Fifteen.

Stella POV.
As we drank our coffee my brain kept going back to Theo, the sad face he had on, and my ideas and thoughts about how crazy he was, I didn’t want to entertain his crazy ideas, but I felt a link toward him that shouldn’t have been there, maybe it’s craziness, I’m going insane and I picked him to be the one who drags me down along with him.
“What’s wrong Stella?” she asks me looking at me with worry in her eyes.
“Nothing wrong,” I lied, everything was wrong, I’m worried about Theo, not in a way that I’m worried that he’ll hurt me, I’m worried about him, about how he’s acting, and if we’ll ever be friends again.
“You’re a bad liar,” she says looking at me while I shrugged, I didn’t think I was a bad liar, I lied all the time to my parents, or maybe they knew I was lying and they let me get away with it.
“Let it go Cici,” I say with a sigh, we’re skipping school, and we’re sitting in her car drinking coffee, I was exhausted and I was glad we skipped school for the day.
“Fine, fine, cheers,” she says and we keep on drinking, she wasn’t drinking coffee, she said she didn’t like it, but she felt like I needed one.
“I think Finn likes you,” I say out of the blue that’s what I have seen.
“I like him too, he’s a cute boy,” Calesti answers me right away.
“He’s my little brother,” I remind her.
“I know that Stella, and I’m just a friend, it’s okay to be friends even if I’m older than him,” she says, I opened my mouth to object but she beat me to it.
“You’re friends with Milo, he’s older than the both of us,” she says and so I do shut up, she’s right, he’s older than me and I’m friends with him, or I wish to be friends with him.
“I’m not friends with Milo, I only saw him a couple of times,” I say, it was only two times.
“He’d be happy to be your friend,” she said and I blushed, I wanted to be his friend too.
“Okay,” I say and keep on drinking my coffee, tears start to fall down again, I don’t get why I’m crying, there’s no reason for me to cry.
“Stella, why are you crying? What’s wrong? Is the coffee that bad?” Calesti says pulling me toward her and hugging me tight, I tried to wipe the tears away but they kept on going.
“I don’t know,” I say as more tears go down my face.
“Are you sad Stella or is it someone else’s sadness?” she asks me, the sadness wasn’t just mine, I felt the tears going down my face and the pain wasn’t just mine.
“What are you saying Cici? I’m possessed?” I asked her with a chuckle, but I was worried, I was terrified, what if it’s true and I’m possessed?
“By what?” Calesti says with a raised brow.
“A demon?” I ask her not really sure about it.
“A sad demon, I don’t think those exist, Stella, what I meant is sometimes we feel other’s sadness, because you hold so much love and care inside of you, you end up feeling others,” she explains to me.
“Are you sad Cici? Is that why I’m crying?” I ask her, wiping my eyes and blowing my nose.
“Doesn’t have to be me, but some people are highly sensitive to others’ feelings,” she says and I nod maybe that’s why I’m so sad.
“Okay,” I say with a shrug, stopping crying finally.
“Do you want to go back to class? We have another two hours to go,” Calesti says and I groan, I am awake now, but I didn’t want to go, especially since I have Mr James’ class next.
“Can we not?” I ask her hoping she’d agree with me.
“Sure, we can, how about we get somewhere else?” she suggests.
“Sure,” I agreed with her, she started the car and drove us to another point, she parked the car, and got out telling me to come out as well.
She had parked the car in front of the same dinner we met Milo at that first day when Theo lost it on me, we walked in and took a seat, there wasn’t anyone but us, she offered me some food or drink, but I told her I’m fine.
“They don’t mind us sitting in here anyway,” she says with a shrug.
“Are you sure?” I ask her just to be sure we’re in a restaurant.
“Yeah, they don’t have a lot of customers this early, and we hang around here all the time, and they don’t mind us spending time here,” she assures me, and I nod happily, I’m just enjoying sitting here.
We stayed in that shop for over an hour, we didn’t talk much, we just enjoyed the silence, I might have napped again for around twenty minutes, I only woke up to Calesti shaking me awake, I looked around to why she was waking me up and I saw a police officer walking in.
“We need to run,” she says holding my hand and dragging me down underneath the table, when he walked into the shop and went to the counter, we got out of the restaurant then, running out as fast as possible, but he saw us someway, he talked from his place and we could hear him clearly.
“Skipping school Calesti! We’ll talk about that later,” he yelled at us as we ran off.
“Who’s that?” I ask her trying to catch my breath, that was one hell of a movement going from sleeping to running.
“That’s Jasper and we’re dead, well I’m dead, I doubt anyone would say anything to you,” she says trying to assure me that I’m fine.
“Jasper as Mr James husband?” I ask her.
“He’s also the sheriff,” she says and I nod.
“He’s mad at us?” I ask her.
