"Wha-what are you doing here!?" I question elatedly as Peaches lands on the ground and saunters over to me. "I thought you'd finally gotten your date with…"
"I don't care about Ethan anymore." She states plainly. She picks me up with her trunk, and plants a little kiss on my cheek. She half-curls her trunk up, leaving me sitting on the top of its semicircle. I feel a confused smile cover my face as she gazes at me. Her eyes are like shattered quartz, reflecting in greens and whites the enthusiastic light of the midafternoon sun behind me.
"But… but you were… and he- and you…" I try to breathe and start again, "What in the name of dirt could have happened? You've got to be kidding. There's no way y-you'd turn down Ethan's offer… This isn't a joke is it?"
"No. Not a joke." She says, "I told you I'm done with him."
"But… why?" I probe.
"Ethan wanted to go out with me…" She trails off…
"And? Isn't that a good thing? Haven't you wanted that for, like, years now?"
"But," She utters sadly, "only if I wouldn't hang out with you anymore…"
I stare at her, speechless and confused and wondering why Ethan, or anyone, would say something so cruel.
She continues brokenheartedly, "He said that I'd get to hang out with Steffie and Katie and Meghan and all the rest of them… and that they didn't feel like you were good for their reputations."
"…Go back and be with him…" I say after several seconds of silence.
"Did you even listen to a word I just said?" She asks raspingly.
"Yes." I confirm. "I heard it all, and I want you to leave me here, go out with Ethan, and be happy."
"No, Louis!" She shouts, frustrated, "You're not just going to let it end like this. You're not just going to say goodbye and leave me. Not after everything we've been through together! Stand up for yourself… just this once, and do what will make you happy."
"I don't care if I'm happy… I only care if you are, and you only ever seem happy when you're with Ethan." I say placidly. "Peaches, if it will make you happy to be with Ethan, I don't care at all if we can't hang out."
"It breaks my heart to watch you do this to yourself!" She says, "Would you please, please stop torturing yourself for long enough to see that this is what I want!?"
"Is it really?" I ask, wanting to know she's sure.
"Louis, you are the only friend I've ever had who likes me for who I am. Don't take that away from me… please."
"Well," I say, taking a second to breathe, "In that case, of-of course I won't…"
"Okay; now that that's out of the way, you've got my attention- my complete, undivided attention."
"So I should probably…"
"Have I ever told you how adorable you are?" She says offhandedly. I feel myself blush.
"Yes. Several times, recently… And I'm pretty sure I've reacted about the same each time… But I should really…"
"Well. You are extremely adorable." She says, cutting me off again.
"Are you purposely avoiding what I'm about to say?"
"A bit."
"I kind'a swore that I'd tell you…" I say longingly.
"The possums aren't still here, are they?" She asks.
"I hope not." I say. We look around. No one.
"I think they're gone…" She says.
"That would be a first…" I comment.
She takes a deep, sputtering breath and says, "Okay. Go ahead."
"Peaches…" I wince as I try to force the words out of my mouth, "…I, I… I l-love you." Huge smiles grow across our faces simultaneously. "I really, really love you." The words fall off my tongue like bricks and smash on the ground. I scratch the back of my head coyly. My stupid voice is cracking up, but I can't stop. "I love you like, like… a lot. Like so much that it hurts. So much that I'd give up everything for you. That I'd do anything for you. Anything that you asked… So long as you're not asking me to hurt anyone, but… let's be honest. I couldn't hurt anybody even if I wanted to, and you'd never ask me to because you hate watching people get hurt just as much as I do. You're sweet and kind and selfless, and that's why I started liking you in the first place. A-and… I don't even remember where I was going with that, so I guess I'll just keep rambling…"
She giggles emphatically and nuzzles me.
"And I, I love that you make mistakes… that you're not, technically, perfect. I like that you mess up sometimes… because… because it makes you real. It makes you enough like me and like everyone else that I'm still able to think, albeit rather infatuatedly, around you. But, I still wouldn't want to change anything about you. And I don't know how to say this correctly, because I do think you're perfect…"
"You're words, Louis;" She says fondly, "they confuse me."
