After somehow completing and surviving a dreadful senior year, Alice is finally at her favorite place, her granny's house. She has always been an introvert, socially awkward, but a stubborn person. She is closed off and always prefers to be alone.
...
Last night I called grana and she told me that granny Ruth is feeling much better now that she has her friend with her, I'm glad she is okay. I told her to be with her as long as she wants, I'm fine here and she doesn't need to worry so much about me. But of course she kept saying 'don't exhaust yourself too much and take your meds on time' and all that.
After dinner, I watched some TV and then went to bed but I kept thinking about Nate and his apology. I know that we are acquaintances or maybe friends now? I don't know, but I can't help but feel giddy and nervous around him all at the same time. It's so weird, but I like to spend time with him even if he's being a pain in the ass sometimes. I wonder how his- no, stop it!
In the morning I was baking the cookies as I said I would, when Nate texted me the time and location where we had to go and to meet him there directly as he had some work before. I completed baking my cookies and took a bite of one of them. Mmmmm tastes almost as good as grana's. I need practice before I perfect them obviously. I ate some more and went upstairs to get ready as it was almost time.
I threw on some black skinny jeans and a pink crop top, I put my hair in a loose ponytail and applied some lipgloss and was ready to go.
I opened my phone and started heading towards the location Nate had sent me, it wasn't that far from home so I decided to walk my way to the place. The weather was surprisingly cold today but not too cold.
When I reached the forest I looked around for Nate but he was nowhere to be found. This place was actually really creepy. There was slight fog around the trees, light was peeking through some of them. And it was quite, too quiet. There was a gush of wind and the nearby tree swayed a little, it looked like a stick man. I took my phone out and called him. Where was he? I wasn't going to stand here alone all day waiting for him.
"Hello" someone whispered in my other ear sending chills all over my body. I screamed, turned around and stumbled upon a rock and fell directly on my ass. Ouch!
"That must have hurt" Nate was laughing, he was barely standing here holding his stomach.
"Of course it did, asshole!" I barked at him and stood up rubbing my bottom, that damn rock! "Stop laughing! It's not funny"
"It is so" he laughed some more showing his dimples, I'll punch him and there won't be any.
"And you say you don't get scared easily eh?" He mocked me.
"You purposely did that! You're not getting those cookies anymore." I huffed.
"Aww Aly come on, that's not fair" he bumped me playfully.
"It sure is, now where do we have to go? This whole forest is so creepy" I sighed looking around again.
"I know it seems like it, but we have to go further in, it's more open and peaceful there" he took the bird cage in his hand which he had kept on the ground and started walking.
"You wanna come or what?" He called out.
I ran and started following him. "Maple looks so healthy and ready to fly now" I looked at her inside the cage. She flapped her wings, nuzzling Olive's neck.
"Yeah they both are, they can fly away and hopefully not get hurt again. This place is secluded enough so I don't think there would be any big birds around here so they should be safe" he said.
I waked a bit clumsy because there were rocks all over the place here meanwhile Nate kept glancing at me and giving me subtle smirks, these damn rocks!
Once we reached a little further, he stopped walking and kept the cage down. Woah, this place looks so much more peaceful and relaxing than from where we started walking. There was a small pond on the right, sunlight was coming directly above from here. There were squirrels running around collecting nuts and there were small birds chirping on some trees. This could be a perfect home for Olive and Maple.
"Wow this really is a nice place huh" I murmured.
"Told you" he bent over and opened the cage for them to come out, Maple came out and sat on Nate's hand. I bent over next to him and took Olive out. Maple flew a little and sat directly on Nate's shoulder.
He rubbed her neck with his fingers "come on little birdie, fly away" he said, but she kept nuzzling his head not in the mood to fly.
"I think she likes you too much, she isn't going away" I chuckled. It was so fascinating to look at them like this though, he was smiling and talking to Maple and she was bobbing her head as if she understands what he's talking about. Olive was now sitting on my shoulder as well bobbing his head towards Maple.
"I know, I can do that to people," he smiled smugly.
"She's a bird" I gave him a straight look.
"Doesn't matter" he took maple in his hands and kept her on the ground. "I can't take them home with me, this is a good place for them, it's safe, there's plenty of food, water and sunlight here. This place is perfect for them."
"Come on Olive" he patted next to Maple, he flew from my shoulder and jumped next to her. I haven't spent much time with them but I sure was going to miss them.
"Go on fly" he tried to shoo them and I laughed when they didn't even move and just kept looking at us.
"I think we should keep them on a tree and see if that helps" he picked Maple and I picked Olive and kept them on the nearest tree, they gripped the branch with their tiny feet and when we moved away they flew up the tree. We smiled at them as they started looking around and eating seeds they could find.
"Finally" he sighed.
"You're going to miss them" I turned to him.
"Maybe" he smiled.
•••
An early update! Just because I love you guys who keep supporting!
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