Chapter 11
I was curled up on the couch watching a Buffy The Vampire Slayer marathon when my phone started ringing. I snatched my phone from the table. It was a text message from William. My heart immediately raced with excitement.
What are you doing? He text messaged me.
Watching t.v. What are you doing? I messaged him back. I was glad he’d sent a text message instead of calling, because I probably would have been all tongue tied, thinking about last night, and how we’d came so close to kissing. Just thinking about it caused my whole body to tremble.
Are we still on for today? He wrote.
Yeah, I guess. Where and when? I hoped I wasn’t acting to disconnected. I didn’t want him to think I wasn’t interested, I just didn’t want him to think I was eager. The truth was I’d do just about anything to be with him.
I had made the mistake of acting too eager before, back when I lived in L.A. I was overly friendly with this guy I really liked, and because of that, he thought I would give in just to be with him. Was he ever wrong. When I said no and he wouldn’t quit, I ended up kneeing him in the groin as hard as I could. He let me go, but kicked me out of his car, leaving me to find my own way home from the beach.
It’s a surprise. Dress warm and be ready in thirty minutes. I’ll pick you up. Okay?
Yeah. But make it an hour. I wanna finish watching this show first. I had no intentions of watching the next five minutes or fifty minutes. I just didn’t want him to know that. I would need every minute possible to get ready.
See you in an hour. Be sweet! ; )
I jumped up and squealed with excitement. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, which turned out to be extremely fast. I only had an hour to get ready and I hadn’t even showered yet. I seriously thought he would have given me more of a notice.
I grabbed my robe and towel and hurried into the bathroom, showering in record time. The big job would be picking out something to wear, especially when I didn’t have a clue where he was taking me. It’s not like we had a big selection. We were so far north of the lower forty-eight, I doubt if most people even knew there was life up here. Okay, so I was exaggerating a little bit, but there really wasn’t that much to do except for arcades and movie theatres. And, since they were both indoors and heated, dressing warm certainly wasn’t a requirement.
I had no choice but to just grab something so I opted for a pair of American Eagle lined dark brown corduroys, and a bright pink flannel shirt. And of course I would take my bubble wrap with me.
My phone rang in the middle of putting on my mascara, and I almost poked my eye out. I was so nervous with anticipation. I’m outside. ; ) William’s text message read.
I’ll be right out. Having the worst case of butterflies ever, I could hardly type the message, my hands trembled so badly. I had no idea what to expect when I walked out through the garage.
The sky was no longer sunny; a band of low lying dark gray clouds filled the air. Autumn would be coming early Aunt Bev had said, so I took that to mean the snow would start much sooner up here than anywhere in the lower forty-eight. Haven was so far north that a normal school year went from March to October.
William waited at the top of the driveway in the most awesome brand new red Lexus sports car. Through his dark tinted windows, I easily saw his sparkly white teeth and perfectly disheveled hair. He always looked like he’d just stepped out of GQ magazine or something. His smile said he was just as happy to see me as I was to see him. My knees started shaking so badly I thought I was going to hit the pavement before I got to his car.
He didn’t actually get out of the car, but he did lean across and open the passenger door for me. When I climbed in, Bob Marley’s “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright,” wafted softly through the stereo speakers. I immediately felt a tug at my heart. My mom had loved Bob Marley, and this was her most favorite song. I fought to hide my emotions, but William saw right through me, because he scooped up the remote, and turned it down.
“You don’t like Bob Marley?” He asked earnestly.
“It’s not that. I love him.” I halfway smiled. “He was my mom’s favorite. Whenever I was upset about something, she would put on this song and start singing it while dancing around the room acting silly. Within just a few minutes, I was over whatever it was that had me upset in the first place.”
He reached over and squeezed my hand in a comforting way, and my heart pounded inside my chest. “I didn’t know—I’ll change it.” His voice was velvety smooth and extremely sexy.
I gave him a sidelong glance, and behind his dark sunglasses he’d lowered his eyes briefly. “Don’t you dare!” I snagged the remote away from him and we both laughed. “Really. It’s good memories.”
I turned the song up and settled back deeper into my seat. Neither of us spoke until it ended. “So…where are we going?” I asked, smiling nervously.
