Her black hair spilled out over her black hoodie covered shoulders, her pale skin darkened under her green eyes. My mouth stretched into a smile as I ...pened the door, my cheeks automatically flushing. Her grandparents had already drove away, leaving us completely alone. She stepped inside, taking in the scene in the living room. I’d lit all the candles in the house, which were about fifteen. I wondered if she’d recognized the date, but I doubt she had. She raised her eyebrows. “Where are your. “Can I...” She quickly grabbed it from his hands.“I need to get dinner started, and I’m guessing you have homework.” With that she quickly left the room, along with the camera.Over the next few months, Josh would usually find his mom, sitting in front of her computer. Or at least when his dad wasn’t home. She was clearly obsessed.Josh didn’t say much. He was fully capable of making the meals occasionally or helping with the laundry.While his mom taught at the same school, they rarely rode home. She bellied up against the sapling and made a light cut in its bark about two inches lower than her navel. Dropping the blade one half of an inch, Brenda sawed upwards until she had cut half way through the sapling and to her mark. She repeated the same procedure from the other side and separated the young trunk at the finish. The trunk was almost three inches thick at the point of cut and the ten feet of treetop that came loose was an awkward and heavy package. She dragged the cumbersome. “I am an adult and I will suit myself from now on!”She stormed across the room to a sofa just in front of the heavily curtained window, and dropped down.She felt better, more confident now that she was out of the thick of that group; she sat up a little straighter and tugged the hem of her tunic top over her knees primly.“Very well, Bill, I will accept the attentions of the first suitor, but he alone will sit beside me, I will not have this be the entertainment of everyone else – so everyone.