SORROW WOODS, page 23
bench. “Dad, can I just go out for a bit please?”
He blinks up at me and frowns. “Where are you going?”
“I just want to go to the shop and print out the pictures that I’ve taken. I want to show
everyone.”
He still looks confused but nods. “I’ll just get the car keys.”
“No,” I say, putting my hand gently on his arm. “I mean Kaiden is here. That was him ringing
the doorbell. I was going to ask him if he could take me.”
“Oh,” he says, “right, well, I guess it’s okay if you’re going to go there and come straight
back. We have guests and it’s a little rude to just leave them.”
I glance at my cousins who are still playing with their phones and listening to their music.
Auden follows my eyes and then smiles. “I get what you mean. Go on then and be careful. Don’t
leave his side.”
I lean down and kiss his cheek. “I’ll stay right by him. Thanks.” I turn away from him and run
back through the house. Thankfully, Angela isn’t in the kitchen when I dash back through, so I just grab my camera and open the door again.
Kaiden spins around on the step. “Serena, I really need to talk to you.”
I hold the camera up at him and grin. “Can you talk to me while you take me to get these
printed out please?”
“What?” he says, blinking at me and looking confused. “You want me to take you right
now?”
I nod. “If you don’t mind.”
He shakes his head, but smiles at the same time. “You’re nuts, do you know that?”
I shrug and run to his car. When I hear the lock clicking, I pull the door open and climb in.
“Right,” he says, as he slips into the seat beside me. “We’ll have to run to the mall because
I’m not sure where else they can print the pictures for you.” He starts the car and drives it slowly down the driveway.
Despite the fact that he said he wanted to talk to me, we drive the whole way to the mall in
complete silence. My eyes are watching the stormy clouds that seem to be rolling in above the sea, so I don’t notice that he’s not talking until he pulls into the darkened underground parking garage.
“We need to be quick,” he says, “I’ve only got enough coins to pay for parking for half an
hour.”
I didn’t realise we had to pay for parking, which makes me stop and think about how I’m
going to pay for the pictures to be printed.
“What’s up?” he asks, blinking at me.
I walk into the elevator and look up at my reflection in the mirrors. I look confused. “I’ve
forgotten to bring any money with me. I keep forgetting that you have to pay for everything.”
He smiles and taps the pocket on the back of his jeans. “I’ve got money, don’t worry about
it.”
The elevator pings and we’re soon swallowed up into the busy crowds of the shopping mall.
Kaiden stops when we’re clear of people and looks around.
“I think it’s this way,” he says, walking off in the opposite direction that I was going to go.
He’s being strange. I still think it’s because of what happened when we went swimming the other
night, and I guess I won’t know until I ask him.
Before I have chance to say anything, he pulls me into a shop that has shelves littered with all
different sizes and colours of frames. He walks towards a little machine and hold his hand out.
“Can you pass me the camera please?”
I hand it over to him and turn my attention back to the little machine. He opens up a little
section at the side of the camera and slides a flat piece of plastic out.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“It’s a memory card,” he tells me as he slips it into a thin slot on the machine. “This is where
the camera stores all of your pictures.”
In an instant, all of the pictures that I’ve taken appear on the screen.
“Do you want copies of all of them?” he asks.
I nod.
“There’s seventy-four.”
I blink. “Is that too many? Do you not have enough money to print all of them out?”
He huffs and presses a button on the machine. “It’s fine.”
I open my mouth to ask him what’s wrong, but he pulls the memory card back out and rips a
piece of paper off from the machine before I can say anything. He walks over to the desk where a
young girl smiles at him. She has short, spiky black hair, a ring through her nose, and the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. She takes the paper from him and glances at the clock.
“We’re quiet today so I can get these done for you in ten minutes,” she tells him.
He nods and hands over some money. “We’ll just wait over there.”
I look to where he’s nodding and leave him talking to the girl whilst I sit myself down. When
Kaiden sits next to me, he picks up a magazine and starts to flick quickly through it. I realise sitting in the middle of a shop is not the place to talk, so I pick up my own magazine and soon find myself
absorbed in the pictures of deserts, waterfalls, and forests.
“Mr. Matthews?” Kaiden and I look up at the girl. She smiles and holds up a paper pocket.
“Your photos are ready.”
He glances at me and then moves towards the desk, taking the pocket of paper from her.
“Thanks,” he says, turning and handing them to me. “There you go.”
“Thank you.” I follow him out of the shop and flip open the little envelope and find myself
staring at the very first picture that was taken on my camera of me and Angela. The next one is of Kaiden and me.
