camdendaylight - Tumblr blog

camdendaylight · 23 days

Text

a/n: this is gonna be a one shot inspired by the song no body, no crime off of taylor swift's evermore. this does not include taylor as a character in any way. enjoy!

tropes: brother's best friend; best friend's brother; enemies to lovers; secret relationship; fake murder mystery; cold case files game; among us

We meet up every Tuesday night for dinner and a glass of wine.

"So there's gonna be one killer among us. Get it? Like the video game? Anyways, so we'll play a few rounds and after each one, we'll discuss who we think the killer is. If they get voted out, the innocent win. Well, unless everyone's dead already", Noah explained to the group of people crumped up on the velvet couch in front of him. He had been pacing around the living room, coming up with rules and instructions for this game he wanted us to play for at least half an hour now. The vintage clock above the chimney stroke ten pm precisely. "Any questions?"

"I've got one", Caesar chimed in, for the first time that evening actually, and everyone's head immediately turned to him. He was sitting on the far left of the couch with his arm casually slung around the back and his leg, including his presumably dirty shoe, resting on the highly sensible material. I, on the other hand, was uncomfortably squirming in my seat on the red patterned carpet with my best friend by side, whom I had promised a relaxed evening with a few glasses of wine, and not this. "Why exactly are we playing this stupid game again?"

"Do you have a better idea on what we could do while babysitting my annoying little sister?", my dearest brother Noah replied, shifting his gaze from his long time pal to his annoying little sister to shoot me a death stare as cold as winter breeze outside of the window to my left. I heavily rolled my eyes in return. I hadn't asked for him to spent time with me, especially not in this company. "When my parents told me they were gonna be gone for the weekend, I thought they would take her with them and not leave her for me to entertain her"

"Noah, you're not babysitting me. I'm 17! Only one year younger than you, for god's sake. I don't need a babysitter!", I scowled back at him, causing the group of people on the couch, that I tried to distance myself from as much as I could, to laugh as a reaction to the pathetic tone of my voice. Noah and I usually got along way better than this, but not when he was with his squad, ugh. It didn't seem to be cool enough to have a decent relationship with your sibling. "You and your idiotic friends are the ones crashing mine and Este's sleepover."

"Whoever the killer might be, please kill her first", Maddison huffed and Caesar, whom she was leaning against, let out a chuckle. Her blonde locks were sticking to his sweater, electrified like they had never seen a drop of conditioner, although I was sure she must be using a ton of different products for her beloved hair. Her and her best friend Lucy had been hanging out with my brother and his friends for a few months now. My suspicion was that they were each trying to get with one of the boys. "I'm just kidding, it's lovely to have you here."

"This is my house-", I began to say, my brows clenched, but I felt a gentle pull on the flannel of my dad's I wore on top of my white cop top, that made me turn to the person to my right. Este was reminding me, or rather begging me not to start drama right now, so I sighed and sucked it up. I actually wouldn't have been mad if I was gonna get killed first, I had no intention in participating in this group activity anyway and if it wasn't for the lovely red-head, that I had first befriended with in first grade, and her secret crush on my brother I wouldn't have agreed to this. She didn't know I knew.

"Are we gonna start playing the stupid game now?", Alex, my brother's best friend, complained, as if he had anything to complain about with Lucy almost throwing herself on top of him. Alex and Noah have been inseparable ever since they started High School. Now that they were graduating pretty soon, they were spending even more time together than usual. I guess that was their toxic masculine way of saying that they were gonna miss each other. Once I started High School our friend groups started to mix, mostly thanks to Este's crush, causing me to see Alex more often, if not voluntarily.

"Sure, everyone go pick a card from the table and read what it says", my brother instructed and everyone did as they were told. He was always somewhat the leader of the group. Him and his friends were the most popular guys in school, but Noah in particular had this energy around him, that made him likeable, even for the non popular crowd. Where he was excelling in charisma, Alex was lacking it, at least in my opinion. They were polar opposites, not just in terms of their looks. "But try not to give anything away with your expression."

Noah was a serial monogamist. I wouldn't have called him a fuck boy, that was contradictory to his essence. He just didn't like being alone. Every time he broke up with someone, the next person was already lining up. Recently though, there was no one, at least no one I knew of, which was surprising to say the least. Alex on the other hand was a fuck boy. He couldn't keep a girl if his life depended on it, he also probably didn't want to. The entire school knew about his reputation, how many girls he was having sex with. It didn't help that they usually went on and off about him once he got into their pants.

I carefully opened the skilfully folded piece of paper that Noah had handed me and read my character description. I knew he liked this stuff, the nerdy stuff, fantasies and mysteries, but he didn't show it too often, he was a jock after all. So was Alex, whose eyes were now burning a hole through mine. I was giving my best pokerface, not breaking our sudden eye contact. Lucy was still hovering over him, but he didn't seem to be too distracted by her. He was holding a crumbled up piece of paper himself, but I could read neither his expression nor what it said on the paper. He was a mystery to me.

"Alright, let's go!", Noah exclaimed in excitement, breaking our gaze as he dramatically turned off the light switch in the living room. The house I had grown up in was left in nothing but darkness. This was my advantage. I knew the narrow hallways and the tiled floors better than anyone else, except for Noah himself maybe. I felt Este move beside me so I got up as well. Despite their initial protest, Noah's friends followed his instructions, even Alex. "Don't forget that you need to take a picture in every room of the house, otherwise you won't be able to to win."

No, there ain't no doubt, somebody's gotta catch him out.

I used to like it, that our house was big and contained many rooms, because it meant I had many hiding spots growing up, but not anymore. I had to comb through every room to search for my first victim so I started with the rooms where I most expected someone to be in. My parent's bedroom was number one on my list. It was on the top floor of our house, secluded from the rest and therefore perfect for this game. The secret walk in closes specifically had been my hiding spot from ages nine to eleven, which was quite counter productive when I tried hiding from my parents.

