Don't Try to Save Me

My stomach was in knots as Bert clasped my hand in his and walked with me at the back of the crowd of other teenagers. I shuffled closer to his side, glancing around me.

I thought the forest was sinister and dark during the day, and that was looking at it from a distance, so walking through it in the middle of the night wasn't exactly fun in all honesty.

I'd had to sneak out of my bedroom window and scale down the house to get away. Well, when I say 'scale', I mean more like slip and fall to the ground after a few seconds of clinging on for dear to the window ledge. And Bert just laughed at me too, which made it even more embarrassing.

There was about maybe 30 other people from the school out tonight, some I'd never even seen before. Bert had tried to convince Ray or Bob to come with us, but obviously childish outings in the woods wasn't their kind of thing. I couldn't say I blamed them really. I'm sure they were having fun at whatever house party they were at. I wished I was at a house party too. One back in New York or L.A where there would be endless supplies of booze and weed and people who had better things to do with their life than terrorise some poor guy that lived in the forest.

I hadn't stopped thinking about Gerard since I'd seen him across the street from Ray's record shop, the memory of his flame red hair and lily white skin stuck in my head. I wanted to see him again.

"You ok?" Bert murmured as the group started to set up some sort of large circle around a fire in the clearing we were in.

I just nodded, shivering. Bert slipped his jacket off and placed it round my shoulders, planting a kiss to the top of my head. I smiled gratefully at him.

"Guess what," he said softly in my ear as we sat down a little bit away from the group on a fallen tree trunk, our thighs touching.

I looked up at him and smiled."Hmm, I don't know. Tell me, I hate guessing."

He rolled his eyes but smiled back. "There's a bottle of JD and a bag of grass in my bag."

"I think I love you."

"I know babe," he laughed, the fire light catching his eyes and making the shadows dance across his face. "I reckon we stay about ten or fifteen minutes and then leave. Nobody will notice by then, they're all drinking already."

I hummed in agreement. "I like the way you think."

********************

About twenty minutes later we were wandering through the forest by ourselves, our fingers linked loosely and the bottle of JD getting passed between us. It made me feel slightly warmer and my head a little bit fuzzy, but I liked it.

We found a much smaller clearing and I sat and watched as Bert made our own smaller fire. I busied myself with rolling a joint whilst he did that, lighting up as Bert sat down with me.

After a few more mouthfuls of JD and intakes of weed, I was feeling lightheaded and calm. We ended up lying down next to the fire, gazing up at the sky.

"That's one thing I like about this place," I murmured. "You can always see the stars so clearly at night. I've never seen them like this before 'cos of all the pollution and stuff from cities, y'know?"

"Yeah. I know," Bert replied, pressing a small kiss to the corner of my mouth. "I'm gonna miss you Frankie."

I turned my head to look at him. "But I just got here."

"And you'll be gone before we both know it. A year really isn't that long," Bert said, shifting to rest on his elbow and look down at me, trailing his fingers over my torso.

"Would you run away with me?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah," he sighed, leaning down to kiss me again. "Anywhere. As long as it's miles and miles away from this place."

"Linda would kill me," I told him, laughing lightly. "But I'm sure she'd let us come and see her at Christmas."

Bert laughed at that. "I'm sure she would. I think she'd get it though. Sometimes you just need to leave and start somewhere new."

"But that's all I've ever done," I murmured, staring hard at the inky blue sky above me. "Every couple of years it's a new city, a new school, a new home. I guess I don't really have a home."

"But you can have one," Bert pointed out. "We can have one together, anywhere we want."

"I think that sounds good," I whispered, smiling.

Our lips connect and Bert moved to hover over me, resting between my legs. My arms slid around his shoulders and back, bunching the soft fabric of his shirt up between my fingers. One of his hands cupped one side of my face whilst the other squeezed my waist, rubbing his thumb over my hip.

His crotch slid down against mine and I gasped slightly into his mouth, groaning a little. I felt him grin against my mouth and playfully nip at my lower lip before his tongue clashed with mine. It was clumsy and we were both high, but it was the best kind of make out session. Our hands were slow and warm against each others bodies and the kisses were hot and deep.

What I wasn't expecting was for Bert to freeze and pull away from me as a loud snapping sound came from the trees.

Bert sat up, his eyes darting around. I sat up too, the two of us scanning the forest.

"What was that?" I hissed to Bert, grabbing his hand.

That was when I saw a figure shift towards the edge of the clearing, a figure with vibrant red hair and dark hazel eyes.