Don't Go Out in the Woods Tonight...

"Alright, Kiddies. Pay attention," The teacher calls out from her place at the top of the hill. "We are all mature young adults here." -I think everyone rolls their eyes.- "So I can trust you all to keep yourselves out of problems. We have all been up here before, so while y'all roughhouse and stuff, I will sit here and curl up with a good book."

Saying this, she pulls out said book and slumps against one of the tombstones. Everyone smiles and then split up and race off in every which way. Well everyone but...

Troy looks at me. I stare at the ground, I look up and start walking towards a tree. Troy darts up next to me, grabbing my hand as he goes.

He pulls me to the opposite side of the tree, away from the teacher. He doesn't push me against the tree, he doesn't hold me too tight. He searches my face, looking for an answer. I can barely look at his face; it's just really embarrassing. I let my eye drift to my shoes.

Troy gently places one hand under my chin and pulls my face up to look at him. I keep my eyes turned away. My face is burning red.

"Look at me, Kate!" His voice growls out from his chest, low and rough, causing my eyes to snap to his face. "Why the cold brush off?" Troy whispers to me, sweeping my bangs out of my face.

"I can't..." I look down, cutting off.

"Can't what?" He says, lifting my face again.

I just look at his face, trying to tell him what I can't tell him. He searches my eyes, waiting and trailing his finger gently along the line of my jaw.

"I can't.. I don't want..." I break off again.

"Don't want what?" Troy gets this look on his face, that makes me wish I was a mute."You don't want me around? I see, I can leave you alo--"

"NO!" I yell, " No I-I.. please don't leave."

"Kate. Wait. I just... I need to talk to you about something first. " Troy whisper softly. I look at him. This whole this is just flashing by and i don't know what's what anymore.

He takes a hold of my hand and lead me off towards the woods.

~ + ~ + ~ + ~

I pull my hand away sharply, but follow Troy as he walks across the hill. We're moving away from the teacher and everyone else. I look around, wanting to know where I'm going.

Well there's trees and grass and this hill we're climbing. It's a pretty steep hill too. I can't really see over the top, to the other side yet.

I almost get to the top, but I step on a rock. The little pebble makes me topple a little off balance. I try to check myself, but I only end up falling faster.

"You are so...”Troy steps close and pulls me up and out of my fall, hugging me closes to his chest.

"So? So what?” I ask, once I'm back on my feet. "What am I?"

Troy smiles and holds my hand again. Then he turns and starts leading me up the hill again. This time I figure I'm safer holding his hand. We come to the top and stop to look at the view.

"Wow..." I whisper.

I stare out on the valley. The hill tumbles down into an emerald green sea of grass. The pale marble tombstones stretch out on one side, creating rows of white stone dots in the knee length grass.

The wood stretches out and engulfs the left corner of the graveyard. It pans out across the horizon, only pausing to move around a small lake near the base of the hill.

The sun sparkles off the lake, giving it an unnatural glow. The surface of the water is so still, the pond looks like it’s made completely out of captured sun light.

"Pretty, huh?" Troy says softly. "Want to go down to the lake?"

I nod. Troy starts leading me down the hill. Then he smirks, and sits down, pulling me with him.

"What are you doing?" I ask, as I plop down in the grass.

"I figure if you’re going to fall anyway." Troy replies "Then we'll make it fun."

"What are you talking abo-- HEY!"

Okay, so...how do I explain this? ...

Troy pushed me. We rolled down the huge, gigantic, steep hill. It was...fun. I think. I sorta blacked out half way through. Now when I open my eyes again, I've got Troy staring down at me.

"See?” He's got a big smile on his face. "Wasn't that fun?"

"Not really. Help me up." I say, looking up at him.

"No. Not until you admit it was fun.” He raises an eyebrow, daring me to disagree.

"I think this is unfair.” I say, haphazardly pulling myself up. "Troy... L--"

"Wait, say it again." He interrupts me.

"Say what?" I look down at him.

"My name." He looks at me with storm Grey eyes, "Say my name again."

"Why?" I ask, wondering what's up with this kid.

"It sounds so..." He rocks back and forth on his heels, "...Nice. Say it again."

I stare at him for longest time. His eyes are storm grey, with flecks of gold around the edges. The longer I look at him in silence, the older and more alone his eyes get. It's almost like the storm in his eyes swirls, echoing his soul.

"Troy." The air is still, nothing changes. The heavens don't open, the wind doesn't rush over the valley.

"I thought that we were going to talk," I say, trying to get back to the point.

He opens his mouth to speak, but rethinks and looks away. his eyes get old and stormy again. I wait, because it feels like there really is something deep there. Finally, I see him change his mind and clam up.

"We should head back." He says, looking at the sun. "It is getting late."

A sigh escapes my lungs and I roll my eyes. I struggle to my feet and brush the grass bits off. I look at Troy.

"So... Are we friends, or a couple or... Is it just really complicated or something?" I'm not exactly done talking.

"You wanna be a couple?" He replies, standing up and looking down at me. I feel a blush race to my cheeks.

I dart away and dash up the hill, Troy close on my heels. The teacher is standing, waiting for us all. I run up and hang around the fringes of our class. This time I don't shuffle away when Troy comes up to stand beside me. I think I just wanna be friends with him, but... geez. this is complicated.

Megan and Tony run up. It looks like a race and Megan is winning. She darts in a zigzag, making Tony trip over his feet, face plating on the grass.

"Ha! Told you I would win!" Megan yells back at him, as he wobbles over to the group.

"You cheated!" He yelled back, “You know I'm faster than you, so you cheated."

"So? I just said I would win." Megan puts her hands on her hips and smirks at him, "I never said how."

We all laugh, even Tony. The teacher starts herding us to the car van that's in the parking lot. She pulls the door open, revealing Stormy's mother stuffing a bar of chocolate in her mouth.

"Mom! What have I said?" Stormy stomps out from behind us and stands in front of her mother. "If you're going to stuff your face, have enough to share!"

Again we all laugh. I think this is so funny, and I don't even know why. The teacher steps up and pulls the side door open.

"Pile in everyone!"

After tripping only once, I sit in the back. Troy settles in and puts in his headphone. I guess he doesn't want to talk. The punk.

I look out the window and wonder just what it is that makes his eyes so old and stormy.