new girl (part 2)

chapter 2

I arrive at the tree at seven on the dot. Valery hasn’t gotten here yet, which is good, because I could use the minutes to think of something to say to her. Maybe I don’t need to say anything to her, I just want to have her in my arms again. I think about bringing up her cuts, but I really don’t want to ruin the mood. I start to climb the tree, and pass the branches that Valery and I sat in. I climbed to the thinnest branch that could support my weight. I sat there, and I see basically the whole town. I smile to myself, the breeze sending in fresh scents to me.

Val’s motorcycle pulls up, and I watch her get up, and look up at the tree.

“Drew?” she calls.

“Up here, Val! C’mon!” I yell down to her.

I hear her laugh, and she disappears under the tree branches and leaves.

It takes a moment for her to get to our old branches, she stops and looks up at me.

“Jesus, you’re really high up there.” She pants. She looks down at the ground and back up at me.

“Afraid of heights, are we?” I started to make my way down to her.

“That noticeable?”

I laugh and shake my head. I stand on my branch from the other day, and reach up to the branch above me and hold onto it, to keep my balance. Valery looks up at me, hugging the tree trunk. A leaf is in her hair, and her grey eyes are wide.

“I really suck at climbing trees, we should’ve gone to the cemetery. Or been normal teenagers and gone to the café or something.” She said.

“Too boring. Plus, don’t you think it’s super romantic with the sun and the leaves and nature?” I smirk at her.

Val grins, and butterflies flutter around in my stomach.

“If you like nature, I know the perfect place to go.” Valery said, while getting off the trunk.

“And where’s that?”

“A surprise. Come on!” she starts to climb down. And I laugh, because I’ve lived here since I was five, and know Radiator like the back of my hand. But, I follow her.

I jump down and follow her to her motorcycle.

“We aren’t taking my car?” I ask, eyeing her as she swung a leg over the sleek black metal.

“Nope. What are you, scared?” She teases me.

“Of course not! Just, you know, you don’t have enough helmets.” I shrug, lying.

“You’re a really bad liar, Drew. And I do have an extra helmet.” She hands me a black one like hers, only bigger.

I sigh, and put it on, buckling the clasp underneath my chin. I swing my leg over the motorcycle and hold on to Valery’s curvy hips.

“Hold on tight.” She gases it, and it rumbles and growls in response. She books it down the highway, with me gripping her hips.


About thirty minutes later, Valery parked on the side of the road. She waited until I got off and followed suit. We both took our helmets off and put it in the back trunk/bag thing.

“Help me hide this in the trees.” She said and we both steered it into the woods, making sure the black metal was covered in the greens and browns.

“Now what?” I asked her.

“Now we hike.” She disappeared into the tree line and I catch up to her.

Hike? I looked down at my jeans and shoes, and then at hers. Not that I’m staring at her butt, but her pants don’t look at all good to hike in. Maybe her combat boots, but you never know. Like I said before, I know this town. But I had no idea where the heck we’d be climbing to. Val navigated through the trees and stepped over bushes and then we were there.

An opening in the woods came to us, and a meadow with a stream running beautifully in the middle. Wild flowers grew with tall grass, and it was that kind of meadow you only read about in books or seen in photography or in movies. It was breathtaking, and the scents where powerful and pure that almost knocked me off my feet.

Valery was looking up at me the whole time, smiling. Caught up in the moment, I bring myself close to her, hands on each side of her face. I take in her smells and the meadow’s smells, and it’s so beautifully…overwhelming.

I didn’t kiss her. I just pressed our foreheads together, and closed my eyes. Kissing her right now, just didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel like it could express my love to her, and I wanted to find something that would. My heart ached for all of her to become a part of her, not two people but one.

Valery wrapped her arms around my neck, and practically tripped me to the soft flowered ground. I laughed, and rolled with the fall, keeping Valery against me. We were now laying in the tall grass, a tangle of limbs, her hair creating a curtain around us. We didn’t speak, we just smiled at each other, stroked each other’s faces, planted kisses here and there. I felt numb with love, and I wish I could stay in this simplicity of life forever and enjoy it and live on it, never leave, never get old, never let Valery go.

Somehow she ended up on top of me, my hands on her hips. The sun light shining through her black hair. She smiled down at me, and I smiled back up at her. Her smile faded and something went over in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” my heart plummeted, and I kept asking myself, Crap. What did I do wrong?

Valery shook her head and forced a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Val. What’s up?” I sat up, keeping her in my lap.

“Nothing, it’s nothing. Let’s just enjoy the moment.” She winced, knowing she already ruined it.

I rubbed my thumb across her cheekbone. “Tell me.”

She sighed, and her shoulders slumped. “Look, I’m not fishing for compliments. But, why do you like me?”

I frowned, wondering where this was coming from. “Val, you’re kidding right?”

She looked hurt, and tried to get up from my lap, but I pulled her back down.

“I get it. You’re just playing me, and came at me because I’m the new girl and wouldn’t know better.” Her cheeks flushed.

“No, no. Valery, no. That’s not it at all.”

“Then why, Drew? Why would you chase after me?”

I hesitated. Was it because she was the new girl, and she really didn’t know better? No, I tell myself, I love her.

“Val… I- I love you.” I looked away, afraid of the rejection.

“You barely know me, Drew.” I felt her body tense up against mine.

“Let me reword that then. I’m falling in love with you.” I looked up at her through my eyelashes, “I’ve never felt this way around any girl. I’ve never brought a girl into that tree. Never even thought of a future with girl until you.” Now it was my turn to flush.

Valery put to fingers under my chin, and made me look into her grey eyes, “You’ve thought of a future with me?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but she put a finger to my lips, and leaned down to kiss me. She stopped her lips just before they touched mine. And in the tiniest voice, I had to strain to hear, she said; “I’m falling for you too.”

And we kissed. Not a deep kiss, but a slow one, and I leaned us back against the ground. We stayed there until the sun was setting, and then we decided to drive back to my car. She parked, and I got off the motorcycle. I took off the helmet and handed it to her as she got off also. She took her helmet off and shook her hair out.

I pulled her against me, fingers hooked in her belt loops. I breathed her in, my lips brushing her neck. I heard her sigh in bliss. Her fingers curled in my hair, and I slowly crept my lips back up to her fell red ones. We kissed again, and it got cut off short.

“I have to go before my uncle worries.” Valery chewed her lip.

I sighed, “Your uncle is strict.”

“Only because he loves me.”

I let her go after planting a kiss on her cheek. She walked back to her motorcycle, casting a look over her shoulder. She swung her leg over the metal and clasped her helmet on. She gassed it and took off down the highway, and I watched her bike ride down the road until she was just a speck.