“Very, he doesn’t like it when we skip school, but he’s not very familiar with you, don’t worry,” she assures me again and I nod, we went back to school to pick my brother up, and we waited for him in the parking lot and I saw Theo walking out of the class looking miserable when I saw him tears started to fall down my face, he’s so sad, and he wants to cry, and so I cried.
“Stella, why are you crying?” Finn asks coming toward the car, he breaks my view of Theo and the tears stop, is that why I’m crying? Was Calesti right? I’m crying cause I’m feeling someone’s else pain.
“I’m not crying,” I say trying to wipe the tears away quickly.
“Hey Finn, how was your day sweetie?” Calesti asks getting my brother’s attention off me, he was happy to talk with Calesti and he ignored my tears, or maybe he believed my lie.
“How about we watch a movie and order pizza?” Finn says to Calesti.
“I’d love to, but would your parents be okay with it?” she asked and they both turned to me now, I was lost in my mind, and I wasn’t really listening to them.
“You need anything?” I asked them as they were both looking at me.
“Can Calesti come over and watch a movie?” Finn asks me.
“Sure,” I assure them, mom doesn’t mind if we bring friends back to the US, and she wants us to stay home or tell her when we’re going out, it’s better if we bring our friend and stay home.
“Great! Thank you Ella, but we’ll tell mom she’s your friend too,” he says and I roll my eyes at him, it’s not like he never had any girlfriends before.
“Sure,” I agreed with them, Calesti drove us home, and we all got out, we called out to mom telling her we were all back, and we wanted pizza.
“Hello, who’s this?” mom asks looking at Calesti.
“I’m Calesti, I go to the same class as Stella, but I’m also a friend of Finn,” Calesti introduces herself shaking hands with mom.
“Welcome Calesti,” mom says giving her an approval look.
“How about the pizza mom?” Finn asks her.
“What my sweet boy? Order pizza, and do not bother to stand in the kitchen and cook a meal that neither of you would like, oh my!” mom says with a fake shocked face.
“Yes, that mom,” I say with a chuckle, I knew where I got my sass from.
“You got a deal, I’m sure your friend knows the best local pizza place, you order, I’ll pay,” mom says going to catch up with her favourite book instead of bothering to cook dinner.
We went toward the living room and put on a movie, they picked an action movie, which was the best choice seeing how prone I was to crying today, I tried to watch the movie with them, but the tears fell down on their own every now and then, I tried to keep on wiping them, but the tears were real.
“You know, if you talk to the reason for your tears you won’t be crying anymore,” Calesti suggests to me, and I groaned, I didn’t want to talk with Theo, even if he was the one who was sad, what he did scared me, it’s not my fault.
“I need a break from the movie, I’ll be back,” I say walking out of the house, I went toward our backyard, which’s open to the woods and I loved the fresh air, it helped my broken heart syndrome, but it wasn’t my heart that’s really broken.
Feeling angry with myself over the fact that I was so sad because of someone else, I started to walk, I wasn’t thinking, I shouldn’t be back in the woods what if I saw the same wolves again? There was a pull toward the woods, I couldn’t stay out or hold back, the woods wanted me in here, so I walked in, I kept on walking and walking, this whole place had me under its spell.
If this was a Disney movie, I’d find my goal in life waiting for me inside of the woods, but instead what I found was a very miserable Milo.
“Are you okay?” I ask him, and he jumps up, he looks at me with wide eyes, he didn’t expect to see me and I didn’t expect him to be here either.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” I say, feeling bad, I should just walk right back out.
“You didn’t scare me, I just didn’t hear you,” he says, with a shrug.
“Of course,” I say.
“How did you end up here? Are you lost again? Is your foot any better?” he asks me, as I walk in here, I have forgotten about all the pain that I had earlier.
“It doesn’t hurt much, I’m fine,” I assured him.
“Lost again?” he asks me again.
“No, it’s weird but I went on a walk and just ended up here,” I say, it was a pull right toward this point.
“Oh, it’s in the middle of the woods, I should show you the way back,” he says standing up and starting to walk back to my home or maybe his.
“Are you okay Milo?” I asked him again, he too felt sad, like as sad as Theo was and I didn’t understand why I understood their feelings, or maybe I was imagining things.
“I’m fine, just have a lot on my mind,” he answers me, I should shut up, I know nothing about him, we’re not even friends.
“If you need a friend, I’m here,” I say with a tight smile.
“Thank you Lil-Star, I’ll keep that in mind,” he says offering me a hand as the trail got harder to walk through, it wasn’t the same way I came through.
“Aren’t you worried about the wolves in the woods?” I ask him.
“They never bother me, you shouldn’t be worried about them,” he says as kept on walking, holding hand with him felt good, it felt so natural and safe, but it’s also missing something, I’m not sure what.