Forbidden: Book One of Wild Sky Saga (8 page)

“Aira, don’t let him ruin this for you. You deserve better and he knows
it.”

Aira knew it wouldn’t be that simple if something were to actually happen. She hated drama, Jaidas lived for
it.

“Let’s just have fun.” Avery smiled at
her.

“Okay, at four? Hold on.” Joshua put his phone down, covered it for a minute and looked at them. “Israel’s off at four, he wants us to meet him by the park when we’re
done.”

“Yes!” Avery said, excitedly looking at
Aira.

Joshua smiled and uncovered the phone and put it to his
ear.

“Okay man, we’ll meet you there. Kay, see ya.” Joshua hung
up.

All of Aira’s worries about Jaidas completely flew out the
window.

“Let’s go,” Joshua said, putting his car in reverse. He pulled out of Aira’s driveway and they drove to Lake of the
Woods.

Lake of the Woods was five minutes out of town. It was surrounded by mountains, was said to be bottomless, and legend has it, it originated from a
volcano.

They pulled into the parking lot. They got out of Joshua’s car and walked down to the steep rocky hill that led to the
lake.

Avery took off her shoes, shorts, and shirt. She was wearing a dusty pink and burgundy, floral- printed
bikini.

Joshua took off his shirt and shoes, leaving on his black swimming
shorts.

Aira pulled off her sweater as she watched Joshua drag Avery to the water. He picked her up and walked into the water with her. It must have been cold by Avery’s
reaction.

Aira took off her sandals and walked down to the water putting her toes in. It was cold, but not
unbearable.

“Come on, you chicken,” Avery spoke, while swimming
around.

Aira smiled, walking into the water up to her waist. She moved her hands around in the water to get used to it and finally dunked herself all the way under. She came back up refreshed. Aira loved to swim. She loved the feeling of coming out of the cold water on a hot day. To her it felt like everything bad was washed away, a feeling of newness. It was probably one of her most favorite
things.

She swam backwards aways and floated around. In the distance she could hear the echoing of a helicopter chopping through the air. Its familiar sound barreling through the sky was more apparent on days like these. She floated there, every once in a while diving underneath the
water.

Avery and Joshua were talking. “What!!!” Avery had a high pitch excited tone to her
voice.

“You have to tell her,” she spoke quietly to
him.

Avery pushed Joshua towards Aira and they swam over to her, moving their arms in the water keeping themselves
afloat.

Aira looked at them wondering why they were being weird as they looked at each other
smiling.

“What?” she
asked.

“What would you say if Israel asked you out?” Joshua asked
her.

Aira’s stomach filled with
butterflies.

“He’s not,” she replied, more nervous then she had probably ever been. She was in
disbelief.

“Ya, he is,” Joshua
laughed.

Avery smiled with love at
Aira.

“No, what? Like now?” she said, almost forcing her words to come
out.

“No,” Joshua answered. Aira felt somewhat relieved. “At four,” he continued with a
grin.

“You’re not serious,” Aira smiled nervously, shaking her head. “No, he’s
not.”

“He is, and there’s no getting out of it.” Avery bit her lip, splashed a little water at Aira and
smiled.

Aira shook her head, looking at their expressions, then turned around and dove into the water to try and wrap her head around what they had just told
her.

“She hates us,” Joshua
laughed.

“Not yet,” Avery
smiled.

They spent the next few hours playing in the water. Aira found a near-by rock and crawled up onto it to
sunbath.

Israel was drying dishes and putting them away when his boss walked into the back with his reading glasses pulled down on his
nose.

“Israel!” He spoke loudly. Israel was startled a little
bit.

“Mr.
Lee…”

“I have your cheque here. You should run to the bank before it
closes.”

“I can go?” he asked
delighted.

“Yep, it’s slowed down enough now.” Israel took off his apron, dried his hands and his boss handed him the
cheque.

“Thanks!” Israel grabbed his sweater and went to run to the
door.

“You do a great job, kid. I’m happy to have you working here,” Mr. Lee called after
him.

“I’ll see you Friday,” he spoke, half saluting his boss as he ran out the door. His boss nodded and returned to his paper
work.

Israel ran down the road about a block, to the C.I.B.C bank. He still had another twenty minutes before it would close, but he had to run back the other way to catch the other shop. He needed to go and pay off what he wanted to
buy.

Avery and Joshua were on shore getting dressed. Aira was still lying on the
rock.

“Aira!!” Avery shouted across the water to her. Aira sat up, looked and saw Avery waving her hand for her to come to
them.

Aira stood up on the rock, looked down at the water, then dove in and swam back to
them.

Avery dried her hair while they waited for Aira. Aira finally got to the shore, dried herself off, got dressed, and they all walked back up to the car
together.

