I was in awe.

I’ve never been in awe quite like this, the trees mounted in the firm soil underneath my feet which towered over the rolling valley surrounding it, blanketing it with a shady canopy of flaky leaves blowing in the whistling wind that create an illusion that everything is skimming above the surface and soaring with the ruffled feathers of the birds among vast treetops, touching the sunlight and feeling that tepid sensations brimming in my body, bursting into a beam.  That feeling is incomprehensible.

I take a step, the ground feeling earthy and raw, every astounding inhale takes in crisp air that fill my lungs before letting it go in a steady exhale.  The branches on the trees wave down to me and the wind whispers my name, drawing me deeper into the alluring forest.

Then I see her, long silky black hair cascading down the height of her snug cotton-candy pink shirt, a fluffy black skirt that poofs at the rim.  Her eyes are jet with the thickest eyelashes emerging from them, resting on Olive skin that has a certain luminous that remind me of sunshine. Even though we have been seldom to speak a word to each other, I don’t even think she has looked at me but I can tell she is intriguing, sophisticated and pulchritudinous.

I hike over humps of tree roots, the closer I get, the more attractive she seems until she glances my way.  I’m thinking about what she must see, dirty blond wavy hair poking out a knot, green eyes that I get compliments on because they supposedly look like emeralds but they are cloudy and way less vibrant, similar to those who’re dead.  She sees my pink sweater, that slides off one shoulder, revealing that i’m not wearing a camisole. Compact royal jeans that fit nicely. I don’t look atrocious but compared to her I mine as well be the dirt that's encrusting the hem of my jeans

“Hey,” she puts forth, breaking the beautiful harmonies of silence, her voice is rich and smooth like chocolate, “Who are you?”

She makes me feel comfortable so I keep inching forward, “Aubry,” I introduce trying to contain the anxiety in my voice yet it still spills out as thin as water, “and you are?”

“Naomi,” she reveals with a tenderness in her eyes and a delighted smile plastered on her face, I repeat the name under my breathe, it sounds perfect for her.  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it.” Her voice sounds like a melody, sweet and rhythmic and smooth, I nod and gaze reverencing at the forest. “But don’t you want to see something better?”  There’s a giddy excitement in her voice which is mysterious to me so I give her a smirk.

“There’s something better than this?” an adorable giggle escapes from her rosy lips.  She captures my hand from its cozy pocket and she looks back at me with those eyes and her dainty, perfect lips curve into a smile, her hands are soft and fit impeccably with mine, I grin back at her.  I peek at every curvy tree as we pass it, slender ones sway gently in the breeze and the thick ones clout its branches, leaves occasionally drifting down and softly landing on the soil.

Then she halts in front of the most grand tree i’ve ever laid my eyes on, the bark is a rusty red that looks like it had burnt in a fire.  The branches are slender and long that are robbed of leaves but the bark still portrays various shades of colors. The tree was altitudinous, my neck started to ache from staring up at the collection of branches and wildlife scurrying from one to another.

“This is the center of the forest, it’s my favorite place to be,” she admits, “c’mon, let's go!”

“Go where,” I question her enthusiastic grin but by the time the words escape from my mouth, she’s grabbing a branch and hoisting herself up, she waves her arm in a signal to join her.  I lightly touch my hand to the rough texture of the branch before grasping it with both hands and hauling myself so my stomach is resting on the branch, I swing my feet over the top, attempting to not strike Naomi in the process until i’m sitting on the branch dangling my feet into nothing.  

“How did you end up here?” she sighs while looking up at her question, then she looks at me while tilting her head in a cute position.

“It’s a long story,” I excuse, it’s funny how you can trust someone so much when you met them in a forest located in the outskirts of town, but I crave for her to question my insecurities and long to spend long humid afternoons chatting about our lives.

“I don’t have anywhere to be, that is, if you’re comfortable with telling me,” Naomi responds courteously indulging herself into my eyes and I stare back into her midnight eyes, big enough to fill the galaxy.

“I guess my curiosity got the best of me, this forest just lays here and everyone acts like it’s this big mystery.  I mean it has coat of slender murky trees to hide its real beauty. And if i happened to die while i’m in here, who will care?” Yesterday i’d never thought i’d be spending a sunny afternoon conversing with a gorgeous girl in a tree in a mythical forest.

“Why do you think I came?” she giggles almost as if she’s amused by her own depression, I give her a skeptical look and that causes more giggles to escape from her mouth.  “You have to live on the edge sometimes girlie, within social boundaries obviously.”

“Obviously,” I mumble under my breathe envious of how optimistic she can be when she implied to be going through some relatable issues, “This is on edge as it gets for me,” I try to laugh it out like she does and it almosts helps, I signal to the branch we’re positioned on.  She joins me with a hearty laugh.

“Oh, it gets so much better than this,” she begins to bring herself to her feet, she plucks me from my comfortable position and ascending up the tree.  Every branch we’d discuss our a quantity of things ranging from our lives, ambitions and everything in between.

