Sapphire Stones

''Language!'' -Sponsored by Captain America

"You do realize that you can't exactly claim trees, right?" Gally asks, staring at me.

"I beg to differ," I reply, my eyes on my hand as it runs across the wood. I can feel his gaze on me. "And quit staring, Wonder Boy. Don't be a pedophile."

"I'm not being a pedophile!" He shouts back, throwing his hands in the air, his eyebrows furrowed.

I shrug, raising one eyebrow. "You're staring at me all creepy. Kinda a pedo thing to do."

"Do you even know what that is?" He snaps.

"You," I snap back. Gally rolls his eyes, causing me to laugh a little.

"So..." He says after a few minutes of silence, "what exactly is this claiming thing you've done? Did you like, engrave your name or some stupid shit like that?"

"Well if you're just gonna be rude about it, I'm not gonna show you," I say, crossing my arms.

"Wha- you can't just make me climb a tree and then not show me the engraving!"

"I just did, Galpal."

Gally rolls his eyes. "Why all the nicknames? I have a name, you know."

"So do I, yet you still feel the need to call me Greenie," I reply, shrugging my shoulders.

"Touché," he mutters.

"No, but actually. Why don't you ever call me by my real name?" I ask, staring at his annoyingly perfectly sculptured face.

He shrugs this time. "'Cause I don't feel like it," he replies, his eyes staring into mine.

"Ever?"

"Ever," he says shortly, tearing his eyes away from me. A beat of silence passes over us, slightly awkward as we just stare at each other. And then, "so, do I get to see the engraving or are we just gonna sit here like two morons?"

"Ask nicely," I reply, smiling at him.

"C'mon!" He shouts, lifting the arm on his leg up in the air. "It's just a tree!"

"It's not just a tree, idiot," I snap, mocking his tone. "It's my tree."

"So you've said like, a billion times," he mutters, glaring at me. We sit in silence once again for a few seconds before he grumbles something, dropping his chin to his chest. He says, almost reluctantly, "fine," before meeting my eyes again. He screws his face up in a look a disapproval as he starts trying to say something.

A teasing grin spreads across my face as I watch him. "Spit it out, Galpal. I don't have all day."

"Can you please," he says, struggling to get the words out. I can tell he doesn't do this much. "In the most polite way possible, move so that I can see the engraving?"

"Fine. But only since you asked so nicely," I say with a grin, standing up and climbing a branch higher so that he has a clear path. Gally stares up at me, watching my actions and looking confused. "What?" I snap, as I adjust myself on the tree, leaning over the branch slightly to look down at him.

He shakes his head, scooting over slowly and carefully avoiding my dangling legs. He finally makes it over to the branch with the engraving, staring at it as he runs his fingers delicately over it. I look down at my palm as he reads it, dirt embedded in the gauze and tape, just as I knew it would. A moment passes in silence as he reads. His eyebrows draw together and he reads aloud, "this tree belongs to the hilarious, amazing, gorgeous, perfect, sexy girl named Venus?" He asks, staring up at me, confusion written all over his features. "That's seriously what you wrote?"