What's Out There?

Chapter 18

When I woke up, I was in an unfamiliar bedroom, lying on a bed. I looked around and no one was there, but the door was ajar.
"Clay?" I ask.
"Sarah, you're up," A voice said. It was Fern. She came running in from the other room.
"Where's Clay? And where am I?" I ask.
"You are in the guest room in your dad's house. Clay is at his apartment worried sick, but I made him go back to get some rest," Fern explains, "He didn't want to leave you. I came over because your dad had to go to run an errand, and Clay was just about asleep when I found him in that chair." She nods towards the chair next to my bed, and then comes over and sits in it.
"Okay. What happened?" I don't remember anything, but it all felt like a dream.
"I only know what Clay told me," Fern said as she sat down in the chair.
"What did he tell you?" I ask. There was like this black hole in my memory from when we were in the tree to when I woke up.
I hear a knock on a door that sounds quite distant. I look at Fern, and she looks at me.
"I'll go get it," Fern says as she gets up from the chair and starts to head to the room's only door. At the same time another person comes running through the door, and Fern and the person collide and fall to the ground.
"Ouch," the person who had ran into Fern said. It was Clay; I could recognize his voice anywhere.
"Clay?" I asked.
"Yeah?" he asked in response as he was getting up and then helping Fern get up.
"What happened last night?" I asked.
"What do you remember?" Clay asked.
"We had just got to the top of the tree," I said.
"Wow. Umm okay," he rambled on. Then said to Fern, "Can you give us a minute?"
"Sure," Fern said. "I'll be in the living room." Then she walked out, shutting the door behind her.
"So, how are you feeling?" He asked.
"Gosh I wish people would stop asking me that," I stressed, "What happened last night?"
"Okay gosh. So we just started talking the night I left. Then you just spaced out for a good ten minutes, and by the time you came back to reality you were all faint and it was time to get back. I was so scared you were going to fall when you told me you could climb down. I didn't want you to because you were shaking. And then when you were climbing down, there was no low branches so you jumped down from the tree and re-injured your already-injured ankle. I had to carry you back and I think you knocked your self out from the jump. So I ask again, are you okay?"
"Yes," I whispered. What was I thinking about? I wondered.
"Good," he said leaning in closer. His breath on my cheeks.
Just as we were an inch away from a kiss, there was a knock on the door.
"You guys done?" Fern said.
"Yeah," he said. I was a little mad at Fern, like give me 5 minutes. And what was with Clay, like we need to talk.
She walks in and says, "Clay, I would go." They exchange a look, and he gets up to leave.
"Wait, what just happened here?" I ask. "Why are you leaving?"
"I think what Fern is trying to say is that your dad is back. And I shouldn't be here since I brought you there and you got hurt so it's my fault," Clay said.
"Wait, you're serious?" I asked.
"Yes. I'm sorry I gotta go," He says, gives me a hug, opens the window I didn't realize before that was next to the bed, slips out of the window, and then shuts it.
A second after he shuts the window, my dad come in. "Was he here?" he asks.
"Who?" I ask.
He glares at me, "You know who I'm talking about."
"Yes," I say, "It was my fault." I wasn't sure if this was even true.
"Really? How?" he asks with no expression at all.
"Well you see..." I start, but then Fern, who was just standing there awkwardly, saved me.
"She jumped off of the branch trying to get back for the curfew, and landed on her foot which knocked her out cold and made her forget the entire night," Fern says, "And it won't help to ask questions if she doesn't know exactly what happened."
"Okay, okay. How's her ankle?" he asked.
"Not too bad, it will take about 3 days for it to heal completely, since someone injured it before it had healed in the first place," Fern explained.
"Okay. Do you need anything?" he asked me.
"No, but I would like to know what all happened that night and I think it might help to see the only person that was in the part of the night that I can barely remember," I say.
"Okay, but you need some rest first," he replied.
"Sure. Can you two leave so I can sleep now?" I asked and then yawned.
"Sure," they said at the same time.
"Goodnight," my dad said, kissed me on the forehead, and followed Fern out of the door.
"Bye," I say before my dad closes the door all the way.
A few minutes after they leave, I fall asleep.