The Forest

Chapter Nineteen

They hugged and held each other for a very long time, not wanting to let reality her between them, not wanting to let even sunshine touch them. It was a beautiful day but all they could see was each other and nothing else mattered in those couple of blissful hours, nothing but them.

Their hearts synchronised, beating in the same melody of love and enjoyment.

At some point Tilia's phone rang and it was Maria, letting her know that She is coming in a half an hour. She didn't know what happened, she even didn't know that he stayed to sleep over. But she has the day off and she wanted to spend it with her best friend, to talk some things over, see if there's anything new or if they can do anything on their own or without the Council. Secretly Maria wanted to go back to the forest and so some more digging and searching, she wanted to know more, to further, to absorb more of the forest magical and find some new things that could be useful. She couldn't do that on her own, but she wanted it badly. Forest can have that effect on people, make them desire more of it, to see more of it. There was magical there in every atom, in every leave that was there. There was a magical substance in every bush or every piece of grass, everything in there was designed to be desired. Depths of the forest have never been searched, no one went further than the house in the forest. No one knew what was there, no one knew what kind of creatures were there, what kind of dangers or beauties. But no one dared to go.

They immediately left the safety of their bed and started cleaning up. They put their clothes on and fixed their hair. There was mess everywhere and they wanted to clean it up to make everything seem as innocent as possible. They removed all of their stuff and made the bed, they stacked the books against the wall and moved the drapes. The sun bathed the room in its full glory like it couldn't before, and loved every messy shelve and all of the things on them. There was no place it didn't reach. It blinded them for a while but then they got used to it and they marveled at each other in the natural light. They didn't know how to behave. They have talked about it previously but now that it was time to see someone and present themselves to the world it was harder than they thought. Relationships are fun and pure when the two people in them are alone and in their own world but as soon as the reality meets them it gets hard, there are so many questions that the couple isn't ready for, that the couple doesn't want to answer. Even though they were sure if their own feelings, they were unsure of how people will react to them.

Maria came knocking a couple of minutes after they were done cleaning and they tried to sit down and relax so that they don't look rattled from the start. But as soon as they heard a familiar knocking sound their hearts started beating faster and faster, they couldn't help it, they were scared.

There were so many things to think about and yet, they didn't have any time.

' Hey guys! ' she said, jumping in, being her perky usual self. She looked magnificent in yellow with her flaming red hair and bright makeup and they both couldn't help but smile. She smiled back at them, and she had to notice their blushed faces. She knew that something had to be wrong for them to behave like that. Of right. She saw that spark in her friends eyes and she was happy to see that she was happy.

' Hey Maria! ' said Philip, trying to play it cool and not give himself up. It was then that he noticed that he put on his jumper backwards. There was something about Maria's expression that made him feel that she could see right through them and notice every detail.

Then she looked around over the room and saw his surprisingly rosy everything was. She raised her eyebrow but didn't say anything. She knew that Tilia's home is usually very messy and this wasn't anywhere near that messy apartment that she was used to. But she kept it to herself and sat in one of the chairs watching Tilia and Philip avoid each others have and tripping over to find their seat. Tilia lit a cigarette while she tried to small talk a bit with Maria. Her fingers were shaking.

Philip realised that all he was doing is making Tilia more nervous. He figured that they would maybe be best left alone to talk it over. He knew that it would be more helpful if he just wasn't in the way.

' I'm gonna go take a shower, is that okay? ' he asked, getting up, looking straight at Tilia in order to avoid Maria's persistent state. She was having fun watching the two of them all lost and confused. She knew that him asking for a shower meant something more, but still she kept quiet in order not to disturb her friend. She knew she would tell her in her own time.

' Yeah, there are some fresh clean towels in the bathroom. Help yourself. Enjoy. ' She said and smiled gratefully to him for doing the sensible thing and leaving them alone. He winked at her so that Maria doesn't see and left for the bathroom. As soon as he entered they could hear the water running and it reminded Tilia how much she would enjoy a shower herself. She thought about hot water running down her back and legs, soothing every tense muscle, washing away all of her questions and thoughts, good and bad, and all the anxiety down the drain.

