You could see her hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly, and tears were starting to form in the corners of her eyes. One of your worst handicaps was in play here; you care about things substantially less than other people, especially Jaiden.

You were starting to consider offering to drive the rest of the way when she veered into an empty lot on the other side of the main road from where all the stores are. You (obviously) had no clue what her intentions were but she seemed pretty adoment about them. She removed her keys and got out of the car.

"Get out," she said, firmly, although you were too taken aback to even notice. With a sigh, she walked over to your door and hastily opened it for you.

"Sorry," you said quietly, not even really knowing or caring about whether or not she heard you.

"...follow me," was all she said in return, before leading you further away from the lot, and closer to the sea of trees that surround it. She said that you were following her, but still walked proportionately by your side. However, you didn't have trouble keeping up with her at all; it was like she was taking initiative with you. Sometimes you feel like the only person in the world that notices stuff like this.

Eventually, you reached the trees. You tried slowing down but Jaiden kept moving forward at a constant speed into them, still directly by your side. You both walked through the underbrush for about 5 minutes before finally reaching a huge clearing.

You were far enough away from the car to where you couldn't even hear the traffic anymore. The scenery in front of you was almost enough to make the memories of what happened not 10 minutes ago dissapear. Almost.

Not one single spec of dirt was to be seen under all of the colorful leaves. In the middle of the clearing was one gigantic tree with a worn trunk. The clearing was cut into half by a glistening river that ran just there. The water's movement was indecipherable. From the tree, you noticed Jaiden was standing on the bank, looking out into the river just the same as you.

After a few brief reminiscent minutes, you realized you were staring at the scenery of your childhood. There was an old tire swing hanging off one of the lower branches, which you noticed was dangerously close to the river.

Jaiden left the small patch of grass she was standing in and approached you. She leaned against the tree, just as you were doing. You always thought situations like this seemed over the top in movies and stuff. You got the feeling she expected you to say something, like "Oh I get it now all our problems are solved because of this tree haha how could I have been so dumb." You let out a sigh.

"I don't understand," is what you actually said. She didn't seem frustrated or anything like you expected.

"You don't have to understand. You just have to remember."

"Remember?"

She sat down against the tree with her knees against her chest, so you did the same. Jaiden breathed in.

"Under this tree is where our childhood took place. It's where you became who you are. It's where I became who I am. I don't even know why this tree is so cool, other than because it's old. Hell, the only reason I even came here after school every day is because I wanted to spend time with you."

All of this talk about her just wanting to 'spend time with you' was so frustrating.

You decided you might as well just say what's on your mind.

"I'm a liability to you. Not even just to you, to everyone. To the world. Who can look at me and think 'Wow, what a productive member of society, I'm sure he doesn't stare at his bedroom ceiling for hours at a time.' Why do you feel so bad for me? I don't even deserve what I have.

"[Y/N, first thing's first. What other people think about you, me, or us, doesn't matter. You're smart enough to know that, I know it. And I know that you know that I know you know it."

She suddenly stood up.

"A liability? Are you joking? You didn't invite me to hang out here every day after school in 4th grade!"

"Who would push me when I would sit down was on this tire swing when I was 7 years old? Who taught me how to whistle, how to snap, how to play hide and seek?" Again with that damn interrogative tone.

"But that was then. This is now. This place is so old now. It's not even worth our time, it's so different."

"Is it? Or are we? Look, you're right, this tire swing doesn't matter anymore. It didn't even matter back then, truthfully. What mattered was who was with me through all of it. You know we both had ups and downs that Autumn. But honestly, you're wrong. Every single day I looked forward to coming here and talking with you. And never regretted it, once." Her figure looked slightly less confident and parental than before. It was like this was something she had to let out for herself. She even appeared to be shaking a little.

"Y'know what?" You finally said, standing up. Jaiden looked up. "This place hasn't changed a bit, has it?" You don't remember much of this part, for some reason, other than the copious amount of smiling you both kept on doing.

Several minutes passed, and you were both pretty tired, so you decided unanimously to head back to the car. You pushed yourself off the pile of leaves you were laying on and helped Jaiden do the same.

Back at the car, now, things felt pretty conclusive. You saw Jaiden's point in it all, like it actually clicked with you for once. There was a lot more to how you felt about her, though. You don't do this often, but you decided that was enough aimless thinking and dreaming for today.

You're used to only feeling this good when you're at Jaiden's house, which is probably why you were for some reason so excited to be going there right now.

(smol timeskip car dialogue is boring)

Arriving at her house was so routine you hardly even had to think to do it. It's the same thing every time: Walk in, maybe eat pizza rolls or something, maybe talk to Jaiden for a bit, go upstairs, help Jaiden feed Ari, and finally watch YouTube while you fall asleep on that mattress Jaiden lets you use.

After everything that happened that night, it went a little more like: go upstairs (after getting there at like 11pm), dont say a single word, flop on mattress, watch Jaiden literally throw seed ball at Ari, watch Jaiden flop on bed, say "g'night" and literally just fall asleep within like 30 seconds.

You think there might have been more that happened, looking back, but that's about all you remember of that awesome night.