“Look,” I say, flipping through more of the pictures and holding them out so he can see them.
He spins around and huffs. “Look at what, Serena?”
The tone of his voice makes me think he’s annoyed with me, but I have no idea what it is
that I’ve done wrong. Maybe it’s because he had to pay for the pictures. I make a mental note to ask Auden to give him the money back. I hold the picture of the two of us in my hallway out to him. “It’s us, just like how I remembered it.”
His eyes hold my gaze for a second. Then he sighs deeply and looks down at the photograph.
Kaiden
I look at the picture of the two of us smiling happily at the camera and know I’ve behaved like an idiot. Serena hasn’t done anything wrong here, yet I’m still acting like a jerk to her. I stare at the way her hair shines next to my face and the way my arm links around her waist. I look back up and find her smiling at me. I’m an asshole sometimes.
“It’s cool, isn’t it?” she says excitedly.
I nod.
She pulls some photographs out and starts to flick through them. “I know it’s probably
boring to you, but I’ve never seen a picture that I’ve taken with a camera before.”
It’s not boring. How could I be bored looking at her face when she’s smiling, or when she’s
sitting in the middle of a garden full of bright flowers, squinting in the sun?
“It’s not that,” I say with a sigh. “I just really need to talk to you.”
She stops looking at the pictures and looks up at me. “So talk, Kaiden.”
I pull her arm and start to direct her towards the exit. “Where are we going?” she asks,
looking around.
“To the car,” I tell her, ready to get her out of here.
“Kaiden,” she huffs as she resists against my arm, reminding me how strong she is, “I can
walk and direct myself.”
We stop and stare at each other. I know she’s confused and upset and doesn’t really
understand. I also know that it’s me that needs to put it right.
“Kaiden Matthews, stay right where you are!”
Serena’s eyes widen and flick behind my head to where Anastasia’s squeaky voice has just
rung out. Shit, I think. Double shit. Serena frowns and flicks her eyes back to me. I sigh and turn around. Anastasia charges towards me before stopping inches from my face and puts her hands on
her hips. Her eyes dart between the two of us.
“What the hell are you doing?” she shrieks. “I thought you said you were busy with your
Dad? You know I asked you to come shopping with me!”
“I was with my Dad. Earlier,” I explain, knowing that regardless of what I say, she’s going to
be mad.
She points towards Serena. “So why are you here with her?”
Serena is standing with the photographs in her hand looking worried. Anastasia isn’t exactly
great at holding back her thoughts, or her temper. “Hi,” she says, smiling at Anastasia, “I’m Serena.”
Anastasia turns her whole body towards Serena and laughs. “I know who you are, Serena
Scott. You’re the girl that can’t stay away from my boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” Serena repeats, as she shoots me a look.
“Yes, that’s what I said, and I think you should leave him alone and go and make some new
friends. He’s already got plenty and he’s also got me, so he doesn’t need sad little Serena clinging on to him for dear life.” She looks Serena up and down, no doubt judging what she’s wearing and trying to determine whether or not she’s any threat. “It’s quite sad really.”
Serena doesn’t say anything back. Instead, she just stares at Anastasia. I want to reach out
and squeeze her hand.
“What are you looking at, Freak?” Anastasia asks.
Did she really just call Serena a freak? God, this girl is even more annoying than I remember.
“Anastasia,” I warn, “stop it.”
Serena blinks and steps forward, towering over Anastasia. “Just because I didn’t grow up
with other people or go to a school like you did, doesn’t mean I’m a freak. Why would you say
something mean to me when you don’t even know me?”
Anastasia’s nostrils flare. I don’t think she’s ever had anyone speak back to her before.
“Because you’re all over my boyfriend. Do you really think he’d be interested in someone like you when he’s got me?” She flicks her fake hair and smirks. “You’re so plain it’s almost offensive. Do you even know what make-up is?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then you should try wearing it, and you need to do something with your hair. It’s
disgusting.”
Serena brushes her hand through her long blonde hair and frowns. “What’s wrong with my
hair?”
Anastasia rolls her eyes and turns back towards me, ignoring Serena’s question. “You’d
better make sure you’re at my house later so you can make this up to me.” She smiles, glancing
quickly at Serena and then says, “Oh, and wear those nice silky boxers that I can take off with my teeth.”
My eyes dart to Serena, who looks like she’s about to cry. I hate that Anastasia had to be the
first person to be horrible to her. She doesn’t deserve to be spoken to like that, and she sure as hell doesn’t deserve for me to just stand here and not defend her.
