You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

43

Time passed so quickly.

Before I knew it, it was already November.

I decided that I would stop going to the forest for now, since our finals were coming up. Maybe he could afford to stay up all night on Fridays, but I couldn't—not if I didn't want to lose precious studying time on Saturdays catching up on sleep.

Tonight would be the last time we would be visiting the forest until the exams were over.

Well, it was the last night I would be sneaking out.

We had a short discussion about it, and Nolan refused to put a pause on his weekly forest walks. Knowing what I did about him now, I wasn't as worried for his life or safety as I had been before. When he said he would be continuing even without me, I didn't bother arguing with him.

His grades were still as good as ever—he obviously knew what he was doing.

We were holding hands as usual in the denser part of the forest where we had to walk through to reach the clearing. It was so dark. I could barely make out the outlines of nearby trees, let alone any potential hazards on the ground.

A cry fell out of my mouth as I stumbled over something that I hadn't noticed was in front of my foot.

As I fell forward, I yanked Nolan's hand down with me. The swooping sensation in my stomach caused my heart to stop beating for a split second.

"Hey!" Instantly, he whirled around and circled his other arm around my back, pulling me into him.

My face was promptly buried in the front of his pullover hoodie. When I inhaled, my nose was treated to the wonderful fragrance I'd come to love. As he held me securely in his steady arms, the fear I'd been feeling vanished entirely.

"You smell so good." The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could rethink them, and then it was too late to rescind them.

It was too dark for me to see his expression, but Nolan jerked back a little, and his hold on me loosened just the slightest bit. After a couple of seconds, he tightened his arms around me again.

"What are you talking about?" There was a strange unevenness in his voice that I'd never heard before.

"Nothing!" I attempted to regain my footing and reached up to grab the sides of his arms for support. "I said nothing!"

Although he helped me to stand properly, Nolan didn't respond.

"Thanks for saving me," I said, grabbing his hand once I was upright again.

Contrary to my expectations, he didn't turn around to continue walking. Instead, he stayed still and stared at me. "What happened? Why did you suddenly fall?"

"I was lagging behind you a little, and I guess I didn't realize that there was something near my feet," I said, peering down at the ground to identify the mysterious object.

I still couldn't see it.

"I told you to walk right behind me," he said.

I looked up guiltily at him. "Sorry! I wanted to look around."

"Why? I thought you couldn't see anything, anyway."

"I can't, but the atmosphere is kind of cool. I just wanted to, you know, take it all in," I said. "I mean, I won't be coming back here for a couple of months, or maybe even until next semester."

"It's only for a while. We can return before the semester ends," he said, but stepped to my side. "I'll walk beside you. If there's anything in front of you, I'll warn you first."