Into the Forest Again Ch. 01

Prologue

I was seven the first time Ariana and I discovered something amazing, and frightening. Going into the woods was our favorite past time, living on the edge of a densely packed forest gave us unlimited area to explore. We snuck away from home on numerous afternoons, climbing up into the trees, building tree houses; we had our own little world. I don't remember ever actually building the tree houses, we would decide we wanted a new one, and Ariana would nod in agreement, and the next time we went into the woods... there it was. I always thought that maybe she had more free time than I did, thought that she was amazing for his work she could do. I was seven, and things were always what they seemed, never thought it could be something so much more...

Until the day we snuck out early on a weekend morning, we spent all day jumping from our older treehouse to our newer one, the one we found that day. We sat back in the newest addition and daydreamed and imagined the things we would add to the next one. "A swing!" I exclaimed, looking at Ariana for confirmation. She groaned.

"Dane, we had a swing on a different one!" I stood up, still stuck on my idea, and ran to the window.

"No, no, no! That was a boring swing! What about...what about a swing that hangs off the edge?" I imagined swinging on it, the wood beneath our feet disappearing and all you could see was the forest floor and then the sky. It would feel like we were flying. I imagined Ariana's beautiful black hair flying out behind her, and then crashing forward as she flew back towards the house. She would love it, I knew. She nodded, smiling, closing her eyes. She seemed to be thinking about something, and when she opened her eyes they were shinning a beautiful green. The green you find on the underside of leaves. She ran to the window I was standing at. Except it wasn't a window anymore, it was a door. Outside the door was a swing, and she was sitting on it.

My mouth was hanging open in shock, but she was grinning. She began to swing, and of course it was exactly as I imagined, and she loved it. My shock was a thing of the past, now all I wanted to do was try it.

"Let me try! Let me try!" I was jumping up and down in excitement. She slowed down and got off, letting me get on. I began to swing, and it felt like flying, I leaned back and looked at the sky, imagining being up higher, being able to actually fly, and it was amazing.

Until the swing was no longer under me. I had leaned back too far, and I was falling. I didn't even have time to scream, something was winding around my body, slowing my fall. I was set on the ground. I looked down and vines were unwinding themselves from my body, retracting back up into the tree. Ariana was floating down, she landed in front of me, two vines unwrapping themselves from her arms and retracted back up where mine had went.

"Don't say anything," she said, her eyes were doing the glowing thing and my heart was beating so hard in my chest that I didn't think I could get words out if I even had words for what happened. I nodded my head, and looked back up into the trees, I realized you couldn't see the treehouse from here. I looked back down at Ariana, still not asking anything. She was giving me a small smile, and she grabbed my hand and started walking through the trees. I could never get through the woods without her, but she always knew exactly where she was going. I looked back up at the canopy above us. My mind was spinning and Ariana didn't seem the least bit bothered.

We reached the edge of the trees and stopped at the backdoor of my house. "See you tomorrow?" She asked, hesitation in her voice. I looked back towards the forest and then back at her. I smiled at her, and nodded.

"Maybe no more swings," I added as she started walking away, she looked back with a small smile and then turned and ran the last few feet to her back door. We waved at each other and walked into our houses. She told me the next day that her parents didn't want her in the woods with me anymore, and I didn't question it.

*****

Chapter One

I walked into the front door of Ariana's house. After being friends for close to 20 years, we didn't question each other barging into our houses anymore. We both graduated from college a few weeks before, so this was the first time we were back at our parents' houses full time in about 4 years. Old habits die hard, but thankfully I wasn't bombarded by her family like usual. Which was odd. I wondered where they were as I walked back towards her room.

Her door was closed, and I could hear the shower running, I knocked anyway, and was answered with a groan. I laughed and walked in, like I said, privacy wasn't really a concern for us. I lounged on her bed and turned on her TV, and began the long wait for her to get done with her shower. I'd be lucky if she got in well before I got here, meaning she would get out in about thirty minutes. I made myself comfortable. Ariana had always been my best friend, we stuck through everything together. When we were young we would spend every waking moment together, but was we got older we got pulled into different directions; she got into art and I got into computers. In short we made an interesting two person friend group. It also meant that everyone thought we were dating. We never told anyone differently, it kept the boys off her back and the girls off mine. We weren't interested in dating. Well... she wasn't...

