If you're loved by someone, you're never rejected, decide what to be and GO BE IT
-The Avett brothers
Recommend Reading Introduction to Unproven
DEFINITELY READ Prologue
Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three
Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six
Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two Chapter Twenty Three Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five Chapter Twenty Six Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight Chapter Twenty Nine Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty One Chapter Thirty Two Chapter Thirty Three
Chapter Thirty Four
An hour and a half later they pulled into a parking area surrounded by woods. The whole ride there Grayson had tried to ferret out the location but Ary had stuck to her guns and now that they were here he turned to her with a raised brow.
She smiled, “This is what I call my childhood backyard,” she told him. “Just around the corner is the house I lived in with my parents.”
His brows came together briefly, “I see. You were ten when they died, right?”
“Yeah, and it was really hard. They were wonderful people, full of love for everything especially me.”
Grayson looked away. “I’m sorry. I lost my mother in an accident but I was too young to remember her.”
Ary put a hand on his arm, “That doesn’t mean it didn’t leave its mark.”
Grayson shrugged it off, “Nah. You can’t miss what you never had. It's different for you, it's only been seven years...”
"Eight," she corrected.
"But you said you were ten when it happened.”
She nodded, "Yeah and I'm eighteen, so eight years."
He stared at her, "Wait, you're eighteen? And your birthday's in May?"
She nodded, "Yeah, well when my parents died it was a rough time for me. I missed a lot of school, so I got held back a year."
A smile crept across his face, "I'm dating an older woman."
She flushed and laughed, "You'll be eighteen in January, I'm not that much older."
He grinned, "Older woman...score!"
She giggled and smacked his arm lightly.
"So what are we here for?” He asked, looking out the window again.
“The most beautiful and peaceful place you can ever imagine. Come on.” She got out of the car and waited for him to join her at the trunk.
He pulled the bag out, “Can I look now?”
She shook her head, “Nope, here put it on me,” she turned around.
“It’s heavy, I’ll carry it.”
She turned back, “Are you sure?”
He nodded and she took off across the gravel and started down a dirt path. He followed and they walked for several minutes in silence as the woods closed in around them. The way the sun filtered through the trees was hauntingly beautiful, beams of light touching here and there on the stony ground, shadows of varying shades on the places the sun couldn’t hit.
“I used to pretend this was a magic forest,” she told him, breaking the silence. “That there were gnomes and fairies living in the trees, that the trees themselves were alive. I could almost swear I heard them laughing, a tinkling sound through the rustle of the leaves.”
He glanced at her, his lip curved slightly, “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me, considering Pooh bear still dances on your wall.”
She laughed, “Yup. I also had pretend-friends when I was little, did you?”
He gave her a look and laughed shortly, “No. Pretend friends?”
“Yeah,” she grinned, “Julie Gently and Mike Lerouge were my favorites. They met me at the front of the path so I never walked the woods alone.” She giggled, “I had conversations with them, I can’t imagine what an outside person would have thought if they’d seen me.”
“I can. Poor little mentally disturbed girl, what kind of parents would let her walk in the woods alone?”
She laughed and punched him lightly in the arm. “Ha-ha. I knew they were made up, but a part of me always believed in them. They had their own unique personalities.”
Grayson coughed, “Schizophrenia,” into his hand.
She smiled and shook her head, “Make fun of me all you want, but I promise you would never have met a happier more balanced child in your life. You believe in logic and science and that there’s an explanation for everything. I believe in magic and mystery and the sense that there are some things in life that can’t be explained because it’s just out of the reach of our five limited senses.”
He glanced at her as they continued to walk, rounding a bend and then another. She wore an expression of pure enjoyment and looking at her he could almost believe there was something more.
“There’s a clearing through there,” she pointed, “I’ll take you to it on the way back. It’s one of my favorite places in the world because of the tree that sits in its center. It’s enormous and the branches start low enough so you can climb up into it. Some of them are so wide and close together it forms a kind of hammock. I told you I used to imagine that the trees were alive, well that one in particular I thought of as my friend.” She glanced up at him and blushed at the smirk on his face.
“I know how silly that sounds, but there was this one time I climbed higher than I ever had, up to a place where the branches began to get thinner and farther apart. By the time I stopped and looked down I was a good twenty feet from anything capable of breaking my fall. I couldn’t quite make it to the top since the branches were too weak to support me, so I gave up and started back down, but I miscalculated my footing and fell. I remember squeezing my eyes shut, bracing for impact, and suddenly realizing I had stopped. I was lying on my back in a cradle of leaves…On the other side of the tree. I swear to God Grayson, to this day I believe the tree reached around and caught me. I know you’ll laugh, but I know where I was when I fell and it was the opposite side. I should have hit a series of branches then maybe I would’ve stopped before I hit the ground. But even if I had fallen on the side of the tree where I found myself, I shouldn’t have landed with no impact at all, and not a scratch on me.”
Grayson looked at her without saying a word. A number of reasonable explanations came to mind but her expression stopped him from voicing them. He thought that if he believed in anything a fraction as much as she believed in that story he could conquer the world.
The sound of rushing water burst through the foliage and Ary clapped her hands. “We’re almost there!” She broke into a run and disappeared around another bend.
Grayson lengthened his stride but the bag on his back made the possibility of running a little awkward. He could hear her shouts of exultation and it filled him with an un-nameable emotion, a rising in the core of himself that he could only equate with the euphoria of sex. He broke free of the trees and stopped dead in his tracks to take in the awesome sight. He was standing on a rocky cliff and to his right were three impressive waterfalls of varying heights pouring into a canyon. He walked a bit farther and looked down at a pool of water that changed into a river to his left.
“Grayson!”
He barely heard her shout over the thundering of the falls but located her standing on top of one, stark naked and poised to dive. She grinned and waved before disappearing over the side.
His heart leaped to his mouth and he dropped the bag running to the edge. She popped out of the water like a mermaid, sputtering and laughing and he swallowed his relief, refusing to examine the moment of sheer terror he’d experienced when she’d fallen out of sight.
“Come on in,” she shouted, “the water’s beautiful!”
He watched her swim for a few minutes, her white bottom acting like a beacon as she moved through the water. He took a deep breath and pulled his own clothes off, then made his way up to where she’d gone in and dove.
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Best chapter yet!
:) I'm pretty partial to this one too.
Ary is getting under Grayson's skin methinks....he just hasn't fully realised yet.
methinks you might be right..but it will be awhile until he lets himself realize it ;)
Would these be enough for Grayson to let down his guard? Signs point to yes, of course, but it would be interesting to see how long before he sheds it completely, isn't it? Would Grayson even be Grayson once this is all over? Is this part one of a series? Am I ever going to stop asking questions?
Also, I think you meant to say "ferret out" instead of "ferry out", sis. Nice chapter!
Nope, it's not a series, but it is a long book :) I also might do a follow up novella.
Yes, I did mean ferret, thanks, haha!
everything in life we have to fight and do our best, never give up