Look Me in the Eyes, and Promise Me Friendship

“Best friends forever, we will always be. Joseph Adam and Aubrey Amery,” 7 year old best friends recited, in Aubrey’s brand new tree house. In Aubrey's divine tree house, they played their 7 year old games and created little statements that would belong to them and them only. Almost like they had their words copyrighted. Joe was the funny one, and would always make little jokes. And Aubrey was completely into the humor. She would just laugh and laugh.

They had just finished carving ‘Joe and Aubrey, Friends Forever’ carefully onto the wood and they examined it for any imperfections. They fixed what they needed to, and when they finished, they stopped to look at their masterpiece. They sat there and looked over it in admiration for a while. Although it looked perfect to them, you could barely read it, and there was scratches all around it.

This artwork was like a promise to them, and they knew they couldn’t break it. They knew that this small little carving in the wood would keep them friends forever and ever. They looked into the future and imagined themselves together. They imagined never being able to be apart.

They wanted to remember their short but rhyming mission statement for as long as they both lived, so Aubrey made a special effort to write it down. She then tacked it up near the exit of the house.

As young as they were, they decided that they would be friends forever no matter what happens, and they really meant it. They met each other in Kindergarten when Aubrey and her father moved into the Neighborhood. Joe remembered the day when they arrived to the house, right next to him and his family. His brother Kevin had actually met her first, and at first Nick and her clicked a little better, but Joe came around and they became best friends automatically. He knew the friendship was meant to be.

Dont take the situation wrong, Aubrey was pretty close to his brothers Nick and Kevin too, but it was Joe who came in first in Aubrey's book. They were all pretty close in age, but Aubrey liked to spend most of her time with her 'bestest friend' Joe.

One thing about Joe was that he was this little prankster, and he was constantly pranking... everyone. This included Aubrey. When it was anyone other then her, the pranks earned her giggles. But when it was her, it normally ended in cries, and nearly broke Joe's little heart.

Joe peeked out of the Tree House window and saw his older brother Kevin playing on their swing set next door. He hadn't known that the tree house was finally done. Joe wanted to trick him. He thought of his prank for the day, and decided to actually go with it.

“Kevin!” Aubrey yelled his name with Joe attached to her hip. They ducked down real quick when they saw him look over. He didn't see anyone, so he kept playing. “Kevin, come over here!” she said again, and collapsed to the floor in giggles.

“Who said that!” he jumped off of the swing and ran over to Aubrey's yard. He was confused. He looked up at the newly built tree house, and wondered. He had remembered a day beforehand when Aubrey's dad had warned them to NOT go into the tree house, that it was still 'dangerous'. It didn't even cross his mind that they could be up there. He knew that they wouldn't break the rules.

“Look, an egg-corn,” Joe whispered to Aubrey about the acorn that he had found in the corner of the tree house. He hung himself out the window, and threw it down at Kevin. He missed, but he found another one and tried again. It hit Kevin in the dead center of his head, and it looked like it sort of hurt. He brought his hand to his head rubbing Joe's hit target, looked up, and saw Joe.

“IM TELLING MOM!” He screamed and ran home. Joe just laughed and laughed, and Aubrey didn't think it was very funny, but smirked anyway.

“That wasn't nice,” she told him. “You just hit one of my bestest friends on the head with an egg-corn.”

This is what Aubrey needed. People to make memories with. Her father never really did anything for her, and the only people she could really hang out were her neighbors. It was too complicated to make play dates with her friends at school because of her fathers busy work schedule.

Aubrey's mother had passed away when she was 4, and she really didn't have the chance to make any big memories with her. As the time goes on, she wont be able remember much about her. The memories that she had of her loving mother will fade as she got older. Her life would be different then most others. As a teenager, she wouldn't have her mother there to turn to for girl advice. All she had was her father.