I noticed how beautiful she was when I was younger, but never truly understood my feelings towards her until we were in high school. By then it felt like it was too late, she was going off to an art school and I had a scholarship to a technology school. We would never see each other, and I definitely wanted more than just a fling with her. She was my friend, and if dating was going to ruin that, I would rather not.

I'd love to say that I waited for her through college, but that would be a lie. I tried dating some college girls, even slept with a good number of them, but could never feel anything more than attraction, they were all amazing women, but never pulled at my heart the way she did.

I heard the shower shut off, and I rolled my eyes. She was the only person I knew who could take hour, to hour and a half, long showers. I don't really think she believed in short showers, probably wasn't even in her vocabulary. The door cracked open and she walked out. My mouth dropped open and I couldn't help but look at her.

She had a towel wrapped around her head... and that was it. She must have forgotten that I knocked on the door. I let my eyes travel down her body. She was short, she'd always been short, standing about five foot four; but her body fit her perfectly. Her shoulders led way to elegant arms, which ended in artistic fingers. Her torso was topped with breasts that would make any man weak in the knees. The perfect overflowing handful, if only I knew if that measurement was correct. Her bellybutton was now adorned with a hanging gem, something she didn't have when we were in high school. And her hips flared out in a way that made me struggle to fit in my pants. It was at this point in my observation that her eyes seem to have finally adjusted to the darker room and I cleared my throat to announce my presence. She let out a startled squeak and jumped back into the bathroom, the jumping made her breasts sway and did not help my pants situation.

She slammed the door to the bathroom and instantly began banging around. "Dane, what the flying fuck!?" She screamed through the door. I took the opportunity of the door being between us to readjust myself in my pants. "I didn't know it was you that knocked! I thought it was my parents telling me they were leaving, goddamn it!" She stormed back out of the bathroom, now a towel wrapped around all of her beautiful curves. I respectfully looked up into her eyes, and she shook her head. "I can't believe you, you let me stand there and didn't say anything." I tried not to smile.

"I didn't see anything bad," I said, and then tried to hold my tongue, why did I just say that? When did I try to start hitting on my friend? She groaned but then laughed, she couldn't stay angry at me. Plus I had seen her naked before. Junior year, one of the only parties we ever got invited to, we went skinny dipping. Of course, her high school body was nothing compared to what she had now. She turned around and I then realized the towel she chose to cover her body did nothing to hide her ass.

The bottom of her cheeks peaked out from beneath the fabric, and the round sight before me was highlighted by the way she was holding the towel tight around her. I held back another groan, or thought I did. She turned around with wide eyes and then slowly narrowed them. "Dane, are you still looking?" I shook my head and fought the need to readjust my dick in my pants again, maybe if I didn't put any attention towards it, she wouldn't notice. She looked at me seriously, and must have seen my hand twitch, her eyes darted to my hand, and in the perfect spot to catch the large bulge running down the inside of my thigh. I thought I saw her blush, but she turned around and pulled her drawers open.

That's when I noticed a tattoo on the base of her neck. It was two upside down triangles overlapping vertically, the bottom triangle with a line running horizontal through the point. Yet another new addition from college. I wondered what else she added. She dropped the towel and began pulling on clothes.

"Uh... Ana..." I said softly. She shot me a look.

"I figured you've seen everything, what else can I hide now, Dane?" She said it seriously, but she smiled at me. This was a weird smile, one I had never gotten from her. It prompted me to smile back at her, a smile I never imagined giving to her.

"I don't know, Ana, what else can you hide?" I said in a low voice, my mind spinning about the way this was going. I came over to visit with my friend, and now I was talking like I was going to try and have sex with her. Was I? I watched the blush run up her cheeks and her dark green eyes flashed with that bright glow I hadn't seen in years.

"Probably no more than you can," She teased, giving no hesitation to look at the core of my discomfort, I heard a small sound at the back of her throat. My eyes wanted to roll into the back of my head just from the look she was giving me. I swung my legs off the bed and started walking to the door. I cleared my throat.

"I'll let you get dressed, I'll see you in the living room," I closed my eyes as I closed the door behind me. Walking away from her was hard. I wanted nothing more than to pull her down with me, and see where it goes. Being friends for so long had its disadvantages. I thought I heard a barely audible groan come from her room, followed by the sound of her sitting down on her bed. My heart was pounding hard in my chest, I might have already fucked too much up.

To be continued...