I Am Here

Leigh must have followed me to my home.

When I awoke the following morning I found myself curled up on the softest bed I could ever imagine existed. My back was pressed lightly in the curve of Leigh’s long frame. My body had tensed the second my eyes had opened, following the arm wound around my waist and meeting a set of bright blue orbs.

The unexpectedness made me yelp with fright and I fell in a tumble to the hard wooden floor. Leigh’s deep rumble of a laugh thundered from his chest, clearly amused by my circus act.

“What – how did I get here?” I asked, flustered.

Leigh shrugged, his blue eyes hinting at mischief. “You tell me,” he answered.

My cheeks reddened as I smoothed out my dress. Leigh was watching me with curious eyes, his mouth slightly hanging open as if he was about to speak, but he didn’t. He just stared at me for a long while before throwing himself back against his bed.

“I wanna take you some place today.” His voice drifted over the edge of the bed to my crumpled form on the floor.

I smiled to myself as I gazed up at the ceiling. “I’d like that,” I replied.

***

I never picked Leigh for an outdoor type. He was long and lean, and showed nothing of a tan, yet outdoors is where he took me.

A collection of beautiful mountains loomed before me, stretching from left to right in a smooth green wave, and sending me into a jitter of excitement and wonder. Leigh chuckled at my wide eyes. I’d never been outside the city in all my seventeen years of living and here I had woken in the suburbs and was heading into the lush rainforests that draped the mountains.

In the space of a day, this boy had completely changed me.

The roads wound around the side of the mountain as we climbed higher. My insides churned at the sight of the sheer drop beside the road. I’d never known I was afraid of heights until now. Even if the thick forest of trees would stop the car from tumbling far, a deep sinking feeling rolled in my stomach.

“If you squeeze any harder, my leg might pop.”

Leigh was laughing, his eyes never straying from the road. My fear vanished for a brief moment as I realised my fingers were clasped tightly around the boy’s thigh, digging into his jeans as though my life depended on it. Breathing out the air I’d held trapped in my lungs, I quickly released Leigh’s leg, balling my hands into fists.

“Sorry,” I answered quickly. “I’m just. Not. Used to this.”

Leigh gave another throaty laugh. “We’re almost there,” he teased. “And I promise, once you see it, you’ll forget you were ever afraid.”

My mind swam with doubts at his words, but soon enough Leigh was slowing down and turning off onto an insanely steep side road. My stomach lurched as we rolled down the road, surprised when it suddenly leveled out, becoming a wide flat gap within the trees. I gasped at the sight, blushing at Leigh’s proud chuckle.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before!” I exclaimed.

The car came to a stop at the edge of a bordered car park. I barely waited to unbuckle my seatbelt and fly out the door. My fear of falling immediately forgotten, I bounded over to the guard rail along the edge of the mountain peering into the amazing view of the lush rainforest that decorated the valley.

The sun shone high in the sky, lighting the world that stretched past the trees. Through a window in the forest I could see the glittering sparkle of the city.

“Do you like it?”

Leigh leaned against the wooden rail, perfectly at ease as he gazed out at the wondrous beauty. Clearly he came here a lot. His breathing seemed to calm. His breaths became longer, almost stretching out into a sigh. He turned to me, his brilliant blue eyes shining in the light of the sun.

“This is amazing,” I breathed.

Leigh nodded. “My dad took me up here once as a kid,” he said. “It’s where he proposed to my mum.” The boy shifted, grabbing a hold of the rail before swinging himself beneath it. I watched as he made himself comfortable against a post. “They call it God’s lookout,” he continued before glancing up at me. “Are you a believer?”

“A believer?”

“Of God.”

My teeth sunk into my bottom lip as I silently shook my head. Worry started to pound through me. Worry at offending the boy if he was deeply religious, but his eyes only softened and he nodded as if the final puzzle piece had finally locked into place.

“I can’t say I believe in Him,” I said quietly. “I was orphaned as a child, and left on the streets to starve. If He existed, what did I ever do to deserve that?”

There was silence for a moment.

“If He didn’t exist,” Leigh murmured. “Would we have met?”

I blushed, shrugging as I picked at a splinter in the rail. As often as I could manage, I avoided letting my thoughts drift to alternate lives. What if my mama hadn’t been abandoned by my father? What if my aunt had taken me in at my mama’s death?

What if I had a normal life?

I hated to dwell on an impossible reality. A life I knew I would never or could ever have. I was content with the way I lived. I was content with the small part Leigh played in my life.

Leigh smiled, wrapping a hand around my fingers and tugging me down into his side. Like the flimsy creature that I was, I fell easily, folding into his arms like a toy. My cheeks reddened even more as I breathed in his scent. It was wonderful.

“I’m glad I met you, Grace,” the boy whispered into my hair. “It means more to me than you realise.”

I smiled into his chest. I would never, ever, forget today.