by C. L. Stone
It was quiet for a moment, but then there was a faint voice calling back, “Yeah.”
Who was that? It sounded like a girl. Was it Jessica, Kota’s sister? What was she doing up and out here?
Nathan made his way around to the second trail, finding a downed tree. The rustling was coming from there.
Oh shit. Did she try to get around it and fall in?
He hurried over, looking into it. The closer he got, the louder the rustling got among the tree limbs. Whoever she was, she was so far in the mess he couldn’t see her.
“Where?” he asked.
“In the tree.” Her voice seemed off and raspy. Annoyed? And that didn’t sound like Jessica.
“Didn’t you see it was down? Why didn’t you take the other path?” He stepped closer to the tree, trying to peek through.
Suddenly, she appeared amid the branches above him.
There was a moment where he was just staring, perhaps because he sort of recognized her. He was surprised at finding her here, and in that brief moment, tried to put it all together.
At first, all he could see were her eyes. Green. The blond hair, the pink lips.
It was the fear in her face that caught him off guard. Was she afraid? Of him or of being in the tree?
“Can you get out?” he asked. He dropped a hand onto his hip, then tilted his head. He wanted to help, but from his perspective, it was hard to see where he could dive in. And doing so could make the situation worse.
She pushed branches away from her face, focusing on her surroundings. “I think so,” she said, although her voice was soft, a whisper.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why are you whispering?”
Instead of answering, she sucked in a breath and then patted at her throat.
Sore throat? “Your voice broke?”
She nodded, smiling a bit when she did.
It baffled him more. She was sick, and she’s out walking around, and tried to take on a tree? Was she crazy?
He checked the tree and where she was standing, looking for the best way to help her out. “Move left,” he said.
She turned right, looking that direction toward the denser part of the trees.
It was too early for this; he wasn’t thinking clearly. “Shit, sorry. I meant my left. Your right.”
She pointed to where he’d said. The trunk of the tree was inclined against the broken off part it’d fallen from, making it like a hill to climb. She raised her eyebrows, questioning his judgement.
“Follow it down the tree until you get beyond the branches,” he waved to where the trunk of the tree didn’t have a crazy number of branches like where she was trying to get through. He made his way in that direction, having to go off the path a bit, picking a way through underbrush to get to where the tree trunk was thicker. He was forming a semi-plan to help her get out. Going through the branches like she was doing was just going to give her a broken ankle. Better to just jump where he could catch and be done with it.
She followed him, slower, hanging on to the tree and crawling over branches. At one point when the trunk got steep against the trunk it’d split from, she hesitated, looking back.
“Can you climb up to the top?” he asked. A beam of sunlight caught him in the face, and he raised his hand to cover his eyes. He hated that as he needed to keep an eye on her.
She coughed once, and in a weak voice she said, “What do you mean?”
“Just climb up here and then jump down.” It made sense. He’d be able to break her fall, and the ground was clearer here anyway. It wasn’t that high.
He hoped he wasn’t misjudging the distance from where he was on the ground.
When she hesitated though, he started to doubt himself. Was it too high?
But he was right here to catch or break her fall and the ground had just a bit of dead leaves and bramble. Going back meant trying to get around all those branches. Unless he was going to leave her and go get a saw and cut her out...which was an option. But he didn’t want to leave her alone out here.
“You’ll be fine,” he said, hoping he sounded encouraging and not tense. He was nervous too, but she wasn’t alone at least. “Come on.”
This seemed to help her resolve. She crouched against the trunk she was climbing and pulled herself up until she got above where he was standing on clearer ground.
He lifted his hands, motioning for her to go ahead and jump down. He readied himself for it.
“Jump from there,” he said.
She paused. “Back up so I’ve got room,” she said.
He almost chuckled. She was the one in the tree and she was worried about breaking him? “No, it’s fine. I’ll get you.” At least if he broke the fall, she’d hit his body, not the ground. He didn’t mind.
Her mouth popped open. She was still hesitating.
He tried to exude more confidence, the way he was trained in the Academy when dealing with someone unsure in the situation. If he showed some confidence this was the right decision, usually people believed it. “Will you just listen to me? Jump.”
No jump.
She was waiting. Thinking. He could see her looking around, like maybe she was going to jump around him to not land on him.
He needed to get her down from there before she froze and he had to climb up. “Fuck thinking,” he said quickly. “Thinking hurts the team. Jump.”
This time she moved, lined up with him and leapt.
He reached out for her. Her body collided with his. He grabbed her around the middle and did a slight spin, taking the momentum instead of dropping back to the ground. Her head dropped against his chest and she stilled.
She was shaking. She was nervous.
So was he. Maybe it was dumb of him to ask her to jump. He shook that thought off. No. She was down now. Safe. She just didn’t realize she was yet.
He held on to her and put a hand at her back, rubbing at her shoulders encouragingly.
It felt...good. Oddly good. This girl he didn’t know was in his arms, and somehow, he just felt...better. He wasn’t expecting it, but holding on to her felt right in that moment.