She could almost feel it, the sweet touch of tiny drops massaging her skin, cleaning away last night's sweat and bringing her new understanding of the world.

She also knew how fun it would be to take a shower with Philip. Kiss him under the water, touch him, play with his wet hair. It was all so arousing, like she discovered a new world and all she wanted to do is explore it, have fun in it and see what is there, waiting for her. She liked the forest, even though it made her more tired and she, as the bearer of the nightingale couldn't get the same feeling, the same mesmerized feeling for the forest as the others did. She enjoyed the forest but this was a completely different experience for her.

' Well this place looks great.' Maria said with a big smile on her face. She have Tilia the look and all best friends in the world know that look. It's the look that says: I know that you did something, I know that something happened, tell me everything right now.

She smiled back at her and leaned closer, lowering her voice so that Philip couldn't hear them. He knew what they were talking about but at that point he didn't even care, he just wanted a long shower and he knew he had to stay there for a while.

' Yeah, so… something happened.' She said and giggled. She was scared of Maria's reaction at first but at that moment she wanted to tell her everything, ask for her opinion and her take on what was happening. If anyone, she could help her understand and figure out her own feelings. There was no doubt, that's what best friends do, help each other walk through life a but easier, a bit stronger knowing that they are not alone. Friends help each other, friends holdbeachother up straight against the wind of life. That's what Maria and Tilia have been doing for each other ever since they first met in kindergarten. They have been through some hard stuff together and that's what they kept doing.

' I know, tell me everything. ' said Maria. She kind of already knew that. She could smell Phillip all over Tilia and Tilia all over Philip. There were so many things to be said but Maria knew them all already, she had a feeling the night before that something will happen with her two best friends. All she wanted to know is how Tilia felt about the whole thing. How did she see herself and herself with Philip.

' Okay so last night I was really tired, as you remember.' She said that, looking at her friend and knowing that she remembered since she looked at them.

' Yes, and he held you like a knight in shining armor. ' Maria said, acting out what she saw, where Philip helped Maria stand up and held her. They both laughed at that and continued talking.

' And I was tired enough to invite him in to sleep over.' She said and have her friend a smile, one of those naughty smiles people give to each other when things get interesting.

' Ooooh, this is where it begins. I swear, I knew that this would happen.' She said, looking at Tilia. The smoke filled the air in the room and they could barely see each other so Maria cracked a window and continued listening.

' Yeah. So he came in and we started talking and touching and bit by bit it happened.' She said alluding to what happened after as she was always too shy to talk about those things to anyone. Even Maria barely knew what was going on with her s*x life but she didn't mind then. Now she wanted to know every detail since she could tell that this was important to Tilia.

' Tell me more, come on. How was it? ' she asked, she wanted to know more and Tilia had to tell her everything, she wanted to tell her everything because it was important to get and because she enjoyed it so much.

' Okay, it was great, he is so amazing and I enjoyed every moment…' she started telling her and Maria swallowed her words, she felt like her friend had a lot of fun. She loved that for once her best friend told her all of the things she usually held to herself. They talked and talked until Tilia told her everything she could remember.

Tilia still didn't tell her everything, she kept a but of it to herself. She loved her friend but she also liked her privacy and some of the things were either too juicy or too emotional for her to tell or share. She enjoyed sharing most of the things with maria, it was the first thing she dared to tell the story of her intimate life and she knew how much that meant to Maria since she shared every last detail of her love life.

' Oh yeah, I was glowing, and I mean really glowing in that same pink light that took us through the forest.' she said, remembering something that may have had nothing to do with her love life, but had everything to do with the forest and Tilia thought that she was probably even more interested in that.

' Really? ' she asked. ' That must have been fun. Why do you think it happened? ' she asked. She kind of envied her friend on her magical family and history full of intriguing people. She had a chance to have powers. She had a real chance to save the world. And she could glow, bear the nightingale and possibly create things out of nothing. And she wasn't even happy about it, she was just lost. If Maria had gotten that much luck she would have known exactly what to do with all that power.

Right then, Philip came in and Maria and Tilia looked at each other with big grins on their faces and Philip knew that they had fun talking about him.