Trapped

"Our little secret"

I woke up the next day feeling more exhausted than normal. No matter how much I tried to, I couldn't shake the thought of what Eli said out of my mind. If he was warning me about his own brother, I know it's nothing to take lightly. I honored his wishes and didn't tell Zane, though I know he could tell that something was wrong as soon as he came back to my room to check on me. My main focus though is to do what Eli suggested and just stay away from Noah, which shouldn't be too hard considering the fact that he avoids me anyways, but I'm going to make an extra effort to be aware of him. Even though I knew he didn't like me, I never really considered him a particularly dangerous person. I just figured that if he decided to tell the board about me, then there wouldn't be much I could do about it. Now, things are going to have to be a bit different. Sitting up in bed, I groaned out dramatically, "God, this soreness is never going to go away." I said out loud to myself. The golden sunlight peaked through my window, lighting up my room with a beautiful glow. At this point, I think my bodies natural clock tells me that it's time to wake up as soon as the sun rises the slightest bit over the mountain. I don't mind it, though. There's always been something magical to me about the way the world seems under the soft glow. I made my way to the shower and started getting ready for the day. Once I got dressed and was drying my hair off with a towel, a knock came from my door so quietly that I almost didn't hear it. "Uh, come in," I said out loud. Zane slowly appeared on the other side of the door. "Hey, good morning." He said as he walked in. There was sleepiness in his voice that told me he came straight to my room after he woke up and got dressed. "Good morning," I replied with a bubbly smile. "How are you always so cheerful in the morning?" He chuckled out as he let his body fall backward onto my bed. "I dont know, I'm just in a good mood in the morning. It feels nice to wake up with the sun, to be honest." I answered. "Well, I think sleeping in until noon would put me in a better mood." He stated as he cuddled up on my pillow. I smiled at him and giggled at his ability to get so comfortable even though it's not his bed. "So are you telling me you came to see me to tell me you're in a bad mood and not happy to see me?" I joked. "Nope, I actually just came here for your comfortable bed." He joked back and laughed. I rolled my eyes and looked at him with a smile. "Actually, my mornings are a lot better when you're around." He continued on to say in a more serious tone. I turned away in an attempt to hide the fact that my smile now stretched from ear to ear completely out of my control. I finally recognized the feeling in my stomach to be butterflies now. It had been so long since I felt this feeling that I almost couldn't remember what butterflies felt like, and to be honest, it's still hard to tell the difference between that and just plain anxiety. I don't mind the butterflies doing jumps and flips as much, though. "Hey, so I was wondering," Zane started to say. I stopped what I was doing and looked over at him, giving him my full attention. "If you're feeling up to it, do you want to go for a walk, maybe?" He continued. "A walk?" I asked. "Yeah, I heard it's good for healing, and I know this cool place that I think you will like, so I wanted to show you once you're feeling up for the walk." He said with a smile as he sat up. "Yeah, that sounds nice," I replied happily. "Okay, we will get breakfast and go then?" He suggested. I nodded back to him, and we both headed downstairs together to get some food that Tara had made.

