Chapter 4

Welcome To The Woods

I'm giving this chapter a light trigger warning. I've known going in that parts of this would get a bit sexual, but I still feel weird going into sexual details for a story that involves minors. So basically trigger warning for lightly graphic sexual topics and hints of SA.

The stories I tell are based on truths, I do not ever suggest someone be writing about topics they do not truly understand. That being said, I will say again that I'm keeping things light due to the characters being minors.

I woke up that night to someone knocking on my door. My head was killing me and the sudden shift from day to night that happened while I was sleeping briefly messed with my senses.

What time is it? I thought to myself, turning over so that I could see the clock that was set up on my dresser.

It was nearly 11:00pm. I didn't even remember getting into bed let alone falling asleep. Hell, I was still wearing my school uniform.

I rubbed my eyes and took my blazer off while another knock echoed through the room. Why was it so damn hot in here?

"Go away." I called out, hoping to make it known that I wasn't asleep and was actively choosing to ignore them.

"It's me."

That was Wyatt's voice. Shit, I had forgotten he was trying to get me to go to that stupid fire with him. I got out of bed and opened the door, hoping I could talk him into just leaving me here. His face was flushed a light shade of pink and he looked an odd mix between tired and giddy.

"Are you already drunk?" I asked him, more awake now.

He erupted in a fit of obnoxious giggles, walking right into my room without giving me any sort of option to stop him. I couldn't just leave him in the hallway in that state.

"I told you that you're coming with me." He said, sitting down on my bed. "Change clothes, I'm gonna take you to the bonfire. I think everyone who was planning on coming is there now. I came to get you at 9 but you never answered the door!"

He grinned ear to ear while pulling a flask out of the pocket of his sweater and taking a drink out of it. "I told you earlier, you come with me tonight and the guys and I will take you into town this weekend!" He paused briefly, "Well actually we were gonna go into town first but you started acting all weird and went to your room. I should probably ask if you're okay."

"I'm fine..." I responded. I wasn't going to have any choice regarding going with him. He wouldn't leave until I agreed. "If I need to change clothes could you at least wait in the hall?"

That damn cheeky grin he had expanded, his eyes now looking at me slyly.

"Why?" He asked. "You've seen me naked."

I blushed.

"No I haven't."

"You've seen me in the showers before."

"I don't look at other peoples dicks in the shower." I stated. "I'm a rare being who actually minds my own damn business."

He erupted into loud laughter. I wanted to remind him that if he didn't keep it down someone would report us. Then again if someone found out he was here they would kick him out and I could go back to my own self pity. I put my back to him and unbuttoned my shirt. I could just keep my uniform pants on, that really wasn't a big deal.

Wyatt was silent while I changed into a tee shirt and light jacket, his eyes were burning a hole in my back.

"I could show you if you want." He remarked.

"Show me what?" I asked thoughtlessly, deciding last minute to quickly change into jeans and hope listening to himself talk was enough to distract him from staring too long at my partly undressed body.

"What I look like naked. I don't mind you seeing my dick."

His grin had turned sly and the palm of his hand brushed against my cheek, making my face blush a deep red. He was older than the other boys and me and I wondered if he had ever talked this way to them too.

"We need to get back to the Abbey," I said shyly, hiding my face and fidgeting with the cast that covered my wrist. How did I break my wrist?

"Kai?"

A jolt sent a shock wave through my entire body. What happened? I was in my room again.

"I said I was kidding." The older boy was gone and Wyatt still sat on my bed, a suspicious eyebrow now raised at me. I took a deep breath, looking once more at my wrist, which was no longer broken and no longer bore a cast.

I took several more seconds to check my surroundings, hoping to figure out what was happening to me today. It was possible I was getting sick.

Wyatt stood up and approached me, attempting to look into my eyes while I attempted to avoid eye contact completely. The combination didn't exactly do either of us a favor.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked. "I mean, what happened this afternoon? You seemed fine in the library but when we all met up later you just kind of… seemed to be in your own world."

I turned away. I didn't want to have this conversation when he was sober, let alone when he had been drinking.

"I don't like it when you make sexual jokes toward me." I told him, heat rising in my face. "I'm not interested in you and I'm not..." Was this too formal? Was I being rude?

"You're not gay?" He answered for me, his smile now becoming a more awkward looking grin. I never understood people who laughed or smiled when they were uncomfortable.

