Little Moments

Chapter 4

The bright morning sun shining through my window wakes me up, along with the sound of birds chirping, making conversation between one another. I then glance at my alarm clock that reads 5:32 A.M. I stare at the ceiling for about five minutes, knowing that falling asleep again isn't an option, even though I barely got any sleep last night. Five hours at the most. It's because of the dreadful dream I have at least once a week. It's gotten better, though. When it first happened I woke up sobbing so hard that my mom had to come running in to comfort me.

I sluggishly crawl out of my bed and put on a polk-a-dot shirt and jean shorts, put my hair into a side braid, not caring how much of a curly mess it is, and pull on my boots. I can't think of anything else to do while I wait for Mom and Taylor to wake up, so I walk out the back door and start making my way towards the sad and lonely swingset.

As I slightly sway back and forth in the swing, I continue to stare at the woods, wondering what's out there. So after a couple of minutes of staring, I decide to go in, my curiosity getting the best of me.

I walk through the continuous weeds, tall trees, and bushes, until I come across a tree standing about 12 feet tall.

I start climbing it, as I used to do in Tennessee with my friends when we were younger. As I reach about 7 feet up, I sit down in a fork of a branch, and let my feet dangle over. I watch the occasional bird fly by in the sky with the sun shining through the bright green leaves of the tall trees. I close my eyes and listen to the chirping of the birds, and I let the cool, summer air blow against my face.

I love summer. No school, beautiful weather, and it's just the one time of year when you can be absolutely care free.

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear the snap of a twig. I twist my head to the side and see a bush moving out in the distance. It's probably just some squirrel. I go back to closing my eyes and listening to the birds.

"Hey! Are you okay?" I once again twist my head to the side towards the direction of the moving bush. The voice scares me so much that I can't find my balance, and I reach out to grab a small branch, but it snaps. The next thing I know, I'm on the dirt ground, and all of the air has left my lungs on impact.

I hear loud footsteps running towards me as the voice yells, "Are you okay?" Once again. I look up to see the sides of my vision blurred, but I also see a boy. A boy with sun kissed skin, and light brown and slightly tousled hair. I soon realize that it's the same boy who spilled ice cream on me at the park. Great.

I wheeze until I can finally get some short breaths into my lungs after about two minutes. I look up, still wheezing, and I see his worried face hovering over mine.

He holds my hand in his as he says, "Breathe. It's okay." over and over calmly. But he definitely doesn't look calm. He looks panicked.
"Are you alright?" He asks as he grabs my right wrist, and puts his other hand on my lower back to help me sit up. "Yeah, I'm okay." I say, now able to take in deeper breaths.

I sit there for another minute, until I can get my breath back, and then I stand up. "You have no idea how sorry I am." The boy says.
"It's okay. It was my-"
I'm cut off by him putting his left hand on my right shoulder and saying, "No. Don't say it was your fault again, because it is my fault. I should have been more careful."

Don't say that it was my fault again? He remembers the park incident? "You remember me?" I ask, brushing dirt off of my jean shorts.
"Yeah." He says with a faint smile that exposes his dimples.
"Do you remember me?" He asks. "Yeah. Ice cream boy." I say with a light chuckle. He scratches the back of his neck as his cheeks turn a slight shade of red, and he says, "Yup, that's me. Sorry about that. We've got to stop meeting like this." I nod my head in agreement.

He looks back up at me and says, "Oh, you're bleeding." I lift my hand up to my right cheek bone and then see that my fingers are covered in blood. "Here..." He says as he walks towards me. He lifts his right hand and gently wipes away some of the blood with his sweatshirt sleeve. I wince in pain a little, because it stings, but he doesn't seem to notice. He stares into my dark blue eyes, while I realize that his eyes are... green.

I can feel my heart getting ready to explode out of my chest as he breaks the silence by saying, "I'm Corey. Corey Hunter, by the way."
I give a shy smile as I reply with, "I'm Katrina Piere."
A smile spreads across his face once again revealing his dimples as he says, "Katrina Piere. I like it. Has a ring to it. Nice to meet you." He extends his hand out to me and I take it and shake it for a brief second.

I then look back down at his sweatshirt sleeve, which is lightly stained with my blood. He must have noticed me looking at it, because he says with a slight chuckle, "It's okay. It'll wash off."
He then looks back up at me, revealing those alluring green eyes again as he says, "Sorry again, for making you fall." I snap out of my trance as I say, "It's fine. I'll be okay."

An awkward silence passes by until he asks, "So, how long have you lived here? I've never seen you around before."
I respond with, "Actually, I just moved here. My mom got a new job offer and she just wanted to... get away." I don't really know how to put it into words the real reason why my mom wanted to move away. It was really because of my dad, a memory I prefer not to bring up. "Where are you from?" I wipe some more blood away from my cheek as I respond with, "Tennessee."

"That explains your cute accent." He says with a smirk, causing me to blush. I did always have a slight southern accent, though I didn't think it was that obvious.
"Well I've lived here my whole life, so maybe I can show you around some time?" he asks. I hesitate, and ponder on the idea. I decide that it couldn't hurt. I'm going to need all the friends I can get when school starts.
"Sure. I would like that. I live in the house right back there." I say, pointing behind me.
"The barn red ranch house."

"Oh, no way! I live right next to you. The two story house on the left."
I can't think of anything else to say, so I just respond with, "Cool."

"So what brings you out here, in the woods?" He asks.
"I just needed to get out of the house and get some fresh air."
He laughs and says, "Yeah, same. I come out here whenever my sister is driving me crazy. Which is a lot."

"Oh, yeah. I know how that feels. I also have a sister." I say as I roll my eyes. He continues to look at me with those gorgeous eyes.

I then realize that Taylor and Mom might be up soon, and Mom would kill me if she found out that I came out here without telling her, so I end the conversation with, "I better get going. My Mom doesn't know I'm out here." He smirks and says, "Okay. It was nice to meet you, Katrina Piere. You know, besides the whole tree incident."
I laugh and say, "You can just call me Katrina."
He laughs and says, "Okay, Katrina. It was nice meeting you. I'll hopefully see you around some time."

He once again extends his hand out to me, and I shake it again. "Yeah, hopefully." I say, smiling.

He then turns around and starts walking. He looks back at me one last time, then keeps on walking until a bunch of leaves and bushes cover him, and I can't see him anymore. Maybe he's not the creep I thought he was when I met him at the park. Maybe I will actually have a friend to hang out with this summer.