked, his voice in that raspy tone that sounded like he’d been up all night again.
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “Just out for a jog. Need something?”
“Maybe later, yeah. I was going to take Silas, but from what I’ve heard, he’s been up all night.”
“Really?” Nathan asked, suddenly disturbed by the news. “Silas just left Kota’s to follow my dad, but if I’d known he’d been up all night, I would have taken his car instead.”
“He just left?”
“Well, it was like forty-five minutes...maybe longer.”
North coughed. “I guess he wouldn’t have gone if he really couldn’t make it. But he just made the call saying he’d need a nap before coming with me.” The longer he talked, the deeper and more grumbly his voice was getting.
“Maybe you both should sleep. Whatever you’ve got going, can’t you hold off a day?”
“Don’t start with me. If I can’t sleep, I can’t sleep. I might as well do something useful.” Pause. “What was Silas doing over at Kota’s last night anyway?”
“No idea. I didn’t even hear about it. So he must have gotten in late?”
Another pause. “Academy?” North asked, meaning was it an Academy job they just didn’t know about.
“I can’t imagine what.” Nathan shook off the thought. They could just ask Kota later. They didn’t need to know every little thing the others did but...it was out of the ordinary. Not that anything about their group was completely ordinary. “Anyway, if you still need me later, I’ll do whatever you need. If Silas can’t make it.”
“Good,” North said.
“But try to sleep?” Nathan asked.
North grunted and then hung up.
Nathan smirked at his phone as he switched it back to his playlist. North was a pain in the ass, but the good sort. He meant well and he was all heart under the gruff exterior. Nathan hadn’t gotten along with him when they first met. With North’s grumpy attitude, he’d gotten off on the wrong foot with the whole team for months when he came over from Germany.
But he turned out okay. Better than okay. Nathan thought of him as the night guard. He was usually the one that volunteered for night jobs. Which was why it was kind of weird that Silas ended up at Kota’s so late. To Nathan, Kota was family lead and usually made himself the early bird so he was up during normal hours. He allowed North to take over evening hours.
So...Silas and Kota were doing something last night? And last minute?
Nathan forced himself to stop asking questions and focus on what he was doing. He started an easy jog, nothing strenuous. He took in the taste of fresh air, felt the warmth of the sun and the change of temperature in the occasional shadows underneath trees. The underbrush around the trees was growing in thickly, a mix of ferns, berry bushes, and the occasional collection of bamboo. The bamboo was a new addition, but he was starting to like it. Someone had planted some, and it was growing wild now. It grew fast, filling in spots, occasionally taking over sections. He wasn’t sure if it was bad for the ecosystem here. He meant to ask Kota or look it up himself with a conservation team to see if he needed to remove it.
Part way through his jog, he stopped at a maple that had fallen over the trail. It was a big one. He’d found it at least a week ago and had forgotten all about it with his dad being back. There hadn’t been a way to drag out the chainsaw to take care of it, since his dad would have yelled at him. He probably didn’t even know they owned one.
The leaves were already dead in some spots. Poor tree. The trunk was thick. And the branches and leaves were taking up a good chunk of the trail. He examined it, wondering if he could get a truck back here to help clear it. Or maybe he could rent some sort of vehicle that would fit better for getting everything out. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about it this long.
Anyway, nothing he needed to focus on right now. It could wait until later.
He rerouted himself, going back to find a trail that was clear. He probably needed to check all the trails later and do some clean up. He refocused on his jogging, thinking about when he’d come back for the tree and listening to the music. All the while, letting go of thoughts of his dad, trying to relax once more and feel somewhat normal again.
Suddenly, there was a loud cracking sound.
He removed his headphones and listened, looking up and watching out for anything falling. It wasn’t unusual after a storm for trees limbs to break off, or sometimes the tops entirely.
Listening, he heard rattling in a tree nearby. Something big. Bigger than a bird for sure.
“Someone over there?” he called out. He searched the mess of trees, trying to see through to the trail he’d just been on, split from the one he was on now. Did the noise come from over there?
It was quiet for a moment, but then there was a faint voice calling back, “Yeah.”
Who was that? It sounded like a girl. Was it Jessica, Kota’s sister? What was she doing up and out here?
Nathan made his way around to the second trail, finding a downed tree. The rustling was coming from there.
Oh shit. Did she try to get around it and fall in?
He hurried over, looking into it. The closer he got, the louder the rustling got among the tree limbs. Whoever she was, she was so far in the mess he couldn’t see her.
“Where?” he asked.
“In the tree.” Her voice seemed off and raspy. Annoyed? And that didn’t sound like Jessica.
