Electric Love

Chapter 10

I push branches away from my face as I walk through the woods. Nathan's house should be close, shouldn't it? In the clearing, he said he lived around here! My foot hits a tree root and I start to fall, wildly flinging my arms around to grab something. I snatch a tree branch, and my momentum swings me fast around the tree, slamming my forehead into the bark.

"Ouch! God!" I stumble back and sit down, bracing my back against a tree. My hand flies to my forehead and comes away bloody. The wound is bleeding profusely, the blood running down my nose and dripping onto my lips. It tastes salty. I wipe my face with my shirtsleeve, wiping it onto my cheeks instead. When I rub my cheeks harder, more blood runs down the side of my nose, threatening to drip into my eyes. I let out a scream of frustration.

"Reese?" I hear Nathan's voice behind me, and I leap up, twisting to face him. The blood on my face then does spill into my eyes, forcing me to squint my eyes shut.

"Oh my God! What happened?!" Nathan shouts. I feel his shirtsleeve wiping the blood off around my eyes and stopping over my wound. I keep my eyes shut as he leads me to his house. Curious, I open one eye to see what it looks like.

Nathan's house is painted white, with a few peeling spots near the edges. The roof looks particularly new, dark gray and shiny. The house is a bit small, but probably comfortably accommodates Nathan and his parents. Any guests would have to squeeze. Nathan steers me to the doorway, banging it open with his back.

"Oh my Lord!" I hear a female voice exclaim. I feel hands on my shoulders, ushering me into a chair. Seconds later, I feel a warm, moist towel press against my forehead, while a smaller rag dabs at my face, finally getting the blood out of my eye. I open them and see the lower half of a woman wearing an apron.

Nathan is kneeling next to me, dabbing at my face with the rag. The pressure lifts off my forehead, and Nathan's mother kneels next to him, looking me in the eyes. Her frizzy caramel hair is spread out every which way, partially obscuring her left eye from view. She has a few small freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. But the most noticeable thing about her wasn't her untamable locks, or her dark brown eyes, capable of swallowing you whole if you let them. The most noticeable thing in her features was the gigantic scar completely covering the right side of her face. It looks like a burn mark that starts from her right ear in a thick line, then branches off in different directions, spiraling and swirling so much that you could get dizzy just looking at them. The scars die out around her nose, chin, and forehead, but a single tendril of scar tissue stretches to the corner of her right eye. I focus on the words she is saying now.

"What happened?" She asks me.

"I tripped on a root on the way here,"I smile.

"Nat's father is a doctor, would you like him to take a look at your forehead to see if it needs stitches?" She asks.

"Sure. My name is Reese, by the way," I shake Nathan's mother's hand and she chuckles.

"I figured, he talks about you all the time," she smiles.

"He does?" I shoot a smug look at Nathan and he screws up his face at me.

"Yes, we can't get him to stop! My name is Marianne, but you can call me Mary. Chuck's office is just down this hallway, dear." Mrs. Mary leads me down the hall and into Nathan's father's office.