Perhaps he was running faster than his body was used to. Perhaps he hadn't eaten properly that day.
The trees became blurs of green. Biggie who was right in front of him melted away in shades of blue.
Eyes cloudy and heart-pounding to the point of causing pain to his ribcage, Branch realized he was a faint whisper away from fainting. Against the desperate thoughts that hammered in his head, the survivalist slowed down and put both his hands on his knees.
"Branch? Are you feeling okay?" Biggie, who was in better shape and not half as desperate, carefully approached and laid a gentle hand on aquamarine shoulders.
No. He wasn't okay. Branch couldn't catch his breath, even by forcing himself to breathe through his nose and exhale from his mouth. His chest pain increased so much that he discarded the hypothesis of a panic attack and went straight to monitoring heart attack signs.
It seemed absurd that his mind would create such torturing delusions. He couldn't stop thoughts about Poppy lying dead on the daisy field replaying on an endless loop.
He couldn't stop thinking that she would be so broken-hearted that she would fade away from existence. That she would give up. As nonsense, as it sounded, he was scared she would be permanently lost.
And it would be his fault.
It was so clear all of sudden. Poppy was a rock when he broke down. She stood unwavering while he cried and confessed his most shameful secrets to her. She listened, she took care of him while he was unaware that his words were inflicting fatal wounds to his beloved.
She didn't bleed in front of him. She didn't let him see that he had hurt her. So she retreated to lick her wounds in isolation.
Poppy learned that from him. He was sure of it. Just as she had learned that she had to understand her enemy to have a chance against it.
In this case, the enemy was a terrible situation that was beyond her comprehension.
"I did something awful." Branch curled forward, hiding his face and his tears from his blue friend. "That's why Poppy is in there."
"I don't understand." Biggie stood up straight and removed his hand from Branch's shoulder.
"Poppy went there to see what happened." He knew that. He could trace her steps clearly. And it was all his fault. "She's going to be devastated." All because of him. All because of his curiosity. His weakness. His lack of self-esteem.
All because he gave in.
He had sung to her inside the pan. He had asked her to be courageous and to show him smiles even though she was sad.
How could he ask for smiles when he was the one who was constantly taking them away?
Hair… since they started dating she had shed more tears than he could remember.
Maybe he was ruining her. He was slowly poisoning her positivity.
"Branch." Biggie made him snap out of his swirling thoughts. He had a serious voice. "Couples fight. If you did something wrong, you say you're sorry and then you make up for it."
"I can't look at her," how could he ever look Poppy in the eye again? She had wished for a relationship for years only to be disappointed.
"If your roles were inverted," Biggie said, firmly. "Poppy would never give up on you. No matter how ashamed she was."
Great, he felt worse. Thanks Biggie.
"I'm telling you something, but you promise you'll never breathe a word of it to anyone," Biggie warned.
Funny how suddenly the pressure dissipated. His lungs were slowly filling up with air again and his knees weren't hurting anymore. Branch straightened his back.
"Poppy has been in love with you for years." Biggie sighed, "she doesn't know I've noticed it then. We didn't like you then, we didn't know you then," with an apologetic smile, he continued, "but Poppy was happy just by knowing you were around. I don't think she ever hoped for a relationship with you. It was absurd to all of us, to be honest."
"I don't…" Branch wanted to cut the story short. He was hurting too much already.
"... my point is that Poppy never gave up. She always saw beyond your eccentric facade. So, don't give up on her. Let's believe love will find a way around it."
Branch didn't have a choice. Maybe it wasn't Biggie's point, but Branch understood what he had to do. He had to be like Poppy. He had to insist on being by her side even if he had lost all hopes of saving their relationship.
He had to save her from sadness, even if it meant she would never be able to look at him again.
Stupid multiverse. Branch wished he had never met Lownote Jones.