He nudged his chin against her forehead a bit, trying not to think about how he was feeling, just encouraging her to calm down. “It’s okay. You’re fine. You made it.” He continued to hold her, repeating himself a few times, softer. Hoping she wasn’t too freaked out.
Slowly, she backed up. Her face was pale and her body seemed to still shake, her knees, too, when she let go of him.
It matched the weak knee feeling he had. Had he been nervous, too?
“Thank you,” she said in her soft and raspy, broken voice. She swallowed. “You’re okay, right?” she asked.
Him? Physically, he was okay. The longer he looked at her though, he got this odd feeling inside of him. But he couldn’t stop looking.
The green eyes. Beautiful. Something was off though. A shadow of some sort. Like despite looking right at him, there was something on her mind and she wasn’t even here. Worried about something that wasn’t in front of her.
That felt familiar to him. There was just something about her...
He nodded slowly to her question and tried to stop thinking too much. He felt his cheeks warm but he ignored it.
“I’m okay,” he said. “What made you think you could climb over it like that?”
He regretted asking her the question the moment he spoke it, like he was accusing her of something. It just blurted out of his mouth.
“It didn’t look too bad from the other side,” she said. She looked away from him. “I guess I just wanted to see if I could.”
Her answer surprised him. Was she joking with him?
He wasn’t sure, but it somehow relaxed him. He started to smile and tried to joke with her. “You’re not really dressed for climbing like that.”
As if realizing there could be damage, she looked over herself, clothes and arms and legs. She wasn’t too bad, a bit dirty and a few scratches. No bleeding. He was about to ask
if she had a cell phone, to see if it was damaged, but she never pulled it out and from her pockets, they were small—she wouldn’t be able to put one in them—and he guessed she didn’t have one. Any other damage?
Then her wrist caught his eye. There was a bandage, so it obviously didn’t just happen. “What happened to your wrist?” he asked, motioning to it. He tried not to make a face, regretting urging her to jump when she was already wounded. That could have made things worse.
“I fell a couple days ago,” she said, acknowledging he’d noticed.
Fell? Really? And now she was climbing trees? And with a sore throat?
Maybe she was crazy.
And maybe he was crazy, but he liked her. “You’re accident prone,” he said. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Without thinking, he reached for her hand.
It wasn’t until he was holding it that he realized he had done so.
Why did it feel natural? Like he was supposed to?
But holding on to her made him feel so self-conscious. His brain was on overdrive. What the hell was he doing?
He held on to her until they were through the brambles and back to the start of the path. Once clear, he released her. Although once he did, he wished he’d held on. Now he’d no excuse to reach for her again. And he wanted to.
Get over yourself, he thought. And then he realized again her face was familiar to him. The neighbors. The new ones. Wasn’t she...
She whispered something. A question. Only, she spoke so softly he couldn’t hear her.
And it was worse with his heart thundering in his chest. He couldn’t calm it enough to hear.
He cocked a brow and leaned close to her. “What?”
She leaned into him, enough that he felt her breath on his skin. “How long has the tree been down?” she asked.
He backed up a bit, answering quickly and trying to calm himself down and to not think about her breath, her face, her eyes. “A week, I think,” he said.
He was answering her, but his brain was already thinking of the dozens of reasons why this girl wouldn’t like him. His red hair, which he heard girls didn’t like. His father was a big reason. It was dangerous to come over if his dad was around. Hard to explain that one.
And the Academy. His involvement meant he had to disappear often. It was usually the ultimate reason why dating at all, or even keeping a friend, was so hard.
He kept answering her question. “I keep meaning to come back out here to clear it out from the path, but I’ve been putting it off. There was a bad storm before you moved in.”
She rubbed at her stomach. “You know who I am?” she asked.
“I’ve seen you around,” he said. He ran his fingers through his short hair. Why did she make him feel so nervous? “I’m Nathan.”
“Sang,” she said.
He blinked. What? What did that mean? Did he hear her right? He leaned in closer, unsure of what he’d just heard.
“My name is Sang,” she said again.
“Sang?”
She nodded.
Unusual. He liked it. It kind of suited her. From what he could remember of what Kota said about her family when they moved in, her last name was...Samson? No, Sorenson. Sang Sorenson.
Her voice wasn’t bad. A bit of irony, he supposed, since she couldn’t sing at the moment. But as she looked at him, she had this quirky look and the start of a smile that broke up the shadows in her eyes. Just a little.
He wanted to keep talking to her. Despite knowing where this might lead—that if they even just became friends, he’d have to lie to her about his father, his friends, nearly everything about his own life and what he did—he still felt a strange desire to figure out why there was this haunted shadow in her eyes. Why she looked away from him even while talking to him.
She didn’t really focus on him. He made her nervous, and he desperately wanted her to know that he was the last person to be nervous around.
He tried to smile. “I’m two houses down from you,” he said. “Same side.” He waved over to where their houses were, indicating. “Want me to walk you back?”
She hesitated while she seemed to think about it. “I don’t mean to ruin your jog.”
Ruin the jog? What was he supposed to do, leave her in the tree? Run off after like nothing happened? He shrugged. “It’s nothing.” He waved to the path, the direction of their houses. “Comin’?”