“Didn’t you see it was down? Why didn’t you take the other path?” He stepped closer to the tree, trying to peek through.
Suddenly, she appeared amid the branches above him.
There was a moment where he was just staring, perhaps because he sort of recognized her. He was surprised at finding her here, and in that brief moment, tried to put it all together.
At first, all he could see were her eyes. Green. The blond hair, the pink lips.
It was the fear in her face that caught him off guard. Was she afraid? Of him or of being in the tree?
“Can you get out?” he asked. He dropped a hand onto his hip, then tilted his head. He wanted to help, but from his perspective, it was hard to see where he could dive in. And doing so could make the situation worse.
She pushed branches away from her face, focusing on her surroundings. “I think so,” she said, although her voice was soft, a whisper.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why are you whispering?”
Instead of answering, she sucked in a breath and then patted at her throat.
Sore throat? “Your voice broke?”
She nodded, smiling a bit when she did.
It baffled him more. She was sick, and she’s out walking around, and tried to take on a tree? Was she crazy?
He checked the tree and where she was standing, looking for the best way to help her out. “Move left,” he said.
She turned right, looking that direction toward the denser part of the trees.
It was too early for this; he wasn’t thinking clearly. “Shit, sorry. I meant my left. Your right.”
She pointed to where he’d said. The trunk of the tree was inclined against the broken off part it’d fallen from, making it like a hill to climb. She raised her eyebrows, questioning his judgement.
“Follow it down the tree until you get beyond the branches,” he waved to where the trunk of the tree didn’t have a crazy number of branches like where she was trying to get through. He made his way in that direction, having to go off the path a bit, picking a way through underbrush to get to where the tree trunk was thicker. He was forming a semi-plan to help her get out. Going through the branches like she was doing was just going to give her a broken ankle. Better to just jump where he could catch and be done with it.
She followed him, slower, hanging on to the tree and crawling over branches. At one point when the trunk got steep against the trunk it’d split from, she hesitated, looking back.
“Can you climb up to the top?” he asked. A beam of sunlight caught him in the face, and he raised his hand to cover his eyes. He hated that as he needed to keep an eye on her.
She coughed once, and in a weak voice she said, “What do you mean?”
“Just climb up here and then jump down.” It made sense. He’d be able to break her fall, and the ground was clearer here anyway. It wasn’t that high.
He hoped he wasn’t misjudging the distance from where he was on the ground.
When she hesitated though, he started to doubt himself. Was it too high?
But he was right here to catch or break her fall and the ground had just a bit of dead leaves and bramble. Going back meant trying to get around all those branches. Unless he was going to leave her and go get a saw and cut her out...which was an option. But he didn’t want to leave her alone out here.
“You’ll be fine,” he said, hoping he sounded encouraging and not tense. He was nervous too, but she wasn’t alone at least. “Come on.”
This seemed to help her resolve. She crouched against the trunk she was climbing and pulled herself up until she got above where he was standing on clearer ground.
He lifted his hands, motioning for her to go ahead and jump down. He readied himself for it.
“Jump from there,” he said.
She paused. “Back up so I’ve got room,” she said.
He almost chuckled. She was the one in the tree and she was worried about breaking him? “No, it’s fine. I’ll get you.” At least if he broke the fall, she’d hit his body, not the ground. He didn’t mind.
Her mouth popped open. She was still hesitating.
He tried to exude more confidence, the way he was trained in the Academy when dealing with someone unsure in the situation. If he showed some confidence this was the right decision, usually people believed it. “Will you just listen to me? Jump.”
No jump.
She was waiting. Thinking. He could see her looking around, like maybe she was going to jump around him to not land on him.
He needed to get her down from there before she froze and he had to climb up. “Fuck thinking,” he said quickly. “Thinking hurts the team. Jump.”
This time she moved, lined up with him and leapt.
He reached out for her. Her body collided with his. He grabbed her around the middle and did a slight spin, taking the momentum instead of dropping back to the ground. Her head dropped against his chest and she stilled.
She was shaking. She was nervous.
So was he. Maybe it was dumb of him to ask her to jump. He shook that thought off. No. She was down now. Safe. She just didn’t realize she was yet.
He held on to her and put a hand at her back, rubbing at her shoulders encouragingly.
It felt...good. Oddly good. This girl he didn’t know was in his arms, and somehow, he just felt...better. He wasn’t expecting it, but holding on to her felt right in that moment.
He nudged his chin against her forehead a bit, trying not to think about how he was feeling, just encouraging her to calm down. “It’s okay. You’re fine. You made it.” He continued to hold her, repeating himself a few times, softer. Hoping she wasn’t too freaked out.
