The warm autumn wind blew through
the trees as Sonia slipped silently through them. It was Saturday and Levi would be outside
working on his chores. If she was lucky
she could catch him on the edge of his property cutting the grass or cleaning
the fallen leaves. Suddenly a twig
snapped behind her. Not the slight,
unobtrusive snap of a small woodland creature, but the large crack of a twig
that gave up trying to support the weight of something much heavier. Sonia spun around, ready to either run from a
pursuer or confront her mother for following her.
What actually revealed itself
surprised Sonia, as Jeb Haven Jr. walked out of the bushes. He was a year younger than both Sonia and
Levi but was larger than both. Jeb, or
JJ as he was known, clumsily stumbled out of the thicket and quickly looked
down at his feet, embarrassed at being caught following Sonia.
“JJ, what are you doing all the way
out here?” asked Sonia. While she and
Levi did not live close by any stretch of the imagination, JJ’s family lived on
the other side of her, even further away from Levi.
“I’m…I’m sorry Sonia, I just saw you
out walking and thought that you may want some company,” said JJ sheepishly,
barely meeting her gaze. Her blue eyes
had a power over JJ that he had not experienced with anyone before. JJ was not the smartest person in his class
by any means and spent most of his time helping his father hunting around their
property, but he still harbored the base animal instinct of attraction; and
this he felt for Sonia more than anything.
It is what prompted him to follow her that morning and what caused him
to fumble through his words as he tried to talk to her now.
“That’s sweet JJ, thank you,”
Sonia smiled at her admirer. Sonia had
seen that look from Levi when they were younger. She knew what that meant but she still
couldn’t bring herself to crush JJ with any semblance of rejection. At least not on purpose. “I was just about to go and see Levi, would
you like to come with me?”
JJ smiled, while he and Sonia had
often walked through the woods together when they were much younger, all of
that had slowly evaporated as she became more interested in seeing Levi on her
own. JJ did not know what they were
doing when they went off by themselves, but he had a feeling that it was not
something that she would ever include him in.
He held out hope though that someday Sonia would see him for what he
was, and like him the way that he liked her.
Maybe it would take Levi leaving to wake Sonia up to what she had living
next to her. Regardless, JJ was going to
make the most of the time that he had with her, even if it was an awkward walk
through the forest to visit the guy she really liked.
Sonia was correct about the
location of Levi, as he had busied himself raking leaves on the edge of his
parents’ property, out of the sightline of any prying parental eyes. Sonia snuck up on him and squeezed him around
his stomach, her shorter frame providing the perfect angle to do so. Levi, immediately knowing who it was that had
snuck up behind him, whirled around to reciprocate the embrace. It had only been a few hours since their
interrupted rendezvous in the woods, but it felt like forever.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
A quick glance to Levi’s left
clued him in to the fact that they were not alone. “Hey JJ,” he said, either not realizing or
not really caring what JJ’s true motivations were for walking through the woods
with Sonia, “How have you been?”
The fact that Levi did not bother
to remove his arms from Sonia while he spoke to JJ bothered the young neighbor,
but he tried not to let his feelings show as he gave a quiet “fine” in reply. The more he thought about it, the more he
hated Levi; not just for being so callous about public displays of affection
with the girl that JJ was in love with, but Levi had an air of arrogance that
surrounded him. JJ did not like
that. He pledged to himself that he
would figure out a way to bring Levi back down to earth.
With the pleasantries out of the
way, Levi turned his full attention back to Sonia. “I want to see you again tonight,” he said,
looking right into her eyes to ensure that she knew how serious he was.
“Levi, I don’t know. My mom is starting to get real
suspicious. If I keep this up she may
find out what’s going on.” She broke his
gaze, a visual confirmation of her trepidation to accompany the verbal one that
she just uttered, “I don’t want to lose you because my mom goes crazy and sends
me away or something.”
“I won’t let her Sonia. She may disapprove, hell my own parents
disapprove too, but I don’t care. I will
do anything to have you be a part of me.”
Levi touched her chin with his thumb and forefinger, bringing her gaze
back to his. JJ, witnessing all of this,
couldn’t believe she was going to fall for his line.
“Usual place?” asked Sonia, a
smile crawling across her lips as the doubt she’d had melted away.
“Usual place.”
“Okay, I’ll go make sure that our
blanket is still hidden there.”
With that the two reluctantly
parted and Sonia melted back into the woods as Levi continued his chores. JJ followed Sonia like a lost puppy as she
floated between the trees, oblivious to any weeds or branches brushing past her
skin. Her mind was on one thing; Levi,
and seeing him later that night.
She came to the little clearing,
nearly halfway between the Saint and Durant property and made sure that the
blanket was still stashed under a pile of leaves, and had not been used as a
latrine by any woodland creatures. After
securing the area, she turned to go, finally remembering that JJ was behind
her.
“JJ, you can’t tell anyone about
this place, okay? This is going to have
to be our secret. If any of our parents
found out they would go crazy.”
“I understand Sonia,” JJ
responded, looking down at his feet again as they lazily traced circles in the
dirt.
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