‹ Prequel: Promise Me The Stars
Status: This story is on hold right now as i'm in the process of editing the prequel Promise Me The Stars. Check it out for better chapters!
Rocks Painted Gold
Dumb Ass Smile At Least For Awhile.
The phone call came in the mere hours of the morning, five in the morning to be exact. Forest didn't realize it was ringing until he heard Shadow curse and then it was hitting his bare side.
"Hurry the fuck up and answer that." Shadow said hoarsely. Forest didn't mind the demand much, it just meant Shadow was back to his normal self.
"Hello?" Forest mumbled.
"Is this Forest Westfield?" A man asked. The voice sounded strangely familiar to Forest but he couldn't pinpoint who it was, mostly because his mind seemed to still be asleep.
"This is he, who's this?" he asked, realizing that no one called him Forest Westfield except his mom's side of the family. He sat up so quickly that his head spun wildly and Shadow woke up and looked at him weirdly.
"I'm sorry to call you so early, this is Maverix, Maverix Westfield..."
"Uncle Mavey..." Forest said, a smile on his face. Shadow looked at him like he was insane. His MIA uncle laughed.
"I see you remember me."
"Yeah, kinda hard not to, you had bright green hair last time I saw you." Maverix laughed again.
"I was young then, and hell, it was pretty cool looking. But it's brown again so i'm a boring old person now."
"I don't mean to sound rude Uncle Maverix, but why are you calling me and how did you get my number?"
"Right! How I got your number isn't important. I have my connections and they learned your number. I'm calling because I need you to come back to Colorado and help me deal with your house. Well, there's things of your mothers and i'm moving to Washington for work...I suppose you could have it if you really want to take the burden of a house of your own..." Maverix seemed to be talking to himself near the end of the explanation but Forest had zoned out a bit.
"Wait, you're the one that had the house?"
"Yes, why?" Maverix asked sounding as confused as Forest was.
"I thought...I don't know, I don't really remember much about the details of the house and stuff. But someone must have taken care of all those things. Was it you?"
"Nah, i'm not good with those legal things. A lawyer approched me, quite literally, ambushed me on the street like a madman. Anyway, he said no one was taking the house and that they were going to sell it along with any personal objects that no one was going to want. And of course I knew you and Hazel would want a say in it all but I called your father's house and this guy, Matt I think his name was, told me you weren't talking to anyone no matter what. Hazel knew, but she didn't want anything, barely wanted to talk to me. To be honest I don't think she had any idea who I was. But after that I just took the house under my wing and lived there for awhile. But now I can't so I called you. All caught up?" Maverix asked.
"Almost too much..." Forest muttered, "I'll get a few days off work and fly down there. I don't want all my mother's things to just be thrown away."
"Didn't think you would. You two were really very close, closer then she was with Hazel. I'm not saying they weren't close though!" Forest laughed at his uncle and shook his head.
"I know what you meant. Let me get a hold of Hazel, as much as I don't want to." Forest sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"You're not speaking?"
"I'll explain it all in time Uncle, don't you worry about it."
"Well i'm your uncle of course i'm going to worry about it. I may be gone ninety-nine percent of your life but still, I knew you as children and I care about you both."
"I know Uncle. I'll call you back after I work everything out."
"Alrighty then, talk to you soon!" His uncle cried happily before the line went dead.
"Since when the fuck do you have an uncle?" Shadow asked, who had obviously been listening in on the conversation.
"Since about....twenty years ago when I was born. That's when he technically became an uncle."
"Don't be a smart ass Forest. What'd he want?" Shadow asked from his bed.
It was really just the second mattress that Forest had under his own and it was pushed up against the wall with a blanket and pillow on it. And that, was Shadow's bed that they had to make on short notice, and Shadow really didn't mind much.
"He was the one living in our old house but he has to move now. Therefore I have to go down there and get my moms stuff that I want and sell it or move in there myself but i'm sure there's other options."
"You could always rent it out." Shadow said, yawning and scratching his head.
"Yeah I could. But I don't know it just...feels weird you know? Going back there after nearly five years, it almost is now. Crap, I don't even know if I have the money for it."
