SORROW WOODS (15 page)

when they don’t even know me? I sigh and place the necklace back into the box. A strange feeling

sits in the middle of my chest, but I’m not sure what it is.

Kaiden

I have no idea what I’m doing here. I’ve been sitting on this foam-filled green and extremely itchy chair for twenty-two minutes trying to think of an excuse so I can leave, but my mind is still a

complete blank. I should just get up and walk out. No one is around to stop me. I’m not here against my own will. I could stand up, walk down the corridor, and leave here without feeling guilty because I haven’t actually done anything wrong.

“Kaiden Matthews?”

I lift my head up and stare at the plump, purple-haired woman. She pushes her glasses up

her nose with her index finger and smiles carefully, as if she’s not sure about me. “Yeah, I’m Kaiden.”

She stops in front of me and nods towards the pale yellow corridor that she’s just come

from. “Shall we then?”

I lean back and push my hands slowly down my thighs until they hang off the end of my

knees. I start to tap my heel against the floor and look everywhere except at her. I take a deep

breath. Then I let it out. I lean forward and rest my head in my hands, rubbing at my face as if I’m trying to remove all traces of guilt that I’ve been trying to ignore for the last five days. Finally, after a few silent, awkward moments, I stand up and look at Jenny. Or Julie, or whatever her name is.

“On a scale of one to ten, how mad is she?” I ask.

She sort of smiles and raises her eyebrows at me. “Medically mad or angry mad?”

I grin. “Both.”

“Well,” she sighs, pushing the white double doors open. She holds them ajar and gestures

for me to walk in front her. “She’s not medically mad but she is quite angry, and during some of her worst outbursts, she has mentioned your name a few times.”

Great. So I’m being led into a lion’s den. “So why has she asked to see me?”

She shakes her head and sighs. “I honestly have no idea.”

I follow her to the end the corridor and into a small room that looks like a living room in one

of those model homes. We both sit down on the cream leather sofa and look at each other.

“What’s happening?” I ask, looking around the room. The walls are painted a pale yellow

colour and are dotted with thirty or so framed photographs of smiling children.

“I want to talk to you before I let you see her,” she says calmly.

I nod but don’t really understand what exactly her problem is. “O-kay.”

“I know your family and Serena’s family have a lot to do with one another, and I know it was

you that found her and recognised her, but I need for you to understand that she’s not like normal girls.”

I hear myself snort. “You can say that again.” I don’t understand why she’s talking about this.

I know all about Serena’s life. I lived with her in the woods for those few days so I know exactly what sort of girl she is and how she’s nothing like normal.

“What I’m trying to say,” she continues, “is that we know she’s somewhat feral and, because

she’s been raised in the middle of the woods with no technology, we expected her to be unaware of what real, modern-day life would be like. But she’s nothing like the normal that we expected.”

I’m confused. I thought she just said Serena wasn’t normal. “I don’t really understand.”

“Let me try again.” She sighs and folds her hands on her lap. “What I’m trying to say is that

we expected her to not know what a shower was or how to use a microwave, for example. What we

didn’t expect was her to breeze right in here and start using the equipment without being freaked out because she’s never seen them before.” She waves her hands in front of my face and blinks at

me. “Imagine having a bath in a tin tub on the grass every single day and having to dry yourself in the sun, and then coming in here and having a massage power-shower that’s encased in a frosted

glass, half-circle shower unit, where you can wash yourself with luxurious fruit-scented shower gel and then be able to get out and dry yourself with pre-warmed Egyptian cotton towels.”

I sigh. I know exactly how that would feel. I remember the bath that I had at home after I’d

spent those few days with Serena and how amazing it felt.

“So what are you trying to say?” I ask, sounding exasperated. Why is this woman so intent on

telling me about Serena’s life when she must know that I spent time with her in the woods?

