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The Girl in The Forest

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I SLAMMED my phone on my bed with a groan of frustration, but despite that, I felt some modicum of relief that it didn't fall off the bed.

The reason for my current frustration? My current situation. A house in the woods with no bars was how I was gonna spend the last month of the last summer before I started college.

What was this, a retreat or something?

I heard the sound of my own exhale as I grabbed the cool, hard plastic of the phone and headed down.

I just had to make it past this month.

Dad was pacing around while Jane and Grandma chatted away, already settled in their seats. Tony sported a frustrated look at his phone and I had a good guess it was because of the lack of service here.

I sat next to him because it was the only empty seat across from Jane. My dad had settled next to her, while Grandma sat at the head of the table, closer to my dad and Tony.

"There are no bars," I said to Tony, but he didn't reply. Then I recalled what he said earlier. Was that how he felt?

I guess I also pushed him away over the years, but he always seemed satisfied with Jane and Dad while I wasn't so, I supposed we stopped talking. But it wasn't on purpose. He's my little brother, after all.

"Finally, Clarissa has graced us with her presence," my grandma said, and Jane chuckled. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at Jane's attempt to always seem amiable but gave my grandma a small smile. We began eating after a prayer.

"So, Clarissa, how are you preparing for your college? Where is it you're going again?" Grandma asked.

"Hedgar."

"Where is that?"

"California." Grandma let out a light gasp at my answer.

"That's very far from your house in Kansas, right?" she said, directing the question to my dad.

"Yeah, it's where she wants to go," he replied.

"And she got accepted," Jane added.

"Clarissa, why not somewhere closer? There are good colleges nearer, right? You could go to Stremland, your mother went there."

"I want to go somewhere I can stand on my own and build my legacy," I said with a proud smile, knowing it's also what Mom would have wanted.

"I guess she just wants to go very far from home," Jane said, and I could sense the underlying sadness in her tone.

When I was applying for universities, she wanted me to apply to Stremland University, Iowa and I'm sure because it was closer to home. But after sending me to boarding school in Kentucky, she wanted me close to home.

Yeah, no. I wasn't falling for that.

Dad married Jane when I turned thirteen, and she did what any stereotypical stepmother would do.

First, she suggested moving away from Minnesota to Kansas, and then she sent me to boarding high school when I completed middle school.

I hated her for it, and I hated my dad for agreeing to it. It didn't come as a shock that she had convinced Dad about Stremland, too.

"Actually, she also got accepted by Stremland," Jane said.

I only applied because Dad kept pestering me, but my mind was solely on Hedgar from the start, and even after I got Stremland's letter I still waited for Hedgar.

"Then why not go there, Clarissa? Stremland's a good place. They have moral standards. Plus, you can come back anytime, even during weekends."

Did she think I was gonna change my mind?

"Hedgar is good too. Plus, I wouldn't have much reason to come back during weekends."

"I'm sure she won't even come back at all," Tony chipped in.

I glared at him, his nonchalance grating on my nerves as he shrugged at me. "What? It's not like I'm lying."

"Clarissa, if that's what you're planning, that's not fair. You should always think of coming back. It's not right for you to go so far away. You just finished boarding school in Minnesota, you should—"

"Kentucky grandma," I corrected. "And what's the difference? Kentucky was also far from home, but she had no issue sending me there. So why are you bothered?" I directed the last question to Jane, along with a glare.

"I just want what's best for you Clarissa and—"

"It's Clara to you," I said sternly. "And you've only done whatever you wanted. I'm sure you just wanted me out of the house 'cause you never really liked me. Well, guess what, I never really liked you either."

"Clarissa, how many times have I told you to talk to Jane with respect," my dad warned, but I scoffed in indignation.

"Yeah, you have no right to talk to me about respect," I said and tried to focus on my food, which was now cold.

He slammed his fist on the table, causing the spoons and plates to rattle. "I have every right to talk to you about respect! I am your father and you should respect me and what I say. Jane is your mother and you should—"

"She is not my mother! My mother is in jail and I haven't seen her for seven years now because you and this... lady here are just cheaters who care about yourselves!" I couldn't help but yell.

Grandma's eyes widened, and she let out an audible gasp of shock.

"What! They haven't seen Lucia in seven years!"

"Yes, Grandma. He never even let us know where she was. He's not even sorry about what he caused. And neither is she," I gestured with a finger pointed at Jane. "Hell, why would she be? She got what she wanted, and she's thrilled, I'm sure."

