My Classified Life

Chapter Thirty-One: The Calm Before The Storm

 I got ready quickly, not caring how I looked in my good jeans and Hollister shirt covered up by my black jacket. The night air was warmer than I expected but it felt perfect with a jacket on. The air was not dry but not damp either, the half moon glowered overhead and the small twinkling stares waved at me. Twenty five minutes after I sent my text, I climbed out my bedroom window as nimbly as a mountain goat and crept along the shingles slowly. My sensible Nikes kept me from slipping or sliding alone the roof line as I stopped by the large tree and tested the branch for good measure.

I fixed my feet on it and started to walk along like a tight roper in the final act, my arms poised out beside me and eyes focused on my feet. I climbed down on the lowest and largest branch and sat down on it near the trunk where I would be supported. The scratchy bark made my clothes slightly dirty but I paid no mind. Out there on that tree limb with the still summer night air around me as the crickets chirped with their white noise and the wind blew no breath, I could think clearly.

My feet dangled into the blackness under that tree, a blackness I had become fond of. Down there in the dark I kept my secrets filed away. All the sweet things we had said to each other stayed hidden on the bottom of this tree, and one day if I ever got the guts, I would take the sharpest and smallest knife in our house and carve the letters E and D in a heart. It would only be small enough to read if you really knew where to look, but it would be sufficient.

I let my feet sway beneath me as they dangled from the branch and I looked off into where my distance driveway path was. For a second I saw the flash of headlights in the distance before Dylan cut the ignition and the blur of the lights faded back into the resounding darkness. The seconds ticked by in my heads as I enjoyed the calm before the storm. My head was tilted down as I stared at my feet as they swung, their rhythmic motions entrancing me, my eyes were only now becoming accustomed to the darkness and I could see more.

I heard his footsteps through the grass that cut my silence like a hot knife through butter, my ears focused on them as he came nearer. I tilted my head up to catch a glimpse of him in the shadowy light before bringing it down to stare at my feet again.

“Emily?” his voice whispered. The tree I sat in hid me in the shadows and he couldn't see me.

“I'm right here.” I whispered back.

“I can't see you.” he pointed out, trying to coax me away from my hiding spot, his tone tinted with worry.

“We can talk without you seeing my face.”

“Um.. uh okay. So what did you want to talk about?” he stammered.

My brain, my super spy and genius brain could only produce one word for him. “Why?” I croaked, so quiet I wasn't sure he had heard me.

“Excuse me?” he asked incredulously.

“Why did you lie to me?” I asked him, anger fueling my quiet voice.

“I... uh-” he took a long pause. “I.. um.” Fully realizing that this was all he was able to say I went on.

“Why?! Why take the time to lie to me, make me believe you, make me trust you when you don't seem to care as long as you are in control?”

I jumped off the branched and soared through the air below and hit the grand with a thump sound. Dylan stood feet away from the tree and I took big stomping strides over to him until I was so close to him that I could chew him out properly.

“Why?” I sighed out heavy and turned my head away from him before snapping back to look in his shaded eyes. “Why do I even bother?”I whipped around and was just one step away from climbing up the tree and away from him when a hand grabbed my arm and forced me back against my will. I fought with him half heartedly, even through the darkness I could see he was begging me to not walk away from him again.