The Tree

The young girl of only eight stared at the dead television. The television was never allowed to be on at this time since it would only disturb others. Her green eyes flickered to the door that was closed, the sound of clicking coming from behind it. After much debate, she slipped off the couch and came to a stop in front of the door. She hesitated for a moment before knocking on the hardwood. She waited but there was no answer. She slowly turned the knob and poked her head into the room.

It was a small office. The curtains were drawn and a small lamp on the desk was the only thing illuminating the room. Next to the lamp sat a monitor and keyboard, which was furiously being clicked away at. The woman sitting at the desk had long hair pinned away in a tight bun. Glasses rested in front of her hazel eyes and a cigarette bobbed in her mouth as she muttered at her screen. She wore plaid, pajama pants and a black tank that hugged her body tightly. Her foot bounced in its anxious manner, creating a fast paced tempo the young girl in the doorway couldn't keep up with.

“Mom?” The young girl was completely ignored. Not even a twitch of the eyes or a differentiation in the tapping of her foot. She paused for one more moment before sighing. “I’m going to go outside for a bit.”

Still no reply. After a minute she finally shut the door again, leaving the writer to her dim room. The young girl walked to her room, exchanging her pajamas for jeans and a black t-shirt. As she pulled on her socks and shoes, she thought she must be a pretty weird child. It was nearly two in the afternoon on a Wednesday and she was just now getting dressed. Summer held many weird things, she guessed.

After making sure the front door was locked and secure, the young girl set off on her familiar trail. The girl hiked up the hill her house was at the base of with little difficulty. She used to have troubles with her asthma from the climb but she was slowly getting used to the effort. She still had to pause momentarily, leaning on her knees to take calming breaths until her heart rate had slowed. She looked up and smiled at the tree before her. It was a wide and full tree; a tall willow tree but with enough knobs on the trunk for her to climb to the branches.

And she did so, climbing only to the second lowest branch that would support her. As stupid as it sounded, she feared going any higher. She had an intense fear of heights. That’s why it sounded so stupid; she was on top of a hill, at least six feet from the ground of that base, and yet she was too scared to go higher. She rested back against the tree’s trunk and stared at the view before her. The neighborhood of the California town looked small to her, almost like a toy set than a real place with real people.

“Hey there.” The girl jumped, nearly falling off her perch. She quickly looked down, seeing a boy standing beneath the tree, looking right back at her. He was about her age, if not a little older, with the ‘tough guy’ exterior. He was dressed in dark blue jeans, a black Metallica shirt, and black Converse. He had a mess of brown hair, soft brown eyes, and a curious look on his face. “What are you doing up there?”

“What are you doing down there?” She countered childishly for lack of things to say. She had been coming here since they had moved into the house when she was six and no one ever came by. To say she was freaked out would be an understatement.

“I just moved in,” the boy spoke, waving his hand in the direction behind him. The girl peered past him, seeing the same houses as always. She hadn't seen a U-Haul or any kind of moving truck recently. Was this kid pulling her leg? He noticed her look and added, “We moved in pretty late last night.”

“Oh.” Was all she said. She still didn't quite believe him, but what did it matter? It wasn't like this kid was going to be inviting her to his home or visa versa. They just happened to live relatively close and he seemed to be happy to interrupt her alone time. The boy noticed the open invitation to leave, but decided against it.

“So what’s your name?” The girl looked down at him with a reserved look. Inside she was torn. She wanted to tell him to leave her alone, to let her enjoy her view for a few hours before she was forced to retreat to her home and wait for her father to return. On the other hand, she was desperate for interaction with someone else her age. When school was in session, other children avoided her so during summer she was alone.

Finally the need for a companion won.

“My name’s Shay,” the girl finally spoke. The boy looked surprised, sure that he wasn't going to get an answer. He began to smile, the grin emphasizing the high cheekbones he had.

“Well, Shay, my name’s Brian,” he introduced. She nodded, swinging her legs that hung over her branch. It was silent for a few moments before Brian spoke again. “Can I come up?”

“Uh.” Shay looked around her, tucking a piece of her short, black hair behind her ear. It seemed like the branch was solid enough to hold them both. Brian didn't seem to weigh much more than her and she had jumped on the branch before without so much as a wiggle. “Sure, if you can.”

“‘Course I can!” Brian scoffed. He stepped forward to the tree and started to use the same knobs as Shay to climb up. Soon enough he plopped down next to her on the branch with a triumphant grin. “See?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just a tree. No reason to get excited,” Shay muttered, turning back to look at the view. In the back of her mind she had wished Brian would've have trouble getting up. It was her spot and she was still wondering why on Earth she had decided to let him up here.

