The Woods At Night

Chapter 9

"Raccoons aren't the problem." Amy's words ring in my head.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Have you ever noticed how everyone talks about raccoons and how our woods have way too many of them?" She asks back.
"Yeah, but I haven't seen a single raccoon since I got here." I tell her.
"Exactly." She replies. "I've never seen a raccoon around here but every time something strange happens, people blame "the raccoons" for it." She continues, making the same air quotes from before.
"What kind of strange things?" I ask her.
"People disappear in those woods and nobody knows why, sometimes things go missing in the middle of the night, people hear weird things in those woods sometimes, people don't really have pets around here because they would run into the woods and be found dead." Jen explains, she looks sad. Eventually, she starts to cry.
"Hey, it's okay honey. He just, he didn't know. I'm sorry, I know it's a bad subject for you." Amy says as she hugs Jen.
"What did I do?" I ask, a bit worried about her.
"Oh, it's okay, like I said you didn't know. It's just, well, she lost someone close to her too because of those woods and-" Amy starts to explain.
"And I just brought up bad memories." I finished for her.
"Yeah." Jen mutters over Amy's shoulder.
"I'm sorry." I tell her. I watch as they cry and Amy calms Jen down. When they finally stop crying they kiss each other and I'm honestly sort of surprised. I didn't know a small rural town like this would have gay people in it. From the look they give me I probably made my surprise evident on my face like an idiot.
"Don't tell anyone!" Jen says worriedly.
"I won't! I won't! Hell, if I out you I'd have to out myself too!" I blurt out. Shit, I really gotta work on that.
"Hell yeah, represent!" Amy says, making peace signs with both her hands, yep she's definitely gay. Jen and I both laugh at her awkward pose. I think I might have just made some friends here today.
I leave the house that I've learned is Jen's after a few more gay jokes when we all feel better. I go to the diner for dinner and my mom brings me a menu.
"I saw you out earlier, you were talking to some girls, making friends already?" She asks.
"I'll have the omelets with bacon please." I reply.
"Come on Pheonix, can't you at least tell me who they are?" She asks.
"Omelet and bacon." I repeat.
"Really?" She says with slight annoyance.
"You'll get intel once I get food, you are a waitress after all." I tell her, she smirks at me and goes to get my food. When she comes back I tell her that Amy and Jen are my friends now and that I hung out with them, leaving out everything about the woods talk and skipping over the fact that they're dating. I finish my food and we walk home together at the end of her shift. She goes to bed of course because she has work in the morning and I go to my room and check my phone. I look through memes for a few minutes and then I remember I took some pictures with Amy and Jen while I was with them and decide to post them on Instagram. In the description I put the following:
Fun with friends in the small town of Lucky Tree, where stars shine bright and everyone is too friendly! Lol, just watch out for raccoons.
I post it and my phone starts buzzing like crazy again from Nate and all his friends. I turn off notifications for my social media and then I go to bed.