Twin Souls: The Story Behind The Broken Roses

Chapter Ten: August 12, 2014

Tegan Seech

One nice thing about some people thinking that she was simply insane because of the way that she would talk was that Tegan could pretty much disappear and no one said so much as a word. She'd been hiding in a tree for the better part of two hours and... No one had come looking for her... The solitude was very nice, she liked the feeling of the tree bark against her fingertips and the sound of the rustling of the leaves and she felt a lot less overwhelmed up here.

People were always a little too loud around her when she was on the ground, and her headphones couldn't fix everything, but sitting in the tree sure could... A white birch tree... It was taking everything in her power not to take all the bark that she could because she wanted to write little special notes for all of her friends... She hoped they were her friends... She wasn't always the best at knowing for sure.

She'd followed a group of girls around for three months before she realized that they were making fun of her behind her back... That was when she decided that she really didn't like going to school and she'd started cutting more classes back in Australia... They cared a lot more when she cut class here, but she'd gotten her parents number taken off of her emergency contact list and had put her own instead... It was working great, nobody suspected a thing, honestly... But that also made her sad.

Why didn't anyone notice when she was gone? Was she really annoying enough that everyone was happier not knowing where she was overlooking for her? She hoped not, but it was starting to feel like that was what was going on, and she wasn't liking it... She got ignored all the time at home, she didn't want to be ignored by the only people that she thought might ever be her real friends.

Did they even notice? She would almost understand if they didn't. She wasn't cool like any of them... Penny was gorgeous, Emma was rich, Esme... Had a lot of things going on that made her... Very fascinating... And she was just... Her. She got too excited about trees and the concept of having friends... And maybe that was annoying, but she wasn't trying to be annoying, and she hadn't meant to drive them away... She'd apologize later.

"Tegan? Are you up there?" She jumped at the sound of Esme's voice at the base of the tree, sounding worried, she glanced down to see her squinting up, wandering around aimlessly like she was looking for her... Was she looking for her? That wasn't something that she'd thought would happen, she'd thought that everyone would just forget about her.

Why hadn't they just forgotten about her? She wasn't mad... She was confused. She hadn't realized that she'd meant that much to anyone, but here she was... Meaning that much to people.

"Esme?" She asked, and Esme let out a sigh of relief and hugged the tree that she was in, looking up at her, squinting into the rain... She hadn't noticed how heavy it had gotten, the leaves had kept her pretty dry, but she'd appreciated the pitter-patter on the leaves... It'd kept her brain very happy.

She hadn't needed to put her headphones on even once, which was rare for her... Nothing felt overwhelming when she could touch a tree, when she could think about all the ways that it was unique, all of its special qualities... She loved being like this, she'd live up here if she could.

"Dude, I've been looking for you for a fucking hour, what are you doing?" Esme asked, sounding not frustrated... But extremely worried... Why was she worried? If Tegan was in any danger, she was arguably in the safest place unless someone wanted to scale a goddamn tree to get to her, but she was almost certain that she was not that popular, so she was gonna be perfectly fine.

"Just... Hanging out." Tegan said... She hadn't really noticed the rain either, that was what she was realizing... The tree had distracted her properly, she hadn't noticed her surroundings... She could've been up here for hours, she wouldn't even know.