Can I Tell You A Secret?

Chapter 5

I wake up in the middle of the night. I hate waking up in the middle of the night, because it's impossible to get back to sleep after. It also wakes up all of your senses, and makes even a quiet tap dripping seem creepy. My phone vibrates so I pick it up, to find a text. In fact, there's 5 texts waiting to be read. I pick up my phone and unlock it, opening Messages. The bright screen burns my eyes, even though it's on it's lowest brightness setting. All 5 texts are from Avalyn. The first one says:

Alouette? Do you want to talk?

The second one says:

Please? I really need to talk.

The third one says:

This is really important.

The fourth one is a jumble of worry faces emojis, but the last one says:

I don't care if it's the middle of the night. I really need to talk to someone.

That text was sent 1 minute ago. I call her, and she picks up almost immediately.

"Ava? Are you okay, honey?" I whisper worriedly, as I fumble for the lock of my balcony door.

I find it, and unlock the door, sliding it open. I step out into the warm summery night air, and close the door behind me.

"Hi, Alouette," Ava replies, sounding like she's been crying.

I sit down on a chair I put on my balcony, and put the phone on speaker.

"Are you okay?" I repeat.

"No, not really. I really need to talk to someone," she says.

"I'm talking to you now," I remind her.

"No, in person," she whimpers.

"Where are you?" I ask, guessing that she's not at her home.

"I'm at the park, the one ten minutes away from school," she tells me.

"I'm looking at it right now. I'll be there in 5," I say, hanging up.

I change into a pair of Nike capris and an Elmo t-shirt,before going back to my deck. Holding my phone in one hand, I sit on the edge of my balcony, leaning forward to try and reach for the tree nearby. It occurs to me that I can't climb down a tree holding my phone, so I stuff it into my sports bra. I grab onto the tree branch and swing for a second, before my unathletic legs find a place to stand. It takes a while, but I manage to climb down the tree. I walk briskly to the park, and find Ava sitting on a swing. Not swinging, just sitting. And crying. I run up to her and hug her. She hugs me back.

"What's the matter?" I ask her.

"This may confuse you," she sniffs, "but I'm going to need you to do this entire thing, no questions asked."

I nod understandingly. We'd talked a bit in the two days since we met, and it turned out that we both loved the T.V show How I Met Your Mother. When we discovered that, we started using all these How I Met Your Mother references. Like the "no questions asked". I hop onto the swing next to her, and swing softly.

"Swing competition? Whoever swings the highest, wins," I suggest.

My sister and I were obsessed with these. We'd walk down to our local park, and spend hours on the swings.

"Ok," Ava smiles sadly.

"3, 2, 1, go!" I yell, and we both start swinging.

We swing and swing, for what seems like hours, but is probably just minutes. I jump off, and stumble on my landing, falling onto my knees. I burst into fits of laughter.
"Jump!" I yell to my best friend.