"You're allowed to tell me to fuck off if I'm taking things too far." He stated, backing himself up and sitting back down on my bed. "I know that I'm kind of a lot to deal with."

Actually, this was probably the most calm I had seen him. It was true that he was annoying and seemed to have absolutely zero understanding of personal boundaries, but at the end of the day he was relatively harmless.

"If you don't mind me asking," He began, fidgeting slightly. "Do you have a girlfriend or anything like that? You're pretty secretive about your personal life."

"No, I don't have a girlfriend." I admitted. I wasn't ashamed or anything like that, I spent most of my time training and now with school needing to fit into my schedule as well any personal time I might have I would honestly rather be alone during. I had never really had any romantic interest in anyone before, even though I was used to having female fans flirt with me. It was awkward and to be honest I just didn't like dealing with it. Puberty didn't exactly hit me the way the movies claimed it would.

"You probably have a lot of cute girls after you." Wyatt stated with a small smirk, now avoiding eye contact with me. "You're captain of a championship team, you have that bad boy persona to you and you're attractive."

I rolled my eyes. If he had paid any attention to our teams actual fanbase he would know that I wasn't even close to being a well liked member of my team. 'Short and grumpy looking' was probably my personal favorite insult I had ever read about myself. Tyson kept emailing that link to me and laughing about it so I think he did too, but I couldn't even pretend to be offended because even I had to admit it was a little funny. That same article kept offering Rei the names of places in Japan he could get a haircut.

I sighed.

"Are we going to this thing then?" I asked, slipping into a pair of shoes. Wyatt got off of my bed and pulled his flask out again. Where does a sixteen year old even get a flask? Don't only old alcoholic men use those things?

"I just wanted to double check that you were alright first." He said, walking with me to the door. I followed him out and locked it behind me.

The hall was lit only dimly now, probably so that students were able to at least find the bathroom at night, and there didn't seem to be anyone on patrol like I was told there would be. The cracks of a few doors were lit up and the sounds of talking, music, and some badly hidden giggling could be heard. I even caught a hint of weed from one of the dorms.

I continued to follow him outside where I watched him light a cigarette as soon as he stepped out the door. He held the pack out like he was expecting me to just take one without question.

"I don't smoke." I informed him. "I feel like every hour I spend with you I'm given more and more reasons as to why you're an idiot."

He shrugged, putting the pack away and taking a lighter to the one he now had pinched between his lips.

"Everyone does it." He said. "If anything I give you about a month until you start."

"Good luck with that."

Everyone here seemed to expect me to fit into some kind of mold of what being in boarding school was supposed to do to me, like I was exactly like everyone else.

"Where in your body do you even store all of that ego?" Wyatt giggled. "Is that why you have such big hair?"

"Yup." I answered sardonically.

He took a drag off of his cigarette, causing me to move a few feet away so that he wasn't blowing smoke in my face.

"Everyone who starts here turns into one of us." He said. "A pot smoking teenage alcoholic with authority issues and an over exaggerated sex life. Soon you'll be drinking too much and bragging about hook ups just like everyone else."

I was waiting for him to laugh at his joke but he was oddly quiet now. "I mean," He continued, "I hope that you don't. It's actually kind of refreshing to have someone around to call us out on our shitty behavior. You're kind of turning into the cynical mother of our group."

Gee thanks, that's the nicest compliment I've ever gotten.

"I wouldn't need to call you out if you weren't all idiots." I stated, letting a brief few second of silence fill the air as we walked. I thought about just keeping my mouth shut and hoping he wouldn't start a new conversation, but I was tired of him thinking he knew me. "I'm not like you guys." I continued. "I didn't grow up like this. I wasn't raised by nannies my whole life because my parents were too busy working to pay attention to me. Everyone here is just a spoiled trust fund brat."

I neglected to inform him that I was also a trust fund brat, but I wasn't spoiled.

"Not everyone." Wyatt answered. "Avery is a lot like me, he's here as an exchanged student from The States. Emile and Henri are from France but both of them are at least half Asian, Henri had a pretty thick accent last year, though so I don't think he ever spoke Japanese at home." He looked at me, "You're half Asian, aren't you?"

"My mother was Japanese." I informed him. "She likely had pretty strong genetics, as it's common for people to think I was born here."

"Why on earth would anyone think you were born here? You probably have the thickest accent of your entire team."

My cheeks flushed and I glared at him.

"I don't have an accent."

"You're joking right?"