"Me too…" I say honestly, "I can't think of how to say them. But I love that I can't. I love that I can't think of the right words to tell you exactly what I want because I'm too worried that I'll say it wrong and ruin everything. And I love that I can't bear to not at least try to say them…"
"Nice save…" She comments, "Are you just saying whatever pops into your head at this point?"
"Peaches, I can't help it. I love you… but I don't know how to show you with just my words."
She looks at me, astounded. "First of all," She says, "it's not like you haven't been the sweetest, kindest, and over-all best friend ever for… like… ever… If you think that you haven't shown me that you're at least crazy enough about me to risk your own life for me, you have a pretty bad memory."
I cock my head to the side and crack a small smile at her, still not knowing what to say.
"And second," she continues, "I'd honestly like to hear why you love me more than just that you do."
"You really want me to give you a list?"
"Go ahead." She answers before she could have even considered the question.
"Okay… Fine…" I sigh, "At the risk of sounding cliché, I will tell you, to the best of my abilities… wh-why I love you."
"It's… ju-just…" I clear my throat and start again. "Because you're… you're a good person. Because you're willing to put up with me… Because you… Okay, here comes the cliché part. Because you make me feel safe and important. You make me feel like I belong… like I matter…
"You make me feel like I'm more than just some dumb little ball of fur and quills whose only purpose in life is to dig dumb holes and eat dumb worms."
"…And berries." She adds.
"Y-yes, a-and berries." I repeat cheerfully, well… at least sort of cheerfully.
"You're stutter is almost inexcusably endearing." She whispers to me as if it's a secret.
"M-my favorite thing in the whole wa-wa-world is falling asleep next to you…" I say uneasily, trying to keep the conversation on our relationship. I can't help but stutter with her making me so love-y dove-y.
"You act as if all you need is to look at and think about me to be happy…" She says severely.
"Pretty much." I confirm.
"There's no way that's healthy."
"I'm kind'a worried this might make me sound needy or immature… but I'm not sure I care if it's unhealthy for me…"
"Why, Louis?" She asks obsessively.
"I, just… I think you're great. And I love you. And I don't know what else to say besides that…" I'm back to staring at my feet and digging at the air with my toes like some idiot who has nothing better to do with his time.
I hear Peaches snivel, and I struggle to hang onto her trunk as it shakes violently as she blows her nose. She's… She's crying?
"Why are you crying?" I try to ask innocently. I hope what I said didn't upset her.
"Because I'm not as perfect as you think I am." She says bleakly. "I'm not even as good a person as you think I am."
"Come on… That's not true." I reach out and, unsuccessfully, try to dry away some of her tears. "You're fantastic! You're wonderful!"
"Louis." She stops me. "I'm… I… I don't know how to say this… I'm worried that I was wrong when I said that I like you just as much as you like me."
"What?" I say, not disappointed or surprised but definitely sad.
She tries to recover, "I really, really like you! And I knew you liked me, but… but I didn't know you'd fallen so hard for me…"
"What if we we're just… I don't know… like, kind of dating-ish, or even just… getting to know each other better or something like that?"
"I just… I don't know if I'm actually ready to commit to anything anymore. I thought I was ready to go out with Ethan, but he ruined it… I just don't want anything remotely similar to that to happen between the two of us…"
"Peaches!" I stop her. "I will never, ever let that happen. Never."
She asks, "Louis, no matter what happens… we're still best friends, right?"
"Always, Peaches." I say matter-of-factly. She looks at me funny, as if she wasn't expecting that reply. She grins appreciatively and wraps her trunk around me and holds me close between her eyes and eyebrows, right where her trunk branches from the rest of her face.
"Okay." She whispers. "You're the sweetest boyfriend ever…"
Honestly, I can't tell if this feels good or if I'm just about to puke. My heart hurts like crazy, but I just keep hugging her in silence.
Leisurely, cathartically, she lowers me in her trunk to a comfortable position for walking home and begins rocking me back and forth absentmindedly.
Oh… and maybe I forgot to mention this… we kissed.
This chapter's song is "Love Love Love" by The Mountain Goats. X3