Joe and Aubrey grew a few years older and they were not as close as they were when they were 7. They were at an age where they discovered their differences, age 13. Their teen age years. Where boys became flirts. And girls were love struck, with a new crush every week.

But being friends with the opposite sex at that age was difficult. They didn't know if their differences were going to work out. If they could put their differences aside and still be friends. At the age they were, things were so confusing. The little "rules" of that age were so difficult to follow, and pray to god if they broke the "Teenage Rules". Who knows what could possibly happen?

Their Differences:
1. Joe was a Boy, and Aubrey was a girl.
2. Joe was in a family of 6, and all that Aubrey had was her father, whom just discovered the “Drink”.
3. Both Joe and Aubrey were going through puberty.
4. Joe’s voice was getting deeper, and Aubrey was turning into a woman.
5. And most importantly, they met new friends and grew apart from one another.

What nobody knew was that their growing apart was not Aubrey’s decision. Because of discovering the “Drink”, Aubrey’s father turned into some crazy psychotic freak, and banned Aubrey from seeing Joe or his brothers again. Not even Joe knew this. It was Aubrey's little secret. Except it wasn't little. It was huge, and it tore her apart.

Her father wasn't much of a fatherly figure anymore. He had given up his duties and responsibilities as a parent and chose alcohol over a daughter who needed a parental figure in her life.

Both Joe and Aubrey were now in the 7th grade, and had several classes together. Even though they had classes together, they had not said one word to each other since school started. They looked over at one another frequently, but not even a fragment of a word had escaped their mouths.

This killed Aubrey. Joe was her best friend, and he was like a brother to her. She barely knew anything about him anymore. What she knew of him was all in the past, all old news. All she knew now, was that he had a new baby brother.

Every day when Aubrey got home from school, she would walk into her house and hope and pray that her dad wasn't home. She always dreaded walking through the door, and smelling the strong and painful sent of alcohol in the air. And seeing the empty beer cans just slung around the room.

After tossing her books into her room, she would go to the un-mowed, woodsy back yard with her secret black and white composition notebook. After peering around once more, making sure the coast was clear, she would climb up into her aging tree house. It was now pretty old. Atleast 7 or 8 years, and that is a long time in tree house years.

Onc she was up in the house safe and sound, and made herself comfortable, she would open up her note book in her lap. She had a talent, she was a writer. Every day in the tree house she would write at least one poem about what was going on in her life. Most of the time, her mother was the topic, and the rest was about missing that one special person. Also all of the things that she hated and dreaded.

The only other people that had been in her tree house were Joe, Kevin and Nick. She had never invited any on her new friends over because she didn't want them to be in the environment that she was living in. She didn't want them to see the horrible lifestyle that she lived, and ditch her. And most importantly, she didn’t want their mothers to think badly of her.

From the tree house she was able to see partially inside of Joe's window. When ever he was home, and in his room, she felt the closest to him. She glanced over through his window and saw him toss his backpack onto the foot of his bed. She felt safe, being held by his soul, and the soul of her mother. She could feel it. She started to write.

What’s happening in my life?
Secrets are the worst thing you can keep
It feels like I’m being stabbed with a knife
All I feel like doing is weep
How is it that the souls of the one’s I love
And the contraption beneath my feet
Are all that’s keeping me alive.

In her poetry she was questioning why things happen the way that they do. Sometimes secrets can hurt you, just like being jabbed with a sharp object. She wants to cry, get everything out in tears, but she just cant. The only things that are keeping her together, and that is keeping her somewhat strong, is her Mothers soul, Joe and her tree house; which held countless memories.

She slowly glanced upon the promise carved into the wooden wall beside her and started to bawl. The one promise that she never wanted to break, was about to snap in two if she didn’t try and repair it. She knew that something terrible was bound to happen if her father caught her with Joe, so she just had to bare with it for a little longer. She didn’t want to think of what was going to happen if she was caught. She didn't want to even think about it, because she knew that she would be scared of the thought.