I ignored him, shoving my hands in my pockets and keeping my gaze down to the ground. He seemed to take the hint as he didn't attempt to keep the conversation going and we were able to walk in peace for a brief moment before Wyatt froze abruptly, throwing an arm out in front of my as a sign to halt.

"What are you-"

"Quiet." He shushed me, listening intently into the darkness.

It was then that I noticed the shimmer of a flashlight heading in our direction, followed by an indistinguishable whisper.

Wyatt grabbed my hand and pulled me forward, now sprinting out of the open grounds towards the woods. I attempted to look back to see if I could make out who was out here but my lack of watching where we were running caused me to trip over my own feet, pulling Wyatt down with me. He attempted to giggle quietly at my misfortune but ended up sounding more like a school girl in the middle of a laughing fit.

"Come on!" He yelled, pulling me up and fleeing into the woods. I followed him, running into the thicket without looking back. It was dark and I couldn't see anything, including where Wyatt had gone off to and I nearly jumped out of my skin when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a collection of thick bushes.

Catching our breath for a few minutes we both broke out in a fit of muffled laughter when we realized that no one seemed to be chasing us. Wyatt threw his arms around my neck, pulling me down sideways on top of him and giggling hysterically.

"I've never seen you laugh before!" He said, hugging my head to his chest. I tried to regain my composure while pushing him off of me but I had to admit that was fun. Like a miniature adrenaline rush. Brushing the dirt off of myself, I accepted his hand as he helped me back to my feet.

"Do you even know where we are?" I asked him. We weren't on the trail, just in a bush of thorns and what was probably poison ivy.

"Yeah." He smiled, "Follow me, we're actually just about there."

I walked behind him, pulling leaves and twigs out of my hair and brushing dirt off my pants. I was definitely thankful I didn't leave my uniform pants on as I would probably end up with detention, even though it was a weekend and having my entire wardrobe washed and ironed was not currently required.

Wyatt looked back at me, tripping over a tree branch and landing backward in the dirt.

"This would probably be easier with a flashlight." I said, giving him my hand and pulling him back up. Oddly I was beginning to get used to him constantly touching me, although hugging me was a bit too close for my liking.

"The trail is right here." He said as I stepped over the branch. Sure enough we had made it out of the thicket and back onto the dirt trail. He looked back at me again, no longer needing to be wary about tree roots or fallen branches. "You should be able to smell the smoke from the fire now."

He was right, a hint of burning wood and pot had made its way to us, I could even see the dim light of the campfire and hear fits of laughter. Wyatt began to speed up and I practically had to run in order to keep up with him.

"Wyatt!" A clearly drunk Avery yelled toward us grinning ear to ear. He clung to a bottle of some sort of alcohol and shined a flashlight in our faces. "Did I scare the shit out of you?" He laughed. "I tried to catch up to you guys and you ran off yelling!"

Right now I just wanted him to stop yelling. He was right in front of us for fucks sake.

Wyatt playfully shoved him in the chest.

"That was you!?" He yelled back. "Thanks for the fucking heart attack! I ripped a hole in the leg of my pants because of that!" Grabbing the bottle from Avery's hand he took a large swig of whatever it contained, coughing loudly as he attempted to swallow it. He offered it to me but I declined.

They took turns drinking from it the rest of the way to the saddest excuse for a bonfire I had ever seen in my life. It was an old picnic table and a set of logs turned into makeshift chairs huddled over a fire pit that looked like it was made by a bunch of first year boy scouts.

"Henri and Emile are making out on the table and Ryo is off taking a piss in the woods somewhere." Avery falsely stated. Henri and Emile were most definitely not making out, but I couldn't speak for anyone named Ryo as I didn't know who he was. I did recognize a black boy who was in my Asian Literature class who had an exceptionally thick English accent and a blond German who had Japanese with Wyatt and me.

"Wyatt, how about you go next?" He asked. "We're playing Never Have I Ever. If you've done the thing the other person says they haven't done then you need to drink."

Wyatt nudged me and handed me an unopened bottle.

"It's alright," He said with a smile and a wink. "It's just soda."

He sat down next to German kid and pulled a can of beer out of a cooler. Funny, I didn't really take him for the beer type. I always saw that more as a middle aged man thing.

"What was the last statement?" He asked.

"Never have I ever given Haru a blow job in the second floor staircase for the answers for a homework assignment."

Wyatt blushed and smacked him upside the head, giving me a brief look of shame before shaking it off. Had he actually done that? I pulled my legs up in front of my chest and wrapped my arms around myself, ignoring the tingling sensation going on in my pants.

