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I woke up the next morning violently. Frankie had thought it would be hilarious to jump next to me on the bed so that I’d bounce and wake up. Unfortunately, he didn’t take into account our dramatic weight differences and the springiness of the bed and I bounced up a good fifteen inches then landed on the floor with a thud.

“Dammit, Frankie!” I screamed, standing up ferociously. He was laughing, as were Ray, Gerard, and Meg.

“We’ve all been awake for an hour,” Meg said. “We’re going hiking today, so put on some comfy shoes and let’s go!”

“There’s this really cool spot that I can take you guys to. We don’t normally tell people about it, because it’s easy to get lost, but I know where I’m going,” Ray added.

I looked at each of their smiling faces and frowned. “But I just woke up,” I argued. “I haven’t showered or anything!” I wrapped my blanket around me and laid back on the bed and put my pillow over my head. “I’m sleepy, come get me when you’re done hiking,” I said in a muffled voice.

“But we’ll be gone all day!” said Frankie.

I looked up from under my pillow at Frankie’s smiling face. “Good,” I spat, and stuck my head back under the pillow.

“Lily,” Gerard whimpered, and I felt him crawl in between me and Frankie on the bed. Frankie blew a raspberry and stood up. “Come with us, please,” he said. “We’ve already made you a sandwich and everything.”

“Let Frankie have it,” I mumbled.

“Yay!” Frank squealed.

“See? I’ve made Frank happy.”

“He doesn’t like Cajun turkey,” Gerard replied.

“Oh, yeah,” Frankie said disappointedly.

“Lily,” he groaned, getting closer to my ear. “If you go, we could…get lost in the woods,” he whispered so quietly only I could hear him. He kissed my cheek softly. “Hmm?”

I sat up and announced, “I’m going to take a shower,” and walked out of the room with my arms folded across my chest.

I got in the shower and closed my eyes, remembering my dream from last night. I shuddered and scrubbed the not existent tar away from my skin until it was red and tender. After I showered I brushed my teeth fiercely, as the memory of Jacob’s bloated, decaying hands in my mouth was still vivid in my mind.

After I successfully smelled like cucumber melon and mint, I wrapped myself in a towel and walked out of the bathroom.

“What’s wrong with your skin?” Frankie asked bluntly. At least, I think that’s what he said because he had an entire muffin in his mouth when he said it.

I looked down at my raw arms. “There was something on them,” I said. Ray only stared at me. “It’s obviously gone now, so, I’m going to go get dressed.”

I put on my black pin striped short shorts, my Converse All-Stars (Meg said comfy shoes, and they’re about as comfy as it gets) and a red tank top. After putting mousse in my hair and fixing my makeup, I emerged from my bedroom.

“I’m ready, we can leave,” I said.

“Finally,” Meg said. “It only took you and hour to get ready.”

We got in Gerard’s truck and went a few miles away from the cabin, where there was a small clearing, enough for maybe three cars to park, with a little path entering the woods.

Frankie put the backpack with our food in it on his back, and we all made out way into the woods. The path was small and not cleared very well and after about five minutes I was wishing I’d worn jeans. Meg had also worn shorts, and she looked at me with a frown on her face. Our shins were getting scratched and scraped from briars and limbs, and the boys, who had all worn long pants, were oblivious to the pain Meg and I were in.

Ray was telling stories from his childhood about walking this trail.

“We used to write the names of the girls were gonna marry into these trees. I hadn’t done this for years, but J—my other cousins still do it sometimes, when they meet someone special.”

Frankie laughed and pointed at a tree that had RAY + MARIE 4EVER cut into it.

“I was twelve!” he cried defensibly. “And she was hot.”

We stopped for a break at another small clearing with a campfire in it.

“Do people camp here?” asked Meg. She looked at the empty fire pit. “Must be a bitch to get all of their equipment out here.”

“Sometimes,” answered Ray. “But it’s very pretty; you’ve got to admit that.”

It was, actually, very pretty. The trail had old, beautiful trees blocking the sun’s rays with a canopy of huge leaves, but sunlight still streaked through gaps in the leaves, and flowers grew, bright and pretty, beside the trail. The only bad thing was all the thorn bushes pushing their way into the path, and my shins ached with proof.

“Once, we just brought sleeping bags and food and stayed out here for two days,” Ray said dreamily.

“Who?” I asked.

“Me and Marie. Then she was that tree, called me weird and left.”

