White Oaks: Part II - Juniper
Students in the hall gasped for their football player. The girl that clung to him moments before stumbled back into another chair and abruptly fell into it. Everyone apprehensively waited for the cold stranger to react.
Moments passed and Charkol did not take his attention away from his purpose. This seemed much more cruel than an outright beating in the football player’s mind. Not able to stand it anymore he balled up a fist and lunged it at Charkol’s brooding face. It escaped all but the most clever eyes, the quick dodge that left the blond face down on the uncarpeted floor. Charkol stepped over the body and walked up to her chair. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “I will wait, one more time, by the White Oaks for you Juniper.”
And then the stranger turned to the closest door, leaving nothing more than small puddles to prove he had really been there.
Her classmates tried asking Juniper who he was as he obviously knew her, but she just smiled and turned her head back to her papers and books. They could not understand how she was so undisturbed by the display that had played out in the hall. The gossip getting on her nerves, Juniper was glad when her last class for the day ended. She escaped the crowds by taking the upstairs route, and took the path by the woods and side roads to walk home instead of fighting for a seat on the local bus.
The sun was bright and white hot on her auburn head. Yellow jackets buzzed in the wild flowers beside the dirt road she walked down. Juniper shook her head of the whisper that kept repeating in her head. Feeling anger spout up from the pit of her stomach, she bit her lip to keep herself quiet. How dare he tell her to meet by the White Oaks, as if she is stupid or something. As if she would fall for the same trap twice. She would just run again, find deserted place she knew she could never be found. Feeling she made a decision and that that should settle the rumble in her mind and heart, Juniper forced her stomping rush of a walk to calm.
But it wouldn’t stop nagging at her.
Why would he ask her this and give her time to escape? Why not bring down a full force upon her head the instant he found out where she was hiding?… Why the White Oaks?