My Understandings [ON HOLD/EDITING]

My Understandings: Part 7

I hear my alarm and I check the time. 10:20, Austin called me an hour ago to meet me outside my window. I walk over to the bathroom and quickly fix my hair and makeup. If he's on time, then he's outside right now. I walk over to my window and peer out, and there he was, leaning against my house looking at his phone. I open up my window and he looks up. I start to climb down the ladder as I hear him speak.

"You're 5 minutes late." He says with a smile. I reach the ground.

"I was taking a nap, you can't expect me to move quickly." We both laugh a little. "So why did you want me to come out?" I ask.

"You'll find out soon. Now come on." Austin grabs my hand and starts pulling me. He heads to my backyard but takes a left into the forest. What? Where are we going in the forest? There's literally nothing in the forest except trees as far as the eye can see.

He lets go of my hand and steps aside while we stand by the river. He motions for me to cross the river first. I smile and begin to walk along the rocks across the river. It's slippery and I feel myself start to lose my balance. A small scream escapes my throat as I begin to fall into the river. Austin grabs my arm to try and save me but that only sends him into the river as well. I look over to see Austin laughing at me. I begin to laugh a little bit myself, I can't believe I just did that.

"Someone's clumsy aren't they?" He says while starting to stand up and take his phone out of his pocket to dry it. Thank god I didn't bring my phone.

"Shut up it's slippery!" I yell playfully. We quickly run to the other side of the river and try to dry ourselves off. Only our bottom halves got wet and a little bit of my shirt but we were still soaking.

"Let's go. We'll be dry by the time we get there." He says. Get where? I still don't know where he is taking me. Austin takes the lead and starts walking through the woods. He weaves between the trees taking long strides, it's hard to keep up. I fall behind a little due to the fact that I have short legs and I'm not in the mood to run. It's kind of uncomfortable walking with my pants and shoes soaked but I guess I have to deal with it. The woods are completely quiet, the only sounds to be heard were birds chirping and the leaves crunching underneath our feet.

"Come on!" He says. I'm about ten feet behind him. Jeez he's in a hurry. I pick up my pace a little bit and try to keep up with him. I have no idea where we are, or where were going. I don't even know how to get back. We head up a hill, which is the most exhausting thing ever. Austin's practically sprinting up the hill like a little kid. We finally reach the top if the hill.

"Are we there yet?" I say panting. Austin grabs my hand.

"Yes." He brings me toward a wall of very talk bushes and starts to push through. I follow trying not to get poked in the eye by a twig. When I open my eyes my jaw drops and my breath is taken away.

I'm standing on a cliff that overlooks the lake. I can see every corner of the lake and even the beach that we go to all the time. The night sky makes it look even more beautiful. There are patches of flowers over to my left and to my right a small swing hanging from a tree. This place was absolutely beautiful, just stunning. Why did Austin take me here?

"This... this is amazing Austin. How did you find this?" I ask still staring out at the view.

"That night I saw your dad... yeah, I went for a walk in the woods and I saw the bushes and I was curious to see what was on the other side. Turns out it's a new place for me to go. Oh and look!" He runs over to some chairs and a table. "I brought these so I could hang out back here with my friends. And over here you can walk down to small beach and there's sand and the water doesn't look deep so we could swim in it or something! I just wanted to show someone!" Austin was so excited.

"So why did you bring me here?" I ask turning towards his crossing my arms. He laughs a little bit to himself.

"Everyone else was busy." He starts walking over to me and his face turns to embarrassment. "Not saying you were the last choice or anything! I was going to invite you anyways but everyone else had something going on." He nervously laughs and stands in front of me, looking down at me. My chest starts to explode and I prepare for what's about to happen.

"Come on! Let me show you the beach!" He says. Oh. Nevermind. Silly me. I follow him over to a very small, steep path that leads down to a sandy beach. I never knew this spot even existed, but it's so beautiful. Austin stands right next to the water and looks out over the lake. I slowly walk over to him and look up at the stars.

"Thanks for showing me this place. We should bring everyone here sometime." I say looking up. Austin is still looking out at the lake but smiles and nods at the idea.

"I come here almost everyday. It's just kind of an escape for me. I want to build a small hut or tree house or something. Just a place for us to go to over the summer and when we all come back from college for holidays." He says. A pang of sadness hits me as I remember I only have this summer to see my friends all the time. Kat and Phil were the only ones leaving the state to go to Wisconsin, Aaron was headed up north with Austin, and Alan and I were headed to the cities. Even though we would both be near each other, everyone else would still be gone. I know Alan's my best friend but it still made me sad that I probably won't see any of the others that much anymore. I guess high school's over, it's time to start growing up. The silence fills the air

"Hey what's wrong?" Austin looks down at me and begins to pull me into a hug. I look up at him.

"I'm just gonna miss all you guys so much. It sucks that were all spitting off onto separate paths." I look back down to the ground. Austin pulls me closer and rubs my back.

"I'm gonna miss you guys too, but we'll still see each other and talk. We all have cell phones, we just have to keep in touch." He tries to comfort me and I begin to calm down a bit. I still have 2 1/2 months of summer. It'll be ok. Austin releases me from the hug and we stare out at the sky.

We stand there in silence for about 10 minutes, just watching the stars getting brighter and brighter. It was a breath taking view of the lake and the stars.

"Thanks for coming with me." He says. I nod and he takes out his phone. Surprising it's almost 11 o' clock, how did so much time pass? "I should probably show you the way home shouldn't I?" He says. I laugh a little bit and nod. He grabs my hand and helps me climb back up the slope.

The walk back to my house was quick and quiet. I was too tired to do anything at this point. Today was a good day though. I got to see Aaron again, and Austin. I now know that Austin truly cares about me and is just a great friend overall. We reach the small river and Austin takes my hand.

"Don't fall in this time you clutz." He laughs. I playfully push him and he almost falls in. He turns around and looks at me.

"You know if it weren't dark out you would be back in the water!" He teases. I laugh a little and start to cross the river. It's very quiet in the forest at night, it's kind of creepy and actually really scary. I can see my houses outline out in the distance. It was completely dark now and I'm sure that my dad has noticed that I'm gone by now. But whatever, it was worth it. We reach the side of my house.

"Hey, where's the ladder to your room?" Austin asks. I look to the side of my house and see that the ladder is nowhere to be seen. Shit. He must want me to come in the front door so he can beat the shit out of me. I have to find that ladder, I have to. Fear shoots through me as I look around for the ladder. I run to my shed and see everything on the ground, including the ladder. My dad must be pissed. Glass was shattered and tools were broken. The ladder was in the back and I try and avoid broken glass to grab it. I bend over and begin to grab it when I hear Austin.

"EDITH!" I hear Austin shout. I turn my head and see him nervously pointing to my window. I can't see my window from here so I run over to him. There's a light flickering in my room, from how it's lighting up my room it looks orange. I struck with shock as I see smoke start to roll out my window.

My house is on fire.