I slowly opened the door, peaking inside through the crack. When I didn't see anyone, I stepped inside and carefully inspected my surroundings: the wooden bed frame, the fluffy mattress, the two identical bedside tables, the victorian dresser, the misplaced tv - yet no sight of my victim. I took a few silent steps towards the walk in closet. Surely no one was gonna be in here, I thought, but decided to check anyway. From the outside, it looked like a normal closet, but once you opened the door and pushed aside some of the coats on the rack, you could actually step into the small room.

Unfortunately I made the rookie of stepping inside before clearing my field and when I went in head first through the coats, I bumped into something, or rather someone. Someone, who very quickly revealed them-self to be none other than my brother's best friend. "Fuck, you scared me!", I yelled out, my heart beating so fast I felt it in my skull. Alex on the the other hand was leaning casually against one of the shelfs, like he expected me to stumble in here. I had no idea he even knew about the secret room. "What are you doing in my parents' closet?!"

"What do you think, buttercup?! Hiding so I don't get killed", he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Despite the lack the of any source of light from inside the house, the full moon and a few street lamps outside made it possible for me to recognise him in his blue jeans and white shirt/grey sweater combo. If that wasn't enough, the nickname he gave me sealed the deal. "You know, when Noah said your parents were gone for the week, he promised me a party. I came here for booze and s-"

"Sex? Really?!", I finished the sentence for him without any hesitation, hoping it would sound less degrading if it came out of my mouth. It wasn't like I was just putting any words in his mouth. He made it clear several times before, that that was what he was looking for in life and at parties, at least that's what I heard, at least that's Lucy heard. Now it was me, who crossed their arms in front of my chest, in this case in disappointment. "You are disgusting! Men like you are the reason why we need feminism."

"Snacks, I meant to say snacks", he corrected me in an annoyed manner, running his hands through his curly hair. Right, I forgot to mention, he was also undeniably good looking - hot, some might say - which was a fundamental part of his reputation, of course, and made me despise him even more. Okay, so he wasn't actually looking for a sex, which, I'll admit, made me feel tiny minuscule bit guilty for assuming, but that guilt was swiftly replaced by irritation. "But if I'm so disgusting, why are you're currently sharing a closet with me then?"

"This weirdly reminds me of Maddi's party last year", he continued with a smirk plastered across is absurdly attractive face, taking a step forward. I rolled my eyes in an exaggeratedly animated way. He was referencing the game of seven minutes in heaven the both of us participated in for whatever reason. I had to promise Noah that nothing was gonna happen between me and his best friends. He knew the kind of person Alex was. I also knew the kind of person Alex was, so it seemed like an easy promise to keep, at first. "Remember?"

"Back off, that was like a half a year ago. I know you apparently can't get over it, but I am, over it, I mean", I told him, taking a step back to create some much needed distance between us. That's what I should have done the last time, when the two of us where cramped up together in a tiny space, in Maddison's pantry to be exact. Instead, my underaged drinking took over and I let him kiss me, for a few seconds only, hence I don't remember much of it, but I do remember that Noah didn't speak to either of us for weeks after that. So that was the first and last time I ever attended one of Maddison's parties.

"Sure thing, buttercup", he smiled happily, satisfied that he forced me to think about that night. I knew he was doing this on purpose and I knew that I shouldn't have let him get to me. Just like I shouldn't have let him get to me that night in October, but he went on and on about how it was part of the game and how we were obligated to kiss, so if you think about we really just followed the rules, much to Noah's disapproval, but it pissed me off that he was gloating about it, that he told Noah about it, that he did't just keep his mouth shut.

"Would you stop calling me that!", I hissed at the use of this childish nickname he gave me. He started calling me that when I first died my hair black like a year ago. It was naturally blonde like Noah's, but I hated being compared to him, by my parents, by teachers, by my friends even, so I changed my appearance to resemble him less. We still had the same green eyes, hence why I looked like the powerpuff girl buttercup in his eyes. It was infuriating and infantilising, but I guess I could't expect anything else from a person like him.

"Suck it up, buttercup, I know you like it. As a matter of fact, I know you like me. You've liked me ever since we first met", he said, raising his eyebrow suggestively. Correction, I liked, as in didn't detest his presence, for like ten minutes when we first met, until I overheard him complain to Noah about his annoying little sister, then I hated him with passion and now I can endure him to a certain amount if you leave out the fact that he confuses the hell out of me. When he says shit like that, I go back to hating him like a resentful fifteen year old though.

"In your dreams, asshole!", I fired back, a little too loudly for my liking. I always wondered what his deal was when it came to me. If I was so annoying, why was he annoying the shit out of me every chance he got. If he was so disinclined by me, why was he trying to convince me I had a thing for him. If I was childlike cartoon character to him, why was he using every chance he git to get close to me. "Seriously, if you really wanted to flirt with me, you have to do better than just calling me names."

"So you want me to want to flirt with you?", he asked cockily and I rolled my eyes heavily once more. Thinking about it, when we first met, two and a half years ago, when Noah brought him home after school to work on their chemistry project, I may have actually been the textbook definition of an annoying little sister, but I was so hurt by his words back then, I basically spent the next two years trying to be as little as possible like his sister. "Come on, it wouldn't be this fun, if I didn't piss you off."

That was the first semi-serious sentence that came out of his mouth the entire evening. Also, it was the truth, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of admitting it. He was also the only guy that ever flirted with me, even if it was bad flirting. Unlike Alex and Noah I was neither jumping from relationship to relationship nor from bed to bed. I had had little crushes growing up, a few dates, but I was a little bit of a loner in that territory. "You're right, I'm having so much fun right n-"

"Shhh!", he interrupted my sarcastic comment by covering my mouth with his right hand. It was surprisingly warm and soft on top of my lips, but I tried not to focus too much on that unfamiliar sensation. In that moment, I didn't realise why he needed to shush me. I'm sure I was giving him a look of bewilderment, searching for an explanation in his brown eyes, but that confusion quickly changed into anger. I'm was not letting my voice get taken away by a man, by him of all people.