When we walked out the front door, a soft, warm breeze hit me. I stood there with my eyes closed for a second as I enjoyed the feeling. When I opened my eyes, I looked over to Zane, who was now standing next to me, and my eyes met his gaze. "What?" I asking with a laugh. "Nothing." He replied, chuckling as he turned and stepped off the porch. I hurried to catch up with him. I followed him to a path that led into the forest, and we made our way into the tree covered maze. As we got deeper down the path, anxiety was slowly filling my body. Even though I tried to force it away and hide it, It wasn't long before Zane noticed, of course. "You doing okay? Do we need to go back to the house?" He asked. "No, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." I replied with a forced smile. He stopped suddenly and looked at me, which caused me to stop and look back at him. "What's wrong?" He asked sternly. The look on his face showed he was concerned but also curious. I hesitated to tell him for a second, "I'm just a little nervous to be back in a big forest after getting hurt." I explained hesitantly. A look of understanding washed over his face now. He walked closer to me and wrapped one arm around my shoulders as he guided me with him. "I'm not letting you get hurt by anything like that ever again, trust me." He explained. He tried to play it off as a light hearted statement to keep things from getting depressing for either of us, but I could feel the seriousness behind his words, and his arm around my shoulders actually made me feel a lot more secure. After a long walk, the trees finally opened up to show a big hot spring with a small but beautiful waterfall pouring down into it, and surrounding it was a normal cold water pond. I let out a gasp, and my eyes couldn't help but light up in excitement. Zane laughed at my reaction and said, "I knew you'd love this place." I grabbed his arm and pulled him around the pond to a small patch of rocks that led to the separate hot spring. He held my arms tightly as we walked over the slippery rocks, for fear that I would fall and get even more hurt. I was too excited in that moment to care, though. "I've always wanted to go to a hot spring." I told him as I kneeled down to touch the warm water. It felt so amazing as the warmth touched my skin. He started to take his shoes and socks off and then pulled his pant legs up and sat down on the dry surrounding rocks, putting his feet in the water. He let out an exaggerated noise of pleasure as his feet sunk in the water. I quickly followed after and sat next to him, placing my feet in the perfectly heated water, too. A hot shower is great, but there's something so much more incredible about a naturally heated hot spring.

We talked for a long while about my life, my family, Michael, and other more random topics.

"So tell me more about you, Zane," I said to him with a smile. "There's not really much to tell about me. You already know how I grew up in a family that trained us to do what we do, so um, well, when I was ten, my mom died. She got into a bad car accident one day on a pretty unpopular road. So no one knew she had crashed until hours later, and by then, she was long gone. After that, my dad became a very different person. He couldn't even look at me anymore because I looked too much like her in his eyes, and soon after that, he became an alcoholic. So I didnt spend much time at home, i'd train and spend all my time with Tara and danny, and they became my new family, and then greyson and blayke joined our little family, and then Eli and Noah. We all just kind of created this family outside of the ones we came from." He explained. I couldn't help letting a surprised expression wash over my face. I would have never guessed that he would have such a sad past. He's always so happy and silly and laid back. "I'm so sorry that you had to lose your mom and dad both at such a young age like that." I mumbled out, unsure of the right thing to reply. He pursed his lips in an attempt to not let any emotions escape. "I mean, my favorite color is green, my favorite drink is probably coffee, I like night more than I like the day, and my favorite foods are spring rolls and hamburgers." He quickly blurted out with a forced giggle to lighten the mood. I chuckled along with him. "Im glad you felt comfortable enough to share all of that with me." I said as I turned to make eye contact with him. "It's easy to talk to you, and pretty easy to just be myself when I'm around you. I've been hoping that maybe I could learn more about you, too. I know we've had this feeling between us, and despite my best efforts, I just can't shake how I feel." He explained and then placed his hand on mine as it sat on the rock in between us. My stomach experienced the same familiar feeling that it keeps going through when I'm around him, and something happens, the strong butterflies fluttering around inside as my heart begins to beat faster. I kept my gaze on him as he spoke and kept my hand as still as possible, worried that the slightest movement might make him take his hand back when I desperately wanted it to stay. "I dont know if you feel the same way as me for sure or not, and i've been terrified to even bring it up because I didnt want you to feel pressured into saying you feel the same way if you dont, out of fear that I wouldnt still help you or something. I absolutely would still be here to help you, whether you feel the same way or not. I hope you know me well enough by now to know that I would never let those feelings stand in the way of helping you stay alive." He continued to explain as he examined the look on my face. I nodded with a smile and calmly said, "I know Zane, I know I wouldn't need to pretend and that you would help me either way." And as soon as the last word left my lips, that was all he needed to hear to get up the courage to lean in and kiss me. His lips met mine with a gentleness and deepened with every touch as I kissed him back. His hands made their way up to my face, then entangled in my hair and our lips mingled together over and over again, pouring out every ounce of desire we had both desperately wanted to release but had instead kept locked up until now. Our breaths are becoming more irradic, and neither of our hands seeming to find their permanent spot on each other. The feeling of his lips pressing against mine and begging to not stop, with his strong hands in my hair and holding me, and us left to hardly be able to catch our breaths, feels like the closest i've ever come to touching heaven. Before we knew it though, clouds had began to roll in and the feeling of rain drops falling on us interrupted our very intense moment together, so we decided to head back to the house and come back again when theres no rain predicted to fall. I felt euphoric despite the rains interruption. Almost as if the happiness could consume me, and i'd die right then and there, completely content. When we reached about a quarter of the way back to the house, I could feel that I may have really pushed my body too hard after all, because the aching was already becoming too unbearable to ignore, and soon enough I began to even stumble over my own feet. I tried to hide it from Zane because I didn't want to ruin the moment, but as usual, he could tell something was up. It wasn't until I stumbled over my own feet again and ended up falling when we were about halfway down the trail that he realized what was wrong. My body hurt too much to stand back up, so I just stayed there on the ground for a minute. Zane had rushed to my side to make sure I was okay and kneeled down next to me. "Alethia, did I make you push yourself too hard today?" He asked, worried. "No, no, of course not. It was my choice to come with you, and besides, i'm perfectly fine. I just need a minute, that's all." I replied. "Alethia, tell me the truth, can you stand back up?" He asked. I looked at him in defeat because I couldn't keep up the lie. I kept quiet and just looked him in the eyes. "That's what I thought. Here, get on, no arguements." He said as he turned his body around to give me a piggyback ride. I did as he said, and without a word, I forced myself to climb onto his back enough for him to get a grasp onto me and take over picking me up. "Im sorry," I said, feeling embarrassed and guilty that he had to carry me the whole rest or the way home. "No worries, i'm happy to help you. It's the least I can do, actually, since I wasn't able to stop you from getting hurt in the first place. I'm able to help with this at least, so dont be sorry, I dont mind, really." He replied. I gave him a little squeeze since my arms were already wrapped around him, and he chuckled. "You're really cute, you know that?" The comment caught me a little off guard, but I giggled.