Slowly, she backed up. Her face was pale and her body seemed to still shake, her knees, too, when she let go of him.
It matched the weak knee feeling he had. Had he been nervous, too?
“Thank you,” she said in her soft and raspy, broken voice. She swallowed. “You’re okay, right?” she asked.
Him? Physically, he was okay. The longer he looked at her though, he got this odd feeling inside of him. But he couldn’t stop looking.
The green eyes. Beautiful. Something was off though. A shadow of some sort. Like despite looking right at him, there was something on her mind and she wasn’t even here. Worried about something that wasn’t in front of her.
That felt familiar to him. There was just something about her...
He nodded slowly to her question and tried to stop thinking too much. He felt his cheeks warm but he ignored it.
“I’m okay,” he said. “What made you think you could climb over it like that?”
He regretted asking her the question the moment he spoke it, like he was accusing her of something. It just blurted out of his mouth.
“It didn’t look too bad from the other side,” she said. She looked away from him. “I guess I just wanted to see if I could.”
Her answer surprised him. Was she joking with him?
He wasn’t sure, but it somehow relaxed him. He started to smile and tried to joke with her. “You’re not really dressed for climbing like that.”
As if realizing there could be damage, she looked over herself, clothes and arms and legs. She wasn’t too bad, a bit dirty and a few scratches. No bleeding. He was about to ask if she had a cell phone, to see if it was damaged, but she never pulled it out and from her pockets, they were small—she wouldn’t be able to put one in them—and he guessed she didn’t have one. Any other damage?
Then her wrist caught his eye. There was a bandage, so it obviously didn’t just happen. “What happened to your wrist?” he asked, motioning to it. He tried not to make a face, regretting urging her to jump when she was already wounded. That could have made things worse.
“I fell a couple days ago,” she said, acknowledging he’d noticed.
Fell? Really? And now she was climbing trees? And with a sore throat?
Maybe she was crazy.
And maybe he was crazy, but he liked her. “You’re accident prone,” he said. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Without thinking, he reached for her hand.
It wasn’t until he was holding it that he realized he had done so.
Why did it feel natural? Like he was supposed to?
But holding on to her made him feel so self-conscious. His brain was on overdrive. What the hell was he doing?
He held on to her until they were through the brambles and back to the start of the path. Once clear, he released her. Although once he did, he wished he’d held on. Now he’d no excuse to reach for her again. And he wanted to.
Get over yourself, he thought. And then he realized again her face was familiar to him. The neighbors. The new ones. Wasn’t she...
She whispered something. A question. Only, she spoke so softly he couldn’t hear her.
And it was worse with his heart thundering in his chest. He couldn’t calm it enough to hear.
He cocked a brow and leaned close to her. “What?”
She leaned into him, enough that he felt her breath on his skin. “How long has the tree been down?” she asked.
He backed up a bit, answering quickly and trying to calm himself down and to not think about her breath, her face, her eyes. “A week, I think,” he said.
He was answering her, but his brain was already thinking of the dozens of reasons why this girl wouldn’t like him. His red hair, which he heard girls didn’t like. His father was a big reason. It was dangerous to come over if his dad was around. Hard to explain that one.
And the Academy. His involvement meant he had to disappear often. It was usually the ultimate reason why dating at all, or even keeping a friend, was so hard.
He kept answering her question. “I keep meaning to come back out here to clear it out from the path, but I’ve been putting it off. There was a bad storm before you moved in.”
She rubbed at her stomach. “You know who I am?” she asked.
“I’ve seen you around,” he said. He ran his fingers through his short hair. Why did she make him feel so nervous? “I’m Nathan.”
“Sang,” she said.
He blinked. What? What did that mean? Did he hear her right? He leaned in closer, unsure of what he’d just heard.
“My name is Sang,” she said again.
“Sang?”
She nodded.
Unusual. He liked it. It kind of suited her. From what he could remember of what Kota said about her family when they moved in, her last name was...Samson? No, Sorenson. Sang Sorenson.
Her voice wasn’t bad. A bit of irony, he supposed, since she couldn’t sing at the moment. But as she looked at him, she had this quirky look and the start of a smile that broke up the shadows in her eyes. Just a little.
He wanted to keep talking to her. Despite knowing where this might lead—that if they even just became friends, he’d have to lie to her about his father, his friends, nearly everything about his own life and what he did—he still felt a strange desire to figure out why there was this haunted shadow in her eyes. Why she looked away from him even while talking to him.
She didn’t really focus on him. He made her nervous, and he desperately wanted her to know that he was the last person to be nervous around.