I’d climb the final force of the tree, this time as Naomi props her elbows on the ancient branches my hands decides to slip off the astonishing slippery branch and I realise that the unforeseen inevitable is about to occur.  

The plunge abruptly concludes with a gentle hand me, dangling from her hand, I know she won’t drop my hand.  The branch sways me back and forth but not in a nauseating way but in a satisfying way. The wind presents its songs of perfect pitch and dynamics accompanied by graceful birds perched below us.  If this is the way I were to die I’d accept it with a sorrow smile and a stride off the branch, hitting the foundation with a soft thud and fading away from my mind and others, but when Naomi looks down at me with that distressed look that expresses that she’s about to burst in tears that would’ve waterfalled on my pendulous body with a relieved smile shining down I figure that I never want to die as long as she is present in my life.

She’s now perched on the branch and reaching from my other hand, when they’re linked I’m remarkably by her relieving side, “I thought you were going to die Aubry,” she cried and buried her head in my shoulder,shuddering at my name arising from her lips.  I caress her chin and force her head up so that her breathtaking eyes are focused on me.

“You saved my life,” I state,” thanks, I guess.”

“I know we just met but I think,” sighs with hesitancy, “I think might love you.”  Her smile is reserved and not streaming out rainbow colors.

“Me too,” I assume she leaning in for a hug but then her lips press against mine in a tender kiss, so delicate I was anxious about breaking it.  My arms cradle her neck and her fix around my waist and then we just dangle our legs in silence.

“Will you be at school in two weeks, i’m assuming you’re new.” I ask her raising my hope level to its maximum.

“Yeah, of course.  Will you meet me same place tomorrow?”  I nod contently and then we make our way down the tree, increasing cautious this time.  At goodbye we share a quick kiss again, Naomi’s adorable giggle resurfacing.

We met at the same tree every day since that day of my potential funeral.  I’m currently enrolled in the local public school and for once I stride with my head high with confidence instead of entombing my head in a stack of books.  I raise my hand and state my name with pride whenever the teacher asks, Aubry I recollect the memory of Naomi saying my name in her silky voice.  I try to replicate the sleek and effortless way she declared it. I smiled to people in the hallway, the sensations her smile would send past my ignorant and stubborn frame into my heart encouraged me.  

But I never saw her.

So I went back to place I knew she’d find me.  That practically insurmountable tree that she adored as I do.  I climbed the tree the way she had instructed me too, but I felt a miniscule amount of loneliness when her supple hands to mentor me as I escalate up the tree.  

I miss her.  I miss her amicable smile, and her radiant eyes that had a gleam in , the immense sunlight of early after aboriginal afternoon, I miss her optimism in the darkest of situations, I miss her absolute mystery surrounding her, I miss her perfect--

No.

She’s not perfect, she lied to me.  I’m abound with feelings of enragement, she seemed so genuine but she poignantly misled me, i’m reluctant to admit she did it intentionally so I abstain to believe it.  The other feeling is unadulterated bitterness and sorrow, I felt fulfilled when she caught my hand when I was about to extinguish and tears were dripping out of her eyes and now I feel hollow.  I don’t want to feel hollow any longer. So I made a decision: I will stay here until she comes back.

The wood pokes at my back about three-fourths the way up the tree, the scratch of the twigs piling in the crevice between my foot and padding of my shoe irritates my skin and the dirt sends inches spazzing out of me, saved by exaggerated clinging to the trunk which had pointy bark sticking out to stab my arm.  The physical pain is imperceptible compared to the prickle of the past.

But then as if she apprehended my thoughts, my eyes drift to a frame that resembles Naomi arising from the north of the tree.  Before I had a chance to sort out my emotions and determine which I was tickling my bones she embraced me in her welcoming arms and the world fell into place.  Or it melted into place more accurately, as I was melting into Naomi’s arms fastened around my neck and mine navigating to her waist until we were interlocked.

I never wanted to let go.

“Why weren’t you at school,” I could almost feel tears ready to bulge out of my incredulous eyes.  I knew she would have an justification, she has the words for everything. Before those precious two weeks I always perceived words as meaningless syllables strapped together nearly unhinged until I met Naomi who used words as openings to her vigorous mind.

“I’ve missed you,” she strokes my cheek, modifying a piece of my disoriented hair.  Three words. Three. 3. Three unhinged letter bonds. Three syllables. Twelve letters.  Why do twelve letters mean a novel to me? I can feel my heart buzzing with radiation when she speaks each word like a poem.  Her voice annonces to a great throng but she’s sat directly before me. Occupied by thinking, I nearly don’t considerate her sad little smirk but when I straighten up my head i’m greeted by a pair of lips adjacent to mine.

“I’ve missed you too,” she kisses me as a response, grabbing my hair filtered with dirt and I know it doesn’t bother her in the slightest.

“Not like I have,”  We continue to chat until the sunsets goes into an explosion of orange accompanied by shots of pink, our conversation filling the thin air.