"Would you get you get your filthy hand off my mou-", I began to say under his hand, but was cut off again, this time by him removing his hand from my mouth, but replacing them with his lips. I tried taking another step backwards to escape him, but I was met with the cold wall, bumping into it only intensified the unexpected kiss. Despite there not being much space left, Alex took another step closer, taking hold of chin with both of his hands, lifting my head up so he didn't have to lean down as much. My urge to flee? Suddenly gone.

While he was indeed still a mystery to me, he was also a fantasy, ever since those seven minutes in heaven. I never would have told him, but I guess kissing him back wasn't any less revealing. Oh, and I was kissing him back, almost accidentally, like my lips had a mind of their own. My hands apparently did too, seeing as they snuck around his neck to pull him even closer. Memories of our first kiss came crawling back and while I was intoxicated by the alcohol back then, this one was much more intoxicating.

I felt the corners of his mouth turned up and while that made me want to roll my eyes again and cuss him out, it turned me on so much my knees gave out - and I hated myself for being affected by him this much. It also didn't help that he knew exactly what he was doing, with his hands dropping from my face down to waist, then hip, gently squeezing into my skin. A few seconds later, he pulled back though, leaving me a panting mess. "Good, I think we're in the clear".

"Fuck you!", I scolded, when it dawned on me that he only did this because he heard someone come into my parent's bedroom and wanted to make sure I didn't rat us out. I reached into the pocket of my jeans and pulled out the little toy knife my brother and I used to almost poke each other's ears out with when we were kids, forcefully ramming it into his chest. He had declared it the murder weapon earlier. "That's right, you're dead. Surprise, I am the murderer."

"B-But", he muttered helplessly, holding his side like I had actually stabbed his muscular torso. I didn't, the not at all sharp knife tip retracts itself in the case of resistance, although I now wish I did kill him sooner, before made me one of the many girls that tried to get laid by him. However, it was rewarding to see him struggle to keep up with what was happening. He looked genuinely taken aback and no longer as confident and arrogant as he always seemed to be. At least I left him speechless for once. "You-?"

"Shhh!", I whispered, bringing my hand up to his still a little puffed up lips. He was watching me intensely and I was proud of myself for regaining control of the situation to an extent. "You can't talk, you're dead!", I said in a smug tone and stepped away from him, moved the coats to the side and left him alone in the walk in closet, before I exited the my parent's bedroom completely and made my way downstairs to look for my victim. One I wouldn't let kiss me first, though.

They think she did it but they just can't prove it.

"Believe me! It's her!", Este desperately tried to convince the remaining players, shamelessly pointing at me. We were all gathered in the living room, Este, Daniel, another friend of my brother's, and I standing in front of the chimney like we were being interrogated. Este was on a war path against me, claiming she heard me come down the stairs after Lucy was killed. She was seeking support from Daniel, whose vote she needed to throw me under the bus. When he didn't seem convinced, she turned to Alex, who had just walked into the kitchen, "Alex, please, you saw her kill someone, right?

"What? Me? Oh, I'm dead", he said very nonchalantly, as he was making his way to the open kitchen. I was avoiding fully looking into his direction. I hadn't seem him since I kissed, err, killed him. In fact, nobody had seem him up until that point. I guess no one had found him in the secret room, so he decided to just bail. Este was very disappointed that her attempt to frame me with his help failed. He on the other hand, opened our fridge like it was entirely normal that he serves himself, like he lived here, "I'm just grabbing myself a beer."

"Alex, you were supposed to stay where you were murdered until found by another player", Noah noted in a serious tone, which caused Alex to chuckle. Lucy, who - as I said - was also dead, followed him into the kitchen and attached herself to his side. I applauded her determination, unlike me apparently, she knew what she wanted and she wasn't too scared to show it, not that wanted what she wanted of course. Alex one again didn't seem to care anyway. "You can't participate in this vote and you can't give any hints!"

"I won't say anything", he swore, cracking the beer open with his car keys. I was watching their interaction, not by choice, but he caught me and shifted his gaze from my brother to me. "I promise", he said followed by strategically timed wink, that Noah thankfully missed by a blink. He wasn't just talking about the game, of course, he was talking about us, which earned him another eye roll from me. He was awfully gloat-y. Anyone who took a few seconds to observe him, must have noticed that there was something going on. I already regretted giving in, which probably made him even more happy.

"So there's only three people left, so this round determines the outcome of the game. Whoever you pick has to have the majority of the vote to get voted out. So if only one of you actually picks the murderer, the murderer wins, got it?", Noah moderated and the three of us nodded. He really came into his own in his role, I wondered if he should change his future college major from sports to criminal science. We all wrote down a name on a piece of paper and handed it to him. He unfolded them carefully and announced the result, "And according to the votes, the murderer is....Este!"

"Fuck y'all, you didn't believe me!", she exclaimed furiously, letting herself fall down on the vintage armchair we inherited from my grandfather in defeat. I couldn't help but laugh out loud in triumph. She was the only one I couldn't fool. She knew me better than most people, better than Noah even, who had yet to pick up his jaw off the floor, the red coloured carpet next to the couch to be exact. He didn't think his little sister could pull this off, but I was good at this, sneaking around and hiding secrets. "Now we lost, thanks a lot Daniel!"

"Thanks, Daniel. Guess the dark side won", I said proudly, giving Noah the finger. Poor Daniel, he didn't speak the entire evening and still gets all the blame. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Alex and Lucy had moved to the couch. With his beer in one hand, his phone in the other and Lucy almost sitting on his lap, Alex was occupied. I get that kissing me didn't mean that he wouldn't kiss Lucy too, but I couldn't stand witnessing it. It was bad enough that we made out. The fact that I I enjoyed it was even worse. "Being a murderer is pretty exhausting, I'm going to bed. Este, are you coming?"

