A Forest Away (dnf)

Five

*George's POV*
I head to my first class and take a seat at my desk. And take out a book to read while I waited for the second bell to ring. And that's when I hear Aiden's stupid voice as he walks in the class which causes me to let out a slight groan.

Can he not come to school at least for a day or two. I go back to pay attention to my book but then Aiden asks something that makes me lose my train of thought,"Clay what is with you man? You haven't said a single thing"

Clay? I can feel my heart skip a beat to the thought of him. I look up and that's when I see him. But he didn't look like himself. His hair was all messed up but it still looked good.

But when he turned to Aiden I saw the bags that had formed underneath his eyes. He looked miserable and I continued to look at him with a concerned look. I wonder if he had gotten any sleep at all, I hope he's okay.

I didn't like how sad and tired he looked, it started making me sad myself. Maybe I should- "George!", I get snapped out of my thoughts and I turn to the voice. It was my friend Hannah.

"Dude you seriously have a problem with zoning out all the time", she says as she lightly laughs. "Sorry", I reply. I give one more glance towards Clay then turned back to face Hannah but I'm met with her smirking at me. "W-what?", I asked nervously.

She quickly looks around and then leans towards me. "You were staring at Clay weren't you", she says in a teasing tone. I could feel my face start to heat up. "W-what!? N-no, what are you talking about"

"Woah no need to get all defensive George", She says as she places her arm on the desk and rests her chin on her hand. "I don't know what you're talking about", I quickly say as I go back to reading my book.

But then that's when she snatches the book out of my hands. Before I could say anything she cuts me off "I know you have a thing for him George", I quickly snatch the book back from her. "No I don't, I'm literally straight" 

"George, you literally came out to me freshman year", She says with a raised brow. Oh..damn it "It was worth the shot", I say as I sighed in defeat. "You're not gonna let this go are you", I asked.

"Nope", she replied smirking once more. "Have you talked to him yet?"

"Um...no"

"Why not?"

"Well I never really got the chance to"

"Well you better grow a pair soon because I know tons of girls from the cheer team that are practically drooling all over him", I couldn't help but feel intimidated by that. Because one there's multiple of them and two I don't even know if he's straight or not. "I don't even know if he's straight", I tell her.

"Hmm, maybe ask Nick if he is"

"I don't want to pry what if it's like personal, I kinda want to find out myself like having him tell me himself"

"Well doing that you would have to talk to him", She says as she lightly shakes my shoulder. I nod in response and give a quick "I know", as I sighed to myself.

—

*Clay's POV*
God, I feel so tried I really should have been more aware of what I was doing. I make my way up to my door and unlock it and there I see my dad putting his coat on. "There you are, listen I know I said I would deal with you when you would get back from school but I was called in to work today, so for now I want you to clean the whole house including the bathroom", he explains.

I groan in response "You brought this upon yourself Clay, well I got to go I expected this place to be spotless", he finishes saying as he shuts the door behind him.

I shrugged off my backpack and threw it aside not really caring where it went. Well might as well start now.

—

I put all the cleaning supplies away in their place and laid down on the couch as I sighed with exhaustion. Since when was our house so big.

I flipped myself over so I was facing the ceiling. Now what? And that's when I got an idea. Maybe I should look for my necklace now since it's still day out and I'll have a better chance of finding it.

I quickly get up and head to my backyard but before I got out of the house I quickly placed my phone on the table so I wouldn't lose it again. I then slide open the door and lightly jogged to the small white wooden fence and swing my leg over it then did a slight hop to get my other leg over.

Good thing my house was in the forest so I didn't have to worry about neighbors seeing me. I walked away from my house until it was out of my view I stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, taking in the smell of the fresh air while closing my eyes.

I heard the sound of the light breeze flowing through the tree's leaves and the birds while they communicated with one another. I may have been young but I remember this memory of my mother viably.

My mother liked to take morning walks and for one of them she took me with her. I was probably around one or two years old but she held me close while she cradled me. A morning dove sang which caused her turned to look at me.

"You hear that my love? Do you see and hear what Mother Nature was so generous to give us?", she told me. My mother always had a special connection with nature which caused me to also have a love for it.

She then leaned down to give me a quick peck on my nose, I reached my hand out and held her cheek which causes her to laugh.

I reopen my eyes again. I have to find that necklace I shift and shake off the lose ripped pieces of clothing and began my run. It always felt so freeing to run in the forest in my other form because I can run like no other and I can jump from far distances.

But then I come across a river taking this as an opportunity to have a quick drink of water. After I was done I continued on my search.

*George's POV*
I was done with my homework but I wanted to read my book in my favorite spot again. When I was gonna start going down the stairs I see my dad on the phone. "Yes I heard it", he says to the person on the other end. "Okay I'll be there soon", he hangs up the phone then starts putting on his leather jacket and was out the door.

Okay? But then I walk to my parents room and open it to see my mother laying in bed. She wasn't at work because she wasn't feeling to well. "Hello mum, how are you feeling?", I asked her softly as I sat on the edge of the bed.

She looks at me and gives me a light smile "I'm alright dear, did you need nothing?"

"Um I just wanted to ask if you knew where fa- I mean dad was going", I quickly correct myself. My dad always wanted me to call him father when I'm talking to him so it's kinda a force of habit.

"Oh well, he said that his friend wanted him to go meet him to talk to him about something important", she tells me. Luna then jumps on the bed and curls up right next to my mom.

I smile at them. "Okay, well I'll be in my spot text me if you need anything", I say to her as I give Luna a quick pet. My mum nods as she says "Okay" I get up and head to my spot.

My spot is this clear little pit in the forest quite close to my house, it had a tree stump which I usually sit on or lean on and it also has pretty flowers surrounding it all I also sometimes would take a blanket so I would lay down on it but this time I didn't.

I eventually make it to the spot with my book in hand and sit down against the stump then began reading.
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