Wyatt took a drink and set the can down, giving a dramatic look of uncertainty.

"Let's see..." He began. "Never have I ever cranked it to the Sophomore class English teacher." He laughed, elbowing German kid in the shoulder.

This was extremely juvenile.

German kid, British Kid and Avery all took a drink from their bottles. Lovely.

Wyatt looked at me. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say there's no way I'll be able to talk you into playing, right?" He asked.

"That would be correct."

He got up and moved next to me, leaning his body just a little to close to me for comfort.

"I'll make you a deal." He was starting to slur his words a bit now. "I won't make you play, but since you're Mr. Antisocial in school, everyone in the circle gets to ask you one question and you have to answer honestly."

I looked around the fire pit to see how many people were here. German kid, British kid, Japanese kid who I was fairly confident was Ryo, Avery, Emile, Henri and then Wyatt. That wasn't too horrible.

I shrugged.

"I guess that's fair."

German kids hand shot up.

"Dibs first question!" He yelled. Wyatt shrugged.
"Ivo's got one I guess." He said.

German kid, or 'Ivo' took a swig from his bottle before throwing it into the fire, empty I presume.

"Your Wikipedia page says that you're from Russia, so why's your name Japanese?"

"I'm half Japanese." I informed him. "On my mothers side." Until today I had never realized people weren't aware of this. I had been told on several occasions that I look Japanese, or at least that I look Asian, whatever that meant.

Ivo clapped in British boys direction, almost losing his balance due to not using his hands to support the stump he sat on.

"Marcus." He stated. "You go."

'Marcus' took a drag on a cigarette, attempting unsuccessfully to blow a smoke ring. At least I'm pretty sure that was what he was doing.

"I've actually been wondering this." He started. "We don't typically get new student in the middle of a quarter, as in almost never. If someones on a wait list they're typically gonna be there until at least the start of a new term if not the start of a new school year. How'd you even end up here?"

My face darkened and I avoided eye contact.

"I needed somewhere to go when my grandfather got arrested." I answered honestly, hoping there wouldn't be any follow up questions.

"So are you one of the orphan kids? I've never read anything online about you that mentioned that."

"You already asked your question." I reminded him.

Avery drunkenly chimed in.

"I haven't." He stated. "So are you an orphan?"

I rolled my eyes.

"No, I'm not an orphan. My parents left when I was young and my grandfather raised me. My case worker is trying to find out where my parents might be."

For once Wyatt appeared to be the quiet awkward one and I wondered if he was beginning to regret dragging me into this. I wasn't exactly hiding the reason I was here, but I had been asked this before and I answered honestly, saying it was no ones business. Technically honest.

Henri chimed in now, raising his hand first like we were in the classroom.

"With your fame, how many one night stands have you had?" He asked with a smug grin. I was starting to wonder if any of them would even remember this conversation in the morning.

"None." I said bluntly.

"Maybe one night stands aren't your thing, but you've had to have fucked more than one girl." Ryo responded. Did that count as a question?

"Nope." I continued. Admittedly I kind of liked the questions that I could just answer with no and then move on, even if they were getting a bit personal.

Emile began having a giggle fit, his head rested on Henri's lap which he has also spilled a bottle of booze on.

"Oh my god, I get it now!" He yelled. "You're still a fucking virgin, aren't you?" He rolled over, his face completely pink with a potent warmth. "I bet Wyatt would blow the absolute fuck out of you." He said, erupting again into childish giggles.

Wyatt was now blushing. I squeezed my arms around my legs. Why the fuck was I aroused? Was puberty just deciding that it was gonna hit today?

"I mean, you do have a reputation." Avery shoved an elbow into Wyatt. "And it sure as hell isn't for being bad at it. Even the straight guys have tried to sweet talk you into giving them a quick release. That's what happens when you have a bunch of hormonal teenage boys with no girls within a five mile radius. A blow job's a blow job, even if it's a guy giving it to you."

"Just leave him alone." I stated with a roll of the eyes. The shame continued from Wyatt's face into the rest of his body. He was hunched forward and clearly uncomfortable.

He made awkward eye contact with me and gave a small smirk, like a nonverbal Thank You. "What do you guys usually even do out here?" I asked.

"Drink and smoke mostly, play stupid games. We've skinny dipped in the pond before. I would say go streaking but it's literally just a dozen or so guys all in the woods together so that's kinda gay."

