The Woods At Night

Chapter 8

I climb up and into my room through the window and Kai disappears into the trees. Mom walks in as I'm closing the window.
"What're you up to?" She asks.
"I was looking out the window." I lied. She doesn't need to know I was ever out in the woods or that I even went to a party.
"Well, when you're done admiring the forest you should come get lunch. I'll be leaving for work soon so I suggest you hurry." She tells me. I grab my phone and walk down to the kitchen to grab a plate of food.
"Hey mom, can Vivian come over for, like, a week to hang out? I really want to see her again!" I ask in between bites.
"Sure, she can stay with us as long as her parents let her. I don't know if she'd be allowed to fly out alone though." She replies.
"Well, maybe she could ask a friend to fly with her so she wouldn't be alone." I tell her.
"She'll have to ask her parents." My mom says. I finished my food and start to walk back to my room but my mom stops me.
"Where do you think you're going young man?" She asks.
"To my room, where I always go." I tell her.
"Oh no no no," she says, shaking her head. "You are going to get out of the house more than just to get lunch at the diner. You're pale as a sheet, you need some sunlight! Plus, you should really try to make some friends here, you can't have your friends back home come here all the time!" She finished, I almost tell her about Kai but I stop myself.
"I've always been pale and I don't need friends. I was fine back in the city with just Vivian." I reply, I go to step towards the direction of my room again and she grabs the collar of my tee shirt.
"You are either gonna go outside more this summer or you will not have my permission for Vivian to come out here because all you do is sit in your room." She says, it's moments like this I wish plane tickets didn't cost so much so I could go see her myself. My phone starts vibrating again, and I'm reminded of the reason I didn't ask to go out there.
"Fine. But don't expect me to go making friends with everybody." I say as we head outside.
"Just try not to be so mean." She says, with that she heads towards the diner to go work some more.
"If I get sunburned it's your fault!" I shout after her, although I'm not sure if she actually heard me or not. I start to walk around town for a while, there's children chasing eachother and some teens who I recognize from the party talking by the pond. I put my hood up and hope they weren't sober enough to remember me. I eventually decided I should try to go see Kai in the day, being night buddies is fun but I'm sure we could probably do more when the sun is up. Just as I'm about to start walking into the woods I hear a voice from behind me.
"Hey! Where the hell do you think you're going?" Jen shouts at me, I turn around and see Amy and Caroline are with her.
"Fuck." I mutter. "What the fuck do you care?" I ask as they walk over to me, theres obvious annoyance in my voice.
"Whoa, chill, we're just trying to be helpful." Amy says.
"I don't care." I reply.
"If you don't have anything better to do, why not come hangout with us?" Caroline asks, is she still trying to flirt with me? Isn't it clear I'm not into her?
"I have a better idea, why don't I go into the woods and we agree never to interact with eachother ever again?" I reply, mocking her happy voice.
"Hey, we're trying to be your friends, why do you have such a problem with that?" Amy asks as she puts her hands on her hips.
"Not to mention you really shouldn't go into the woods anyway, it's too dangerous." Jen adds.
"I don't need your friendship, I never needed a group of people to hangout with, I'm fine on my own. Plus, what should I give a shit about some fucking raccoons, they're the size of cats, how much damage could they even do?" I ask, starting to get pissed off. Caroline walked away before I even finished talking.
"THOSE "RACCOONS" AREN'T A FUCKING JOKE!" Jen yells at me, she makes air quotations with her hands when she says raccoons and Amy copied the action.
"What are you talking about, there's nothing in these wood!" I tell her.
They both grab my arms and pull me to the house where the party was. When we get inside they bring me to a room that looks to be one of their bedrooms.
"Raccoons aren't the problem."