Enforced (Book 1)

Chapter 22

"So, what do you want to do now?" I asked.

"Let's just go for a walk." He said, taking my hand. As we were walking he looked blankly into space and asked, "Do you think I will ever be able to get away from those guys?"

I was taken aback. "I think you can do whatever you set your mind to Benjamin."

He looked back at me, "Really Bethany, you know what happened last time, honestly, I will probably just stay. No, I will stay, if you are here. I want to be wherever you are. If you stay, I stay, if you leave, I will try my hardest to follow you."

"No, Benjamin. You cannot base your freedom on me. I am not worth that."

"Yes you are Bethany. You are worth everything to me."

"No, Benjamin, I am not."

He rolled his eyes. "You know, I pray every night that somehow, someway, there could be a chance that we can be together. That's all I want, I want nothing more."

"That's all I want too." I said.

"But, you know that it isn't possible right?" he said sadly.

"Please. Don't bring this up again Benjamin. I don't want to think about this. I told you already."

"There is not even a possibility." He whispered, more to himself than to me."

"There are possibilities!" I disagreed.

"Yeah?" he said, "Like what?"

I had thought about numerous possibilities over the past few weeks, so I didn't hesitate to tell him. "Richardson could go back on his law, he could be assassinated or taken out of power, my dad could stay a drunk and forget about me and let me stay single, he could leave like my mom did, or he could meet you on 'accident' and think you are the right guy for me!" I finished.

"Not possible." He replied.

"Completely possible!" I argued.

He ignored me, "But we can still stay friends. All that matters to me is that I get to be friends with you."

"I want to stay like this." I said. "I want to be with you. I want your last name, no one else's."

"I want that too, Bethy. Trust me, if it was possible I would take it, without question, but it's not Bethany, it's not possible."

"Stop it!" I shouted, "Stop being so negative! Love always finds a way! And if you are right, then we can be friends, like you said. I will be happy, even if I will always want more!"

"I love you," he said abruptly."

"I love you too."

"We should go to the forest." He said changing the subject. "Have you ever gone for a walk in the woods?

"Honestly I hadn't, in fact, I had never even gone near the forest. "No." I replied, "I was always too scared I guess."

"What were you afraid of?"

"I don't know, bears, snakes, spiders, wolves?"

"He rolled his eyes and laughed. "We will be fine."

"Ok." I said. "I'm trusting you."

"Good." He replied, "It's this way." We began walking towards the woods. It took ten minutes to get there. He squeezed my hand when we got to the edge of the forest. "Ready?" he asked.

I squeezed his hand and nodded, "Let's go." We walked into the woods; it was so peaceful in there.

We kept walking until we were about two miles from the edge of the forest, nowhere near the middle, but away from town, away from our lives. We had been walking for forty five minutes or so when we found the coolest tree formation.