"What about Hazel?" Shadow asked.
Forest shrugged and ran his hand through his messy hair.
"My uncle said he talked to her and she didn't know who he was and didn't want anything to do with my mother's things. I guess I should still call her though. What do you think?" Forest asked Shadow, glancing over at him as he hummed to himself and drew something on the bare mattress.
"I say call her, just so she doesn't use it against you later in life. Does this look like a llama?" Forest tilted his head to the side and shrugged.
"Yeah it actually does." Forest said cracking a smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day wore on with an agonizing slow pace. Kylie had come over and hung out with Forest and Shadow for a few hours before she dragged Shadow away to go see something or other. She had invited Forest also but he politely refused, saying he had things he had to work out involving Colorado and his uncle. Which meant he was going to have to call Hazel while Shadow was gone.
The phone seemed to ring a million times before his younger sister by one minute's voice filled his ear.
"Who's this?" she demanded immediatly.
"I see you've also lost all your manners. A simple hello isn't allowed for anyone you aren't familiar with?" Forest asked.
"F..Forest?" Hazel asked.
"The one, the only. You've already forgotten about me that fast? I was at your house and yelled at you, what was it? Three or four days ago? And did you really already erase my number? Were you really THAT mad?" Forest asked trying to get under her skin.
"Shut up Forest. What do you want?" Hazel asked bitterly.
"I want you to listen to me for half a second so I can ask you something."
"Fine, but hurry up. I was getting ready to go out with some friends."
"Yeah well, your friends can wait for a little longer. Uncle called me and told me he has to move. Therefore leaving our house empty, I called you to see if you wanted anything from it. Any of mom's things, if not i'm going to deal with it myself and do what I want."
"And what are you going to do with it Forest?" Hazel sneered, "You probably can't even afford to get down there." Forest scoffed and shook his head even though she couldn't see it.
"You don't know anything about me anymore do you? If you knew me then you would know I would do anything to get there to take care of moms things. I would hitchhike, I would sell everything I have, I would kill someone if it got me back to Colorado. Obviously something you wouldn't do."
"Why would I need to do any of that when I have money to buy plane tickets for everyone at the beach right now." Hazel asked, only slightly bending the truth she was sure.
"You really have no idea the extent of what i'm trying to tell you do you Hazel? I don't care i'm just asking if you want anything. Do you want anything to remind yourself of the woman that raised you?" Forest asked, hearing a woman's voice in the background.
"Hazel honey, if we want to go shopping and get our hair done with the girls we better get going."
"Be right there ma." Hazel said, laughing. Forest tensed and almost crushed his phone.
"Never mind, seems you've replaced her. So I guess you don't want anything to remind you of her. Therefore i'm going to hang up now and get myself to Colorado. I really do hope I never have to deal with you like this again Hazel." Forest said, closing his phone and sighing.
He didn't know he had sat there for so long until Shadow came walking through the door, a grin on his face.
"Hey man, you alright?" he asked, looking at Forest with his eyebrows creased.
"I called Hazel. It didn't end too well," Forest said trying not to think about it, "She called Matt's wife 'ma'. I hate her for that, you don't know how much I just want to kill her for that Shadow. She doesn't even realize how much it hurt me to hear her say that. It's like she's just forgotten about everything we've been through. Everything we had to do to get to where we were when we moved here."
"I'm sorry." Shadow said quietly, his good mood gone.
"Don't be, I feel like a broken record saying the same thing all the time. I should just give up by now. Sorry I ruined your good mood too." Forest said, standing from the couch finally and heading for the room they shared.
"Nah it's all good. Nice moods eventually have to end sometime." Shadow said, following him into the room, "Plus, I would feel bad being in a good mood while you're here sulking because your sister has turned into a bitch."
"I should yell at you for calling my sister a bitch...but it's true." Forest sighed and collapsed onto his mattress again, grabbing the sketchpad he always kept next to the bed for when he had nightmares and drew what happened.