“She’s surprised us with how well she’s adapted to our technology, but she’s still a very

confused, upset, and scared young woman. She won’t talk to me or anyone else about her time in

the woods. It’s like she’s refusing to admit that she was even there, to a certain extent, and she just seems so angry all of the time. She needs to talk to us. If she keeps it all bottled up, then it’s going to affect her relationship with everyone in the future. These things have a way of coming out. I’m

asking you to be careful with her.”

“I don’t intend on being anything
but
careful with her,” I clarify for her.

“Good,” she says.

I shake my head, feeling confused.

“It was her that wanted to see me,” I remind her.

She nods. “I know. You’re the only one that she knew in the woods that is also a part of this

new life. You are her only constant, Kaiden, and even though she claims to really dislike you at the moment, it appears that she needs you more than she’s willing to admit.”

“So, can I go and see her now?” I ask, getting impatient.

She looks at me carefully, then finally nods and stands up. “Follow me.”

As I follow her into another corridor, I can’t help but wonder if I’ve just been tested. I guess if I have, then I must have passed because she’s taking me to Serena. “Is she still saying that she doesn’t want to see Angela or Auden?” I ask, staring at her purple hair.

She nods. “Unfortunately, yes. I understand why she’s chosen not to, but I think they’re a

little upset.”

“They are,” I inform her. “My Mom spoke with Angela yesterday and I think she had to

spend most of the conversation trying to understand what she was saying through her tears.”

“She’s not doing it to be mean,” she tells me unnecessarily.

“I know that,” I say quickly, “and I think Angela and Auden know that.”

She sighs and carries on walking along the corridor until we reach a pale wooden door with a

brass number ten nailed onto it.

“This is her room,” she says, nodding at the door. “Good luck.”

I shoot her a look. “Thanks.”

I wait for her to walk away and back out through the double doors before I knock on the

door. I tap it twice and take a step back. I hear her feet padding across the bedroom and clear my throat.

“Who is it?” she calls.

She sounds different. I take a deep breath. “It’s Kaiden.”

The door swings open but before I have a chance to look into her eyes, her hands grasp onto

the sides of my arms. She pulls me into her room so quickly that my feet struggle to keep up and

everything’s a blur. I see a streak of blonde hair, I hear the door slam shut, and then I’m slammed against the wall.

I don’t care who she is and what she’s been through, she doesn’t get to slam me into a wall

and push me around. Not when she asked to see me. And not when I’ve driven four and a half hours, missing my favourite dinner that my Mom said she was cooking.

I fling my arms out, forcing her to remove her hands from my arms, and grab her around the

arms, just like she was doing to me. I push away from the wall and slam her back into the opposite wall. She stills long enough for me to take a few deep breaths and look at her. Her eyes are no longer sparkling at me and her mouth, the one that usually curves into a cute smile when she looks at me, is turned down. She glares angrily at me and presses her palms against my chest, pushing me away.

“I take it you’re mad at me then?” I ask sarcastically.

Her hand shoots into the air and then she slaps me across my cheek in one swift swipe. I’m

so shocked that the red mist hovers just at the edge of my vision instead of clouding everything in front of me. I’m so stunned that my arm, which would normally shoot right back up in reaction, just hangs limply at my side. I hold my face and stagger back away from her.

“What the hell?” I spit.

Her face screws up and she pushes herself off the wall, closing the distance between us with

one long stride. She hits my arm. “You tricked me. You tricked me twice!”

She carries on hitting my arm and even though she’s a girl, it really hurts. I bend over and

cover my head with my arms. Am I really cowering from a girl?

“Stop it, Serena. Stop hitting me for fuck’s sake!”

“You lied,” she shrieks, hitting my ribs. “You tricked me!” She hits me across the head. “I

haven’t seen Elodie for five days and it’s because you lied to me. You betrayed me, Kaiden!”

She hits me across my back again and then starts to pummel me uncontrollably. “I thought

you were our friend. I liked you.”

I can hear her crying through her muffled words. She hates me. I guessed she would. Is that

the only reason she asked to see me? Did she just want to hit someone and I happened to be a

perfect fit? She can think again.

