Alive // bxb

Chapter 8

Liam's POV:

I wasn't really sure what I was doing.

Walking through the forest at nine in the morning, my hands in the pockets of my sweatshirt, kicking a rock along the path in the chilly air. I knew my destination and my end goal of the day, but why exactly was I headed to Milo's house without Sage or Adriel as supervision? I wasn't sure. There wasn't much I could accomplish.

I regret a lot, I thought to myself as I realized I wasn't even halfway there. Sighing, I shifted into my wolf form to run the rest of the way; it would be a good way to stretch my legs and honestly, I hadn't been in this form for a week and I was beginning to miss it.

When I reached the area where the trees thinned and the path became easier to see, I shifted back, kicking some of the dirt off of my shoes (I may have strayed from the path a bit, it was hard to tell) and running a hand through my hair to catch tangles. I wasn't sure why I cared so much, but for some reason, today felt important.

As I'd guessed, Milo was outside, sitting on his knees as he worked over his carrot plants, the few that still remained stretching rows and rows down. I stepped into the clearing where his house sat and stood there silently for a moment or so, wondering if he'd heard me approach.

Sure enough, he turned around, his eyes narrowed for a moment before exhaling and swallowing. "Hi," he muttered, turning back around to his garden to pull another carrot.

"Hi." My voice sounded so much louder in the silent forest. "You seem a bit stressed."

Milo shrugged.

"Do you... want help?" I gestured to the rows.

"No," he mumbled, so quietly I could barely hear before he took a deep breath and said, "You can help if you want."

I nodded, feeling as though it would be more awkward to leave now that I'd arrived than to stay and help out, so I sat down a little ways away from him and stared at the job, wondering if this was the wrong time to mention I had never harvested carrots before. He made it look easy enough, pulling them out with ease, so I figured I might as well try and attempt to pull one out.

Milo's quiet laughter was enough to tell me I'd messed up. I looked up at him, my eyebrows raised, holding up the half of a carrot with dirt hanging off the end as he tried to stifle his laughter by pressing a hand over his mouth.

"That's not how you do it," he said quietly once he had gotten over the laughter.

"Okay, how do you do it?"

Immediately he blushed and looked away and I realized I'd cornered him into teaching me something he obviously didn't want to do. Yet he sighed and stood up, walked the few feet over and crouched down on the other side of the row, the next carrot over. I watched with keen observation as he grabbed on to the base of the greenery adorning the orange flesh, wiggling it around in its hole for a moment or so before twisting it out of the ground, plucking it out with what seemed like uncanny familiarity.

"So you're saying you don't just yank it straight up," I asked in a deadpan tone, though I was smiling.

He looked away. "No."

A half hour later, we had been working in silence for much too long, in my humble opinion, and I was bored of it. So I turned my head towards him, who had gotten much further than I had in the time we had, and tried to spark a conversation. "What's your favorite song, Milo?"

He visibly flinched, curling even more into himself then he was already. I silently cursed myself as he seemed to think.

"I don't know," he whispered, "I don't listen to a lot of songs. Except the ones Adriel sings."