The Tree in the Forest

Chapter Two

~~~

  School was now over, and the summer was underway. You couldn't be more excited to leave this school, even if it's only for two months.

  Summer break, for you, meant sleepovers with Karkat and John, going to see your cousins, and going to the public pool.

  Your cousins were great, even though they were really loud and most of them were older than you were. You could get a chance to show them that you're not a stupid little kid anymore.

John doesn't get to come over for sleepovers during the school year since his dad is strict about that type of stuff. At least he gets to come over during the summer.

Even though the public pool is always run down with people during the summer, it's still fun to go to. It beats sitting out in the blazing sun all day.

"Hey, Dave. Could you go to your room for a while? Got a friend comin' over." Bro says as he pokes his head around the corner. You groan but get up and trudge to your room.

  There were more friends over during the summer. You wonder if those people are really his friends, but don't ask about it since Bro would just avoid answering you until you stopped asking.

  You sit in your room for about half an hour before you hear the door open and some hushed talking. You want to open the door and every fiber of your being wants to grab that doorknob, but you don't.

  The talking soon becomes more casual and you just try to tune it out by reading, even though you aren't much of a reader.

  It, of course, doesn't work and you are stuck looking out of your window whilst listening to muffled conversation. What the hell were they talking about?

You hear your Bro's friend giggle and what sounds like high heels click across the apartment. Sometimes you wish they would accidentally walk into your room so that you could see who it is, but they never do.

A door opens and closes from across the hall and the conversation has become even more hushed. You open your door enough to peer out of it.

Once you were certain that the coast was clear, you made a run for the kitchen, grabbing your apple juice, a package of crackers, and a bag of Doritos. That could at least last you a few hours.

You manage to get back to your room before they decided to come out of Bro's room. The strange noises had already started. You hated them because they always made you feel awkward, like you weren't supposed to hear them.

It also gave you the creeps. What are they doing that caused so much noise?, you wonder as you eat your crackers, the sounds from Bro's room ringing in your ears.

Creak, creak. The sound continues, sometimes accompanied by a voice or knock of the wall. It sounds like the doors in horror movies, loud and menacing.

Maybe it's just you. It probably is, but that can't keep you from wondering what they're doing in there.

You decide to shove your head under your pillow and go to sleep. You didn't have a clock in your room, so you couldn't tell how late it was, but it felt late, so you went to bed anyways.

                                     ~<>~

You wake up to sun gleaming into your room from the window, burning your eyes the moment they open. You put on the spiked shades that Bro gave you when you were younger to block out the light.

When you manage to climb out of bed and into the living room, you see Bro sitting on the couch watching one of his strange cartoons.

"Hey, lil bro." He acknowledges, not even looking at you, but turning the video on the tv down.

"Hey. I have a question." You say. Why were you doing this now?

"Anything, man, just ask." He pauses the video this time, turning to look at you as you climb up onto the couch.

"How come I'm never able to meet your friends? And why do you always make a lot of weird noises when they come over?" You ask, not truly thinking about it properly.

"Well, uh, Dave, you see. . .God, how do I explain this to kid." He mutters that last part to himself, and you don't think you were meant to hear it.

"Well, Dave, my friends are special friends." Bro starts and you tilt your head a little, not understanding what he was trying to explain.

"My friends pay me to do things for them. Say, they want me to do something. They say that they'll pay me to do it, and I do." He explains. You still don't truly understand it, but pretend you do.

You decide to ask about it after summer break ends.

You're given a bowl of plain cereal for breakfast, just like always. You don't mind, you like it plain anyway.

You wonder why Bro tried to avoid getting to the point. He's normally very straightforward about everything. He tells you how it is. Why was this any different?

You finish your cereal and place the bowl in the sink to be washed.

So much for getting answers to your questions.

~~~

I am back!

So this one was a lot shorter than the first one but oops.

So for anyone unaware, this story will have a lot of timeskips. Its because it's a coming-of-age story.

But yep. This is told in the PoV of Dave (that's always how I write. Wow)

I feel bad for you if you haven't figured out what Bro's job is yet. Like I don't mean to be offensive but seriously. Please don't take my words out of context. I'm just saying.

I want to state that in these first two chapters, Dave is like 10 so he doesn't know much about certain things and everything since Bro tries to keep him away from that stuff (bc of reasons that you should already understand by now)

Also, Dave likes plain cereal. Like Frosted Flakes with no milk. (Totally not based off me or whatever. Pssshhh no)

Bro is nice in this one bc I can do that if I want to

Anyways-Bye!

~Ghostie