“Enough!” I shout. I bend down and gather her legs into my arms. I stand up and flip her over

my shoulder. She kicks her legs and thumps my back with her fists.

“You can’t just hit people, Serena,” I tell her, trying to control my temper.

“I hate you, Kaiden. I hate that you’ve done this to me. The way I feel, the ache in my chest,

and the horrible emptiness that feels like it’s swallowing me up….it’s all because of you,” she says sadly.

I pull her off my shoulder and try to dump her onto her bed, but Serena doesn’t let go. Her

hands remain around my neck and pull me down with her as she sprawls across the mattress. I have

just enough time to spread my hands on either side of her head so I avoid flattening her.

I blink after suddenly finding my nose millimetres from hers. She blinks at me as if she’s just as shocked as I am, and then moves her head to the side. I can smell her. She smells like strawberries and it reminds me of the way she rubbed fruit over my lips. I remember opening my eyes and feeling like complete shit. I remember watching her lick her own lips as she imitated me licking mine, and even though I thought I was going to pass out or die from sun stroke, I remember that I had been

more turned on in that moment than I had in my entire life.

“Look at me,” I order. I’m so pissed off with her right now that my voice quivers.

She closes her eyes and shakes her head. I can’t help but smile at her defiance.

“Look at me, Serena,” I growl.

She huffs but turns her head just a fraction and her eyes snap onto mine. “I don’t wanna

look at you,” she hisses.

That’s too bad because all I want to do is look at her. And even though she’s just slapped me

and hit me and told me she hates me, I want to kiss her. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how she felt on the morning I left when she was pressed up against me in the woods. I want her

more than I’ve wanted any other girl ever, but the sad thing about it is that I know I’m no good for her. I’m probably no good for any girl, but Serena is a big fat no-go. Even if she didn’t hate me, I know Auden and Angela would never allow it.

I shudder. She has the strangest effect on me. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Being near her is dangerous for me. It’s dangerous for her. I can see her eyes studying my face. I can tell she’s taking in every single detail. When I notice her looking at my lips, I feel my head instinctively dipping towards her.

I can’t stop myself. I want this. I want to feel her soft, never-before-kissed lips on mine. I want to taste her. I can feel her watching me. I can hear her breathing just like I could before. The fire in my belly is swirling around. I can feel it testing and teasing the edges, waiting for its chance to escape and surge through my veins.

“I’m scared, Kaiden,” she whispers, not taking her eyes off my face.

Those three little words are enough to stop me from making a big mistake. I pull back a

fraction and shake my head. What am I doing? I did this the last time. Why can’t I control myself around her? Why am I trying to kiss a girl who has just been told that the last fourteen years of her life were a complete lie? Shit, I’m stupid. I take a deep breath and look at her again. I’m not sure if she’s scared because of the situation she’s in or because she knew I was about to kiss her.

“What are you scared of?” I huff, hating her even more because of how much I want her,

despite the fact that she’s really annoyed the hell out of me.

A single tear drops out of her eyes and falls down the side of her face. I watch the tiny patch

of water melt into the sheets underneath her head.

“Everything,” she whispers. She sniffs and wipes her face with her fingers. “I don’t know who I

am or who I am supposed to be. I hate you. I miss Elodie. I hate my Mamma, but I still love her. I miss the woods. I miss the lake. I miss being able to spend all day doing whatever I wanted. I hate that you tricked me.”

I push off the bed and turn around so I’m sitting next to her but not looking at her.

“I didn’t trick you,” I tell her.

“I thought you wanted to get to know us because you actually wanted to get to know us,”

she says.

“I did,” I say, and then realize she might take that wrong. “I do,” I add.

I hear her sigh. “Then why does it feel like you only did it so you could be sure that you were

right? You were pretending to be our friend while you figured out if we really were those missing girls.”

I push my hands through my hair. I wasn’t expecting to have this conversation with her. I