Never Again

As AJ turned the corner he glanced over his shoulder wearily. He had just managed to escape from the girls that always followed him. All of a sudden he came in contact with another body. He looked down, worried it was one of the girls who stalked him—literally—he sighed, it was Cary. He felt a surge of emotions, which bothered him but pleased him at the same time. She smelled pleasantly like peppermint and hazelnut and he could feel her pressed up against him. They stood like that for a moment; he looked into her eyes, glazed over like she was in a trance. He wondered what was on her mind. He missed the days when they told each other everything, the days he didn’t have to struggle to read her mind.

“Carly, come on!” Madison’s voice jerked him back to reality.

Gently, he took hold of her arms and pulled her away from him. Then, without out saying anymore then a simple ‘bye’ he sidestepped and continued on his way.

After walking a few meters AJ turned around to watch Cary shake her head, as if clearing it, then say something to Madison as they turned and headed to the PE locker rooms. He sighed, he had been such a jerk to Cary, it was no wonder she didn’t want to be friends with him. He had regretted ignoring her since the second day of 6th grade but with everyone watching his every move he didn’t want to bring Cary into popularity in dread that she would have a boyfriend other than, well, him. He hated to admit it but he had liked her since 4th grade, that’s when she had become really beautiful. It had been scary at first, one morning talking to her normally then the next catching himself staring at her with sweaty palms when she had walked up to him.

“TONY! There you are! I’ve been looking for you!” Alyssa, the most popular girl in school, was approaching him.

He quickly cleared his mind from the thoughts of Cary. He hated it when Alyssa talked to him like this, it made him feel like a little kid playing hide ‘n’ seek from his baby sitter. Anger started to bubble inside him, just play it cool, he told himself to keep from hitting the wall in anger. He didn’t even know where that burst of anger had come from. It was just strange.

Thankfully the bell rang and he had an excuse to duck away from her and into his next class. Saved by the bell! He laughed to himself in an attempt to shake off the anger. Daydreaming about auditions on Friday, the day went by in a flash. Soon he was getting his bike and stalling the ride home, in foolish hope that he would get to ride home with Cary. No such luck, he sighed and mounted. As he started to pedal he heard a laugh behind him.

“Bye Maddy! See ya later!” It was Cary.

She pulled out her bike and got on. It was at the cross roads that she caught up with him. They biked alongside the main road until they got to the turn where the main road turned left but a side road went straight. On the side road they were able to bike next to each other and not get hit. As they biked up the hill AJ turned off the road and onto the grass beside it. Their families shared the ownership for this land; they lived next door to each other and shared a small stable. Their land went up to the entrance of the small road.

As AJ pulled over on the grass he got off his bike, turned to Cary, who had stopped as well, and stood with one hand on his hip, waiting for her to decide. Ever since they were little, they had always done their homework on the hill, where their dads had built them a tree house and a picnic table on the ground below. Even when they stopped talking at school, they still did homework together. It was a good reason to stay away from their multiple siblings at home and all the chores. They were both the oldest of 5. She had three younger brothers and a younger sister; he had two younger sisters and two younger brothers.

After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded, got off her bike, and walked to his side. AJ smiled.

“Come on,” together they walked to the picnic table, “What do you have?”

Cary groaned, remembering unpleasant assignments, AJ guessed. “Math,” she told him with a face. “And I have Spanish. But that’s it, thankfully!” Something in her voice had changed, and, without him thinking, it did the same in AJ’s.

“Ok, that’s pretty easy, let’s start with Spanish, what is your homework?”

“I’m done now, all I had to do was practice, gracias!” She told him with a sly smile as her voice clicked back to normal.
Cary had switched languages and AJ had responded in the same language without realizing it. He blushed, 'she was talking to me in Spanish and I didn’t even realize it, jeez I’m dense!'
“Ok, um…. what do you have for math?” AJ tried to cover up his ignorance. He looked up at her, “You’re laughing at me!” he complained.

“Am not!” She was still smiling.

“Mmhmm. Let’s go up to the tree house.”

They left their bikes leaning on a nearby tree and their bags on the table as they climbed up the boards nailed to a grand oak and into the tree house. Just when he reached the trap door AJ remembered Cary’s homework.

