The Tree in the Forest

Chapter Five

                                     ~~~

  It's now December. Your birthday has come and gone and nothing was out of the ordinary. Everything was just as it should be.

  For now, that is.

  Anyways, at the moment you had Karkat sitting at your coffee table, chewing idly on pretzels while you sit around and try to figure out the camera that Aunt Delilah got you for your birthday.

  As rude as she is, she has the most awesome presents.

  "So. . .you still haven't figured it out?" Karkat asks. You shake your head, not looking up from the electronic in your hands.

  "Dave, its been a whole week and you still haven't even turned it on. I'm pretty sure we should take it to Sollux now," He says. You give him a harsh glare and insist on doing it yourself.

  To be entirely honest, you just don't like Sollux. He just makes you feel like a complete idiot and he makes stupid puns all the time.

  "He's just going to show you how it works. Geez. Bring it to school tomorrow and we can show it to him." Karkat pushes. You begin to think that he just wants to hang out with Sollux instead of you.

"No, I can do this myself!" You huff. Karkat actually laughs at you a bit and you take the last of his pretzels in retaliation.

  He looked angry for a moment before gripping the camera in his hands so he could look at it. You look at him, worried he was going to break it. If he broke it, you don't know what you'd do.

  "Dave. You need to find the power button first. Have you found that yet?" He asked, looking at the bottom, top, front, and sides of the device.

  "No. I feel like it might be on top, but there's an ass load of buttons on there," You answered. Karkat didn't respond to your cursing, as per usual.

  He gave the top a few looks and pressed a yellow and green button. The device came to life, the screen on the back lighting up.

  "There. Sollux taught me some stuff. He said that power buttons normally have a little dot poking out of it or its colored in a way that makes it unlike all the other buttons," Karkat said.

  You rolled your eyes as you took the lens cap off and brought the camera closer to your face, looking through the viewfinder.

  You looked through the viewfinder until you found something to be the subject of your first picture. You thought about making Karkat the first but he was already looking straight at you and you wouldn't get the type of 'looking-away' thing you wanted to do.

  Honestly, you didn't want him to know that you wanted a picture of him. He might think you're weird and never want to talk to you again. He might never want to even be associated with you .

Yeah, it is creepy to want to have a picture of your best friend and all his simplicity. You wanted it to look like an old Polaroid picture, too, with an ugly yellow flash and darkness around Karkat so that he stood out more.

Wow, that only added to the creepiness of it. What kind of guy wants a Polaroid picture of the friend who came to his house almost everyday so that he could hang it the back of his closet and look at it when he's upset? You.

Sometimes you even had the urge to kiss him. Nothing gross and intense like they did in movies, but a simple one right on his cheek. He'd let Terezi do that once, so why not you? As far as you knew, they were only friends. They had a 'bromance' as your Bro calls it.

You wanted to hug Karkat most of all. He might think that's weird, but he taught you how to ride a two-wheeler after you were too scared to learn on your own accord. He held your waist then. But when that happened, you didn't know that people could love each other unless it was in movies. You'd never seen anyone love anyone like that outside of movies and certainly not in your own family.

Kind of sad, actually. People at school talked about it, as if they actually had a clue what they were doing with love. They didn't. They just wanted the social status.

You settled on taking a picture of the bird that was perched on the ledge outside of the window. A crow. You'd always liked crows, even if everyone else hates them. They needed to be loved, too. You kept a dead one for some odd weeks when you were younger, but Bro found it and made you throw it out. He let you bury it, though. That was when you guys still lived in a house and not an apartment.

Bro said something happened with money and you guys had to live somewhere cheaper. You got to stay at the same school, though, which was nice.

  You're pretty sure it was debt. Life had punched him in the gut then, and he was just starting to get back on his feet. Your financial status was always wobbly, but John's dad always pitched in to help, and Bro was always very hesitant to accept the money. You hope he doesn't do gross shit with John's dad. That'd just freak you out.

You doubt it, though. John's dad practically had the world at his disposal. They were well-off and had a nice reputation in the community. They had nothing to fear. Why would he need Bro to do that?

Before you knew it, you had taken ten pictures of random objects just so you could mess with the controls. I had some pictures of the same bird and different focuses, the couch, and your own knees. It was interesting little collection.

You decided that you would make a collection with all of your pictures. Maybe one day you could have that Polaroid of Karkat. Maybe you'd be able to hold him. Maybe.

That's a big maybe, though.

_____________________________________________

Oh man. Davey's getting a crush.

He doesn't quite realize fully though. Most kids wouldn't. He's like 11-12 in this chapter and I think he'll realize that he's a raging homo soon.

He'll be like the same age in the next chapter and he'll probably start to properly realize his crush. The next chapter is set a few months after this one.

Also, I'm probably about to rip him to pieces so I can put him back together again. That's what I do.

Also, I REALLY appreciate the support that this has gotten so far even if it's not a whole lot. Thanks a whole bunch :)

Alright, bye!

~Ghostie

(Ps, always feel free to point out mistakes you see such as 'I' instead of 'you'. I constantly switch perspectives when I'm writing these by accident haha)