“She seems like a sweet girl,” Gerard said sarcastically.

“I didn’t care about that. She was freaking HOT.”

Frank, Ray, and Meg began a heated discussion on how much a girl’s personality mattered in relation to how hot she was, and Gerard and I just sat there, until he grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the group silently.

He put one long leg over the briars separating the path from the woods, and pulled me to do the same, but I knew my much shorter, much more exposed legs wouldn’t fare well over the thorns.

I shook my head and whispered, “My shins will die! Let’s just go farther down the path.”

“No,” he whispered back, studying me. Then he put one finger to his lips and said, “Shhh.” Then without warning he threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried me over the thorn bushes.

I gasped loudly, but not loudly for the others to hear. I could hear Frankie say, “Okay, she can be needy if she’s at least a C-cup,” and Meg respond with, “What if she only wears t-shirts?”

We went a little farther until I couldn’t hear them anymore and Gerard sat me down in front of the trees. “You wore the lipstick,” he whispered, grinning wildly.

“Well, you said you liked it,” I replied, but was cut off from saying anything else as he kissed my lips fiercely. He pushed me backwards into the tree. The bark was rough against my skin and getting more indented into my back as Gerard pressed himself against me harder and harder, but I didn’t care. I only wanted him closer to me.

Our kiss got hotter and more fervent. Gerard moved his mouth from my lips to my neck, right where my pulse was, throbbing against my skin. His hands snaked under the hem of my shirt and lightly traveled upwards. He kissed my mouth again, and pulled away and looked into my eyes.

“I’m falling in love with you,” he whispered with a beam.

“I know you are,” I answered, smiling from ear to ear. I kissed his lips again. And the passion started up once more.

I kissed Gerard’s neck in a downward fashion, and he pressed harder against me. I giggled. His hands went farther up my shirt, and I had no intention of stopping him. His hands found my bra and then delicately ran his fingers across the lace. Then he stopped, took his hands over my under shirt, and said, “We need to leave.”

“Gerard, why?” I looked up at him. “I didn’t mind, you could have kept going—”

“Ray, Frank, and Meg are probably worried. You know how Frankie worries,” he said, pulling me away from the tree, but not letting me turn around even though he was still staring at it.

“What are you looking at?” I asked, trying to turn my head as he pulled me. He grabbed my head and stopped me. “Is it a spider? You know I’m not afraid of spiders.”

“Lily!” he cried, as I wrenched myself out of his grip and turned around.

“Spiders are cool, maybe it’s a Black—oh my God.”

I felt tears stinging my eyes are I ran my fingers across the engraving in the bark. “Oh my God,” I said again, weakly.

JACOB + LILY ALWAYS.

“Lily, I didn’t want you to see it, I tried,” Gerard said fanatically.

“He’ll never leave me alone, will he?” I asked.

“He’s dead now, sugar, he can’t bother you anymore, this is just...just weird.” He pulled me to him and pressed my head against his chest.

I threw my arms around his neck and cried. “I saw horrible things last night, Gerard! I had the worst dream! You were there, you weren’t though. And it was so evil! It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, Gerard, so horrifying. I was so scared. And you were gone…with your throat slit, and so pale! And Jacob was there! He touched me!”

“Is that what made you scream last night?” he asked. I nodded into his t-shirt.

“Well, I’m right here, Lily. And I’ll always be right here. For you. They’re just dreams, okay? They can’t hurt you, and I’ll just protect you if they try, okay? Trust me, nothing bad will ever happen to you again if I can help it. Do you trust me?”

I looked into his warm, hazel eyes, filled with concern for me. His face was so twisted with worry and pain for me I wanted to leave him and never come back so he wouldn’t worry over me. But I couldn’t ever bring myself to do that, I know.

“I trust you,” I whispered. But I knew he couldn’t protect me from myself.

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sorry about the wait, guys. i was busy.
i had my senior pictures, an court date (that was interesting), school screw ups i have to fix..
oh, and my birthday.
which i spent parked at an ez mart in wilton at three in the morning waiting out a storm because it was flooding the roads and we couldn't drive home in it while scary people ran around screaming in the rain. we had the door locked and keys in the ignition in case we needed to make a quick get away.
oh. and we were in uncomfortble prom dresses.
i can't say it wasn't interesting.

didn't get to proof read this. sorry about mistakes.

rate and review!