She hesitated again for only a moment and touched at her lower lip. The move made her look frail, afraid. Maybe she was embarrassed and didn’t want him telling everyone about the tree. He’d never do that.
When she finally started moving, she tried to walk a little slower to walk behind him, or so it seemed. So he made sure to keep next to her instead, slowing his pace a bit.
He tried to think of something to talk to her about. He had only a bit of time before they’d be at her house. Would she not come back out if he couldn’t find some sort of connection?
Despite knowing he shouldn’t, he wanted to talk to her again. She seemed sweet, liked being outside, was pretty, considerate of his time and safety. Before, when he’d learned about her and she never seemed to come outside or anything, at least as far as he knew, he didn’t have much opinion about her one way or another.
Now that she seemed interested in being outside, he was more interested in getting to know her. Maybe they could take hikes together? He wouldn’t have to ask the other guys to go with him if he had someone else who really liked it.
“You’re going to the public school, right?” he asked. He was pretty sure she would be but he started there to talk about something simple.
She nodded but didn’t speak.
He hid a grimace. She’s shy. He didn’t want to push her to talk if she really didn’t want to, but if she was going to Ashley Waters High School, she’d get eaten alive if she was shy. Maybe he should let her know she could trust him?
“About time we had someone new around here. There’s only a handful of kids on this street.”
“I haven’t seen them around,” she said.
He eased into a smile but tried to downplay it. He didn’t want to appear too eager. “You will,” he said, he moved his arms, opening up and swinging them as he walked. No reason for it, but he felt a little lighter now that she was talking to him.
She raised an eyebrow at his comment.
She didn’t realize? He grinned. “You’ve got the good basketball goal.” The house her parents had bought had one over the garage near the house. Plus a super wide driveway. It was the best spot on the street for a game. Everyone else’s drives were narrower, you ended up in the grass quick. And they tried playing on the road once, but it made for problems even with such a quiet street.
She thought a moment. “The one hanging from the garage.”
“Yeah. Full height and that wide driveway that’s at least half court, I think.” He smirked. “Don’t laugh, but I came over one night to jump on it, just to see if I could hang from it.” It had been while the house was for sale. The people who had lived there before, they had older kids and they rarely came out, rarely used the goal. He thought the dad installed it so they could play but the kids weren’t interested in it. But since there wasn’t anyone to play with from the house, the neighborhood kids couldn’t really play on it much.
She smiled at him. “It’s still there,” she said, her voice almost a giggle, although since it was still broken, it was like a whisper of extra breathing on top of her raspy voice, “so you must have made it.”
He nodded. “It’s pretty strong.” He walked a bit slower now. They didn’t have that much further to go, and he wanted to keep talking to her. “So what happened to your voice? You’re not sick, are you?” he asked, an eyebrow going up. “I’m not going to catch something, am I?” He didn’t care. A sore throat didn’t bother him. He hoped it wasn’t something like strep, though. She shouldn’t be out if she wasn’t really feeling well.
She shook her head quickly.
Not sick.
What else could make her throat sore like that? She was yelling too much? Talking all night with someone? That made more sense. “You’ve been talking too much, huh? Girls always talk too much.” He meant it as a joke, but he was avoiding the question he wanted to ask...
Was she up talking a lot to a boyfriend? They never saw anyone over, but maybe she was trying something long distance with an old boyfriend? Maybe that’s why she was hesitating. She was still connected to someone else. Maybe being alone with another guy was making her uncomfortable.
She smirked at his comment but said nothing.
So...yes? No? She didn’t offer any clue as to which. He didn’t want to push.
It wasn’t any of his business. But he really wanted to know.
They went around the last bend and now were on the stretch that existed behind the tree line. He was running out of time to talk to her.
“You go for walks this early in the morning a lot?” he asked. Hope, hope, hope. Maybe she’d be out again.
Her lips twisted, she paused. “I couldn’t sleep and I hadn’t followed this path yet, so I came to check it out.”
She did! She’d taken the other paths. Just not so early in the morning? So maybe at different times. “Did you try the woods on the other side of the street yet?”
“No. How do you get over there?”
He smiled. He couldn’t help it this time. Might be his chance to talk to her more. “I’ll show you. It’s a little easier to get lost over there though and there’s some things you should see. Like there’s a big ditch you may not see walking up to. I think that’s how they drained the land around here, so they could develop it.” He felt like he was rambling a bit but he didn’t care. He was more than excited to talk to someone that actually enjoyed going out exploring.
She grinned and nodded. “I’ll check it out.”
Oh shit, she was going to. But he was serious, there was a big ditch that was hard to see until you were on top of it. She’d fall right in. He smirked, eyeballing her. “On second thought, I ought to go with you over there. Don’t go without me.”
She tilted her head. “I’d be fine.”
“Uh huh,” he said, trying to still joke with her a bit. Her look distracted him a moment, to the point he even stopped walking. And then he realized there was a maple leaf still in her hair, either from the tree he pulled her from or it had fallen fresh.
