Forgotten Truths (The Forgotten Truths Series) Read Free Page A

behind his head, but that was all I could really see in the darkness. Mark was at least further down from him, but as of where I wasn’t sure. This made me feel more settled. I relaxed back into my hammock and closed my eyes and let the slow rocking motion put me to sleep.
    When I woke , I was one of the first. I heard someone close by snoring loudly. I quietly rolled out of my hammock and noticed that Jason wasn’t in his hammock either. This was the perfect time to talk to him. I went up on deck and looked around. I didn’t see him. Then again, I didn’t see anyone. A fog had rolled in during the night. I turned around and jumped. He was right there.
    “Hey.”
    “Hi.” I paused, while I tried to get my heartbeat back to a regular pace. “You startled me.”
    He shrugged.
    “I was looking for you actually. I want to ask you something.”
    He looked down. “Mark talked to you didn’t he?”
    I nodded, even though he wasn’t looking at me. “He wants us to be closer. I’m not sure what he means exactly though.”
    He sighed. “Can we go into your room for this conversation?”
    He followed me and then stood behind me as I shut the door. We hadn’t had this private of a conversation before. I’d had a couple with him and Mark that were private, but Jason and I hadn’t had one that required us to be locked in my room. Even though Jason was the only other person I felt close to, we had an awkward relationship. He was protective of me, acting as a brother would as I had come to think, but we never seemed to be completely relaxed when we were around each other and no one else was with us.
    I turned around to look at him. He stood and looked uncomfortable by the window. I observed him in the candlelight for a few minutes waiting to see if he’d speak. He was my height, but hunched, so he seemed a little shorter. He was lean and he had muscles, but he almost looked like he had none. He could hold his own when Mark would throw out one of his challenges though. He told me once that he could actually beat Mark but didn’t want to shatter Mark’s self-esteem. His white-blonde hair he kept a little longer and ruffled at the top, as if he had just run his hand through it. His eyes were twilight-blue and with his eyelids naturally drooped he always looked tired. It wasn’t a tired as in he was ready to fall asleep, but more as if he had seen too much in the world at his age and couldn’t take much more. He was only a year older than me, but whenever I gazed into his eyes, he looked much older. He had joined the crew a few years earlier, but it felt like I had known him much longer.
    I leaned back against the door and crossed my arms over my chest. “So what is it between you two? He said you guys had a fight about me.”
    He nodded. “Yeah. He’s not lying about the fact that he really likes you. It’s more of why he does, and that’s what we fought about.”
    “Why does he?”
    He scuffed his foot. “I can’t say.”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s not my place to say.”
    “But you think I should keep my distance or what?” I stepped away from the door.
    He shrugged, but still wouldn’t look at me. “I can’t tell you what to do. I just have my own thoughts on the subject.”
    I stood next to him. “Why is this such a big deal? Does it have anything to do with being the only female on this ship?”
    He sighed again. “No.”
    This was getting tiring. I wasn’t getting answers, and it felt like he just kept going in circles. But whatever happened between the two of them was big enough to make them not want to be near each other. It had to do with me, and that bothered me.
    “I’m getting rather impatient here. I need something more.”
    He finally looked at me. “I can’t.”
    “Then why was this necessary?” I motioned to the room.
    “I don’t know.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I felt like I should say something, but I really didn’t know what.”
    He was really getting on my nerves. He