It is hard to tell who's more surprised. Him or me. Out of all the people I'd expect to run into in the middle of a dark, lonely forest, my mother's new boyfriend is the last.
Daniel raises his eyebrow at me. Suddenly, I realise that I'm still sprawled awkwardly on the shrubby forest floor. I scramble up stiffly to my feet, dusting my jeans and combing out the twigs and leaves stuck in my hair with my fingers.
"What are you doing out here?"
"What are you doing in the middle of a forest?"
We both ask simultaneously. I frown. I haven't seen Daniel since a week ago, when I walked in on my mom and dad fighting. No surprises there. It had been going on for almost a year. Both Ace and I were pretty much used to it by now. Only this time Daniel was in the room with them. I still remember it clearly. I had just come home from school. I could hear people shouting in my parents' room, so I went over to check.
"…and you have the gall to bring him into our home!" my dad was saying, more like shouting.
"I'll bring whomever I want home. This is my house too!" my mom yelled back.
"Die you ugly green pig! Die!" I heard a third person shout, a person I hadn't noticed until now. He was perched on the armchair in the corner of my parents' room playing angry birds on his phone while my parents were fighting. My parents immediately quietened and turned to gape at him. Realising that there was someone staring at him, Daniel looked up from his game, and on seeing their surprised expressions he simply shrugged. My dad turned towards my mom.
" This…this is who you're going to go with. He's a boy! He's as old as our son for God's sake!" my dad yelled.
"He is NOT a boy, he is a man. And he is two years older than our son!" my mom yelled louder. And they were off again. It wasn't that odd for my mom to bring a new guy home, she had been doing it for the past few months. But she'd never brought home such a young guy before. Most likely he was around just to piss off my dad. My mom sure knew how to pick 'em.
I studied his appearance. He was a thin, wiry chap. With nondescript brown hair and nondescript brown eyes, he had a face that could easily get lost in a crowd. There was a thin wisp of a moustache growing on his upper lip. Somehow, his face gave me the creeps. It was too forgettable. Never trust a man with a moustache. My Grandma always used to say. And after seeing Daniel, I believed her. Of course this has nothing to do with the fact that he is a high school dropout who is dating a woman twice his age, my inner voice said drily. But like always I ignored it.
"Yeah that's much better," said dad, sarcastically, while my mom seethed. "I can't believe you're divorcing me for this guy."
Wait! What!? Divorce? I looked at the guy again. Nope, he was definitely NOT hot. What's wrong with you mom? I wanted to yell at her this time.
"You shouldn't be so far out in the forest," I snap back from flashback mode when I hear Daniel speak. "No one should be this far out." I hear him mutter under his breath.
I look at him suspiciously, taking in his appearance for the first time since I ran into him. There is sweat dripping down his face as if he has just completed some strenuous work. His hair is tousled up and sticking to the sides of his face. He is panting slightly. And his hands are extremely dirty, caked with mud. That's when I notice the large muddy spade in his hands. Yeah! Just like me to notice the most obvious things last. There is a strange glint in his eyes that gives me the heebie-jeebies. What could a person with a spade be doing deep inside a forest? Maybe he's burying a dead body. My inner voice says sarcastically. I freeze.
I grin awkwardly at him, "He-he, you look like you've come to bury a dead body in the forest or something." I say, gesturing in the general direction of his suddenly evil-looking spade, in an attempt to make light of the situation and to rid my mind of the pant-wettingly scary thought I've just had. I know nothing about this guy. For all I know he really could be a serial killer.
The creepy glint in his eyes hardens and a small smile forms on his lips, "Looks like I'm gonna have to take care of you too."
