Roses? Really? I look at them closely; all of them are red except one. And that one is white. There is a card next to it, I pick it up and read it…
Z,
I hope you feel better; it was nice saving your life. If you ever want to talk again, I promise this time you won’t fall out a tree. You know where to find me.
A.
I smile a little, and put the card back next to the white rose. My father comes into the room, and after a while I leave the hospital. I have a wheelchair, which isn’t fun but I just want to get better so I can see Archie again. My arms are too weak to wheel myself to the river, so I stay at home for weeks; I miss school because of it. I’m on so many medications that I have lost count. Some pink, some blue, orange, yellow, some even black. But when I am finally well enough to go to the river, I go. The doctors took the wheelchair away from me about a week ago, and put me on crutches for a week. I feel better, so I leave the crutches behind and I walk to the river.
When I get there, he isn’t there, and I don’t think I am going to be climbing that tree right now, so I sit at the bottom of the trunk. My eyes look up to the sky, it looks like it might rain in a while, but I don’t care. The clouds are forming slowly, meaning I have some time. I look at the trees around me; most of the leaves have disappeared now, making the trees bare. There is one or two left. The ones who want to grip tight to life, but they need to let go someday. When I was younger, I used to rake the leaves in my garden with my brother. When we were done there was a big pile of leaves in the middle, which we always jumped on and made a huge mess. In the end when our mother and father called for dinner, we would hide in the leaves, and wait for them to join us. We left with more mess than before. I look back down from the sky and the tall trees, and there is Archie, sitting about 10 metres away from me. Looking straight at me. He wears a grey jumper and jeans. I smile while he stands up and comes closer. As he sits down, he glances at my ribs and back.
“Thank you, for the roses.” I tell him, he smiles at me, moving his hand into his hair. We talk for about one hour and a half, and the rain starts. It is light rain, but we take cover just in case it gets heavy. We run to the hut next to the river, full of fishing equipment. After we get there, I notice that my white top is soaked and completely see-through; it might have been light rain, but my still soaking wet. I smile a little, slowly and subtly putting my arms around my chest. He notices it, and I feel embarrassed, but I say that I just need a little pressure on my ribs. He smiles, but he knows that I’m lying. The door is locked to the inside, so we stay out on the front part which is covered by the roof. The rain doesn’t stop, it just keeps getting worse, and I am starting to get cold. I stand up and look through a window.
“There’s a jacket in there. Are you sure it’s locked. I’m really cold.” I look down to my hands to notice they are going a little blue on the tips of my fingers. I should have brought a jumper or something with me. It’s the beginning of winter, and I came here is a t-shirt. Archie tries to open the door again, but it’s defiantly locked. He looks at me, and doesn’t know what to do.
“Here.” He says, he walks up to me, and then takes off his jumper. And of course, he isn’t wearing anything underneath it. I try not to stare, which is quite easy because I really need his jumper, and I just grab it and put it on. I hide my hands in the sleeves of the jumper and relax. As I sit down, that’s when I can’t stop staring. He sits next to me, and I smile.
“Thank you.” I say, he is a nice guy, I think in my head.
“There is just one little thing about you wearing my jumper.” He says. I look into his eyes, expecting him to say something other than to what he does say. “Come here.” I move closer to him and he hugs me, or his jumper. I don’t know which. “You know, boys get cold too.” He smirks, I don’t think he notices but I smile. His arms are wrapped around my ribs, which are a little painful but he keeps me even warmer. I almost fall asleep in his arms, but I am woken up by his teeth chattering next to my right ear. I turn to him to notice that his skin colour has changed to light blue. I take off his jumper quickly and shove it on him. I look around to see that it’s now snowing. His hands are frozen, he can barely move them. I put them in between mine, and try to warm them up.
“I’m sorry.” I see that he is looking into the distance, probably unable to move his eyes because of how cold it is. I’m starting to get cold too, but Archie is the one who is the coldest. So I ignore myself for a while.
“It’s not your fault, here just…” He moves his hands away from me, and gets me to sit back down. He moves his hands around me again, and I feel the warmth go back into my body. We sit in the corner, with the fence on one side of us which attaches to the house, and keeps the roof up. I lean my head on the side of the house, and relax again.
“Are you feeling better?” I ask him, in the corner of my eye I see him nod. All of a sudden, my phone starts to vibrate. I get it out of my pocket and pick it up. It’s Tim.
“Where are you?” He asks, sounding worried or something. I look at my watch to notice that I have been here all day.
“I’m next to the hut by the river.” I tell him. I hear him sigh, and I can tell from that sigh, that he is either going to pick me up, or I’m going to have to go. I feel Archie’s arms slowly melt away from me.
“I’m on my way, I will be there in about 5 min-“
“Can you bring one of your jumpers?” I cut him off, I hear a rustle on the other side of the phone and then it turns off. It must be bad connection from the snow. I turn around to see Archie’s face. “My brother is getting me. Do you want a lift home?” I ask him. He shakes his head, and then slowly stands up. I stand up with him, and end up hugging him. “Thank you for your jumper.” I tell him, he lets go of me so I can see his smile.
“Thank you for giving it back.” I laugh a little, I haven’t known Archie that well for long, but I don’t really care anymore.
I grab the back of his neck and pull myself up to him.
Then I kiss him.
