Page 40 of The Woods

Beverley puts her coffee cup in the dishwasher and leaves through the back door for her own quarters. Outside, she notices Geoff across the yard at the opening in the trees. Standing perfectly still, his arms dangling at his sides, he is staring fixedly into the woods.

“Haven’t you had enough of those woods?” she calls out to him.

He turns slowly, looking as though he’s in a trance. “Those woods are life-changing,” he calls out to her.

“Is that so?”

“You’ll see,” he replies, smiling widely.

Polly

Polly leaves the table right after dinner because she doesn’t want to risk missing Gray if he comes by. It’s starting to get dark outside, but she leaves her curtains open, and her window. Why don’t you just put a neon sign outside that flashes Vacancy? She laughs out loud, then, as always, wonders if it’s her imagining the funny quip her sister would say if she were here right now or if her sister is actually being a bitch from beyond.

The small tap of a pebble against the window distracts her from the thought and she’s up off her bed in an instant. She sees his familiar shadowy figure standing in the trees and climbs outside to meet him.

“Hey,” Gray says, stepping into the light coming from her bedroom windows.

“Hey,” she says, acting as nonchalant as possible despite the buzzing in her veins. She really cannot believe the effect this guy has on her. “You missed the party my parents had last night. I stole a bottle of wine to share with you but…” She trails off.

“Right,” he says, looking as though he’d entirely forgotten the invitation she’d given him. “The party.” Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulls out a joint and bends down to light it. “I’m not really one for parties,” he explains after exhaling a thick plume of smoke. He passes the joint to Polly.

“Yeah, well. I didn’t expect you to, like, hang out with my parents and their friends. I thought we’d have a party-for-two kind of thing.” As soon as she says it, she feels like a total loser. She takes a long inhale from the joint to shut herself up.

“Now, that kind of party I wouldn’t have minded,” he says, lowering his eyelids so that he looks as though he’s picturing it right then.

Polly wants to tackle him to the ground.

“I looked for your parents at the party.” She hands the joint back to him. “Or, I mean, looked for people who I thought could be your parents.”

He shakes his head, and a solemness crosses his face. “My parents don’t go to parties.”

“Oh.” Polly’s not sure what else to say. She gets the feeling that she shouldn’t push.

“I have something for you,” he says, reaching into his coat pocket. He pulls out a heart-shaped rock and hands it to her. “I found this in the woods.”

She stares down at the rock with wide eyes and parted lips, as though he’s just handed her a diamond. “That’s so sweet.” The stone is warm and almost seems to be pulsing in her palm. She can’t tell if it’s because she’s high or because she’s excited that he saw something heart-shaped and thought of her.

She looks up at him and nods toward her window. “Come inside.” He surprises her when he shrugs and says okay. She was sure he was going to refuse like last time. Finally, they’re getting somewhere. Inside, she turns on her LED lights and turns off the ceiling light and then pulls out her phone to play some music. She panics for a second about what to play. No random Apple playlist will suffice.

“Any music requests?” she asks, thinking it’s safer to have him choose.

“Got any Portishead?”

She has no idea who Portishead is but does not admit that; instead she does a quick search for their Essentials playlist. She’s not at all surprised when her room is filled with an otherworldly female voice accompanied by a soft beat and a high string melody that makes her feel like she’s sunk into another dimension.

“You have a cool room,” Gray says as he slowly walks around.

She sits down on the end of her bed and watches him, curious to see what he does away from the safety of the shadows. Most boys would rush to sit beside her on the bed and get right to it—not him. He’s picking up the perfume bottles on her dresser to smell each one before placing it back. Next, he leans in to get a closer look at the collage of photos on the wall that she made of her and her sister.

Tapping on one and turning to her he asks, “That’s you?”

She nods, then realizes her mistake and shakes her head. “No, sorry, that’s my twin sister. That’s Lucy. My God, now I can’t even tell us apart.”

He squints and studies her for a few seconds, then looks back at the photo and then back at her. “Yeah, you guys are identical,” he says, sounding slightly in awe.

Turning away from the photos he moves over to her bookshelf, examining the knickknacks. Watching him moving slowly through her space, she thinks she’s never been so attracted to a person. The way he takes care with each thing he touches, examining it thoroughly, learning her through the décor of her room.

He runs his finger along the spines of the Harry Potter books that line the shelf. They’re the only books on there. “Library a little limited here,” he says, shooting her a smile.