My Sisters Best Friend • Jonah Marais AU •

The Treehouse with Jonah

"Boys are cute." Arla whispered to herself but the thought was pushed to the back of her mind, almost vanishing, as Jonah came back up the rope ladder from the ground. He quickly shut the door of his old treehouse and the 'kids rule' sign, nailed to the outside wall, shook from the force.

"Coast all clear." Jonah smiled and pulled out Sarah's half eaten packet of gummy bears from underneath his shirt. Arla jumped and clapped her hands excitedly. Jonah flicked his brown fringe out of his hazel eyes and sat down at the white, wooden table opposite the girl. "Did Sarah ask any questions when you said you were gonna go home?"

"No." Arla shrugged. "I just told her I wasn't feeling well and then I climbed around the fence like you said." She smiled, butterflies in her stomach fluttering around from stealing her best friends lollies.

At least, that's why Arla thought that they were there.

"That's good." Jonah sighed and swung back in his chair. Arla huffed and crossed her arms.

"Jonah please don't swing back last time you did that you-" The younger girl was cut off by Jonah yelping as he swung his chair just that little bit to far, and came tumbling down onto the creaky treehouse floor. Arla gasped and jumped out of her own chair to run over to the boy, brushing his hair out of his face and then stiffening a giggle. "Told ya."

"Oh hardy ha ha." Jonah scowled but couldn't help smile at his friend anyway.

For some reason he began to admire the way her straight black hair fell just below her shoulder blades, how her light brown eyes complemented her tan skin perfectly and how when she laughed she would place a hand over her mouth to try and hide it. 

No wonder his friend Daniel thought she was pretty for her age.

But just like Arla had done, the thoughts about her being pretty vanished as soon as he got distracted. The younger of the two suggested they play on the flying fox that took you right to a platform on the ground outside Jonah's house.

"Yeah but it hasn't been used in a while so let me test it first!" Jonah said excitedly and the girl smiled at him so he knew she wasn't mad that he was going before her, much unlike her best friend who felt the need to always be first but Arla loved her anyway.

"Want me to give you a push?" Arla asked once they were outside and on the 'porch' of the treehouse.

"No it's okay I got it, thanks though A." He smiled and watched as she nodded and let herself lean against a post of wood about a meter behind the flying fox. Jonah chuckled nervousley before finally letting himself jump off the edge and fly down the rope, the handle bars in a death grip within his hands.

"Woohoo!" Arla cheered once he made it to the bottom. However, her loud call had caught the attention of a certain sister. Luckily enough though for the two children who had fooled her, Sarah wasn't one to jump to conclusions.

"Arla I thought you went home? Hey does the flying fox work?!" Sarah got distracted and ran over to her brother on the bottom platform. He nodded and waved Arla down, pulling the rope from a pulley that sent the handles back up to the top.

"Okay I'm coming down now." Arla squealed happily and grabbed onto the metal bars with her tiny hands. "3...2...1-"

"Kids it's time for tea!" Jonah and Sarah's mother called from inside but all were cut off by a ear piercing scream as Arla fell from the top of the tree house. The call from Eliza - Jonah and Sarah's mother - had shocked her and she let the handle bars loosen in her hands as she leaned forward.

"Momma! MOMMA!" Jonah called out but it wasn't really necessary as Eliza came running out into the back garden, talking to 911 on the phone already as she had seen the whole thing from the kitchen window.

Arla's arm was clearly broken, it was bent a whole other way! Jonah ran off the platform and over to his friend who whimpered on the ground.

"Shhh it's g-gonna be okay. The doctors are gonna fix it." He tried to comfort her yet she just continued to cry.

"It h-hurts. It hurts JoJo." Jonah didn't know what to do so he just nodded and watched her squeeze her eyes shut in pain. Eliza had just called her best friend to let her know that her daughter had broken her arm and the ambulance was about 3 minutes away.

His mom softly spoke to Arla as three men in blue scrub uniforms came running out to the four of them on the ground - one carrying a small stretcher.

Eliza knew to move out of the way and let the men do their job so she had to force Sarah to let go of her best friend's hand and move back as well.

Jonah didn't know why, but he knew he wasn't going anywhere.

He jumped up from Arla's side only to jog up to where her head was. He gently lifted her head up and laid it on his crisscrossed legs and looked into her eyes so she would be distracted from what the ambulance men were doing.

"What's your favourite animal?" He asked her and Arla looked at him like he'd grown another eyeball.

"W-What?" She groaned and let a few more salty tears fall trickle down her soft face as she tried not to scream because one ambulance man had to pick her broken arm and move it down to her side.

"What's. Your. Favourite. Animal?" He asked again and made sure to be slow so she understood.

"O-Otters...you know this?" Jonah nodded at her but continued to ask her questions.

"Tell me why?" Jonah was a smart boy and he knew that although he could never make her completely forgot about being in pain, he could certainly help her to not think about it as much.

And even when Arla was loaded onto the stretcher, driven to the hospital and lied on a scratchy, uncomfortable, white bed, it was Jonah who was there to ask her dumb questions and make her laugh. 

To distract her.

==========================

1075 Word Count