"I'll be right with you", Este said, but I had feeling she was gonna take her sweet time, especially since me going to bed at eleven pm gave her the opportunity to hang out with Noah while I wasn't around. I simply shrugged and left the living room, went up to the second floor and into the bathroom right next to my bedroom. I brushed my teeth, trying to get rid of every last bit of his nasty DNA, and changed my jeans into a pair of sweatpants. When I came back out into the hallway, Alex was standing at the corner, leaning against the wall. Can't this man leave me alone?! Hasn't he done enough?!

"What? Are you here to shut me up again? I'm going to bed", I told him when he didn't do anything except watch me pass by. The audacity this man had to just show up whenever he felt like it. The whole time we were playing the game Noah had made up, he was playing an entirely different game. I just hadn't figures out what the rules were or what the goal was. "Me leaving wasn't an invitation for you to follow me, you know?"

"It wasn't?", he asked throwing me another one of his cocky grins. I had enough of his game, so when he tried to enter my room after me, I almost slammed the heavy door into his face. Almost, because he caught it and slit right through the gap and softly closed it behind him. "Chill, I was just trying to give your brother and your best friend some space so they can have some alone time while the others are out having a cig"

"You know?", I asked curiously, assuming he was talking about their respective crushes on each other, because the tone in his voice on the word alone time, suggested he was talking about the alone we had earlier. He nodded. I genuinely though I was the only one who had caught onto that. Alex was rarely ever around Este, but he more observant than I thought. I wondered of there were other things he knew, that I didn't know. I could actually use his sudden interest in me to gain some knowledge about my brother, "Wait, does Noah know that she has a crush on him?"

"Nah, the fool is too dumb to realise, but he definitely likes her", Alex confirmed and almost squealed like a little girl. This was amazing new for both them and me. I liked them together. They met at my Harry Potter themed seventh birthday party, where he was Ron and she was Hermine. I was Dobby by the way, not that that's important to their story. Yeah, life was great when Alex, who now took a seat on my bed, wasn't in it. "They're gonna be linked up pretty soon. So I guess you and I have to link up as well."

"Yeah, right", I groaned, as I sat down, turned on the little lamp to my left and started removing my makeup with cotton pads, trying to not let it bother me that he was watching. Besides, he had seen me in worse conditions over the years, for example whenever I walked into the kitchen in my pjs not knowing he had slept over. When I was done with the mascara on my eyes, they found his through the mirror in front of me. "Have you forgotten about Lucy? Where is she by the way? Waiting for you in your car?"

"Are you jealous, buttercup?", he teased, getting up, only to stand behind the chair I was sitting on. Perhaps I sounded jealous, but I was just trying to understand him. I shook my head in annoyance and continued removing my makeup, which was hard, considering his strong gaze followed ever single one of my hand movements. F*ck I should've just kicked him out, but instead he placed his hands on the backrest of the chair and spoke again, this time in a softer, less arrogant voice, "I'm serious, go out with me."

I actually didn't know what to say. My breath was stuck in my throat and I looked down at the cotton pad in my hand. Go out with me?! Go out?! Like on a date?! He didn't date. I didn't date. We didn't date, for two completely different reasons, but still. Usually, I always had a quick comeback prepared, but he left me speechless without physically stopping me from using my mouth. This was new, and nerve-wrecking, and anxiety-inducing and exciting? Whatever it was, the only thing I managed to say was, "Is this another dare?"

"Alana, please. I've been meaning to do ask you out for months", he admitted, walking around the chair so he could face me without the use of a mirror, forcing me to look at him. He rarely ever called me by my actual name, which made it endearing. My heart made a little jump, when I saw his expression, how his big brown eyes were looking down at me. Months? And here I thought he was just messing with me. "What do I need to do? Do you want me to get down on my knees and beg you to have dinner with me?"

"You're actually serious?", I asked one last time and when he nodded in confirmation, I knew I was done for. It was like he was a completely different person than the fuckboy I made him out to be. I never realised he could be sweet too. I couldn't say no, but I also couldn't say yes yet. Dinner with him didn't sound too bad and it wasn't that much of a commitment, I thought, but I also really wanted to see him down on his knees. "For starters, You could not act like an asshole""

"And I guess kneeling down in front of me could potentially increase the chances of me saying yes", I said, shrugging. I didn't think he would actually do it, but he bent down and started kneeling down next to my vanity. I laughed heavily at the sight in front of me. It nearly made these months and months of constant bickering worth it. This could be a horrible mistake, maybe he just wanted to get in my pants, but he was taking the bigger risk here, the risk of loosing his best friend. Even if Noah could also be an ass too sometimes, he was still a loyal brother.

"Okay, okay, we can have dinner", I gave in, standing up while pulling him up with me by the collar of his sweater until he was taller than me again, which he seemed to be happy about judging by the smirk on his face that, for the first time, I didn't want to slap away. The whole time his eyes didn't leave my and my cheeks were starting to heat up embarrassingly fast. He leaned down, but I stopped him by covering his mouth with my hand. I did have one last condition, "But Noah can't know."

"Don't worry, I learned from my mistake", he said with a chuckle, before I removed my hand, therefore allowing him to close the gap between us. His left hand reached for the on top of my vanity to turn it off, while his other hand settled around my neck. Kissing him was addicting, I knew since that game of seven minutes in heaven and I had been clean long enough. I could see myself doing it over and again. After all, like Noah, I've always had a thing for fantasies and mysteries.

#taylor swift #evermore #no body no crime #swiftie #evermore inspired #best friend's brother #brother's best friend #secret relationship #high school #jocks #enemies to lovers #crime #cold case files #game #among us #murder mystery #hide and seek

1 note · View note

camdendaylight · 3 months

Text

a/n: this is gonna be a one shot inspired by the song willow off of taylor swift's evermore. this does not include taylor as a character in any way. enjoy!

tropes: childhood best friends to lovers; family issues; good girl x bad boy; strict parents; neighbours to lovers; fluff; teenage love

Wait for the signal and I'll meet you after dark.