We finally made it back up to the house, and he gently set me back down. "I would've carried you all the way inside, but I thought that might embarrass you." Zane said, chuckling. "Yeah, that would be a bit embarrassing," I said back, matching his tone, "also, if it's okay with you, I don't want anyone else to know about us just yet." I continued shyly. He smiled as he took a quick look around, confirming that we were still alone, and then he licked his lips and pulled me in for one last passionate kiss. Our lips met over and over again until he suddenly pulled back and then touched his forehead to mine and held my hands tightly in his. "It's none of their business anyways. It'll just be our little secret for now." He whispered. My heart was already beating out of my chest from him kissing me again, but it fluttered even more with his last sentence. "Our secret," I giggled out, "Just for now." I ended in agreement. He pulled away slowly, taking my hand with him until he was out of my reach, and with a seemingly permanant smile still painted on his face he nodded his head towards the house to let me know to follow him in. I followed behind him inside the house, trying to keep my distance so that no one would question anything. "Hey guys! Perfect timing, we just finished making lunch." Tara said. "Here, I will get you both some." Danny added. I held one hand up and shook my head. "Thank you, but I'm actually going to just head upstairs and take a nap. I'm really tired." I explained. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Noah walking towards the stairs to leave the room, giving me a quick dirty look before walking out of view, and Eli follows after a minute. "Okay, well, I will make you a plate and put it in the fridge then for when you come back down. Go get some rest." Danny said with an understanding expression on his face, and Tara nodded in agreement. I give a little goodbye wave to everyone and walk upstairs and down the hall toward my room. I feel so sore and exhausted, but the overwhelming happiness I'm feeling almost outweighs the rest. Every moment, every thought, every emotion from the mornings events is on repeat in my mind. My skin tingling all over again in all the same spots that Zane's hands touched earlier as the memory played again. I was abruptly brought back to reality by the feeling of someone's hand wrapping around my throat and shoving me against the wall. A loud gasp followed by a pain filled groan escaping my lungs as my already sore and aching body hit the hard wall. I looked up to see who was doing this to me, and adrenaline immediately rushed through my body as I met hate filled eyes staring back into mine. "Noah!?" I asked fearfully.