Between Love And Hate

Chapter Nine

Raven

We got to the tree house quite quickly.

"We're here!" I called, staring back at Janelle. "C'mon. There's a ladder here with which to climb up." I let go of her hand in order to point out the hidden ladder, but I instantly felt empty after I left her hand.

She followed me though. And I wondered if she felt exactly what I felt when I broke our contact.

When we got up, I opened the door to the tree house and let her in first. She held her breath when she entered the tree house, taking her time to stare around. The small sitting room was quite big for a tree house, it had a room, and a kitchen too.
She turned to stare at me,

"Are you kidding me?! This is too perfect to be a tree house." There were graffiti on the wooden walls of the tree house. Paintings too, that me and Kattie made together, pictures of us and other wild things we thought were worth picture taking.

I let her tour the tree house for a minute. She came back to me after her little tour. "There's a bed? And there's a fridge in there..." she pointed at the kitchen.
I chuckled. "Dad had a solar system installed here. Then he went on to furnish it according to his taste. He called it my hide out. So he wanted me to be comfortable whenever I was here."
I had clothes here too, just in case I slept over (which I did many times I lost count).

I dropped my bag on the small sofa. Pulled my Polaroid camera out of it and sat down next to the bag. Janelle sat down next to me, she stared at the Polaroid and chuckled. "Does everything you own have the color blue on it?" she asked, making sure to look me in the eye.

I nodded. "That color means alot to me. Like, a lot. One time, I envied the Kentucky Blue people." This time, Janelle didn't hold back her laugh. "You're... You're so obsessed with my middle name."
I paused for a second. She was right. After all, her middle name was blue.

Click.
"oh my God, no! You just took a picture of me?" This time, it was my turn to laugh. "Gimme that!" She jumped on me and tried to snatch the camera. Instead, I took more pictures of us.

A few minutes later, she gave up and sat back down. "Shortie..." I teased, sticking my tongue out at her. She blushed.

"I'm not short. You're just tall." I laughed at her explanation. "As if. Doesn't still change a thing. You're short." I stated matter of fact.
This time, she frowned. Turning the other way with a big pout on her face. Oh no shit! She could be crying for all I know. I'm not good with handling crying people.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for what I said to hurt you..." That wasn't working, I groaned inwardly when I heard a sniff. And then this stupid idea kicked in.

Kiss her. Like she kissed you yesterday.
Oh no. No way is that repeating itself.
Just do it, you dimwit.
Hell no.
Another sniff.
Well, you have an adorable crying mess to handle.

I paused for a bit, then slowly dragged my feet towards Janelle. She was really crying. Damn! I must have touched a sensitive subject.

I squatted down so we could be on eye level, I subconsciously placed my palm on her cheek.
"I'm really sorry, Janelle. I didn't mean for that to hurt you." But then, she didn't budge.

And so I kissed her. Placing my lips on hers, ignoring the look of surprise on her face.

She only kissed back after a few seconds, or maybe I didn't count. Her lips were extremely soft. I placed my hand on the back of her neck and brought her head closer to mine. Her own hands were placed on my cheeks.
She parted her lips slightly and I deepened the kiss.

I pulled out of the kiss, because I needed to breathe. And she needed to breathe too. I got up. I knew I was blushing crazy.

We were silent for quite some time, I could only hear the sounds of soft breathing. When I grew courage to turn and stare at her, she was blushing again. So I picked up the Polaroid camera and took a picture.
She heard the click sound and turned to meet my gaze.

I smiled, "you weren't looking at me, so I had to get your attention. And besides, what's that phrase they always say again?" I scrunched up my face as if in deep thought, "oh, yeah. 'take a picture, it'll last longer.'" So instead of just staring, I took a picture.

We left the the tree house after spending an hour there. She didn't ask why I kissed her and I didn't ask her why she did the same last night.

"This is the same park, isn't it?" She questioned. I said a simple yes. "Go sit on that swing." I pointed out, and she walked towards it. When she sat down on it, I took a picture.
She quietly glared at me. But a minute later, she was swinging happily. I took pictures when she wasn't looking.

She was genuinely happy, it would take her mind of the stalking that was slowly getting worse.

When she got off the swing, she made me do stupid things while she took pictures. It was both weird and amazing at the same time. We were playing in the same children's park where our hate for each other started.

We left to eat ice cream later. And I had this strong feeling that someone was really following us...