As they were driving back, Aira just stared out the window. It felt like her heart was in her stomach. The closer they got to town, the worse it got. It wasn’t a bad feeling, was just that feeling you get when you’re about to go into a dreamed about situation. She could barely get words out to him never mind having to come face to face with something she didn’t even understand. About the only thing she was sure of was that this was something she had waited forever to feel, to really feel, something that felt beautiful, magical, and
unexpected.

Avery looked back at her, smiled, and she laid her head back onto the
seat.

Aira started to bite her
nails.

“Stop biting your nails.” Avery spoke not even looking at her. She knew Aira that
well.

Aira put her hand down and took a small
breath.

“Maybe he’ll change his mind,” she spoke up nervously playing with her
hair.

“I doubt it,” Joshua
laughed.

Joshua’s phone started to ring and he asked Avery to answer
it.

“Hello? Well, hello there, Israel,” Avery said, looking back at Aira, “We’re almost there, two minutes. Okay, see you then.” Avery hung up the phone. She smiled like a giddy little girl and let out a small shriek of happiness and
excitement.

Aira smiled at her. “You’re such a
brat.”

They finally drove into town and pulled up to the park. Israel was sitting on the bench across from his work. They pulled into a parking spot in front of The
Moose.

Israel calmly stood up as they got out of the car. Joshua and Avery waited for Aira to go a bit ahead of
them.

Israel’s presence was warm, full. He felt safe. Somehow he had become something that she couldn’t really imagine life without. To her that was
terrifying.

Israel smiled, and rubbed his stomach with both of his hands. He was definitely
nervous.

Aira looked back. Avery and Joshua had walked back to his car. Joshua got in and Avery blew her a
kiss.

Aira was shocked. What the hell were they doing? She didn’t know what to do. Should she go back to the car or continue walking over to him? She had to make up her mind soon as she was standing in the middle of the road. Avery got into the car and shut the door. “
Now
she hates us.” She laughed as Joshua pulled out, and they waved goodbye like a couple of trouble
makers.

Aira took a breath. She could barely breathe. She turned around and walked towards
Israel.

“Hello,” he
smiled.

“Hey… are they coming back?” She spoke pointing back to where the car used to be. She couldn’t think of anything else to say, she felt so
awkward.

“I don’t think so,” he laughed lightly, “but I don’t bite.” The expression on his face made Aira
smile.

“Are you hungry?” he
asked.

“Ya… I think so.” She shook her head a bit, feeling stupid. He found her nervousness very sweet, but to her it was
painful.

Israel walked up to her and grabbed onto her hand and an energy rushed through her. With his fingers between hers, he walked her to his car which was parked in front of his
work.

He opened the car door for her, and his boss came out with two large paper
bags.

Israel reached for them with one hand while trying to pull out his wallet out of his back
pocket.

“It’s on me.” His boss gave him a nod and half a smile, waved at Aira, and walked back
inside.

Israel looked down and smiled a bit. Even though everyone thought Mr. Lee was an impossible person to be around, Israel really liked
him.

He walked to his side of the car, put the food in the back seat, got in and put on his seat
belt.

Aira wasn’t sure what to do or say, and she started to fidget with the sleeve of her
sweater.

“I’d like to take you somewhere,” he spoke
contently.

“Okay,” she answered, still having a hard time looking at
him.

He smiled, turned on his car, and drove up towards Lake of the Woods. He drove past the lake for maybe another ten minutes, passing Emory Creek, and eventually pulled into a long driveway surrounded by massive, beautiful trees. Aira was amazed. Even though she had lived here her whole life, it seemed even greener, breezier, and really, really
welcoming.

“Is this where you live?” she asked as he pulled up to a handsome, large, one level house hidden away from the road. The house was made of beautiful, dark, red wood, and steps led up to a large front porch. The porch had no
railing.

“Yes, this is where I reside,” he
grinned.

Israel parked the car, grabbed the food out of the back seat, and they both got
out.

“Come with me,” he
said.

He took her hand, and led her around to the back of the house and down to a secluded place just before a huge forest that made up the rest of their
property.

Aira looked around. There were books, scattered drawings, papers, melted candles, a fire pit with a kettle hanging over top, a hammock, a single chair that he had handmade, some nick-knacks, chopped wood, and an axe driven into a
stump.

“This is amazing,” she spoke, looking around at everything. She started to look at the
drawings.

“I spend most of my time here… it calms me.” He stood trying to decide what she must have been
thinking.

“These are really beautiful. Did you draw these?” The drawings were of the mountains, the rivers, paths inside different forests and wild life. They looked so
real.

“Ya... it’s something I do to pass
time.”

As Aira went through them she came to a drawing that made her look
closer.

It was a picture of a girl that looked just like her standing in a forest looking up through the trees to the moon. It was
stunning.