Her Safe Place

5 -

Janet < 3

"Toni— Toni Micheleee" I sung softly in her ear. Within the first hour of watching tv she'd fallen asleep. I looked at her clock to see it was only five in the evening. Just when the sun began to set. I shook her gently in my lap. Causing her to shift in her sleep.

"Jan. Leave me alone." She turned around in my lap and clung closely to me. It made me blush. But tried my best to hide it, mother would scold me harshly.

"Let's go to the creek. It's almost sun set." Toni's eye's popped open as she sat down next to me.

"I've been waiting for you to say that!" Quickly she got out of bed and changed into her water shoes. One way or another we'd end up playing in the water.

"Wait I don't have my shoes." I said sliding off her bed.

"I had you leave them here remember? They're in my closet." She never looked up from her foot. As I put my shoes on, Toni changed into a pair of shorts I'd given her last summer. My eyes grew wide as I watched her put them on. When ever she'd look at me I'd look away.

"You still have those?" I asked shyly.

  "Yup. They're my favorite pair of shorts." Casually she grabbed my hand and we were off to the creek. It looked the same as it did every summer. Only this time we'd carved our names in a few trees. Each year we'd carve another one. It was a mandatory assignment of ours.

We sat on our usual rock and just looked up at the sky for a while. No words needed to be spoken, there was so much I wanted to tell he but couldn't. I was afraid of what she might think.

"Janet?" Toni spoke softly.

"Yeah, Toni?"

"Why are you scared?" She asked in a whisper.

I sat in silence for a moment. Trying to figure out exactly what she meant by it. And weather or not I should tell her the truth.

"I'm your best friend. I can hear you thinking about it. It's okay, I won't be mad at you." She sat up and leaned on her elbows. Giving me a reassuring smile.

"Nothing—" I responded quickly.

"You're lying. But it's okay, you don't have to tell me." She kissed my cheek and stood from the rock, walking over towards the water. My hand grazed the area she had kissed before I joined her with a smile.

"Jan look, theres a baby duck over here." I ran to where she was, in her hands she held the smallest duck I'd ever seen.

"We should name it. yeah?" She asked. I nodded my head yes. Holding my hands out to take it. Gently she allowed the duck to waddle into my palms.

"What about, Janet?" She said while petted the ducklings head.  I scrunched my nose at her.

"That's my name, Toni."

"I like it though."

"No." I shook my head and laughed.

"How about Damita, I like that name even more." She raised an eyebrow at me and smiled.

"Fine. But what about a last name?" I sat on my behind and held the baby duck in my lap. Toni scratched her head and thought hard.