“You need to leave right now, Anastasia. If you continue to speak to Serena like that, then I
won’t be seeing you again at all, never mind later on today.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Are you being serious?”
I nod. “Deadly.”
“You’d better not be, Kaiden Matthews or so help me…”
“So help you what? What are you going to do, Anastasia, break up with me?” I spit.
She doesn’t respond. I smirk at her and say, “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”
“Kaiden -“ she begins.
“Shut up,” I hiss, interrupting her, “the reason you don’t know anything about Serena or my
relationship with her is because you’ve never bothered to ask me.”
“You found her,” she says, “that doesn’t mean you have to be shackled to her for the rest of
your life. She should just be grateful that you found her and that you did the right thing, and then she should just leave you alone so you can get on with your life.”
She turns to Serena and then I watch as her eyes focus on the pictures in Serena’s hand.
“What are those?” Anastasia asks.
Serena pulls them back but not quickly enough. Anastasia swipes her hand and knocks every
single one out of the packet and onto the floor.
“Oh my God, you went to the zoo with her?!” she shrieks.
Serena quickly squats down and starts to gather the pictures. She’s shaking her head and,
because of the way she’s hiding her face from me, I know she’s crying. I want to pick her up and take her home. I want to tell her that I’m sorry and make everything alright.
“Yes,” I finally answer, “her Mother called me and asked if I’d take her.”
“And you took her?” she asks, sounding shocked.
I look her dead in the eyes. “Yes, I took her to the zoo and you know what, Anastasia? I had a
really good time.”
Anastasia lunges forward and prods me in the chest. “You bastard. I can’t believe you went
out with her like that and didn’t even tell me! You don’t fucking like the zoo! You don’t even like animals, for fuck’s sake!”
I shrug. I know I should have told her, but it was a last minute phone call that I responded to
and I haven’t seen her since to tell her about it. “We just went as friends, Anastasia, because that’s what we are… friends.”
“I don’t give a fucking shit what you are to her, Kaiden. I don’t want you seeing her ever
again. Are we clear?”
I laugh. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Anastasia. I don’t even do what my own
Mother tells me, so I’m not about to start taking orders from you.”
“I’m warning you right here and right now that you are not to spend another second alone
with her. Take her home and then stay away from her.”
She pushes my shoulder one last time and then stalks off in the opposite direction. I huff and
turn around, but find nothing other than a single photograph on the floor. Serena’s gone. My heart starts to hammer in my chest and the words ‘What have I done?’ echo around in my head.
She doesn’t know her way home and she certainly can’t walk all the way back. What will
Auden and Angela think if she turns up at their house in a few hours with sore feet and tells them that she walked home alone? I pick the picture up off the floor and stuff it into my pocket. My eyes search the mall, but every blonde-haired girl I see doesn’t have hair long enough to be Serena. I put my head down and sprint towards the exit.
Serena
I don’t know how I got out of the mall or even if I’m on the right road that’ll lead me back home, but I carry on walking anyway. I don’t even know the area that we live in so I can’t ask for directions.
Kaiden was right about the storm coming. Within seconds of me exiting the mall, I was soaked from head to toe.
When I woke up this morning, I quickly pulled on a short pair of denim shorts, a pair of white
sneakers, and a white top. I’m glad I wore the shorts and sneakers, but as I look down at my soaked top, I realise the white top wasn’t such a good idea. Cars and motorcycles are honking their horns at me as I walk alongside the busy road that leads to the highway. I don’t know if they’re honking
because I’m walking where I shouldn’t be or because they can see my nipples.
Thinking about my nipples and everyone seeing them makes me think about Kaiden and
what he told me when we were at the beach. And thinking about Kaiden makes me angry. Why
didn’t he tell me he had a girlfriend? Why did he let me hold his hand?
I wouldn’t have minded. Well, not in the beginning anyway. I don’t hate him, but I don’t like
him very much right now. He’s made me feel sad. Whenever I look at Kaiden, I have been getting a
tickling feeling in my chest where my heart is. But now it’s just a deep, heavy ache and I don’t know what it means. I feel sad, hollow, and empty. I feel like I’m all alone again in a world where I don’t belong.
I step off the walkway and cross the road towards a large area of grass and a small gathering
of trees. Even though there are only twenty or so trees, it reminds me of home. I can’t even see
where I’m putting my feet because of the rain that splatters out of the sky and falls down my face, so I’m hoping the trees can provide me with some shelter whilst I wait for the storm to pass.