My old rusty window creaked, when I shoved it open, the cold autumn breeze setting off a series of shivers that ran down my body. I was wrapped up in my usual checkered coat, determined to step out on the rooftop of our garage in front of me, but the unexpected sound I had caused made me look back at my door in fear. I was supposed to be asleep by now, but instead my mind was wide awake and hesitant, debating on whether this was a good idea.

It was not like I had never done this before, sneaking out when I though they weren't gonna notice my absence. Actually I had done it ever since I was child, when I first befriended with the kid that had just moved into the house next to ours. I was ten, back then. Now, as a sixteen year old, my parents were still treating me the same. Don't do this, don't do that, that's what I heard most times in the exact same tone out of both of their mouths. It was never: What do you want to do?

What I wanted to do in that moment was to leave, so that's what I did. They couldn't control me in the nighttime, I thought. As soon as the sun set and the moon lit up the lake where our garden met the pure nature of the forest, I was free. Free from them, free from schoolwork and extracurriculars, free from all my worries. The only thing left controlling me was the sound of my phone going off every few seconds as I squeezed myself through the tiny gab between the windowsill and my open window.

"You coming?", I read on the dimmed screen and rolled my eyes at the text I had received. It wasn't as easy as you might think to escape out of this old house my mother had inheritated from my grandparents. Patience was the key, otherwise I would get caught. Even though it was mostly dark outside, I knew ever single step that I had to take on the wooden panels in order for them to be as quiet as possible. That was one of the positive effects that came with doing this for six years.

I didn't reply to the message, I just shoved my phone in the pocket of my coat and carefully made my way to the edge, where I sat down. The hardest part was yet to come, since I had to climb down gutter that was always shaking more the my adrenaline ridden hands. On top of that, the coldness of the imminent winter withdrew all the feelings out of my fingers, making it even more challenging for me to grip onto the metal pipe.

Halfway through, I received another notification that frightened me so much, that I lost all of my strength. My feet slipped from the icy surface and butt forward I plopped down on the wet grass to the sound of a thud, as I pressed my lips together to keep myself from crying out in pain. It wasn't that painful though, since the I hadn't been that high up anymore, but still, my hands were now covered in mud and so was my coat, that covered my hurting behind.

Thankfully, I had not drawn any attention from inside the house to myself with my graceful fall, since it seemed to be exceptionally quiet around me. I stood up, shaking my hands, then patting on the back of the coat, trying to get rid of all the dirt. It was useless, my mother was for sure gonna see the stain it had left. I would just have to hide the coat or tell her that I've had a ball kicked into my butt school. Both options were terrifying, if you knew my mother. Lying to her was a sin.

I let out a deep breath I was apparently holding, before turning around to finally make my way to my well known destination. My boots were making funny squishing noises as I stomped towards my neighbors garden through ours, passing the fireplace my dad had set up ages ago and the trampoline we used to jump on as kids. There was no fence or any sort of border separating each of our properties, but I knew when the bushes around me weren't as perfectly trimmed anymore I was that I was overstepping the line.

In the back of their garden, close to the lake and far away from their house, the majestic willow tree opened up in front of me, its branches moving to the rhythm of the november wind. Every night I had been sneaking out here, yet the astonishing view of the scenery never failed to fill me with awe. As I reached the massive trunk, my expression turned into a frown. This was our usual meeting spot, our secret place of comfort, but there was no sight of my companion. "Dylan?"

"Sup?", a familar voice called in an obnoxiously relaxed tone and I leaned my head into my neck to look up. I was frightened once again, even though I should have known that he would never bail on me. He never did. So it shouldn't have been a surprise that he was simply hiding not under, but inside of the tree, casually sitting on one of the more stable branches that were not swaying around. As so often, there was smirked plastered on his face, his hazel eyes directed downwards, to me.

"Jesus, you scared me!", I let out, taking in the sight of my childhood best friend and neighbor hovering above. He was wearing dark jeans, an olive sweater and a grey windbreaker on top, a black beanie covering most of his brown curls. He looked like the complete opposite of me, bold and edgy, wich he was. He was the complete opposite of me, still we got along very well, for the most part. "How on earth do you have the energy to climb all the way up?"

"Well first of all, I just left right through the front door of my house", he said with a chuckle, knowing I had to go completely out of the way to even make it to the tree were our initials were carved into the bark. He never had to worry about his parents finding out about our late night meeting. They probably knew about and didn't care. Or they didn't know, but wouldn't care. "And secondly, I didn't just fall six feet down on my ass. So-"

"You saw that?! Great another thing you're gonna make fun of me for till you die", I huffed, rolling my eyes at him. For the last six years, he had been making fun of me for every single time I had slipped, tripped, stumbled. I was used to it my now, as much as I was used to our daily meetings by the willow tree. We had made it to our own, shortly after we had met for the first time, when the old pair from next doors passed away and left behind their empty house with the overgrown garden and Dylan's parents decided to leave the city to live in a quieter area.

"I'm gonna make fun of you even after I die. I'm gonna haunt you as a ghost and play tricks on you and then watch you get scared", he said sticking his tongue out to me, before climbing down a few branches, only to jump the remaining six feet. I could have done it the same way with the gutter, I thought to myself, as I crossed my arms in front of my chest, watching him. He was now leaning against the trunk. "Are you cold?"

"What does look like?", I said sticking my tongue out to him in return. The autumn breeze had struck me once again and I was shivering, which he seemed to have noticed in the same way he always seemed to notice if I wasn't well, which was often, but lately more and more often. Sill, I fired back jokingly, "No, I'm hot actually. Don't you feel the heat of the sun burning on your skin?"

"Give me your hands", he demanded, stretching his out to me. I looked from his face down to his hands and back up to his eyes in mistrust. A dubious frown creased my forehead, my pale fingers clung to the material of my coat. I was convinced that he was messing with me, probably planning something to embarrass me, scare me or make me fall again, but he chuckled at my hesitation. "Come on, I'm trying to help."