“Hold it.”
He turned, jumped down and sprinted to the table, grabbed Cary’s math book as well as his pencil case. He sprinted back and held his pencil case and the math book up to Cary. She grabbed it and gave him a hand as he climbed up. He took it and she pulled him through the hole in the floor of the tree house’s wraparound balcony. They scrambled to their feet and went through the door into the main tree house.

Throughout the years the tree house had gained more and more accessories and as far as tree houses went, it was pretty big. Inside they had placed their sleeping bags in one corner with a couple shared favorite books between them and a flashlight hanging on a cord from the ceiling above them. In another corner was a small, waist-high bookcase with two beanbag chairs in front of it. In the third corner there were two desks pushed up against the wall right next to each other. And in the last corner was a small dresser with a couple of their clothes and a full-length mirror next to it. All over the walls were posters and pictures of them laughing and goofing around, occasionally with a couple of other friends.

Cary set down the math book on his desk and sat down at hers. She opened it up to the 19th page and fished a piece of paper out of his desk. Then she opened his pencil case and took out two pencils and an eraser. AJ sat down at his desk, next to her. He put the book between them and started to copy down the problems.

“Ok,” AJ said.
They started on the problems and, together, worked them out. When they were three questions away from being done they heard a knock on the trap door outside. AJ sighed and motioned to Cary to keep working. He got up, walked out, onto the wrap-around and stooped over to open the trap door. It was Jack, Cary’s youngest brother.

“Your friend…umm…” He frowned, trying to remember. “…Alex! Yea, your friend Alex is at your house. He said he needed to see you and he’s waiting for you on the porch.”

“Ok. Thanks, Jack, anything else?”

Jack shook his head, started to go down. Then he looked up, remembering something. “Mom said it’s Cary’s turn to let the horses out in the pasture and your mom said it would be nice of you to help her.”

“Ok. Then can you tell Alex I’ll be there in a little bit? Thanks.” AJ waited for Jack to be far enough down so the trap door wouldn’t shut on his head then he turned and walked to Cary who was clearly struggling with a question. “Hey, Cary, um, we need to go let the horses out and Jack said that my mom told me to help you so, we should, um, go.”

I sound like an idiot! AJ scolded himself as he walked to the doorway and waited for her.

Cary looked back to her homework with one last frustrated sigh and got up and walked past him and held the trap door open for him. AJ smiled and slowly made his way down the boards on the tree. The last board was next to a branch that was about five feet off the ground. AJ had to step on the branch and then sit down and jump to avoid from hurting himself. He remembered when he and Cary were little and they used to push the picnic table under it so that they could go up without assistance from their dads. When he got to the ground he looked up and waited for Cary. When she got to the branch she looked uneasy. She had never liked going down because one time AJ had slipped while he was chasing her down and he had fallen to the ground almost breaking his arm. AJ stepped closer, raised his arms towards the branch and nodded. Cary understood. She sat on the branch and reached down to him and let herself fall into his outstretched arms. He caught her and brought her down in a hug to keep from falling over from the impact of her falling off the branch that was up by his head. When he set her on the ground he felt her breathing slow down a little more as she calmed down.

He kept her in his embrace for a moment, then another, and another. He almost couldn’t let go. He just couldn’t resist the feel of her in his arms; her soft, sweet smelling hair; her soft, pale skin against his. But, almost immediately regretting it, he had to let go. If it hadn’t been for the fact that their moms were expecting them to let the horses out pretty soon and would be a little suspicious to not see them coming towards the house anytime soon.

He pulled away, glancing at her confused expression, he tapped her on the shoulder, “you’re it,” he told her as he spun around and started sprinting to the stables and the two houses a couple hundred feet from “Mount. AJ and Cary”, the hill they were on, as they had nicknamed it, and AJ had insisted his name was first in the title. With Cary tailing him he remembered about Alex waiting for him at his house. When he neared the Stiles and O’Connell’s houses he slowed, heading for his instead of between or around them and towards the stables. His change of direction and speed caught Cary off guard and she ran straight into him. Seeing Alex, AJ started to worry, what would his popular friend think when he saw AJ with Cary, one of the most unpopular girls in school. Consciously changing his expression from happy to annoyed at being chased, he slowed and walked up to Alex, glancing back at Cary in time to see her put her hands on her hips, and look annoyed as well.

