Chapter 34- Hero's life

''Is black the only color that you know?'' I smile.

''What do you want me to wear pink?'' he calmly says and I laugh softly as he stares at me while my eyes focus on his hard bare chest only inches away from me.

''Can't take your eyes off me can you?'' he smirks and I roll my eyes.

''No but you can wear other colors'' I suggest but he doesn't reply instead he lifts the pendents from the necklace with his fingers and looks at them.

I look at him as he stares at the pendant taking in its beauty then out of nowhere my mouth catches his completely off guard. He pulls me on top of him and I straddle my lap as he slides his tongue into my mouth. I pull away only to kiss along his jawline then move to his neck then his chest. I suck and taste every inch of his bare hot chest rising then falls from his breathing. My bottom lip makes a line going from the middle of his chest back to his jawline then my mouth makes its way back to his. He kisses me back faster with more hunger and lust then he sits up a bit with me still straddling him as his lips move to my neck and I know to expect marks there later.

''I thought you said you were tired'' I say as his hand raises my neck and his mouth sucks the area.

''I'm never too tired for you baby'' he purrs against my neck.

Both of our lips pick up the pace and he does his famous lip-bite that leaves my lips red and swollen and my lascivious body on fire. I get off of him then we both return to our previous positions on the bed only he turns on his back and looks up at the ceiling.

I grab my phone from the bedside table and set an alarm to wake up in the next 2 hours. It really didn't make any sense for me to come here and stay the night since I have to return to the tent at 5 so that no one notices I was gone which is the next two hours. I could've just stayed the night in the tent.

''When you were in the bathroom your phone beeped but I didn't read the messages but I saw the name Brent came up. Who's Brent?'' I ask my voice low.

''You were looking through my phone again Stessian?''

''No I just glimpsed the name'' I lie and he doesn't say anything.

''Who is that?''

''My father'' He says.

''Oh, why don't you ever reply to him?''

''Because I don't want to''

''He seems like he wants to get your attention'' I say.

''Maybe he should've done that when I was a child'' he says and my mind opens up and I have a strong desire to hear more.

''He wasn't with you?'' I ask softly hoping he would answer and let me in a bit on his life.

''No every night he would come home after midnight drunk and smell like he had been smoking a chimney while my mom would be waiting up for him'' he says and I stay silent hoping he would continue.

''He left my mom and me at the worst time, she depended on him for everything, food, money and well everything because she didn't work or anything. He just took off one day and left to come to America and left us with nothing. Now he has the perfect life with his newlywed wife and new stepdaughter and they live in this huge mansion with everything while my mom lives in a dump back in Ireland and has nothing'' he explains while he stares at the ceiling.

I try to keep calm and keep my mouth from hanging open from all the new information he just gave me, he told me way more than I expected him too.

''You're from Ireland?'' I ask clearly astonished and he simply nods.

I have so many questions for him like what other languages he can speak besides English and a lot about Ireland but maybe I would ask him some other time. I knew he wasn't from America because of his foreign accent but I didn't know where he was from but now I do. I have never spoken to anyone who's Irish before everyone I know is from America, he's the first person I know who isn't.

''So did you move here with him?''

''No, my mom practically forced me to come here so that I would be closer to him and try to rebuild our relationship and all that shit'' He says.

''So is that why you came here?'' I ask but he doesn't answer.

Something's telling me that there's more to why he came here because knowing Hero if he doesn't want to do something he wouldn't so his mom couldn't have made him come here, I doubt that, there is another reason why he's here but he doesn't wanna tell me or there is more to why his mom made him come here.

''Do you think maybe you should give him a chance?''

''Fuck no. I hate him'' he says and he stays silent for a moment.

I decide not to ask anything else because this was way more information I had hoped to ever receive from him. I look down trying to process and understand the new information he just gave me and try to understand him a bit better.

I begin to think of little Hero with his mom back in their house in Ireland waiting up all night for his dad only for him to come home drunk, the thought makes me so sad and I feel like crying.

He stays silent for a while as I do as and I begin to think he has fallen asleep.

''What is your biggest regret in life?'' he asks out of nowhere.

''I don't know, I don't think I have any. All of my decisions that I've made and everything that happened in my life hasn't been so horrible to make me regret any of them'' I tell him the truth.

It's true, I haven't ever regretted anything in the last 18 years of my life. I thought about the time when I caught my dad talking with some other woman who I later learned was his mistress but I don't regret seeing that because I got an explanation for my parents' constant fighting over the years that they would never tell me about, it hurt me when I saw it but I was glad that I did and I saw how he hurt my mom because I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself.

I look up at him and his eyes are closed and his lips are parted a bit, his head falls down from the high stack of pillows to face me turned on my side and he's asleep. I lift his head a bit from the pillows and take 2 of them from the stack then gently lay his head back down and he looks much more comfortable than before and now he's sure that he won't wake up with a sore neck. My eyes start to feel heavy and I move in closer to him and wrap one arm around his bare stomach then pull the covers over my shoulder and over his chest then close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

***************

My wake up to Hero's body on mine, our legs intertwined together with his head on my chest while my hand in his hair. I have no idea how we got to this position but we did, our morning positions always surprise me. I slowly rise up and pry Hero's body from mine. My mouth falls into shock as I look at the time on the alarm clock, It's 7:00. Oh my god! Why didn't my alarm go off at? it's 7:00, oh god! I wake Hero up and he groans then turns over, I call his name multiple times and I get off the bed and grab everything, I put my robe on and grab my phone, I look around for my bag and remember that I left it in his car. I push him again and call his name until he finally wakes up and rubs his eyes.

