Infinity

Chapter Six

I stare out into what seems an abyss from the top of the tree. I remember the times I would climb here when my parents were fighting. When they yelled and I cried. I would run here and climb until I reached the top. Until the sun warmed my skin and the breeze blew my hair back. The view was the same, but then it always seemed different. The way the sun shone through the gaps in the clouds, lighting up the sky in an ocean of blue and yellow. And then I fell.
In my mind, anyway. I imagined myself falling. But I wasn't allowed to die that way. I would just be that dead girl who fell from the tree. Maybe they would cut it down. And then, even though the oceans of colour would still flood the sky, nobody would ever get to see them. So I climbed down. I did not let go. I did not jump. I just climbed down and walked over to where the boy was sitting.
"Hey, Ryan. You ok?" I say as I walk to where he's laying on his back in the field. The long grass acts as a barrier around him, invisible to the world. Little white daisies crowd his skin and prick my feet as I stand over him.
He puts his hands over his face to shield his eyes from the sun. "Yeah, I mean, kind of. Yeah. I'm fine."
He's not fine.
"Why'd you call me Ryan?" He asks. He doesn't sound like he really wants to know, but as if he's just passing the time. "Have you read Fire in the Depths by Sean Hartley?" I ask, picking daisies.
"Only the ending." He says.
I read the beginnings, he reads the endings. Maybe together we could make a beautiful story.
"In the beginning of the book, Ryan is an undefined character, and he's blind, and the girl in the story has no name but it tells you all of her personality. You know exactly who she is, but she has no name and no face. You have no idea who he is, but he has a name-"
"Is there a point to this story?" He seems angry.
"You remind me of him. Or her, I guess. Except I don't know who you are or your name. Who do you want to be? The one without a name, or the one without a face?"
And with that he just walks away. "Tell me how it ends!" I yell after him. But he's gone. Ryan is gone.