They were mostly horrid pictures of Domino killing him, tearing his limbs from his body. Those he burned once a month under the boardwalk so they weren't keeping their putrid presence in his house. But the ones he kept, the ones that came from good dreams he had, he looked at those ones sometimes. There were pictures of his mother and sister when they were younger. A, meaningless to most, picture of pop cans scattered around the living room floor.
That was from a party he had, had with his mother and uncle Maverix that day when he stayed home from school. That was before Shadow turned up, but his whole life he had been an outcast to most, he had wanted to be at home with his mother. The only person that understood him and liked him for him and only him. But she had to like him for him, Forest thought, she was his mother and that's what they had to do.
"So I take it you're going to Colorado without Hazel?" Shadow asked after a few minutes of silence. Forest scratched his pencil across the paper a few more times, adding detail to the picture he was drawing.
"No, and I don't care if I ever talk to her again. At least while she's different. I'm just going alone..." Forest stopped and looked up, staring at Shadow.
"What ya looking at dumb ass?" Shadow asked.
"Now that you're real you just can't just go around with me. And I know I can't afford two plane tickets, I can barely afford one..."
"I'll have to stay here." Shadow stated, the truth sinking in for him also.
"We've never been that far from each other before."
"Nearly a thousand miles..." Shadow murmured.
"How do you know?" Forest asked.
"Studied a map once. You should try it." Shadow spat. Forest rolled his eyes and looked down.
"Plus, i'll be completely alone for the first time in more then seven years." Forest mumbled, his upcoming trip looking quite grim. And truthfully scary.
"Damn, that's true. But you can do it Forest. I mean, you're a strong kid and you can take anything anyone throws at you, except a knife in the hand of a biker that is. But other then that you're capable of changing the world man."
"Wow Shadow I think...that's nearly the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"Well don't get fucking used to it alright? I have a reputation to uphold of being a jackass. Just...just know that I think you're more then just a stupid ass and you'll be fine in Colorado."
"Thanks." Forest said smiling like a dumb ass. He was feeling much better about the trip already.
"Hurry the fuck up and answer that." Shadow said hoarsely. Forest didn't mind the demand much, it just meant Shadow was back to his normal self.
"Hello?" Forest mumbled.
"Is this Forest Westfield?" A man asked. The voice sounded strangely familiar to Forest but he couldn't pinpoint who it was, mostly because his mind seemed to still be asleep.
"This is he, who's this?" he asked, realizing that no one called him Forest Westfield except his mom's side of the family. He sat up so quickly that his head spun wildly and Shadow woke up and looked at him weirdly.
"I'm sorry to call you so early, this is Maverix, Maverix Westfield..."
"Uncle Mavey..." Forest said, a smile on his face. Shadow looked at him like he was insane. His MIA uncle laughed.
"I see you remember me."
"Yeah, kinda hard not to, you had bright green hair last time I saw you." Maverix laughed again.
"I was young then, and hell, it was pretty cool looking. But it's brown again so i'm a boring old person now."
"I don't mean to sound rude Uncle Maverix, but why are you calling me and how did you get my number?"
"Right! How I got your number isn't important. I have my connections and they learned your number. I'm calling because I need you to come back to Colorado and help me deal with your house. Well, there's things of your mothers and i'm moving to Washington for work...I suppose you could have it if you really want to take the burden of a house of your own..." Maverix seemed to be talking to himself near the end of the explanation but Forest had zoned out a bit.
"Wait, you're the one that had the house?"
"Yes, why?" Maverix asked sounding as confused as Forest was.
"I thought...I don't know, I don't really remember much about the details of the house and stuff. But someone must have taken care of all those things. Was it you?"
"Nah, i'm not good with those legal things. A lawyer approched me, quite literally, ambushed me on the street like a madman. Anyway, he said no one was taking the house and that they were going to sell it along with any personal objects that no one was going to want. And of course I knew you and Hazel would want a say in it all but I called your father's house and this guy, Matt I think his name was, told me you weren't talking to anyone no matter what. Hazel knew, but she didn't want anything, barely wanted to talk to me. To be honest I don't think she had any idea who I was. But after that I just took the house under my wing and lived there for awhile. But now I can't so I called you. All caught up?" Maverix asked.