''Hurry up! Look at the time you have to take me back to the tent now'' I tell him.

I check my phone and apparently the snoozed button was hit for another 3 hours so if I didn't get up now the alarm was going to ring at 8. I didn't hit the snooze button I couldn't even reach my phone because he took it from me last night and put it on the bedside table next to him.

Wait, did he hit the snooze button?

''Did you hit the snooze button on my alarm for another 3 hours?'' I ask him with wide eyes and my hands on my hips.

He doesn't answer but his expression tells me that he did.

''What the hell is wrong with you! Why would you do that! I have to get back to the tent now before someone finds out that I was gone last night''

''Alright alright we'll leave now'' he says.

He walks over to the dresser and pulls a black t-shirt over his head then walks over to me. He grabs his car keys from the table as we head outside.

We walk in silence to his car, his hair is messy and his eyes are a bit red and he looks really tired. I didn't want to wake him but he has to take me back now if I knew the way I would've walked back myself but I don't really know the way although it's looking a bit more familiar every time we walk back and forth. He walks me back and we both say goodbye to each and he watches me walk in before he turns in his heels and walks away.

I get inside the tent and I almost drop my bag to the floor where my mouth is as my eye catches the sight I was not hoping to see.

'' Sia! Where were you?'' Kate asks as she walks up to me. I have no idea what to say as I totally wasn't expecting this.

''I uhm'' I stutter.

''You were where?'' she asks.

''Nelson came by last night and he picked me up and we went for a picnic by his house and we fell asleep there'' I lie.

She looks at me confused and her eyes are skeptical.

''What are those marks on your neck?'' she asks and I have no explanation, I didn't even look in the mirror to see if there were any marks otherwise I would've covered it up.

''Uhm..'' I falter and she looks at me a bit different and I think she knows what they are.

''Oh Nelson gave you that'' she says and I nod a bit as she her mouth turns into a small smile.

''We slept away by accident and I now woke up and told him to take me back'' I continue my lie.

''Oh'' She says and I'm hoping she buys it.

''I'm sorry I didn't tell you, you were sleeping and I forgot to tell you when he asked me last night'' I lie.

''It's okay, when did you leave last night?''

''Uhm I'm not sure, a little late'' I say.

''God I was worried about you for the last hour, are you okay? How was it?''

''Did you tell anyone that I wasn't here?'' I ask.

''No although if you were gone for much longer I maybe would've'' she says and thanks god she didn't tell anyone.

''It was great though'' I say.

I put my bag down and I'm so happy that I took off the necklace. I didn't want too, it was the last thing I've wanted to do but thank god I did because Kate would've seen it and more questions would've arisen which I didn't know how to answer.

''Do you wanna head to the showers?'' she asks and I say yes.

We walk up the trail with our bags in our hands. Kate asks me about last night and I lie to her about everything, I just say any makeup story that comes to my head about the picnic and she buys it. I really wish I didn't have to lie to her like this, she's kinda like my best friend like Erin and April, if she didn't come on this internship I would've been lonely and a bit miserable so I'm happy that she came and we became friends. I wish I could tell her everything that's been going on with Hero and I and I don't have to hide everything and lie all the time because it's getting harder and harder, this is getting overwhelming I really wish I could tell someone and have someone to talk to about all of this but I could never do such thing. We reach the showers and we both go in separate ones.

As I get inside I think about Hero and our time last night. So many things happened last night that it's hard to believe that it all happened in one night, the night of my birthday, when gave me that beautiful necklace with those heart touching words, when he took me to the beach and said that he wanted me to spend the last moments of my birthday with him and I did, when we met Brooke and Axe at the drive-thru, when we had that fight in the car then the showers then I went back to his place and he told me way more than I expected him to tell me about his life, it's hard to believe so much happened in one night.

I don't blame him for hating his father and not wanting to talk to him after all those things that he put he and his mom through when he was a child but I think that he should still try and give him a chance and hear what he has to say. When I read the text messages the man really wanted to get in touch with his son and rebuild their relationship and I think he should give him a chance and maybe accept his invite and go to dinner with him.

With that information, he exposed me to made me understand him a bit more and I feel like we're getting closer because he would never say those things to me, he's only interested in my life but after last night I felt closer to him. I've always wanted to know where he's from and I thought it was England but I was wrong, it's Ireland, wait so does that means he speaks Polish or Irish? Ireland is such a beautiful place and it's on my list of places I would like to visit one day, although I've never really left California before and I don't think I will soon.

I'll maybe travel when I get my job and when I earn and save up my own money in the future but not right now. I stand under the shower and let the warm water relax me as I think about last night's events. I use the same shower stall I used last night and I look over at the area where my heart almost leaped out of my chest when I noticed him standing there when I was in nothing but my towel but I was glad that he was there because I apparently left the door open and someone could've come in other than him and maybe hurt me. I change into jeans and a t-shirt ready for the day then make my way outside and Kate and I head back down the trail.

''Hey'' Easton greets us and we both smile and greet him back.

''You guys ready for the investigation today?'' he asks.

''What investigation?'' I ask.

'' You know the one Mr. Brown was talking about a few days ago. The one about the spirits and noises on the other side of the forest we're gonna investigate today'' he informs me.

''Oh yeah right'' I say and have no idea what he was talking about.

I remember them talking to us about some investigation but I drifted off and my mind was distracted with why I haven't heard from Hero in the last couple days and just everything thing about him. I hope the investigation has nothing to do with the masked men because that'll just be too much. They should just forget about them and focus on many other mysteries that lie in this forest.