“Aubry?” A voice calls that doesn’t belong to Naomi, it is much less and harmonic and it comes from far below.  I lean over, bracing my hand on Naomi so I don’t almost die again. The figure was small and shining a flashlight even though the sun still peeped out of the horizon.

“Yeah,” I shout the message with my whole throat feeling as if it was about to hit the rough dirt basement of the forest.  An indication to the stranger that I am here. When I’m conversing with the person Naomi seems to fade into the refreshing wisps of air traveling across the highway of leaves.

“Who are you talking to?” The figures head is tilted up so much I could almost feel the sting of her neck cramps.  As my eyes begin to focus I realise it’s Amanda Gleeson, a serene girl in my grade. She wears a yellow dress with sleeves pull down three fourths of her skimpy arms and past down her knees.  She is what teachers call an influencer because she is grounded and enforces all the rules, but behind her braced smile and comforting hazel eyes she was stuck up and overbearing. Not to mention a tattletale and that is why nobody bothers to report her.

“Can’t you see her?” I peek over my shoulder to reassure Naomi is still clinging to sleeve.  I can almost interpret the confusion leaking onto her facial expression. I can fluently see her head shake in a disappointed matter.

“Who Aubry?” she states the question in a sympathetic matter, i’m questioning my ears when I hear her tone.  But why could she not see Naomi? She was right there, sitting next to me in the open air.

“Naomi?” it emerged from my mouth a question as if I wasn’t sure.

I’m not sure if i’m sure anymore.

“Nobody is up there with you Aubry.” the confusion fluttered up to my comprehension.  The subtleness of the statement spins my head in a thousand dizzying circles. “Stay right there Aubry and stay calm, i’m getting help,” she replied when I abstained.  She hurried away swept away with the brush lingering the ground.

“Don’t listen to her Aubry,”Naomi cooes placing her delicate hand on my tense shoulders.  So delicate it almost shattered. The way she spoke my name no longer sounded empowering but a mangled knot of five letters strung together carelessly.  Tears refuse leaving their dwelling directly behind my eyes.

“Your hand is about to break,” I start inhaling an attempt of courage along with the clean air that is suffocating me.  I guide her hand off my shoulder and squeeze it, but not too harsh because at any moment she will evaporate.

She laughs it off, intertwined fingers,”What do you mean.”  I’ve known her for two weeks but I think i’ve known her before I was existing.  This is not Naomi.

“You are about to break.”  I release her hand, clenching my eyes shut and trying cease the debates that are blaring in my ears.   The wind picks up, shaking the scrawny branch i’m sat upon. I manage to stay balanced by holding cautiously to the peeling bark on the branch.  The same hands that once felt secure intertwined with Naomi’s.

However the area that Naomi was sitting on was weaker and snapped without warning.  The pleading her eyes purposed captured my eyes, therefore controlling the rest of me.  I extended my arm to rejoin out hands as familiar as it is, this feels about secure as thread.  

She was once in the same position I’m currently stuck in and she’s already blurry to my vision, so what does that make me?  Why did I fall in love with perceived air? I want to blame the forest, it’s so majestic and I couldn’t do this to myself.

“Aubry!” the desperate voice focuses into the form of a girl, of my girl.  I catch myself before I trust her again, before I make the same mistake. Her screams feed into me and I notice that tears are streaming down her cheeks and raining down to the weeds that surround the trunk of the tree.

“Naomi!” I call back, the devastated look on her face lightens at the squeak of my voice, “Naomi I can’t do this.”

“Then pull me up,” she argues when my reluctance is acknowledged, her voice is impatient and the harmonies vanish into the air that is growing thinner with every strangled word spoken into the dead environment.  “Aubry please.”

“Naomi…”  I start not able to finish because a enraged Naomi interrupts me.

“Aubry my life is on the line, I could literally die.  Do you want me to die, i’m the only person who understands you.  Watch as my blood is on your hands and you’ll be the one crying. Do you really trust that stuck up girl, she’s probably just has bad eyesight.  We’re all the way up here, she’s at rock bottom. Aubry I love you and if you actually loved me then you would let me live.” My ears indulge in every word she says each getting tears composed of different emotions.  “If you let me up then it will be just you and me. We could run away and be alone together to live the rest of our lives, away from everyone that hates us and rejects us. There would be a million trees like this to climb up all day, hopping  town to town. It would be just us to, what do you say?”

I don’t hesitate, my mind is made up,”Naomi I love you,” her face grins with satisfaction, “but you aren’t real.”  And with that she’s plummeting to the ground. Her words keep repeating in my head, there would be a million trees like this to climb all day, I vividly remember her telling me that this tree was her favorite place in the world, therefore I made it her final resting spot.

She was a mangled heap of flesh below, the colors of red that showed my deep love and passion for her was splattered against the grass and complemented the dull shades of green.  It was my turn to wear the satisfied grin. Aubry, when I rolled it around on my tongue and decide it sounded terrible on me.  The worst part is I don’t regret what I did to Naomi, or whoever she is.

It just felt natural to let my feet drift off the edge of the branch.