The Girl With the Half Beating Heart

Alex, where are we going?” Acacia asks, looking over at Alex, who seems very concentrated on driving. They’ve been driving for about 15 minutes already.
“Somewhere.” He hums, darting his eyes in her direction. Acacia groans.
“Why can’t you just tell me where somewhere is?”
“Because, that’s for me to know, and for you to find out.”
She groans even louder, and Alex laughs.
“Stop groaning, its turning me on.” He says jokingly with a smirk, and she scoffs.
“You’re gross.”
“And you love it.”
They drive in silence for sometime. One of Alex’s hands is on the wheel, the other near the console. Acacia is staring out the window, with one of her hands under her chin, and the other next to her leg. Alex darts his eyes in her direction again, and sees her idle hand. He strokes his finger across the back of his hand, and looks back to the road. She looks up at him, and he pretends he doesn’t notice as he drives. He opens his palm, and looks at her quickly. She smiles, and laces her hand with his.
After about 10 more minutes of driving, Alex stops the car. Acacia dozed off, so when the car comes to a halt, she jolts up.
“Woah, calm down. Its just me.” Alex laughs slightly, gripping tighter onto her hand. She nods, blinking repeatedly to focus her vision. She looks out the window, and sees nothing but trees.
“Alex?”
“Hmm?”
“Where are we?”
“City limits.”
“Really?”
“Mhm.”
“Wow,” Acacia says quietly, looking around. “Talk about far out.” Alex smiles.
“Come on, whiskey princess.” He gets out of the car, and runs to the passenger side. He opens it, and holds out his hand. “Coming M’lady?” He grins.
“Of course, M’lord.” She giggles. She grabs his hand, and gets out of the car. The both of them walk, Alex leading, into the woods. Leaves crunch under their shoes, and the cool air wisps some of the leaves around them.
“So I’m guessing you’re still not going to tell me where somewhere is?” She asks, looking over at him.
“You know what’s beautiful?” He questions, not answering her at all.
“What?”
“The element of surprise.”
Acacia looks to him, biting her lip, and Alex smiles.
They walk further, until they reach a huge tree.
“Here we are. Somewhere.” He says, gripping onto her hand and turning to face her.
“Somewhere is a huge tree?” She asks, furrowing her eyebrows. He nods. “You’re weirder than I thought.”
“Come on, there’s obviously more.” He laughs, pulling her by the hand. They walk around the tree to find a step ladder. “Ladies first.” He says, pointing to the ladder.
“What’s up there?” She asks, stepping toward it.
“Element of surprisee.” He sings, reminding her again. She rolls her eyes with a smile, and walks toward it. She steps up, and Alex follows behind her. Once they get to the top, Acacia’s eyes widen. Its a tree house. A huge one. It doesn’t have a ceiling, but lights are strung up the walls. There’s also a small opening, where one can sit on the edge and look out across the horizon.
“Its safe to step in here, right?” She asks, looking down at him.
“Element of-”
“Shut up.”
He smirks, and she steps of the ladder, and wearily inside. Once on the floor, and realizing its sturdy, she turns to face Alex, who steps in as well. He walks to a corner, and hits the switch on the lights, illuminating the tree house.
“How does that even work?” She asks, pointing to the lights. Its not like there’s a power socket in the middle of nowhere.
“You know what I’m gonna say.” He smirks again, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning on the wall.
“Of course.”
“So, what do you think?” Alex asks, holding his arms out.
“This place is pretty cool. How did you find out about it?” She questions, leaning on the wall opposite to him.
“I used to come here all the time when I was a kid.” He says quietly, kicking a stray pebble. This has always been his sacred place. Tom always brought him here on days when he asked him to. Nobody knows about this place, except him, Tom, and now Acacia.
“Ah. Well its nice.”
“Thanks.”
Acacia walks to the opening, and sits, her legs dangling over the edge.
“You coming?” She hums, patting the spot next to her. Alex nods, and sits. The sun set a long while ago, so they’re sitting in the complete darkness, with the exception of the lights and the shining stars.
“Its real pretty out there, huh?” Acacia says, looking out into the starlit horizon. She shivers.
“Yeah,” Alex replies, “You can almost see the entire city. Are you cold?” He asks, and she nods. “Here.” He says quietly, taking off his jacket, and placing it over her shoulders.
“You didn’t have to-” She begins, but he cuts her off.
“But I wanted to. You’re freezing.” He says, smiling.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Acacia turns to face him, and opens her mouth to speak, but shuts it, rethinking her words. He turns to her as well, waiting for what she has to say.