"But they are dirty", I said, holding my hands up for him to see the dirt that the wet grass had left on them from my fall a few minutes ago. He rolled his eyes, followed by sigh and slowly realization hit me that he was indeed being serious and that he didn't care about them being dirty. In desperate need of some sort of warmth, no matter what kind, I was willing to give in. "I swear if you lick my hand or some shit like that, I'm gonna cut your head off."

"Aspen, if you're dearest mother could hear the way you're speaking-", Dylan began laughing and I playfully clipped his ear, before ultimately placing my hands in his. The tip of my frozen finger brushed along the palm of his hand sending an electric impulse through my numb limbs, that I tried not to question. The skin on his hands felt rough against mine, yet transported the warmth I needed into not just my hands, but my whole body apparently. The heat was starting to get to my head.

Staring at my hands in his, seemingly in disbelief that I had agreed to this, he thankfully hadn't noticed yet how much this effected me all of the sudden. But his laughter died down completely, when he looked up. The hazel of his eyes met the blue of mine, setting my cheeks into an undeniable red flush. I was sure he noticed then, but he didn't say anything, at least for awhile, until a devilish smirk formed on his unreadable face. "Aspen, are you- Are you blushing?"

"That's just the heat of the sun", I replied sarcastically, but in a rather startled manner, taking a step back in order to pull my hands away, but he wouldn't let me. Instead he tightened his grip, his mischievous gaze dropping down to what I assumed were my lips. Another shiver ran down my spine in response, this time though, it was not caused by the autumn breeze. I wasn't cold anymore, my heart was rapidly pumping blood into my overworked brain. Why was I feeling this way? I had no idea, but it scared the hell out of me.

"Hold on, I think you're bleeding", Dylan said in a serious tone, that I wasn't grazed with very often. I breathed a sight of relief, because whatever my first assumption was, turned out to be wrong, but only then I fully registered what he had just said to me. Now that he mentioned it, I could actually taste the iron in my dried out mouth. "Dang, that fall must have been a lot more brutal than it looked from the distance. I'm sorry for making fun of you."

His right hand let go of mine, but only so his index finger could reach for my bruised lip. Before he actually touched the sensible spot though, an invisible force inside of me made me turn my head away as fast as I could. "Wait what?!", I cried out, now using all of my strength to create some distance between us. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I opened the front camera to inspect the results of my little accident. I must have bitten my own lips when I landed on the ground earlier. "Sh*t. What am I gonna tell you parents when they see this?"

"Tell them you were absentmindedly chewing on your own lip, you do that all the time anyway", he said chuckling lightly and my irritated eyes flickered from my screen to him. He was right, I had caught myself chewing on my lip many time. It was foolish habit of mine that my parents, particularly my mother hated as much as she hated my phone going off at the dinner table whenever Dylan texted me. She had always noticed, but I never figured Dylan had noticed too.

"You know what? I-I gotta go", I stuttered, feeling a tremendous urge to flee from the situation and the intimacy it had oddly created. The fact that he recalled such a minor observation about me shouldn't have confused me, especially since I also noticed how eyebrow twitched every time when he was trying to figure something, to figure me out, like in this moment. With my eyes averted and the tip of my toes pointing back at our house, I set off, mumbling some last words. "We'll talk more tomorrow."

"Same spot, same time?", he called after me, forming his hands that previously held mine into a megaphone, because I had already made it back to the perfectly trimmed bushes while he was still leaning against the trunk. I nodded hastily, my mouth not allowing another word to slip out, and soon enough his tall figure was blurred out by the fog. When I reached the spot of flattened grass where I had plopped down earlier, I was shaking out of fear, not of my parents, but of him.

Rough on the surface but you cut through like a knife.

A warmth was surrounding me as I was absentmindedly poking around my plate of peas in front of me. The warmth came from the heater, and unlike the warmth I had received the day before while standing under the willow tree in the garden next to ours, it didn't reach my inside. My expression was a cold as I was feeling, being crumped up in the house that should have been my place of comfort, but rather turned into a place of constant surveillance and judgement.

"Aspen, dear, what happened to your lovely coat?", my Mom asked me, as expected, while we were having dinner in our fairly suburban dining room. I was sitting opposite of my parents on the wooden table that was as old as my rusty window since it had once belonged to my grandparents. The only thing that was new in this house was the glass front to my right. "I found it all dirty stashed under your bed. It was expensive. It has to be cleaned, dried and ironed properly."

"You were in my room?", I replied in a sharp tone, refusing to answer her question before I would accidentally expose myself. My question though was enough for my farther, who had just gotten home from work, to clear his throat as a sign of warning, reminding me of the right way I was supposed to be speaking to them, friendly, innocently, like a child. I curled my lips into a smile. Raising my tongue behind my top teeth, I said, "Of course you were"

"Honey, we're your parents. We are obligated to know what's going on in your life or what you're hiding from us in that case", my Mom said, noticing the sarcasm in my voice. "And don't think we haven't noticed the bruise on your lip. Have you gotten that while rustling through the streets with the Hollis boy or is it just another consequence of your constant daydreaming that's keeping you from actually doing your school work lately?"

"What?!", I said in disbelief, dropping the fork down on my porcelain plate to the sound of a horrendous clink, causing my father to slam his massive hand on the table top. My head started spinning and I was sure that my face must have looked as pale as grandmas finest porcelain. Not only did she just hint at knowing that I had been sneaking out to meet Dylan, she also blamed him for something that wasn't even close to the truth.

Okay, maybe I had been a little distracted when I was in class that day, thinking about my hands in his and how weirdly my body reacted to a touch I had felt multiple times before, but any other day my parents were the root of my worries. I was often with my head in the clouds, but only because I was imaging how the future, how my future might look like. I wished for freedom more than anything else, a freedom, as it turned out, I was more than far away from.

