"Bella, you know I don't like when you're out here alone."
"Oh come on Jacob, what's the worst that can happen?" I rolled my eyes as we walked along the trees.
"Someone could be out here, someone dangerous." I thought about the boy I saw, the one I had spoke to earlier. Could he be dangerous? I let a smile seep through, I felt it pulling at the corners of my mouth. There was no way he was dangerous.
"I think I can handle my own." I kicked a rock, sending it bouncing down the dirt path.
"I just can't imagine you being out here all on your own."
"Just think of me as snow white. I can take care of myself."
"Even snow white had a prince charming."
I laughed, the sound echoing in the quietness of the space.
He shoved my arm, sending me toppling to the side, I almost lost my balance but managed to save myself from a fall. A roar of a laugh caught me off guard and then we where both laughing.
"Don't you remember when we where kids and we used to play out here."
"We used to have a tree house." He remarked on the memory. "We would hide in it all day, and your dad would get so mad."
"I remember hiding in there once. It was raining really bad. Charlie and I, we had a fight and I just ran out. The rain was pouring down, I could hardly see and when I climbed to the top of the tree I laid on the wood and just felt the tree sway in the wind, the floor rocked me to sleep. Lightening lit up the sky but I just closed my eyes and thought of mom and how she would have laughed at me. I was shivering and cold and wet and scared but I stayed there the whole storm. Even when Charlie called me. I thought it was just a dream and went back to sleep. I stayed out there all night and in the morning when it was just a little drizzle I walked back home. I thought Charlie was going to be so mad, but he just grabbed me up and held me and wouldn't let go. We cried and said I'm sorry for what seemed like forever." I shut my eyes and tried to block the tears, I could feel Jacobs rough hand taking mine, his fingers twirling around mine; intertwining like tree branches. The warmth of it made me smile and I looked up at him as he led me down the path.
"He loved you a lot."
"I know."
He stopped abruptly. "Wait right here."
I waited for what seemed like an hour. Just standing there, waiting. Then he came back, a big goofy smile on his face. "Come on. Come on!"
He tugged on my arm like a little kid and I laughed. Finally we reached a spot that I knew all too well. The wooden steps nailed up the tree led to a big green tree house, we painted it green to hide it. He climbed so easily to the top, and then I followed. The inside was stuffed with pillows and blankets from my house.
"I figured we could have a sleep over." He gave me his childish smile and I smiled back.
"I'd like that."
I'd spent the majority of the night laughing at Jacobs jokes and talking about when we where kids. We didn't get to do this often without me becoming overly emotional. Deep inside my head I imagined the boy I had been talking to, standing outside my window, watching me as I laughed. I wondered if he thought I was as pretty, but that I soon put out of my head. I was only average. I almost wished the stranger could be sitting with me and Jacob and sharing our laughter. He was probably long gone. Sitting at home in his bed sleeping, he probably never even though of me.
I had manged to some how fall asleep on the hard wood floor of my old tree house. the wood was worn but still smooth and the blankets pilled around us made me feel safe. The smells of the forest seemed to over take me and I drifted into dreams only to be awoken a few hours, or that's what I surmised, later.
"Bella?" It sounded like a whisper. A foggy echo of my name calling me out of my sleep. I laid there not daring to move, afraid that it was just my brain playing tricks on me and that if I moved I would never fall back into slumber. Then there it was a little louder. "Bella."
I sat up my eyes scanning the darkness of the tree house. Jacob lay sleeping on the other side of the tree house wrapped in his own cocoon of blankets. I scrambled towards the square window and there he was standing below me, waving me into the woods.
I couldn't help but hurry out of my self made bed, as warm and cozy as it had been, and venture down into the darkness of the wood into a situation I was unsure about.
"There you are." He smiled that half smile and I glared at him.
"Why are you out here so late?"
"Why are you out here so late?"
"I-I-" I stuttered taken aback by his question. "That's none of your business."
"So is that your boyfriend?" He danced between the trees.
A blush swept over my face and anger twisted my features as a single word rushed out from between my lips, "No!"
"Good." He laughed and walked into the darkness of the woods and I hurried after him. "That would ruin all my fun."
"Who are you?" I asked racing after him and trying to keep pace, he moved unusually fast.
"The better question is who is he?" He stopped in a clearing, the moon was high, a half crescent bobbing in between clouds.
"He is an old friend." The boy sat down in the grass and motioned with his index finger for me to come closer. As I did he grabbed my hand and pulled me down onto his lap.
His fingers twirled in the grass weaving something in the darkness. "Is that all?"
"That's all." Another wave of blush swept over my face as we sat in the silent darkness.
Suddenly he pushed us both up to our feet and held me close with one arm as the other sat something on my head. "You make a lovely princess."
"Bella!" I stood dumbfounded. The coolness of his skin leaving mine as I turned to look around the forest for whoever had called my name. When I turned back to face him, he was gone. "Bella there you are! I've been looking for you for hours."
"What do you mean?" I searched Jacob's face. "I've only been gone a little while."
"You've been gone since the middle of last night. It's dawn."
Sure enough as I looked up the darkness was beginning to fade into a light grey morning sky. Time somehow had gotten away from me, between sitting on his lap to him holding me in his arms, his face inches from my own. I shook the memory from my head. "But-"
"It's okay lets just start walking back home. I'll get the stuff from the tree house later."
"Okay." I took step beside him and started heading for home.
"Hey. Whats that?"
"What's what?" He tapped the side of my head as we walked. I put my hands into my hair and withdrew a crown made of flowers. "Its a crown."
"It's beautiful. I didn't know you knew how to make them."
"I don't."
"Well then who did?"
I shrugged my shoulders, unsure how to answer the question. I slipped it back onto my head and smiled. "I told you I was Snow White."