“Hey man, ‘sup?” AJ grinned at Alex, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Dude, I need an escape, Alyssa’s been bugging me for you’re address and phone number again! She’s trying to find you and me right now. Is it cool for me to escape from her here a while? The chic’s relentless but she’ll never come here, she’d never suspect.” Alex was as annoyed at Alyssa as AJ was all the time.

“Yeah, it’s cool, but I have to take the horses out now, so you coming?” AJ started back towards Cary, Alex trailing.

“Cary, Alex is coming, he’s gonna have to use Barley, do you have the apples?” AJ asked her, even though he already knew she had picked them from through the tree house window before they left.

“No,” Cary said, backing up in the direction of the stables.

“That was a lie,” AJ let his teasing grin reappear on his face as he motioned for Alex to help him, “and a very bad one, come on, cough ‘em up! Or we’ll get them from you the hard way, Cary!”

Cary’s smile grew, signaling they would have to get the apples from her themselves and she took off running, followed by a laughing AJ and Alex. AJ was relieved that Alex enjoyed teasing and playing around with Cary, just like he did when they were in 4th grade, when Alex was new and Cary and AJ had been his first friends at school.

Halfway to the stables, AJ was finally able to catch up with Cary and, with Alex close in tow, he tackled her into the grass. As soon as they landed on her, AJ nudged Alex off him and held onto Cary’s arms so she couldn’t escape while Alex repositioned himself so he could pin Cary down while AJ retrieved the apples. Once Alex had her pinned AJ looked down at Cary’s smiling face and placed his hands on the sides of her stomach—where only he knew she was the most ticklish.

“Well Cary? Do you surrender or will we have to take the apples by force?” AJ gently started tickling her as he waited for her answer.

“No, no, no—” She squealed, as her giggles grew breathless.

AJ paused and Alex loosened his hold to let her catch her breath. Cary took one deep breath and then wriggled out of their way too quickly for AJ and Alex to pin her again. She then rolled over and started running again, but by this time AJ had caught up with her, grabbed her from behind, and had his arms around her waist as he continued tickling her until she doubled over and was practically on his lap.

“Surrender or die!” Alex teased as he joined in tickling.

“N—never!” She giggled, and AJ could feel her gasping for breath as he held her so Alex could continue the tickling torture. “Ok, ok, uncle. Uncle! Stop!” She gasped as she relented.

Alex stopped and AJ loosened his hold.

AJ ducked his head next to her ear and whispered, “I call riding Ginger,” referring to one of their favorite horses. Cary shook her head and started gasping for breath, she turned to look at him, and he started panicking. Had all their constant tickling provoked an asthma attack?

“Alex!” AJ called to Alex, who was heading to the stables. Alex turned, saw Cary starting to collapse against AJ and rushed back to them. As Alex helped him lift Cary up into his arms so he could carry her back to her house. “Do you have your inhaler with you?”

Cary continued gasping and reached for her pocket, patted it, stuck her hand inside it and shook her head.

“Um…is it at home?” AJ asked hopefully.

Negative.

He thought for a second then groaned. “Backpack?”

Bingo.

AJ thought back to the last day of summer before sixth grade…there was the barbecue, then he and Cary had snuck off to her room to hide some of his back up things, and then to his room to hide a couple of things including…her back up inhaler!

“Too far, change of plans,” AJ turned towards his house instead. He heard her gasping pausing for a moment in surprise. Then she understood. She thought for a moment then nodded to Alex with a questioning look pointed to AJ. “Uh, Alex?”

“Yeah? She ok?” Alex asked.

“She will be,” AJ reassured him, “hopefully,” he added under his breath, “But I don’t think I’ll be able to hang out, sorry.”

Alex nodded and headed towards his bike. “ ‘K, see you tomorrow!”

AJ walked through his kitchen, where his and Cary’s moms sat chatting. As he passed through with Cary clinging to his shoulder trying to breathe, they gave him a funny look and again when he started up the stairs.

“Cary? AJ? What happened?” His mom asked anxiously, “is Cary ok?”

“She will be, it’s ok,” AJ just trudged up the stairs as fast as possible without dropping Cary or worrying their moms.

When he reached his room he kicked the door open and set her down on his bed.