"We've been watching you", my Mother admitted finally and I felt my heart drop down to the wooden floor that was covered in a crimson red rug. "I had heard weird noises coming from the roof of the garage a few days ago and immediately had a feeling something must be wrong. I went to check up on you, but you were gone. I didn't say anything that night, because I wanted to find out who you were doing all this childish nonsense for."

"Do you have any idea how scared I was?! Underaged drinking, drug abuse, physical violence, who knows what teenager are up to these days", she said, causing me to shift my gaze to the glass front and therefore to the majestic willow tree I could see in the distance. Her voice had started to become more and more angry. A tone I had been used hearing from her, but it had never been that intimidating to me, even though she was talking nonsense. "Although, I wouldn't be surprised if that Dylan guy would expose you to such things. You're not gonna see him anymore!"

"Mom, he's my best friend! He does neither of those things! You can't forbid me to spent time with him!", I snapped, turning my head back to face her. Her face was flushed with anger. I had never raised my voice at her before, but I couldn't believe the imagine she had of him. I was expecting to be in trouble once she found out about my nightly adventure, but I had never thought about the possible consequence of not being allowed to see him. We didn't do anything. Teary eyed, I sought for some empathy from my farther. "Dad, say something!"

"Do not raise your voice at us, young lady!", my Mom chimed back in, before my dad could even get rid of his omnipresent pokerface. My mother always spoke for the two of them. "He can't be your best friend if he's distracting you from school. He probably doesn't care about his grades, but you should care about yours. He's not good for your academic performance and for you in general. We're gonna talk to his parents and tell them about his foolish actions. Hopefully they can talk some sense into him. This has to stop once and for all!"

Dylan may not have been the perfect student or a perfectly well behaved child, and although he sometimes made fun of me, he was still kind and compassionate when it was necessary. In fact, he was one of the few things I had consider to actually be good for me. He got me out of my comfort zone, made me explore new places and kept me from being buried in books for too long whenever I needed a break but wouldn't allow myself to take one. The day they moved in was blessing to me, but rather a curse to my mom.

My mom had made a cake for them as a welcome gift and forced me to tag along when she brought it over. Always having been a lot bolder than me, Dylan opened the door. A few days later, he had dared me to climb all the way up the willow tree, but I was way too scared and didn't make it past the lowest branches. Still, I had managed to fall down, breaking my arm in the same motion. Ever since then, my mom was convinced that he meant trouble, ever since then the two of us were inseparable.

I stared at the green pieces of perfection in front of me and suddenly couldn't bear their sight anymore. I had never been allowed to leave the dining table before everyone had finished their dinner, neither I did I feel hungry anymore, nor could I sit still for another second with my parents blaming the one person that brought some light into the darkness that had become my life for all that went wrong in their eyes.

I stood up, wiping away the tear that was rolling down my reddened cheek and stepped closer to the glass front. The weather was similar to the night's before, but the fog had cleared up slightly, at least for my vision. The willow tree was drawing me outside, but as soon as I placed my hand on the door handle, I was stopped. "Where do you think you're going?!", my Mom scowled from behind me. "You're grounded, if you're finished, go in your room, but don't you dare try sneaking out on the roof!"

Head on the pillow, I could feel you sneaking in.

Staring at the closed door to my left that was separating my room from the hallway that lead to my parents bedroom, a thunderstorm of thoughts was roaming around in my pounding head, while simultaneously a drought of empty emotions settled in my body. I had watched the light in the hallway go on and off, sometimes it had flicked through the small gap under the door, when footsteps approached and passed. For a while now there had been no light, no sound, no motion.

I had no idea what time it was, even though there was an alarm clock on the nightstand to my right, but I hadn't bothered to turn around just yet. My gaze had been set on the door, as I laid in my bed with my head on the pillow, it would have been too heavy to be hold up anyway. On top of that, my parents had taken my phone away from me for the night. My reckless behavior had caused me yet another rule I had to follow, meaning I had to hand them my phone after dinner every day from now on.

The salty liquid that had previously been leaking from eyes had dried out, same as my anger, but I knew that both of those things would come back as soon as I was fully gonna realized that I was not gonna be able to meet up with Dylan at our secret spot anymore from now on, that I was not gonna go over to his house after school to eat his mother's delicious chocolate chip cookies anymore from now on, that he was not gonna make fun of me for slipping, tripping, stumbling anymore from now on.

As expected, the thunderstorm of thoughts won over the emptiness and caused a river of tears to escape down my face and land on my pillow. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to finally fall asleep. A rustling near my window by the foot of my bed made me shoot them wide open though. I could feel my heart pounding against my ribcage up until it reached my throat when I lifted my head up in fear. A tall figure was standing outside on the roof, rightfully struggling to get in.

"Dylan?", I let out quietly as if I hadn't just identified the person trying to break in by their silhouette. I jumped out of my duvets, now being more scared that my parents would hear my rusty old window creaking than by the intruder himself and helped him by carefully shoving it open. In front of me stood indeed my very concerned looking neighbor, disguised by the hood of his windbreaker. I must have looked about the same amount of concerned. "Oh my god, what are you doing here?"

"I was waiting for you by the tree and then I couldn't reach you so I figured something must have went wrong", he whispered and I took a step back so he could climb in. I didn't know if it should have been alarming to me that he had managed to climb up the slippery metal pipe or if I should have felt flattered that he came to check up on me, but the unfamiliar feeling in the pit of my stomach decided that for itself. It grew even stronger when Dylan's eyes bore into mine and therefore revealed to him that I had been crying. "Another argument with your parents?"

"Yeah, but it was worse than any other one I had", I admitted, turning away from him only to slip back under my covers, leaning my back against the rose coloured wall. He was still standing next to the window, leaning against the windowsill, watching me attentively. He knew damn well arguments with my parents oftentimes ended up with me crying alone in my bedroom, but not once he had actually took it upon himself to sneak into my house. I took a deep breath, before meeting his gaze. "It was about you."

