Meet me in the Emerald Forest

Chapter 6 Clementine

I had no idea why I was trusting this dark haired God-like man walking beside me. As you can imagine, I don't trust easily, so I was beyond baffled when I confessed my life story to a stranger standing in the forest.

All I had wanted to do was get away from Danny. After being in the car with him for two days, I couldn't stay in the same space as him for another two seconds. I went for a walk and found my feet taking me to the woods where I was cornered by wolves seven years ago. This was the first time I had been there since that day.

It took me longer than I'd care to admit to announce myself to the man leaning against the very same tree I hid behind on that night. His face looked so peaceful, his posture completely relaxed against the tree. When I finally spoke and he opened his eyes, I was completely startled by the familiarity of those haunting green orbs. He jumped up and I couldn't help but notice how his muscular body flexed with each movement, the ink black tattoos twitching over his exposed biceps.

I was sure that I imagined it when his eyes raked over my body and lit up with admiration and recognition. And then I opened my mouth and couldn't control what came out.

We were so close to each other that our hands were almost touching as we walked down the streets towards my neighborhood, the Willow Community.

"Am I making you nervous?" His voice interrupted my train of thought.

"What? No." I nearly jumped out of my skin. Lukas laughed at me, a low chuckle that began deep in his chest.

"Is that your house?" He said, looking past me.

"How did you know?" I narrowed my eyes on him in question, instantly suspicious.

I knew we were approaching my house, it was one of the first homes on my street, Rose Ave. Lukas cocked an eyebrow with a smirk on his plump lips and gestured his head towards something. I turned around and sighed loudly.

"Oh." I muttered.

Danny was stomping down the sidewalk with a scowl that could've been seen from the moon.

"That's my brother." I clarified, looking back at Lukas. He had an amused expression on his face.

"He doesn't seem thrilled."

"He's a ninny." I grumbled.

"Clem?" Danny yelled at me from across the street to get my attention. He jogged towards us.

"Where have you been?" Danny asked as he stopped in front of us, "And who is that?"

"I went for a walk and he's just someone I ran into." I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at Danny.

"You just got out of the hospital...."

"Yes and I've spent two days stuck in a car with you. I needed to stretch my legs and get some fresh air." I huffed.

"With a stranger?" Danny turned his sour expression on Lukas.

"How do you know if he's a stranger or not? You weren't exactly around to meet my high school friends, now were you?" I said in a judgey voice.

Danny blinked and looked taken aback, his hands dropping from his chest and dangling at his side in disbelief.

"Clem...."

"Just go back inside. I'll be in, in a minute." I sighed, feeling extremely agitated with him. Danny frowned and, after giving Lukas one last threatening look, turned to walk back up the sidewalk.

"Sorry about that." I apologized to Lukas.

"You don't have to apologize to me about a little family drama." Lukas shrugged, "I'm sorry if I caused trouble for you."