"Almost too much..." Forest muttered, "I'll get a few days off work and fly down there. I don't want all my mother's things to just be thrown away."
"Didn't think you would. You two were really very close, closer then she was with Hazel. I'm not saying they weren't close though!" Forest laughed at his uncle and shook his head.
"I know what you meant. Let me get a hold of Hazel, as much as I don't want to." Forest sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"You're not speaking?"
"I'll explain it all in time Uncle, don't you worry about it."
"Well i'm your uncle of course i'm going to worry about it. I may be gone ninety-nine percent of your life but still, I knew you as children and I care about you both."
"I know Uncle. I'll call you back after I work everything out."
"Alrighty then, talk to you soon!" His uncle cried happily before the line went dead.
"Since when the fuck do you have an uncle?" Shadow asked, who had obviously been listening in on the conversation.
"Since about....twenty years ago when I was born. That's when he technically became an uncle."
"Don't be a smart ass Forest. What'd he want?" Shadow asked from his bed.
It was really just the second mattress that Forest had under his own and it was pushed up against the wall with a blanket and pillow on it. And that, was Shadow's bed that they had to make on short notice, and Shadow really didn't mind much.
"He was the one living in our old house but he has to move now. Therefore I have to go down there and get my moms stuff that I want and sell it or move in there myself but i'm sure there's other options."
"You could always rent it out." Shadow said, yawning and scratching his head.
"Yeah I could. But I don't know it just...feels weird you know? Going back there after nearly five years, it almost is now. Crap, I don't even know if I have the money for it."
"What about Hazel?" Shadow asked.
Forest shrugged and ran his hand through his messy hair.
"My uncle said he talked to her and she didn't know who he was and didn't want anything to do with my mother's things. I guess I should still call her though. What do you think?" Forest asked Shadow, glancing over at him as he hummed to himself and drew something on the bare mattress.
"I say call her, just so she doesn't use it against you later in life. Does this look like a llama?" Forest tilted his head to the side and shrugged.
"Yeah it actually does." Forest said cracking a smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The day wore on with an agonizing slow pace. Kylie had come over and hung out with Forest and Shadow for a few hours before she dragged Shadow away to go see something or other. She had invited Forest also but he politely refused, saying he had things he had to work out involving Colorado and his uncle. Which meant he was going to have to call Hazel while Shadow was gone.
The phone seemed to ring a million times before his younger sister by one minute's voice filled his ear.
"Who's this?" she demanded immediatly.
"I see you've also lost all your manners. A simple hello isn't allowed for anyone you aren't familiar with?" Forest asked.
"F..Forest?" Hazel asked.
"The one, the only. You've already forgotten about me that fast? I was at your house and yelled at you, what was it? Three or four days ago? And did you really already erase my number? Were you really THAT mad?" Forest asked trying to get under her skin.
"Shut up Forest. What do you want?" Hazel asked bitterly.
"I want you to listen to me for half a second so I can ask you something."
"Fine, but hurry up. I was getting ready to go out with some friends."
"Yeah well, your friends can wait for a little longer. Uncle called me and told me he has to move. Therefore leaving our house empty, I called you to see if you wanted anything from it. Any of mom's things, if not i'm going to deal with it myself and do what I want."
"And what are you going to do with it Forest?" Hazel sneered, "You probably can't even afford to get down there." Forest scoffed and shook his head even though she couldn't see it.
"You don't know anything about me anymore do you? If you knew me then you would know I would do anything to get there to take care of moms things. I would hitchhike, I would sell everything I have, I would kill someone if it got me back to Colorado. Obviously something you wouldn't do."
"Why would I need to do any of that when I have money to buy plane tickets for everyone at the beach right now." Hazel asked, only slightly bending the truth she was sure.
"You really have no idea the extent of what i'm trying to tell you do you Hazel? I don't care i'm just asking if you want anything. Do you want anything to remind yourself of the woman that raised you?" Forest asked, hearing a woman's voice in the background.
"Hazel honey, if we want to go shopping and get our hair done with the girls we better get going."
