Under the Willow

Chapter 1: Toiletpaper and Rocks

I remember when I was little, and everything was easy. There was not a care in the world. Just me, and my best friend, Luke. My parents had left me for the week to go on vacation, and I was in the care of Luke's family. He had super light blonde hair and eyes that were sometimes green and sometimes blue. We were trying to get through the struggles that 6 year olds have. Well I was six, Luke was 7, a year older than me. He never let me forget it, but that was okay, because I was taller.

That particular day our biggest concern was trying to find the toilet paper, and not for the reason you would think. No, we were playing detectives and were convinced there was a mystery to be solved. After begging Luke's dad he had finally told us that the toilet paper seemed to be disappearing. Which leads me to my current situation in the crawl space in Luke's basement looking for toilet paper. We were not having any luck finding the disappearing toilet paper, but we were finding everything else down there.

We soon gave up after discovering a kite and took it outside. We ran to the park by woods where we always skipped rocks in the creek. There was no wind outside however, so I turned to dancing on the tree that fell across the creek, underneath the giant willow we always played under. It laid across the stream, about 5 feet above the rushing creek. I was casually walking, singing a little tune. I caught Luke staring at me, and I kept walking. He picked up a rock, and held it in his hand. I began messing with him. Whenever he held the rock up I would turn to look at him. Spinning round and round the game continued. Then, Bam! Pain erupted from the back of my head. I screamed as I fell off the fallen tree. With a splash I landed in the rushing, freezing water. It was not that deep, and I was able to reach the surface. Gasping for air I looked at Luke with hurt in my eyes, as I made my way to the stream bank. Luke waded in the water to try to help me. He reached his arms out to pull me in, but I pushed them away.

"Chlo, I'm so sorry!" He said genuinely, but I kept wading out. "You are my best friend! You are the one person that was never supposed to hurt me!" I screamed. He was always so protective of me, how could he do this to me!? I ran right to that willow and climbed up it as fast as I could. "It was a game,you were teasing me, and you knew I'd throw it!" He called up. "I never meant to hurt you, I'm so sorry!" He called from the trunk of the tree.

I was not going to be the weak little girl in the situation. Searching for the nearest tangible object I discovered a dead stick from the tree and instantly picked it up. I then jumped down from the tree and chased him with it, continuously swinging the stick back and forth until I successfully made contact with him.

After that he ran home, but I stayed.

I stayed up in that tree, realizing for the first time in my life that boys were just going to hurt you.

That was the last day there, before everything changed.