Forlot: Silver Woods - Book Fifteen

Chapter Twenty

The clock struck. Seven o'clock came faster than I thought. Lorraine, Joan, and I, as well as Danny and Dixon, were waiting patiently outside of Joan's house. Darius left minutes earlier to fetch his car. He thought that it would be better to go by car than by walking and made it on the spot. He parked his car on the side of the road, and the five of us climbed in.

I had planned on sitting in one of the backseats because I wanted to be a good guest and assumed that Danny or Dixon desired to sit in front. I was flattered and a little surprised that both boys insisted that I sit with Darius and that they would sit in the back with Lorraine and Joan. The two girls giggled and blushed as the hot boys crawled into the back.

All the while that was occurring, Darius had gotten out and held the passenger door open for me. He smiled and licked his lips as I gave him a warm thanks and climbed into the passenger seat. He shut the car door, got back in, and switched the engine on. We were on our way.

"You know, Dixon and Danny, you did not have to tag along with us," I heard Lorraine say.

"But I wanted to be with the most beautiful girl in the world," Danny claimed, referring to her.

Dixon clicked his tongue. "My poor brother. Can he not see that you are the most beautiful, Joan?" He planted a kiss on the tip of her nose, and Joan immediately covered her nose.

"I do not mind if you guys flirt back there. Just please do not take your shirts off," Darius ordered.

I was so taken aback by his statement that my face almost collided with the dashboard. "What did you just say, Darius?"

He glanced at me to give me a comforting smile, and then back at the open road. "My brothers always have the audacity to take off their shirts while in my car. I keep telling them to stop it, but they will not listen. The worst part is when their bare chests and backs touch any place of the car, you can bet that there will be sweat."

I scrunched up my face in disgust. "Ew."

"You can say that again."

"It is not our fault, Darius," Dixon protested. "It is summer. It is hot. If it were not illegal to be naked in Forlot, Danny and I would not hesitate to yank off all of our clothes."

"Could you not show your bare chest at least this time? The last thing that our girls need to see is how hot we are." He leaned his body in my direction and whispered, "Us brothers have abs."

My eyes glistened in the moonlight. "Ooh. If you do not mind me asking, how many?"

He brought his lips close to my ear. "More than six." His hot breath hit the side of my face.

If Darius had the ability to melt girls until they were nothing but puddles, I would have definitely been a puddle. I sank in my seat and smiled while daydreaming. But I did not get to daydream for long.

Darius stepped on the breaks, and his car came to a halt. He shut off the engine and announced that we were at my house. Now, before you get suspicious as to how he knew where I lived, I told him. He had asked me before he grabbed his car.

We all scrambled out of the car, and Darius was thankful that Dixon and Danny still had their shirts on. We hid behind some bushes and discussed how we were going to get my parents and sister away from the property.

"We need a distraction. A good distraction," I said. "Someone needs to stall long enough for the rest of us to get in and get out."

"I am way ahead of you, Sam," Darius stated. "That is another reason why I brought my car." He returned to the car, opened the truck, and pulled out a case that only had small nails.

"Why do you have nails?" I blurted out.

"For occasions like this one."

He flipped open the lid of the case and took out two nails. He moved over to one of the back tires and inserted the sharp ends of the nails into the black rubber. The tire began shrinking. It shrank until it was flat.

"Your family can help Joan with the flat tire." He tossed the car keys to Joan, and she caught them.

"You want me to be the distraction?"

Dixon rested a hand on her shoulder. "You will be an excellent distraction."

She covered her cheeks so that we could not see the redness. "You are only saying that because you like me."

"I will stay with you, Joan," Lorraine volunteered. "Sam's parents and sister will never believe that you own this car. But they will believe that I do."

The two girls made their way to my house while the boys and I hid in the bushes, and Joan knocked on the front door. They were greeted by my mom and dad a few seconds later.

"Joan. Lorraine," Mom said their names. "What a pleasant surprise."

"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. and Mrs. Wolf," Joan commented. "We are having some trouble."

"'Trouble'?" Dad repeated the word. "What kind of trouble?"

"The good news is that I can drive now, so my folks got me a new car," Lorraine lied. "The bad news is that it has a flat tire, and I do not have spares."

Dad was already on his way to the car. "Let us have a look at it, shall we?"

"Where is Silver?" Joan asked my mom.

"She is not here right now. She is taking care of an errand. Said that we need fresh cookies."

Something told me that Silver was getting anything but cookies.