“So why are you up here?” Brian asked curiously, turning and leaning back against the trunk of the tree to see Shay more clearly. She shrugged, trying her damnedest to not let her emotions show. If she learned one thing from her parents it was not to let your guard down around strangers. You never knew what they would do when they learned what hurt you most.

“Just enjoying the view,” Shay spoke simply. Brian raised an eyebrow at her, which she saw in her peripheral vision, causing her to turn her head to look at him. “What?”

“What what?” Brian asked, looking away and resting his chin in his hand. Shay glared at him. There was something he wanted to say but wasn't.

They lapsed into a silence. Shay didn't like it much. There a big different between silence when you’re alone and silence when you’re sitting next to someone else. Since it was the latter of the two, she wasn't very comfortable with it. Shay began to fidget and swing her legs again. ‘Why did he bother coming up if he was just going to sit there and make me feel weird?’ Shay thought sourly. She wanted to be selfish and have the entire view to herself. It seemed annoying to share it with someone who didn't seem to appreciate it since he was more interest in staring at his beat up shoes.

“Why did you come here?” Shay finally blurted out. Brian looked over at her, surprised by her outburst, and gave a slight shrug.

“You looked lonely. Besides, my dad wanted me out of the house for a while. According to him, all I do is annoy him,” Brian answered. Shay raised an eyebrow at him. She wasn't sure if it was true, but something was telling her it was. And if so, that means that the two had some in common. When her parents weren't ignoring her, they were just complaining she was too clingy and obnoxious. They were actually why she had decided to look up the word ‘obnoxious’ to see what it means. Her parents did that a lot, using big words to insult her. It was probably the reason she had such an extended vocabulary.

“I do, too,” Shay informed. When Brian gave her a weird look she explained, “I annoy my parents a lot, too. They’re too busy for me.”

“Well, I’ll always make time for you, Shay,” Brian vowed, covering her hand with his own. Shay looked down at them, unsure of how to feel. It was the most affection that she had ever received since she was five and she barely remembered those times. A piece of a smile and a short laugh was all she could remember.

“Why do you even care?” Shay asked with a sudden exasperation that she didn't know she possessed. She tore her hand away from Brian’s, glaring at him accusingly. “Are you here just to mock me? I get enough of that at home, okay?”

“No, I’m not here to make fun of you,” Brian argued, glaring with confusion. He even seemed a bit appalled by Shay’s accusation. “Why would I do that?”

Shay blushed, staring at the ground below her. That was something she had never done, always too scared to know how far from the ground she really was. Her grip tightened on the branch and she took a calming breath through her nose. “Everyone does. Usually it’s at school that people do it, but you found my tree, so...”

Brian rested one of his hands on one of Shay’s again, causing her to look up at him instead of at the green grass below. He gave her a smile. “I’m not like other people, Shay. I would never do that to you.”

Shay was back to studying his face. She wanted to believe him, God she did, but did she trust herself enough to listen to her heart? She was hesitant to reply, her tongue seeming to forget its language skills. Finally, she choked out, “How can I know? How can I be promised you won’t just use it all against me? Why should I trust you?”

Brian thought this over for a couple of minutes, the silence almost deafening. The whole time his hand stayed on Shay’s but she didn't have the energy to yank it away again. Finally, he gave her hand a light squeeze and let a smile grace his face again. “You can’t.”

“Well, that gets us far,” Shay muttered to herself. Brian squeezed her hand again, silently demanding her attention to come back to him. His smile grew as he captured Shay’s eyes again.

“You can’t be sure I won’t use everything you tell me to mock you, but you can believe I won’t. You can have faith in me.”

“Faith, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s what friends have in each other.”

“Friends?” Shay echoed, confusion flitting across her face. That was a new one. No one ever called themselves her ‘friend’. Even when kids would get close to just turn around and mock her, they had never said to be her friend. She just continued to stare at Brian, blatantly unsure of what else she could do. She wanted to laugh, but his face was too serious to start laughing. He seemed much too sincere and it made her unsure of everything she was thinking. “If you hurt me, I will murder you and bury you under this tree.”

“Whoa.” Brian blinked, obviously shocked at how stern the young girl sounded with her threat. He grinned widely and nodded. “You can put my head on a stake if you want.”

“Deal.” The two shook hands, grinning widely to each other.