"Hey you came," Says a familiar Australian voice, causing me to jump. I whip my head around a playful glare on my face.
"I should be saying that to you! I've been waiting for like 20 minutes" I growl, still in a playful way. Ashton just smiles and sits beside me on the rock I found him at yesterday.
"So tell me about yourself," He says after 30 seconds of silence.
"I don't know there's not much to tell" I mumble, picking up a twig and digging it into the dirt.
"Come on there's got to be something." He pushes, picking up two large sticks, and tapping them gently against his thighs.
"What do you want to know?" I say, looking at him.
"Well, what's your family like? Why were you so pissed at me being here? Why aren't you at school right now?" He says, his hazel eyes meeting mine.
"First, I have a twin sister, Kai. Two little brothers, Tua and Pika. My dad left me, but my mom remarried. She's been happily married for 2 years. Her husband is nice enough." I say, breaking eye contact and going back to digging into the earth.
"Oh, that's cool." He says, politely waiting for me to answer the rest of the questions.
"Second, this is my safe space. Where I can get away from obnoxious twins and screaming toddlers and bossy parents. I come here all the time. I know these woods like the back of my hand." I say, still avoiding eye contact, though I can feel his eyes on me. "Third, I dropped out. I got all my credits anyways. I had half a year left, there was no point in finishing if I got all the shit I need to get a good job" I finish with a shrug. I finally bring my eyes up to see a huge grin plastered on Ashton's face. "What?"
"I'm sorry for invading your personal space Leo. But I'm really glad you shared that with me. Is there anything you wanted to know about me?" He says, a little bit cheesily.
"Well, what about you? What about your family life?" I say looking back down at the small hole I have dug. I hear the rhythmic tapping against his thighs begin to get rougher, as he was hitting his thighs with more force.
"I have a little brother, Harry, who is only 9. And a younger sister who is 13" He pauses, the drumming coming to a sudden halt, "It's me and my mom as the 'adults', my dad left after Harry was born" He mumbles the last part.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Ash..." I whisper, placing my hand awkwardly on his shoulder.
"I moved here about a week ago. My mom couldn't stand living in the same country as him." He growls 'him' as though it was the equivalent of saying 'Hitler'.
"Well, would you like me to show you around the woods, then?" I asked, trying to change the subject. I mean I'm glad I knew the information; it was just really awkward.
"Yeah, that'd be really great, thanks," He says, beaming and brushing dirt off his black skinny jeans.
"Let's go then," I say, smiling and copying his actions, brushing the earth off of my gray leggings.
~
I trek into Valley, telling the male the story about how I discovered and named the area.
It was a valley (duh), a small clearing surrounded by huge, steep hills. There's a small cave on the west side, where I go if it suddenly starts to rain. At the top of the hills, tall trees grow, in close proximity to each other, the sun not shining. The woods surrounding Valley are shadowy and ominous, causing Valley to seem more magical.
"Anyways, I come here probably just as often as I go to Rock. I don't have very creative names for the places here," I say sheepishly, tucking a strand of my long black-brown hair behind my ear.
"I like the names. They're straight to the point," He compliments, causing a blush to creep onto my cheeks.
"Th-Thanks I guess," I say, kicking the dirt softly.
"So what now?" He cheerfully asks, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back up the steep hill, the way we came from.
"Actually we're going the other way," I mumble, nodding in the opposite direction.
"Shit," He laughs, sprinting down the hill, then tripping, and tumbling down the slope instead.
"Oh my god! Ashton are you okay?!" I shriek, rushing down after him, watching my footing so that I don't have the same outcome as him.
"Yeah I'm fine," He groans, pushing himself up, spitting a blade of grass out of his mouth, "At least I took a quick way down," He laughs, using his fingers to comb through his curly hair, pulling out twigs.
"Anyways, we're going to Lake Faerie next," I announce, marching off in the direction we were supposed to go in the first place. I hear him jogging to keep up with my pace.
"Lake Faerie? Did you name it?" He asks, finally beside me.
"Yep. Don't laugh, but when I was like 11, I came here and pretended to be a fairy, free of responsibility and stress. So I named it Lake Faerie. F-A-E-R-I-E. Don't ask. I still don't know," I say, not glancing at him, afraid he would laugh at me.
"No, that's really sweet. I like it," He says, causing me to blush again.
"There it is," I say, pointing at the small lake, that's not quite big enough to be on maps, but not meager enough to be considered a pond.
"It's beautiful," he whispers, most likely to himself. The sun was hitting it just right, so the water looked like it was made of liquid diamond. The frogs were quite quiet this morning, so it was very serene, and beautiful, even to me.
"I agree," I breathed, walking to the bank of the water. That's when I passed out.