He tried to smile. “I’m two houses down from you,” he said. “Same side.” He waved over to where their houses were, indicating. “Want me to walk you back?”
She hesitated while she seemed to think about it. “I don’t mean to ruin your jog.”
Ruin the jog? What was he supposed to do, leave her in the tree? Run off after like nothing happened? He shrugged. “It’s nothing.” He waved to the path, the direction of their houses. “Comin’?”
She hesitated again for only a moment and touched at her lower lip. The move made her look frail, afraid. Maybe she was embarrassed and didn’t want him telling everyone about the tree. He’d never do that.
When she finally started moving, she tried to walk a little slower to walk behind him, or so it seemed. So he made sure to keep next to her instead, slowing his pace a bit.
He tried to think of something to talk to her about. He had only a bit of time before they’d be at her house. Would she not come back out if he couldn’t find some sort of connection?
Despite knowing he shouldn’t, he wanted to talk to her again. She seemed sweet, liked being outside, was pretty, considerate of his time and safety. Before, when he’d learned about her and she never seemed to come outside or anything, at least as far as he knew, he didn’t have much opinion about her one way or another.
Now that she seemed interested in being outside, he was more interested in getting to know her. Maybe they could take hikes together? He wouldn’t have to ask the other guys to go with him if he had someone else who really liked it.
“You’re going to the public school, right?” he asked. He was pretty sure she would be but he started there to talk about something simple.
She nodded but didn’t speak.
He hid a grimace. She’s shy. He didn’t want to push her to talk if she really didn’t want to, but if she was going to Ashley Waters High School, she’d get eaten alive if she was shy. Maybe he should let her know she could trust him?
“About time we had someone new around here. There’s only a handful of kids on this street.”
“I haven’t seen them around,” she said.
He eased into a smile but tried to downplay it. He didn’t want to appear too eager. “You will,” he said, he moved his arms, opening up and swinging them as he walked. No reason for it, but he felt a little lighter now that she was talking to him.
She raised an eyebrow at his comment.
She didn’t realize? He grinned. “You’ve got the good basketball goal.” The house her parents had bought had one over the garage near the house. Plus a super wide driveway. It was the best spot on the street for a game. Everyone else’s drives were narrower, you ended up in the grass quick. And they tried playing on the road once, but it made for problems even with such a quiet street.
She thought a moment. “The one hanging from the garage.”
“Yeah. Full height and that wide driveway that’s at least half court, I think.” He smirked. “Don’t laugh, but I came over one night to jump on it, just to see if I could hang from it.” It had been while the house was for sale. The people who had lived there before, they had older kids and they rarely came out, rarely used the goal. He thought the dad installed it so they could play but the kids weren’t interested in it. But since there wasn’t anyone to play with from the house, the neighborhood kids couldn’t really play on it much.
She smiled at him. “It’s still there,” she said, her voice almost a giggle, although since it was still broken, it was like a whisper of extra breathing on top of her raspy voice, “so you must have made it.”
He nodded. “It’s pretty strong.” He walked a bit slower now. They didn’t have that much further to go, and he wanted to keep talking to her. “So what happened to your voice? You’re not sick, are you?” he asked, an eyebrow going up. “I’m not going to catch something, am I?” He didn’t care. A sore throat didn’t bother him. He hoped it wasn’t something like strep, though. She shouldn’t be out if she wasn’t really feeling well.
She shook her head quickly. Not sick.
What else could make her throat sore like that? She was yelling too much? Talking all night with someone? That made more sense. “You’ve been talking too much, huh? Girls always talk too much.” He meant it as a joke, but he was avoiding the question he wanted to ask...
Was she up talking a lot to a boyfriend? They never saw anyone over, but maybe she was trying something long distance with an old boyfriend? Maybe that’s why she was hesitating. She was still connected to someone else. Maybe being alone with another guy was making her uncomfortable.
She smirked at his comment but said nothing.
So...yes? No? She didn’t offer any clue as to which. He didn’t want to push.
It wasn’t any of his business. But he really wanted to know.
They went around the last bend and now were on the stretch that existed behind the tree line. He was running out of time to talk to her.
“You go for walks this early in the morning a lot?” he asked. Hope, hope, hope. Maybe she’d be out again.
Her lips twisted, she paused. “I couldn’t sleep and I hadn’t followed this path yet, so I came to check it out.”
She did! She’d taken the other paths. Just not so early in the morning? So maybe at different times. “Did you try the woods on the other side of the street yet?”
“No. How do you get over there?”