“It’s a secret, and if I tell you I’ll have to kill you.” He briefly lowered his glasses, looked over the top of them, and grinned. “Let me ask you this…are you afraid of heights?” He sped up once we’d gotten on the highway.
“No. Why?” I asked while trying to get up the nerve to place my hand on top of his, which rested on the gear shifter.
He grinned, like he was being sneaky. “You’ll see.” He smiled crookedly and turned up the stereo.
We drove through the mountains for the better part of an hour, and just as I was about to nod off we turned off the road after passing a sign that read, “Alaska Adventures.”
I glanced at William. He had the biggest grin on his face. “What have I gotten myself into?” Although I was apprehensive, for some reason I trusted William completely.
After parking we got out and I saw the “Treetop Tours” sign. We walked down a dirt path, except it was sort of more like a mud path, in the middle of some of the largest redwood trees I’d ever seen. A little ways down there was a small building he went inside while I waited.
A few minutes later, he walked out with a guy wearing a Hurley jacket, and blue jeans, who carried three helmets.
“Gen, this is Mark. Mark. Gen. He’s our tour guide.” William took my hand and we followed Mark to a lift. I cupped my hand over my eyes when I looked up. My heart dropped when I discovered it went so high I couldn’t even see the top.
“It’s fine, I promise,” William said when I was reluctant to get on. I took his hand and climbed on pretending to be much braver than I really was.
When we got to the top, he buckled us both in a sling type thing made for two people. I could feel my heart pounding in my throat, and my mouth was so dry I could hardly swallow. I was expecting him to attach himself to the line at some point, but instead he said he’d see us at the other end, then gave us a shove.
When we first took off I screamed and shut my eyes tightly after looking down from above the tree tops. We were so high up I couldn’t even see the ground below.
William laughed. “Open your eyes or you’ll miss it.”
“That’s my plan…to miss seeing myself fall to my death.” Even though it was freezing cold up there, I’d broken out into a sweat. Spring in Alaska didn’t mean warmth, it just meant sun.
“You said you weren’t afraid of heights.” He sounded amused.
“I thought you meant like airplanes or skyscrapers. Which means being inside somewhere looking out.” I cracked my eyes open a tiny bit as I started to get used to the feeling of hanging in mid air. Slowly my anxiety lessoned and I finally started enjoying it.
He had his arm looped tightly around my waist, and our bodies pressed close together. We went over one of those knot things on the zip-line and it jarred the harness, startling me. Out of reflex my hand flew to his chest, and it was only minutes later that I realized his heart beat seemed faint and slow.
“You’re heart’s beating so slow,” I said, smiling before moving my hand away. “Mine on the other hand is pounding so hard, people in the lower forty-eight can probably hear it.” I laugh
ed, but then suddenly felt like I had done or said something wrong. I shifted uneasily and looked at William. His green eyes flitted over me, then quickly away again.
He cleared his throat . “I’ve ridden these things like a thousand times,” he said, flatly.
Just before we reached the end of the zip-line, I looked down over the side and saw a shadow of someone in the trees below. At first I dismissed it thinking that I’d somehow seen our shadows.
After our ride ended, we thanked our guide before we headed back down the same path we came in on earlier. I spun around when I heard a twig snap behind us. I turned so quickly it was like I’d heard it before it snapped, and I caught a glimpse before it disappeared that time.
William didn’t turn around, but I knew he’d heard it too. “Come on.” He tightened his grip on my hand. “Don’t stop.”
“Did you see it?” I asked, trailing behind him. I took two steps for every one of his, but was still having trouble keeping up.
When we got to his car, he’d already pressed the unlock button on the remote. “Get in,” he said in a low deep voice that didn’t even sound like him. As soon as I was inside the car he slammed my door and I heard the locks engage. I turned around to see where he went and watched him disappear back into the woods where we’d just came out.
Even though the sounds were muffled through the glass I still heard growling and snarling, along with sounds like breaking trees. “William,” I screamed, but he didn’t answer. Tears stood in my eyes.
The snarling stopped, and an eerie silence filled the air. I held my breath, staring at the spot where I had last seen William before he’d gone into the woods.