Found (New Earth Saga)

Ch. 18

***RIVER POV***

I clung to the warm towel, that I'm pretty sure was a giant sized wash cloth Isaac had given me. My clothes were already soaked from the rain. Luckily, the inside of my backpack and my phone hadn't gotten wet. I held the side of my phone until it turned back on. As soon as it turned on messages started to flash across the screen, So many text. So many missed calls. Sh#t. This wasn't good. How would I explain this to Blue and Thomas?

I've never been what I would consider to be a bad kid. I'm just not good at being part of something. Part of a community, part of a friendship, or part of a family. I'm used to life with Kerry, where she was hardly aware if I'd made it home or not. From looking at how many people had tried to contact me, it was looking like I was going to have to learn how to be part of something real quick.

"Everything okay? Your clothes should be dry in a sec," Issac said, leaning down to rest his elbows on the counter I was sat on. This should have felt weird. Super weird, but it somehow wasn't. Issac didn't even react when I'd told him my name was River Reed. He didn't look at me like some unfortunate little human who'd been kidnapped. Instead, he focused on the fact that I was a little human who'd never seen a dog before. I know they have such things as dogs on Earth, but to my knowledge, the dogs of New Earth were only giant sized, and were actually super rare. Of course I've never seen one.

"Everyones calling me... I feel like I'm about to be in trouble..." I admitted

"For what?"

"For ditching class and ending up here,"

"Oh snap. Yeah, I wish I could skip class. My dad fricken works at school though. Ever had class with Mr. Green? I hope not. He's so embarrassing sometimes,"

"What do you think will happen if I call them?"

"Umm just tell them you came to your friend Issac's house, who lives super close to school... for a giant. You forgot to text them. Um- I can give you a ride to your house or wherever."

Friend. There's that word again. A word that people like Jacob had used. A word that Issac so easily threw around. Was he my friend now? If I allowed myself to feel like I was friends with Issac, would he befriend me out of pity or out of actually wanting to be friends? Afterall, he did find me caught in the rain, absolutely terrified of his dog.

"Are we friends?" I asked.

"I think we ought to be at this point. Actually, I think you're my first real human friend!"

"Ha, really?"

"Yeah. I don't really talk to many humans. Not because I don't like humans, it's just I've never found one that likes me. Not that you like me- I mean, I'm not saying that you dislike me. I just meant that you seem pretty okay with me, right?"

Issac was blushing. I'm surprised he could blush given his light brown skin. I guess it was just light enough that his blush shined through. It made my stomach flip as I looked up at him. Mother earth! Why is it that everytime I meet some guy at this school this happens. Well I guess it doesn't happen when I met people like that Trevor guy on the first day, but It's happened when I met Eric, Jacob, and now Issac.

Before I could answer Issac, my phone started buzzing. I looked down to see it was Trent calling me. Putting this off wasn't going to help so I decided to answer, and just hope that the Reeds wouldn't get too mad about this.

"Hi,"

"RIVER?" Trent said my name so loud that I'm surprised it didn't break the speaker of the phone.

"Hi Trent. I'm sorry-"

"RIver? Oh my gosh. Where are you? Are you okay? We've been freaking out!"

"Yeah I'm fine..." I replied feeling like an idiot. Trent sounded so worried. This was bad. I had really messed up. Plus Blue was supposed to pick me up after school- she was probably so worried. I'd just been so frustrated though. I'd needed a moment of freedom. A moment to just escape from this all. I didn't actually want to worry anyone.