He smiled. He couldn’t help it this time. Might be his chance to talk to her more. “I’ll show you. It’s a little easier to get lost over there though and there’s some things you should see. Like there’s a big ditch you may not see walking up to. I think that’s how they drained the land around here, so they could develop it.” He felt like he was rambling a bit but he didn’t care. He was more than excited to talk to someone that actually enjoyed going out exploring.
She grinned and nodded. “I’ll check it out.”
Oh shit, she was going to. But he was serious, there was a big ditch that was hard to see until you were on top of it. She’d fall right in. He smirked, eyeballing her. “On second thought, I ought to go with you over there. Don’t go without me.”
She tilted her head. “I’d be fine.”
“Uh huh,” he said, trying to still joke with her a bit. Her look distracted him a moment, to the point he even stopped walking. And then he realized there was a maple leaf still in her hair, either from the tree he pulled her from or it had fallen fresh.
He reached for it, trying not to tug on any loose strands of hair, and pulled it away.
“You’ll be fine,” he said, holding the smirk. “Unless there’s a fallen tree.”
She blushed. She was moving her lips but nothing coming out.
She was fun to talk to, even with her broken voice and not talking much. She expressed exactly what she was thinking right on her face without even saying a word.
“Think you could do it alone? As you wish. Next time, I’ll leave you,” he said. He let go of the leaf, letting it glide down to the ground, and started down the path again. He wasn’t going to leave her, of course. He was just teasing.
Her feet rustled the leaves along the path, and he slowed just a bit so she could catch up.
“How do you get over there?” Her voice was a whisper.
Like hell he’d tell her. Not when she couldn’t even cry out for help at all. “Nope. I’m not telling you now.”
She frowned and then pouted.
Aw. That was harsh. How could she do that to him? He made a face and then pulled his fingers over his lips, zipping.
“Ugh,” she grumbled. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Sure.”
She rolled her eyes. Maybe he was teasing her a bit too much. He didn’t want to annoy her. He just wanted to get her to relax around him so she’d want to go on hikes.
Nathan stopped at a point where the trees thinned where he could recognize the roofs of the houses, including his own.
The fence was hard to spot from this angle until they got closer, but he wanted to point it out. He’d walk her home but wanted her to know where he lived. “This is my stop,” he said. He wanted to add “come by any time”.
But that wasn’t true.
She shouldn’t come by whenever.
Maybe this was a mistake.
Now that he’d taken her this far, maybe he should do something... say something mean. Make her mad at him so she never came over. Because he didn’t want to tell her about his dad, and he didn’t want to start disappointing her at other times when he wasn’t available.
With the Academy in his life, and his dad, and now add the school they’d be going to and being there on false pretenses, things were complicated. He’d been through this before with friends and girls he’d tried to date. It just didn’t work. He needed to distance himself from her. Protect her from it all.
She studied the fence and then seemed to note the ditch and the tiny, wood slab bridge Nathan had created to get to the wood easier. It wasn’t clear there was a gate, but it kind of made it more obvious with a bridge that there was something there. Still, Nathan felt it was a risk worth taking, since most of the danger for him was inside...with his own father. He didn’t worry too much about someone else finding it and getting too curious.
Her nose suddenly wrinkled. In a cute way. “You have a pool?”
He was surprised she could tell. He couldn’t spot it from here. But he hesitated to answer her.
Don’t tell her.
Say it’s a neighbor’s.
Say it’s broken.
Say anything. Send her off...
But he found himself nodding instead.
And the moment he did, she grinned and seemed to...rise a bit. Like almost standing on her toes. “Is it big?”
He jerked in reaction, his brain practically shutting down and his heart tugging him in one direction: toward her, anywhere near her. “Come and look at it. You tell me.”
He knew he shouldn’t. His father was gone, sure. For now. But one day...
And yet as he crossed the plank, he was glad to continue teasing her, hoping she’d follow.
Her footsteps behind him approached the bridge and stopped. She was hesitating. He stopped on the other side, turned to her and reached out with a hand in offering. After the tree incident, he didn’t want to risk her falling off the bridge. Maybe he should make an actual bridge here. And without thinking, the teasing question escaped his lips. “Or do you want to do it yourself?”
She made a bit of a goofy face but then reached for him.
His heart skipped. He held his breath.
Her touch was gentle.
This time, even after she crossed the bridge, he held on for a moment longer.
He couldn’t let go.
He didn’t understand it. His brain seemed to be incapable of relaxing his hand.
It was worse when she didn’t tug away at all. She kept holding his hand, her fingers curled around his palm.
And then he had to let go, because he had to open the gate to the fence.
He almost didn’t want to. He preferred to stand there and keep hanging on.