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When I felt I could stand without falling over, I backed away. My face felt flushed and while my hands still shook, it became too awkward to hold on to him anymore. The moment was so intimate, I was embarrassed at having put myself in such a predicament. I didn’t even know his name. “Thank you,” I whispered. “You’re okay, right?” I asked, swallowing after. I was worried I had hit something on him on my way down.
He nodded. His cheeks were tinted red but his face was back to that serious expression. “I’m okay. What made you think you could climb over it like that?”
“It didn’t look too bad from the other side,” I said, casting my eyes away. “I guess I just wanted to see if I could.”
A small smile formed at the side of his mouth. “You’re not really dressed for climbing like that.”
At his mention of it, I checked myself over. I had a few scratches on my arm but nothing bleeding. My clothes were a little dirty but everything seemed fine.
“What happened to your wrist?” he said, pointing to the bandage on my arm. The wound was scabbed over and I didn’t really need the bandage. It just looked ugly so I opted to cover it up.
“I fell a couple days ago,” I whispered. How many times would I need to explain my injuries? It made me hyper sensitive to dare to put another bandage on myself. I’d have to repeat myself so much.
“You’re accident prone. Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
He took my hand and led the way around the tree until we were on the other side where the path started again. When we were safe, he let go of me. I was grateful that he let go because I was nervous but I was also sad. His hand felt comforting.
“How long has the tree been down?” I asked in a whisper.
He looked at me, raising his eyebrows. He leaned over me, bringing his ear close to my face. “What?”
His reddish hair looked soft like rabbit fur. My fingers itched to touch but I knew I never would. I swallowed to try to gain some of my voice back and repeated myself.
“A week, I think,” he said. “I keep meaning to come back out here to clear it out from the path but I’ve been putting it off. There was a bad storm before you moved in.”
I blinked at him, my hand on my upper stomach, rubbing at where a branch had scratched me. “You know who I am?”
“I’ve seen you around.” He ran his fingers through the longer bits of hair on the top of his head. “I’m Nathan.”
“Sang.”
He blinked at me and then leaned in closer.
“My name is Sang,” I rattled off.
“Sang?”
I nodded.
He smiled, the blue of his eyes softening. “I’m two houses down from you. Same side.” He waved at the direction our houses were. “Want me to walk you back?”
The question surprised me. He was being nice. Another person that could be a friend. My head swirled with the suddenness of it. At the same time, I was resistant. It felt like I was pressing my luck. The more people I tried to be friends with, the bigger the chance my parents would find out. I’d get myself into trouble. “I don’t mean to ruin your jog.” It was the politest thing I could say to decline.
He shrugged. “It’s nothing.” He motioned to the path. “Comin’?”
I pushed a finger to my lower lip but I started after him. I couldn’t say no without sounding mean. Part of me didn’t want to. He was handsome and sweet and he had helped me. How could I refuse?
The path left enough room that we were walking side by side. “You’re going to the public school, right?” he asked.
I nodded.
“About time we had someone new around here. There’s only a handful of kids on this street.”
“I haven’t seen them around.”
“You will,” he said, swaying his arms a little as he strolled along beside me.
I raised an eyebrow at him, curious as to what he meant.
He grinned, understanding my expression. “You’ve got the good basketball goal.”
I tried to remember where the basketball goal was. “The one hanging from the garage,” I whispered. It had been there when we moved in.
“Yeah. Full height and that wide driveway that’s at least half court, I think,” he smirked. “Don’t laugh but I came over one night to jump on it just to see if I could hang from it.”
I did smile but stopped myself from giggling. “It’s still there so you must have made it.”
He nodded. “It’s pretty strong.”
I admired the muscles in his arms and from what I could see of his chest. He looked pretty sturdy. It must have been true about the basketball goal if he was able to hang off of it.
“So what happened to your voice?”
I opened my mouth to respond to him but I wasn’t sure how.
“You’re not sick, are you?” he asked, his eyebrow going up. “I’m not going to catch something, am I?”
I didn’t want to worry him so I shook my head.
He smirked. “You’ve been talking too much, huh?” he asked. “Girls always talk too much.”
I tried to shoot him a friendly smirk back. It was a better solution than the truth.
We turned a bend and I started to recognize we were coming up along where the path split. He had taken me back around to where I had started.
“You go for walks this early in the morning a lot?” he asked.
I twisted my mouth a little, unsure how to answer. “I couldn’t sleep and I hadn’t followed this path yet so I came to check it out.”
He looked at me. “Did you try the woods on the other side of the street yet?”
“No. How do you get over there?”
He smiled. “I’ll show you. It’s a little easier to get lost over there though and there’s some things you should see. Like there’s a big ditch you may not see walking up to. I think that’s how they drained the land around here so they could develop it.”
I grinned, nodding to him. I understood. I swallowed. “I’ll check it out.”
He gave me a side glance and smirked again. “On second thought, I ought to go with you over there. Don’t go without me.”
I angled my head toward him. “I’d be fine.”
“Uh huh,” he said. He stopped walking and turned toward me. He reached over my head and pulled a maple leaf from my hair. “You’ll be fine unless there’s a fallen tree.”
My face heated up. I started to shake my head, my mouth moving trying to figure out the best way to say I would have gotten out eventually.
“Think you could do it alone? As you wish. Next time I’ll leave you,” he said, letting the leaf fly from his hand to the ground and starting off down the path again.
I stepped quickly up next to him, matching his stride. Something about him made me want to stick around. He seemed so cool. I wanted him to like me. “How do you get over there?” I whispered.
“Nope. I’m not telling you now.”
I frowned, my lip pouting.
He made a face and then pulled his fingers over his lips, zipping.
“Ugh,” I grumbled. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Sure.”
I rolled my eyes.
