Brown Eyes

Chapter 3

(Beth's P.O.V.)

That night I was woken up by the sound of children yelling and crying. It was so loud, it hurt, and it scared me. I looked out of my tent and saw all the lost boys' tents. The lights inside them were off. They were asleep. I ran across camp to Peter's tree where he stayed, and looked inside. He was reading, sitting in bed.

I quickly went inside. Peter's eyes bolted up to meet mine.

"Beth, you startled me," he said. "What are you doing?" Then he and I both noticed I was crying. "What's wrong?"

"The crying, Peter," I said. "There's all this crying and yelling and I don't know where it's coming from and it's scaring me! What is it?" I rambled on quickly, and Peter started shushing me.

"It's okay, quiet down," he said softly and I sat down on the bed next to him. "Now what is it?"

"The crying," I said. "It's scaring me, where is it coming from?"

"They crying?" he repeated, then he realized it. "You mean the Lost Boys' cries?"

"They aren't crying though, I saw, they're tents are dark, they're all asleep!" I said, and started trying to breath through my cries. I knew my lip was quivering now with my shaking breath.

Then with the wave of Peter's hand, the crying stopped.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You can't hear them anymore, don't worry," he said.

I hugged him and cried, and he carefully hugged me back.

"Why are you crying?" he asked.

"They were yelling," I said, "and I don't know why but it scared me. I'm usually not easily scared, but that scared me."

"They were yelling?" he said. I nodded, crying into his chest. "You must be sensitive to them."

We sat there in the quiet for a while and I just cried.

"I want to go home," I said softly. I knew this was a sensitive topic. If I had picked any other moment to tell him he would've snapped at me. But all he did was sigh.

That's the last thing I remember before falling asleep.

I was woken up by Peter and he said, "I heard you crying again. You were having a bad dream."

I looked around. I was back in my tent. Peter must've brought me here.

I wiped away my tears and said, "I'm fine." I was still a bit embarrassed by my moment of weakness before.

"It was about the cries, wasn't it?" he asked.

"Well yeah," I said. "But it's fine, it was just a bad dream. No big deal," I said.

Peter looked at me, and sat on my bed. "You know you don't have to put up that wall with me," he said.

"What wall?" I asked.

"You're wall," he said. "Not all the time, but a lot of it, you use your sarcasm and jokes to keep away fear and pain. You put it down earlier, but it's back up again now."

"Peter, it was just a bad dream," I said.

He looked at me, then said, "Follow me."

I rolled my eyes and got up. I started following him through camp. We ended up back at his place.

"Why are we back here?" I asked.

He waved his hand and a tent appeared next to his tree.

"Because this is where you sleep," he said.

"Why'd you move me here?" I asked.

"So I don't have to be worried about you," he said, turning to look at me.

I paused, then said, "You worry about me?"

Without answering, he waved his hand again and a teddy bear appeared in his hand. He handed it to me. "You want it?"

I took it, not thinking much of it, till I realized what this was. It was my Teddy. My Teddy. I did a double take at it and then gaped.

"Where did you find this?" I asked, tearing up again.

"All lost things end up on Neverland," he said. "Your teddy bear was no exception. I knew you would want it."

"How did you know this was mine?" I asked, looking up at him with watery eyes.

"I know everyone and everything on this island," he said. "I also know who the lost things belong to. This bear washed up on this island seven years ago. When you washed up here, I felt the connection between you and it."

I wiped away my tears harshly.

"You can cry you know," he said. "I still know you're strong, even when you do."

"You've only known me for less than a day," I said.

"I know," he said with a small smile.

I walked up to him and hugged him. "Thank you," I said. I could feel him smile. He hugged me back tightly. When I pulled away I saw a look in his eyes I had never seen before. It was a look I have to get used to.

"Now go to sleep," he said. "You look exhausted."

"I didn't realize you cared about me," I said.

He looked at me again, then said, "Good night, Brown Eyes," and turned and went inside his tree.

I hugged my Teddy and stood there for a bit. He cared about me. I smiled. I wasn't used to someone caring about me. I liked it.

I went into my tent and curled up in my bed, and fell asleep smiling and hugging Teddy.