"Be right there ma." Hazel said, laughing. Forest tensed and almost crushed his phone.
"Never mind, seems you've replaced her. So I guess you don't want anything to remind you of her. Therefore i'm going to hang up now and get myself to Colorado. I really do hope I never have to deal with you like this again Hazel." Forest said, closing his phone and sighing.
He didn't know he had sat there for so long until Shadow came walking through the door, a grin on his face.
"Hey man, you alright?" he asked, looking at Forest with his eyebrows creased.
"I called Hazel. It didn't end too well," Forest said trying not to think about it, "She called Matt's wife 'ma'. I hate her for that, you don't know how much I just want to kill her for that Shadow. She doesn't even realize how much it hurt me to hear her say that. It's like she's just forgotten about everything we've been through. Everything we had to do to get to where we were when we moved here."
"I'm sorry." Shadow said quietly, his good mood gone.
"Don't be, I feel like a broken record saying the same thing all the time. I should just give up by now. Sorry I ruined your good mood too." Forest said, standing from the couch finally and heading for the room they shared.
"Nah it's all good. Nice moods eventually have to end sometime." Shadow said, following him into the room, "Plus, I would feel bad being in a good mood while you're here sulking because your sister has turned into a bitch."
"I should yell at you for calling my sister a bitch...but it's true." Forest sighed and collapsed onto his mattress again, grabbing the sketchpad he always kept next to the bed for when he had nightmares and drew what happened.
They were mostly horrid pictures of Domino killing him, tearing his limbs from his body. Those he burned once a month under the boardwalk so they weren't keeping their putrid presence in his house. But the ones he kept, the ones that came from good dreams he had, he looked at those ones sometimes. There were pictures of his mother and sister when they were younger. A, meaningless to most, picture of pop cans scattered around the living room floor.
That was from a party he had, had with his mother and uncle Maverix that day when he stayed home from school. That was before Shadow turned up, but his whole life he had been an outcast to most, he had wanted to be at home with his mother. The only person that understood him and liked him for him and only him. But she had to like him for him, Forest thought, she was his mother and that's what they had to do.
"So I take it you're going to Colorado without Hazel?" Shadow asked after a few minutes of silence. Forest scratched his pencil across the paper a few more times, adding detail to the picture he was drawing.
"No, and I don't care if I ever talk to her again. At least while she's different. I'm just going alone..." Forest stopped and looked up, staring at Shadow.
"What ya looking at dumb ass?" Shadow asked.
"Now that you're real you just can't just go around with me. And I know I can't afford two plane tickets, I can barely afford one..."
"I'll have to stay here." Shadow stated, the truth sinking in for him also.
"We've never been that far from each other before."
"Nearly a thousand miles..." Shadow murmured.
"How do you know?" Forest asked.
"Studied a map once. You should try it." Shadow spat. Forest rolled his eyes and looked down.
"Plus, i'll be completely alone for the first time in more then seven years." Forest mumbled, his upcoming trip looking quite grim. And truthfully scary.
"Damn, that's true. But you can do it Forest. I mean, you're a strong kid and you can take anything anyone throws at you, except a knife in the hand of a biker that is. But other then that you're capable of changing the world man."
"Wow Shadow I think...that's nearly the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"Well don't get fucking used to it alright? I have a reputation to uphold of being a jackass. Just...just know that I think you're more then just a stupid ass and you'll be fine in Colorado."
"Thanks." Forest said smiling like a dumb ass. He was feeling much better about the trip already.
♠ ♠ ♠
So, Forest has an absent uncle! Who just skits among the sidelines taking care of things when shit hits the fan.And this is where I leave you! Expect an update by Friday. Next Monday the latest. Because I have no life and have finally gotten all my problems worked out so I can move on with this story and get to the amazingly EPIC ending. Even though I haven't written it yet I know what it's going to consist of and may I tell you. It's the best twist I could think of. So be excited for that people. Very excited.
Thanks to the following Mibbians for commenting on this lovely worded story.
Spoileddxbrat
sins-97
sweet like poison.
The exact same people as last time. Not that I don't like them, but can I get some comments from some other people? Come on...........