“Do you ever see something so, so vast, and it makes you realize you’re so small?” She asks, looking back to the city. Alex understands what she’s saying completely, but he wants her to expand on it.
“Explain…” He says, looking back as well.
“Like,” She starts, biting her lip. “Like, this city, for instance. Look how huge it is. And the both of us, we’re just two people in it, ya know? Like, there’s thousands of other people out there. Some of them are dying to live, and some of them are living to die.” She says, looking down to the ground. “And on an even larger scale, there’s the entire state of Maryland. I can keep going, until I get to the world. So many people are in this damn world, and over half of them are damned, you know? Only so many people are treated fairly. And I feel like some of those people take it for granted.” She explains, her voice growing smaller. “There’s only eight people in the country like me, and who knows how many in the world. I know other people have it worse than me. There’s people who are out there dying, and someone is flipping their shit because they didn’t get a new blackberry for Christmas.” She says, looking up again. “I don’t even know where I’m going with this, but sometimes I look at this damned world, where people seem to care about the things that won’t matter in years to come, and realize I’m so fucking small. The stars are bigger than me, the moon is bigger than me, every damn thing is bigger than me. And then I think,” She sighs. “I think that it wouldn’t matter if I disappeared. Because in this vast, vast universe, I am a tiny fleck. The sun will still rise and set, the moon will still revolve around the Earth, and the world will keep spinning. Nothing will stop if I am gone.”
Alex looks to Acacia, who has a single tear on her cheek. He grabs her face in his hands, and wipes it away with his thumb.
“Hey, listen to me, okay?” She looks up at him, and he looks into her eyes. “You are right, in this big world, you and I are very small. And most of the people who are treated fairly, don’t realize it at all. That’s shit, but that’s the way it is, alright?” She nods. “But the thing is, you’re not supposed to think about the world like that.” Her brown eyes are twinkling in the moonlight, and her tears are reflecting its light. “You’re not supposed to see the world as this huge place, where you are a simple red pin point. You know why?” He asks, still holding her face. She shakes her head. “Because, it’ll fuck you up if you do that. It really will.” He inhales sharply before finishing. “You have to focus on what you can see. If you can’t see it, it doesn’t matter.” He runs his thumb over her cheek, wiping away another tear. “Out of sight, out of mind. Literally.” He looks away, and back to her. “Acacia, I know this world is damned, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it, and that you and I, are oh so small. But don’t you ever say that it won’t matter if you disappear.” He grips onto her face a bit tighter. Its not hurting her, but she does feel it. “Because yes, on the grand scheme of things, the world will still go on if you weren’t here. If this world was a box of cereal, you’d be one cheerio, as would I. Now, if one cheerio falls onto the floor, does the world end?” He asks. She shakes her head. “Exactly. So yes, in the grand scheme of this gigantic, damned world, things would go on if you were gone.” He sighs. “But in your world, if you disappeared, everything would come crashing down.” He blinks, still looking into her eyes. “Think of your parents. They love you so much. Think of your sister. Your cousins. Hell, think of Laurel. You mean something to her. You mean something to all of them. And you mean something to me. God, you mean something to me. If you left, I don’t, I don’t know what I’d do.” He looks down, letting one of his hands slide off her face, but the other one still lays on her cheek. “You remember what you told me?” He asks. She nods. “Good. Remember that. Always remember that. Please don’t ever forget that.” He finishes, his other hand sliding down her face. She grabs both of them, and places them back on her cheeks.
“Thank you.” She whispers, another single tear sliding down her cheek.
“No problem.” He replies, smiling slightly.
They look each other in the eyes, Acacia’s brown eyes clouded by glass like tears, and Alex’s brown eyes, shining lightly. He leans in slightly, and she wraps her hand around his as it lays on her cheek. He then pulls her into him, and kisses her. Her hands move to his neck, and his still rest on her face. This kiss is a bit deeper than the one they shared whilst Acacia was drunk, but its still not lust filled. Its the type of kiss that makes the entire world go blurry around them. The type of kiss that could blind if the tree house was on fire. The type of kiss that made nothing else matter.
When they separate, Acacia rests her forehead on Alex’s, trying to catch her breath. They’re both breathing heavily, but they still smile at one another.
“Wow.” Acacia says, still leaning over him.
“Yeah.” He breathes out, grinning.
“My first kiss sober.” She giggles.
“Was it any good?” Alex questions nervously.
“Hell yeah.”
“Wanna do it again?”
“Hell yeah.”
She pulls him back into her, and kisses him again.