Blood moon

Chapter 5: Is this real?

Sunset fell and Lucy had realized her clothes were damp with her sweat, she turned to run home and change but she was faced with James almost immediately.

“Waiting for me?” he asked with a sensual smile on his lips.

“Oh, uh, yeah but I was going to change first.”

“Why? I can’t stand girls who always smell like roses,” he said lifting her hair to his nose. “I like a natural smell.”

Her face flushed pink and she smiled to hide it.

“You’re not very talkative are you?”

“Well, not really. I’m more of a loner.”

“My kind of girl,” he said grabbing her wrist and heading towards the woods.

“Where are we going?”

“Do you want me to tell you, or do you want to find out when we get there?”

Lucy kept her mouth shut, he was similar to what Brandon used to be like, but he was different, more forward and adventurous.

James picked up his pace and was running at Lucy’s pace and she was laughing the entire time, her feet pounding against the soft ground matching each of his steps. Lucy finally felt free, charging the woods following James with every turn he took and every bound he leapt, Lucy matched. He tried to trip her up but Lucy was too quick, she hurtled every shrub that James cleared and ducted every branch.

James slowed to a stop and Lucy stopped before she slammed into his back.

“Much better since I didn’t tell you right?”

Lucy looked out over the leafy hill and down at a river that was narrow and clear. James stepped down the hill and held his hand in front of her. Lucy took his hand and took a step down the steep hill. She took another and slipped; James caught her and picked her up.

“I can walk,” she said trying to hide her embarrassment.

“It’s quicker if I carry you.”

He set her down on a more level plain of grass and Lucy looked at her feet that were still be covered by her shoes. She stepped out of them and kicked them to the side; the feeling of the cool grass on her warm feet felt good. Lucy closed her eyes and let the wind blow over her and envelop her.

James crouched near the river and cupped his hands into the water pulling them back up and drinking from his palms.

Lucy walked over to him and looked into the river seeing fish swim against the current. Their bright colors shone through the water, oranges, yellows, reds, and even blues, and purples.

“I’ve never seen something so beautiful,” she said in amazement.

“I have,” James said looking at her.

Her cheeks turned pink.

“I’m talking about the sunset, if I wanted you right now, I would take you,” James said leaning back on his elbows. “So, stop all the blushing.”

“Wait, what do you mean by that?”

“I mean if I want to do what you’re thinking I’m after, I could without hesitation.”

“How did you know?”

“Girls blush for two reasons, their shy or their afraid something is going to happen that they don’t want to happen.”

“Oh,” Lucy said not thinking or anything else to say.

“So what was with the ‘sorry to have bothered you’ think the other day?”