Branches Book

BRANCHES

highly uncharacteristic of her. It was then I noticed the bags under her eyes. Had she been having trouble sleeping? I had no idea she was hurting this much. “I’m… I’m…. I’m sorry Eric.” With that she burst into tears. I had no idea what I should do in a situation like this. I awkwardly wrapped my arms around her and stroked her hair. “It’s ok Lillie. It’s not your fault. Everything’s okay now.” For some reason these were the first words that came to my head. It seemed to calm her down a bit but her tiny body still shook every so often. I kept stroking her hair until she fully calmed down. Eventually she moved her head from my lap and looked up at me. I gave her the warmest smile I could muster. What I didn’t expect were the corners of her lips attempting to form one of her own. III. I cracked my eyes open a bit. A pleasant warmth touched every part of my exposed skin. I looked around: a field of sunflowers spanning as far as the eye can see. Then I saw her, the radiant beauty bathed in golden sunlight. She smiled at me and I felt my heart stop. “What are you gawking at? You look like an idiot.” I blew sunflower petals out off my face and responded, “I was simply admiring the scenery but something ugly’s blocking it.” It'd been a couple months since she started opening up to me. We’d gotten a lot closer in that time. She still had severe social problems but now she was completely fine around me. “Asshole!” she yelled before getting up and throwing a handful of petals at me. I chased her around the field for a while but we both ended up getting tired. Both of us gasping for air, we collapsed onto a bed of flowers. “Hey Eric. Thanks for bringing me out here.” “Well you seemed a little despondent lately. Beauty always clears my head and this was the most beautiful place I could think of.” “Well, this is definitely what I needed.” We reveled in the comfortable silence for a minute before I spoke again. “Hey Lillie.” “Hmm?” she said turning to face me, her expression inquisitive. “You act normal with me but can’t so much as hold a conversation with anyone else, yet you refuse to get any kind of psychiatric help. We both know that isn't normal. I think you should try seeing someone.” She gave me a sheepish half smile and looked towards the ground like she always does when uncomfortable. “I... I just have a feeling that if I do, I’ll lose everything that's important to me.”

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