Just a quick little story I typed up on a whim. It had no outline or plan, it just started off as a writing prompt I found online and turned into something. It’s completely unedited, so excuse any typos, bad grammar, word choice, any of that fun stuff. I might just come back to it later on. (:

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“Uh… I just… I just really like trees.”

The words were out of my mouth before I could think of a better excuse to why I was always spending my time up in the large tree’s branches.

Jenna raised her eyebrows. “Really, Conrad?”

I blinked. “Yeah, for sure! Trees are… Um… My passion.”

“Yeah. Totally. And I’m a magical pony.”

I shrugged. “Well, you are kinda-”

“Don’t say it.” A threatening finger was pointed in my face. I just laughed. Jenna is one of the strangest people I had ever met (and probably ever will meet in the future), but she is one of the people I can call my closest friends.

We stood in silence under the oak tree for a minute.

“So what’s up there?” Jenna finally asked again, gesturing upwards with her left thumb.

I glanced up into the branches uneasily. This was my tree. No one but me had ever been up there. I never even let my mom tell the gardener to trim the branches- actually, if those branches got trimmed, the secret would be revealed.

“Well?” Jenna looked at me expectantly.

“I- It- I can’t tell you,” I said.

Jenna’s dark eyes grew wide and pleading. “Aw, c’mon, Conrad! Don’t you trust me?” I groaned. I hate it when people guilt trip me.

“I do, Jen, I- I just-,” I stammered pathetically.

“You just what?” Jenna didn’t sound irritated; she was being awfully patient, and I could tell that she would be willing to wait it out for as long as necessary.

Might as well get it over with now, I guess.

I sighed. “Get up there.”

Jenna let out a little squeal. “Yes! Finally!” She pushed past me to scramble up the knotted trunk.

Maybe I should go into a bit more detail.

Jenna and I have known each other since we could barely walk, right from the time her family moved into my neighborhood thirteen years ago. There is a big, gnarled oak tree in my backyard that had been there for as long as I can remember. And for that same amount of time, that has been my tree. Before he died in that car accident, my dad told me that I could do whatever I wanted with it as long as I didn’t harm it. That tree holds some of my fondest childhood memories… Memories that I’m actually still building till this day. After all, being fourteen still means I’m a kid. No matter how mature I’d like to think myself to be.

That tree holds secrets. They’re not really very meaningful secrets- I guess you could say that they’re more of the silly-yet-sentimental type.

Jenna has always been interested in my tree. I don’t even remember what got her stuck on it, but she’s always been curious about what’s up there. And she constantly asks me about it.

I do trust Jenna. I do. The only thing that kept me from showing her before is the fear that she’ll think it’s weird, ridiculous, or even a bit creepy. I mean, as far as I know, there aren’t any other teenage boys in the area who spend the majority of their time up in an oak tree.

All I could do was hope that she’d be open to it.

Open to me.

***