Twin Souls: The Story Behind The Broken Roses

Chapter Four: June 29, 2014

Esme Panchek

Esme was fucking exhausted... and it was sticky, hot and gross in these woods... If she hadn't stolen some of Emma's bug spray she was pretty sure that she'd be covered in bites by now, they seemed to like her blood a lot... But she couldn't really bring herself to care about that, she was just working on tuning out the buzzing of the flies so that she could keep herself from getting agitated.

Actually, Tegan's ramblings about their surroundings was helping with that, she was talking about things that Esme could actually appreciate a bit.

"Esme." She glanced over, watching the way that Tegan excitedly took in the nature around them... God, she envied that, she wished that she had the energy to be that excited about things, but even if she was sleeping better, even if the sweats and pain had stopped, she was still fucking tired... So she'd live vicariously through her happy roommate.

"Yeah, Tegan?" Tegan gripped onto her arm, pointing up at one of the trees... Okay... Very tall... She didn't know what Tegan was so excited about, but she was willing to listen.

"Did you know that Shagbark Hickories, like that one there, can grow to be as much as 130 feet?" Esme shook her head, feeling astonished... It was weird to think that anything natural could get that tall... It was a little terrifying, what if one of them fell down and crushed her?

It'd mean she'd never have to go home... That wasn't that bad, she wouldn't have to deal with her dad again. Dream come true... Dark thoughts... Eh, she'd earned a few of those, her life was a little tragic.

"Really?" She asked, and Tegan nodded excitedly, shaking her hands a bit as she did. She stepped in front of Esme, grinning ear to ear as she walked backwards, pointing up at the tree.

"Mhm. But those are only the really big ones, this one's only... 70 feet tall." Esme squinted up at the tree and nodded... How the fuck had she known that it was 70 feet? Granted, that sounded like it could be true, Esme was just impressed with anyone who could easily do mental math. "That's an average height for these, if you were curious." Huh. Good to know... She smiled at Tegan, nodding... Honestly, since the headaches and insomnia had mostly resolved itself, it'd been nice to hear Tegan talk about things, she had such an interesting amount of knowledge about things that Esme never would've thought to actually learn about.

"Wow..." She breathed, and she noticed that Tegan's shoulders sagged as she played with her fingers, giving her a nervous smile as she fell back in step with her. Wait, why had she stopped? She wanted to know more, this was the first time she'd felt like she'd done anything of merit since getting here.

"What? Am I talking too much, I'm sorry-." Esme was quick to shake her head, placing a hand on Tegan's arm. She didn't ever want her to stop talking about this. It was nice that someone here was passionate about something and not just... Dejected. Angry. Uncomfortable... Tegan was honestly kind of a breath of fresh air.

"No! Please don't stop talking, I just... I'm really impressed." Tegan looked at her in disbelief, her face falling for a moment as she cocked her head to the side. She stopped in her tracks, nearly making Esme trip... Actually, she would've fallen, but Tegan caught her, still looking awestruck.

"Really?" Of course... That seemed like a really mean thing to lie about, Tegan seemed sweet, she didn't want to hurt her. Over the past two weeks she'd grown increasingly more protective of her, glaring at people who looked at her weird, shit like that... She hadn't ever felt such a familial feeling towards a total stranger, but it was almost... Nice.