My storY Part 4

" Hey Alice, er, you've got time later on?" Josh asked me, shifting uncomfortably. He was a guy from my spanish class who sat beside me.

"Oh, er I need to cook for mum." What an idiot.

Apparently, I wasn't very good with guys. First, I was more to the suffer-in-silence type. Second, people tended to shun me instead of talking to me. It might be why I'd kept everything to myself. Juliet was the only person who was close to me but i chose not to tell her anything. Every time i thought of her, i would think of dad. I missed him even though I barely saw him once. I craved for the story about him but I knew that if i mentioned dad, mum would slip into the darkness again. I'd been there before so I would never want mum to go through that again.

" It's okay then. Maybe next time." Josh smiled shyly at me.

I smiled at him. He seemed to be a nice guy but still, i was the "wierd" one afterall.

I was thinking of ditching gym class while i was walking away from the tall bushes towards the small table for my bag. As i was going to turn around unwillingly to head for the gym, something at the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned to look at it and found myself staring at a tree. The tree seemed weird. I didn't notice that just now. The angle of the branches protruding out were totally abnormal. It looked like someone had played with it and tried to knead it like a dough. Without knowing what i was doing, I started to move forward, a step at a time towards the odd-looking tree. The feeling of fear engulfed me like an old friend. I felt my hair stood up on my arm. Something about the tree gave me a very familiar feeling.

Was it dad?

I looked around frantically, searching for signs that might lead me to him. It was a good five years since i felt that way. The panic in me grew. It had to be him. I prayed hard for it to be dad. I wanted to know why he left me after i was born. Why he didn't want me at all.

As i was walking nearer, a growl made me shudder and took a step back.



To be continued...