The Green Girl ✓

Standing my ground

Caden POV

I parked my car a few houses away from Alice’s place. Taking several deep breaths, I tried to calm myself down as I walked towards the back yard.

To say I was nervous about sleeping in her bed would be an understatement. What if I did or said something wrong? What if instead of patching things up, I made them even more awkward?

I snuck into Alice's garden and climbed the tree that grew on the outside of her room. The window was open so I just jumped inside, the floor producing a thud as my feet connected with it. The brunette was lying on her back in bed but as soon as she heard the sound I’d made, her head snapped in my direction.

“Caden?” She queried a bit confused and sat in her bed. “What are you… Oh, yeah… I forgot you were coming over tonight.”

I just stood there, staring at her. She forgot? She simply forgot? As if she didn’t give a damn about me?

She sighed deeply and only then did I realize she looked upset. All of my anger about being shrugged off melted away as soon as I saw the sadness in those beautiful green eyes.

“Alice, what happened?” I questioned, sitting next to her.

“Mrs. Allen called my aunts today. She told them about me skipping school… and about you.” She added, chewing her lower lip.

I really didn’t like where this was heading.

“And?” I asked as worry crept through me.

“Well, they were waiting for me to come home… Azalea wasn’t all too happy about us hanging together.”

“And?” I repeated even more anxious than before.

“Please, don’t get Alice in trouble because of us!” I silently prayed to no one in particular. “Please!”

Her next words made me forget how to breathe for a second.

“She said she forbids me from seeing you again.”

I was stunned. I stood there with my mouth hanging opened and my heart racing in my chest.

“S-so… you’re leaving…”

… me?

“… Us?”

“No, Caden! Just because she said it, it doesn’t mean I’ll do it!” Alice grabbed my hands and squeezed them, trying to reassure me. “I won’t leave you!”

I won’t leave you.

I wondered if “you” meant me, Asher and Keegan or just me. I’d like to think it was only me. But who was I kidding? That was just wishful thinking. Of course she meant the three of us.

“So… What now?” I asked when she didn’t say anything else.

“I don’t know. She won’t just let it go but I’m not going to back down either. Plus, Rose and Flora seem to be on my side. She likes you, you know. Aunt Flora, I mean.”

“She likes me?” I queried confused. “I never even seen her.”

Alice’s face visibly relaxed and she chuckled. She let go of my hands and leaned her back on the headrest of her bed.

“Oh, but she’s seen you,” she announced with an amused glint in her eyes. “Apparently she doesn’t space out as much as I thought, so she’s watched you climb through the window a few times. I wonder whether she knows you are here now.”

“Wait… If she knew I’d been here, why hadn’t she said anything about it?”

“I asked her the same question.”