And how exactly did they view Skinny Dipping? That was fine but streaking makes you gay?

"We also tried acid once but we didn't know we need a babysitter and we all just kind of wandered away from each other and Avery got stuck in a tree because there was a magical bird on top that was going to tell him the meaning of life, so we all had to try and figure out how to get him down but actually he was only stuck about four feet off the ground."

I smirked slightly. Stay away from drugs, kids.

At some point during the conversation Wyatt had pulled a glass pipe out and begun smoking what I was fairly sure was pot, passing it around in a circle slowly. The main focus was no longer on me or sex so I was able to relax at least somewhat. Henri didn't bother passing the pipe to me, he knew I wouldn't take it and knew I would have some sort of snobby comment the next time I saw all of them.

"I know that Kai just got here and everything," Ryo began, but it's almost midnight. We should probably put the fire out, we need to be up for attendance and if I sleep through my alarm again I'm gonna get a truancy."

The rest of the boys seemed to agree, preparing to pour water and dirt onto the fire. I tried to help as best I could but I seemed to mostly just get in the way.

"We'll see you guys tomorrow." Wyatt yelled, walking with me back to the dorms as some continued to chat for a bit first.

As we walked away from the light and sounds of the strangest gathering of people my age I had ever seen, Wyatt placed a hand on my shoulder, touching me so lightly it seemed like he was afraid to get any closer.

"I know you're judging me." He said sadly. "You have a right to, I deserve it."

I nudged him off of me, giving a brief shrug.

"It isn't any of my business." I stated truthfully. I'll admit, a part of me now thought a bit differently of him, but he can do what he wants. "I didn't tell anyone anything about me until directly asked. Our lives are only our business, you aren't obligated to tell me your entire list of sexual moral grounds. I mean if you did I would probably be appalled."

He laughed quietly but it sounded to be more out of politeness than genuine humor.

"I didn't fit in when I first came here." He continued. "Some of the higher up guys, you know the ones who's parents give the school a lot of money, so they can do whatever they want, had begun harassing me a lot. Haru paid an upperclassman to beat me up because he claimed I was watching him shower, but actually we were in there together. He was having a hard time… he would touch himself but he couldn't seem to finish himself off. He was incredibly stressed out, like he just couldn't take it anymore. He asked me if I would..." He paused briefly. "Some of the straight guys if they got horny enough would do each other favors, but they just wanted a good orgasm, they didn't actually like doing it. He wanted to know what a really good one felt like. So I did it. He did it back to me too but I don't think he liked it, that or maybe he felt shame. He told everyone that I begged to do it to him, that I was harassing him about it. That I would jack off while he was in the shower."

Was he trying not to cry?

"He said he would call everyone off if I did it to him again. I wouldn't say he leaves me completely alone, he'll still shove me or hit me if I'm using the bathroom the same time as him, but it lightened up a bit. Now the current rumor about me is that I'm a slut who provides services. Some of the guys here have even offered me money. I did it once or twice but I just… this isn't who I am."

I let him take my hand while we walked. He was drunk and probably high and not thinking clearly. Actually this was probably the first time I had actually seen him upset. He always seemed so laid back and happy about everything. I thought about telling him I had gotten aroused when Avery had mentioned it to see if it would make him laugh, but I didn't want him asking if that was what I wanted. It's just hormones, it didn't actually mean anything.

He still held my hand as we walked to my dorm room and I pulled away, startling him.

"Sorry." He said, "I didn't even realize."

I gave a brief nod, unlocking my door and deciding just shutting it would be less awkward than saying goodnight. I locked it from the inside and sat down on my bed, undressing until I was down to just by shorts, which I was currently threatening to pop out of.

Fuck, why couldn't I stop thinking about that? Honestly I don't normally even think about anything, hell I'd questioned before whether or not I was attracted to anyone but my mind kept going back to Wyatt and what everyone was saying about him.

I needed to fucking go to bed but I was pretty confident I was gonna have a wet dream if I did that, so I touched myself slightly, trying to just calm my mind.

There his fucking face was again. I was seeing him while I was fucking touching myself, what the hell was wrong with me?

Shamefully I stopped, throwing my pillow over my head and covering my face up. I didn't want to even see the dark right now.

I didn't want to see anyone.

Statement of the day: All stories regarding completely ridiculous non sober school antics are based on very true tales and I regret nothing.

Also don't smoke or drink or like do drugs.

Unless it's pot. Pots fine.