Being lit up by nothing but the moon, I could still see that his eyebrow formed a frown after my confession. Even in near darkness, every feature of his face was clearly visible, perhaps because I had mesmerized it so well after six years. I knew I had to tell him about my mother's demands at some point, so why not do it as fast as possible. It was gonna destroy me if I needed to keep in for any time longer. I was prepared to somewhat end my long term friendship with him, unwillingly of course.

"They know that I've been sneaking out to meet you. Luckily they think I've been only doing it for a few days. If they only knew it's been years", I mumbled, lowering the tone of my voice at the end of my sentence, not only because I was afraid they might here, but also because I couldn't bear to even think about the consequences of that. "They-They don't want me to spend time with you. They think I'm being brainwashed by you or some shit. They even want to speak to your parents. I'm so sorry."

For me, it was one thing that I had gotten into a fight with my parents and had been punished for sneaking out, but it was even worse that they wanted him to be punished as well. Dylan's parents were nothing like mine, they would have never forbidden him to see me. They were respectful, to say the least, of me and our friendship, but they were also respectful of my parents. If my mom was gonna talk them into taking action, they would do as they were told. That's how manipulative she could be.

"Aspen, you don't have to apologize. I don't care. I don't care if I get in trouble, I don't care if I'll get grounded and I don't care if your parents don't like me", he said with a serious expression, removing the hood from his head by aggressively sliding his hand through his hair, before leaving his spot by the windowsill to place his hands on my bedframe. He bent down, with a sigh, and then looked back up at me with a straight, but self confident, face. "I simply don't care."

"How can you not care?!", I spat out, accidentally increasing the volume of my shaky voice. This was not meant to be an insult. I genuinely could not understand how he managed to care so little, not just today, but everyday, about what other people thought of him. I so desperately wanted to know how it felt like to not be controlled, to not feel judged, to not feel pressured to be perfect, or at least to appear as perfect to the outside. I wished I wouldn't care either, but the guilt was eating me up.

"Nothing's ever gonna stop me from seeing you", he replied in a soft tone, sitting down on my bed next where my legs were curled up in the blanket. I watched the matress shift under his weight, my mouth was wide open in shock of the weight his words carried. He said it in such a light manner, that it took a few changing digits on my alarm clock to my right until another thunderstorm of thoughts hit me with such an enormous force that I was left speechless and with nothing else but the urge to search for the hazel in his eyes with the blue in mine.

I was interpreting way too much into that, I was sure, but the look, or more so intense stare, he gave me brought me right back to when I was sat on one of the lowest branches of the willow tree as a ten year old. Around me the leaves had been rustling in the wind, my hands had felt sore from the rough bark and my legs had been as numb as they were now, while Dylan had been standing below, cheering me on. There had been two options for me that day: Conquer my fears and keep climbing all the way up or let the fear win and go back down.

I had decided to go back down, but while doing so I lost balance which caused me to fall down and land right on my arm, in front of Dylan's feet. If that had happened to me after I had climped all the way up, the consequences of my fall would have been much worse. If I had never agreed to his dare at all, I wouldn't have had to wear a plaster cast for the whole winter. But also, I probably wouldn't have become best friends with the new neighbor. Sometimes things were worth taking the risk, sometimes things were worth not caring.

Dylan's eyes were sill piercing into mine, when I slowly became aware of my sorroundings again. With that, I also became aware of his hands getting closer to my face. Too mesmerized to flinch, I allowed him place his index finger on the bruise on my lower lip that I had absentmindedly started chewing on, which sent another electric impulse through by body. I must have not been the only one that had gotten somewhat lost in thoughts, because he cleared his throat, before asking, "How's your lip?"

"B-Better", I stuttered, despite barely being able to open my mouth and even though I could taste iron on my tongue thanks to the foolish habit of mine. I didn't feel any pain though, the bare minimum of skin from the tip of his finger sent provided me with enough heat for me to feel any other kind of emotion that the one that was suddenly rising in my stomach. Through my tear stained eyelashes, I noticed that his gaze had dropped down to where he was pointing. For a second I though he was gonna-

He leaned closer, his hand grabbing onto my chin and before I could register what was happening, his lips met mine, lightly, but somehow still forcefully. As I closed my eyes, the tremendous urge to flee from the situation camer over me, the fear of being broken grew stronger, but I decided to not let it win. Dylan was the only one that knew my life wasn't as picture perfect as it seemed. He was the last person I should have been scared of.

I was taken aback, not entirely sure what I was supposed to do. This was my best friend sitting in front of me. I had known him for six years and here he was kissing me. Someone was kissing me, and it was him, out of all people. I still needed to process that. Luckily, I was gonna get at least a chance to do so, because he pulled away shortly after, leaving my numb, pounding lips. His face remained in close distance to mine though and I took it upon myself to say something. "I-That was my first kiss."

"I know, mine too", he said, the corner's of his mouth turning up to form a smile that was unfortunately only halfway lit up by the moonlit shining through my window. Once again I was left speechless, in a positive way of course. I was surprised, I thought he had kissed someone before, which was dumb considering we told each other everything, but I figured he may have just kept this one thing from me. "Uhm, do you want a second one?"

"My parents wouldn't like this", I said with an expression as cold as my dad's pokerface. He nodded in understanding, scooting away from me a little. The twitching in his eyebrows didn't stay unnoticed to me though. He wanted to be respectful of my parents rules, as if he hadn't just broken into their house, but there was an ounce of annoyance seen on his face, even in the darkness of the night. I could see it, because I knew him well.

He knew me well, he could have seen that I was messing with him, but the more he was surprised when I closed the gap between us and clashed my lips onto his. I chuckled into the kiss and naturally, as if I had any clue on what I was doing, I lifted my hands up from the covers and placed them on each side of his face. They were anything but cold, but he still shivered under my touch. "Dylan, are you-Are you blushing?"

4 notes · View notes