Forest

Chapter 1- Holding Onto You

           I was on my way to Chris' house like any other day, but I felt something was off, I just couldn't put my finger on it; I decided to talk to Chris about it on the way to school or at lunch or something. I arrived at Chris' but he wasn't outside yet which was weird, but I decided to wait a bit and chose to think nothing of it, he probably just woke up late. I ended up waiting for a good 10 minutes before he walked out the door and slammed it behind him. I jumped up from the sudden noise, but as I turned to say something he gave me a look of 'I don't want to talk about it' so I stayed quiet.

After a few moments of awkward silence Chris turned to me and said, "Sorry about making you wait, I slept through my alarm and just generally didn't want to wake up and get out of bed today, I had a long weekend."

I turned to reply but I decided to get a good look at him instead. He had dark circles under his eyes, and they weren't the nice bright happy mocha they usually were; Instead they were a dim, twinkle-less sight. His face seemed a bit thinner as well, but I decided against questioning it.

After getting a good look at him I replied a bit sarcastically, "It's fine, it's nice out today, but if it were raining I'd probably have to punch you." giving him a playful punch in the arm. We both chuckled and continued walking in comfortable silence.

As we drew closer to the school, I noticed Chris would start to walk the slightest bit slower; finally when he was practically moving in slow motion I asked him what was wrong. He didn't answer for a bit so I decided to ask again, this time moving just a tad closer to him, but he just flinched back earning a surprised look on my face.

I stopped, a wave of sadness washed over me, Chris had only ever done that twice before, he would always let me hug him or something in order to comfort him. I looked down with a slightly hurt expression on my face and backed up.

"I'm sorry Chris I didn't mean to scare you, I just...I....I'm sorry." I looked up and put on a sad smile, "Come on, let's go or we'll be late."

Chris replied, "No, Ruby wait, I'm sorry....I just...I don't know how to explain it, I'm sorry but can we just not go to school today, I'm really not feeling well and I just, yeah. Can we go to our tree house?"

I was ready to cry, he had tears in eyes, he looked broken, I had to stay with him make him feel better. I replied, "Yes of course, nothing important is happening in any classes today. Do you want to pick up any food before we go?"

"That would be nice, can it be pizza?" Chris asked.

"Yes it can be pizza you dork, anything else?" I replied with a smirk, Chris's eyes lit up, "Candy and Starbucks too?", he had the sparkle back in his eyes and looked like a little kid asking for a puppy

"Oh hell yeah, definitely, do you want me to invite Summer or no?" I questioned.

Summer was our best friend we made in elementary school. She helped us build the tree house which was our secret hideout, our little paradise. Nobody knew about the tree house but us three and we planned to keep it that way. We built it in the forest behind my house because we knew everyone would be too scared to go more than 20 feet in. We built it big enough so that we'd be able to fit when we were teenagers and have somewhere to go when we wanted to be alone.

Chris was waving his hand in my face with a 'are you okay?' look on his face. " Wha- hey sorry I zoned out for a bit, what was your answer?" I said a bit jumpy. Chris replied with a sly smile and a small chuckle, "I said no, I just want it to be me and you today."

"Okay that's cool, let's go to the store and get everything shall we good sir?" I said in the best British accent I could manage while trying to keep a straight face and held out my arm.

"Why yes we shall madam," Chris said with a smile in his best posh voice, tipping an imaginary hat and taking my arm. We started walking, looked at each other and ended up bursting with laughter. After we had finished laughing, we continued walking arm in arm to town with goofy smiles on our faces.

We got everything we desired and started to make our way to our tree house. When we arrived we set all the food up and out of the way, then I told Chris to wait outside while I ran into my house to grab all my pillows and blankets I could find. I ran back to the tree house and got everything set up so that no matter where we laid down it would be comfortable. I told Chris he could now come in and when he did his face was a pure smile.

"You know, you were always the best at making forts when you were a kid, I'm glad nothing has changed" Chris said with a smile as he looked around taking the place all in.

"Truth is, before today, I haven't been in or near this tree house in years, I'm glad to be back it brings back such good memories, like the summer of '09, do you remember that?" Chris asked as he sat down across from me with a smirk and lightly pushed my shoulder.

"Oh please, how could I forget," I said with a giggle, "You screamed like a girl when Summer scared you!"

"Hey now, if it were you listening to the scary story you would have done the same thing, don't be such an asshole you....asshole," Chris retorted with a laugh, struggling to come up with a good insult.

We kept bantering back and forth until out of the blue Chris's stomach rumbled. We both laughed and got up to get some food. Chris chose pizza and a bag of chips while I had Sour Patch Kids and Popcorn. While we were eating Chris asked if I could get him a drink.

"Yeah sure, Root beer, Coke, Dr.Pepper, Grape soda, or Cream soda?" I asked giving him his options.

"Root beer, please and thank you."

I got us both Root beers but shook his up on my way back over to where we were sitting. Chris reached for his soda after finishing his pizza and ended up getting sprayed in the face. I burst out laughing while he just sat there stunned.

After a few seconds he smirked and said, "Oh, it's on now Ruby, I'm giving you five seconds to run. 5...4.." and with that I was up and already heading down the ladder still laughing. Just as I got to the bottom I heard him yell, "TIMES UP, I'M GONNA GET YOU ASSHOLE!"

I started running further back into the woods towards the small creek laughing as I heard him catching up. I didn't get very far before I was tackled to the ground with Chris on top of me, both of us out of breath from running and laughing. "I told you I would get you didn't I?" Chris said with a smile and a genuine laugh.

I laughed and looked into his mocha eyes, the sparkle was back and he looked so much better. "Yeah whatever loser, bite me," I said laughing while pushing him off, "besides I totally could have beaten you if I wasn't already out of breath from laughing so hard at your face after you opened your soda," I finished starting to laugh again.

"Yeah yeah, whatever helps you sleep Ruby, anyway wanna head back? It's gonna start getting dark soon, thanks daylight savings" Chris said with a smirk and a small laugh.

"Yeah let's go, I'm cold anyway I left my jacket at the tree house." Chris gave me his jacket then we started walking back laughing happy as can be without a care in the world.

5 hours later

"Hey Ruby?" Chris said, breaking the comfortable silence between us.

"Yes Chris? You alright?" I replied.

"Yeah I'm fine, I was just wondering, will you sing to me? You've always had such a pretty voice." He inquired.

I could hear the sleep in his voice. I was shocked, I didn't know he'd heard me sing before, but I agreed anyway.

"Yes of course, what would you like to hear?"

"Honestly whatever you prefer, I just want to go to sleep at the sound of your voice, it helps me." He said as he yawned, stretching and laying on his back.

"Okay." I acknowledged, blushing and smiling from ear to ear. That was the last of our conversation before I started to quietly sing. I looked down at Chris and saw him sound asleep as I sang, "..and I'll be holding onto you.."