"You have no right to talk to me like that, Clara. I love your dad and your dad loved your mom, but she lost herself," Jane said and it just irritated me the more.

"That's because of you! You and Dad cheated on her. If he had never cheated on her, she wouldn't have taken up drinking!"

"Is that what you think?" she asked, her eyebrows shooting up. "That your mom began drinking after I started seeing your father? Well, you're very wrong. Your mom already had a drinking problem since she was a teen. And she was the one who cheated on your dad"

No.

"Don't you dare talk about her like that! You know nothing about her. She would never have cheated on my dad and she was an amazing mother—"

"When she wasn't drinking, yeah, maybe," Jane scoffed, and I gritted my teeth at her words. "She pushed him away with her bad habits, not the other way. Your mom has always been an addict."

No! She was lying. She had to be.

Mom couldn't have been a cheater before Dad's affair with Jane. I looked at Dad with a question in my eyes. Surely he couldn't watch Jane say untrue things about my mom, could he?

"Clara, Jane's right, your mom was the one who—"

"No! You can't say that about her. It's wrong. She's wrong and you're very wrong to support her."

"Clarissa—"

"Grandma, they're saying wrong things about your daughter and you're just gonna let them slander her in your presence. How can you—"

"Because they're right!"

It wasn't her voice that went an octave higher that stunned me into silence, or her words. It was her eyes and how they shined with truth. A truth that made her feel ashamed.

I looked at Tony, who kept eating. He had been all this while like there wasn't a screaming match happening around him.

"Did you know?"

My voice has dropped to a whisper, barely audible over the tense silence that engulfed the table.

"When you're barely at home, how would you find out things like this? You were always off in ignorance, so we let you stay in it."

I felt a tightness in my throat as I tried to swallow.

How could they keep this from me? I looked at my dad and grandma with my eyes widened and my lips parted, but when my eyes settled on Jane, my lips morphed into a sneer.

With a sharp exhale, I rose from my seat, the sound of the chair dragging against the wooden floor echoing through the room. Then I left, clenching and unclenching my fists as my grandma called out, but I didn't answer. The cool breeze of the night hit me as I went out the door and slammed it behind me.

My mom couldn't have been a cheater. No, she couldn't. She was the sweetest. The best.

When she started drinking, I never liked her that way, but she was my mother. I couldn't hate her. Not when I still had fresh memories of us being happy together.

Then she turned to drugs and pills, claiming they made her feel better. She also told me never to tell Dad about it, or else he would take it from her and the arguing would continue.

She was my mother. I couldn't doubt her, so I kept quiet.

Perhaps I shouldn't have. No. I definitely shouldn't, but at the time Dad had become the bad guy, and I soon found out why. My dad was seeing another woman and Mom couldn't handle his blatant cheating.

But how could she have been cheating and I wouldn't have known? Sure, she had some male friends she was very close with, but if she was in an affair with any of them, I would have known.

I stalked into the woods, not sure of where I was going, but I couldn't stay in that house looking at all of them. They lied to me for years, and they weren't even planning on letting me know at all. If Jane hadn't blurted it out, I would have never known.

The emotions were coming at me, a lot of things at once. Shock, disbelief that even Tony knew, and he never said a word.

And anger towards Jane. All of this was her fault, every last bit of it. If she never came into our lives, Mom wouldn't have left that night and—

I tripped on something, stumbled to the floor, and then the tears fell through. Despite all the conflicting emotions, there was one that tugged at my heart.

The beautiful image I had of my mom was now tainted. How was I ever going to picture her after this?

I've always wanted to visit her, but knowing this now makes me not want to. If they all believed it, then there had to be some truth to what they said. All those years that we laughed and played together while she was cheating behind my back. Her cheating on Dad was equivalent to cheating on Tony and me.

If she had a problem, why couldn't she just talk to me? I always talked to her. I always told her everything.

The sound of my sobs filled the surrounding air with the occasional tweet of a bird or rustle of a tree until I heard a twig snap some distance away. My head shot up to my right. Darkness surrounded me, but I could only make out the contours of trees.

I heard another sound and turned to my left.

"Who's there?" I asked, slowly rising to my feet, but the silence was deafening, and the stillness was eerie. I looked around, trying to make sense of the scene, but all I could see was darkness.

The silence was enough to make me want to leave, but once I veered around, I halted in my steps to let out a yelp.

In front of me was a little girl.

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That's Chapter 2. Comment down what you think and doesn't this little girl seem suspicious?

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The Sparkling Authoress
Mis. A

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