Tree

“... are you ok...?” He asked

I remained silent, I didn’t know what to say, nor did I have the courage to speak. My head hurt, I hated it. I continued my sniffling quietly.

“Hmph...” He sighed

“You know I don’t hate you, right?” He shifted towards me lifting my head to face him.

“You look really bad right now.” He wiped the tears from my eyes and wiped my nose (directly) with his hand. He held my face in his hands, so gently, with extreme care. He pushed my hair away from my face, whether with his contaminated hand or not... I really didn’t care.

“Your hair is long” he said. His comments calmed me. I hadn’t thought about myself, my appearance. Well, I had, I supposed I maintained it. Maybe, perhaps I had.

He began braiding my hair, maybe he had. Maybe he was just messing with it, it didn’t matter.

“Your hair is black” he said. Maybe it was, maybe it could be perceived as so, perhaps it couldn’t.

“Why are you sad?” He asked. I remained silent. I couldn’t describe it; I didn't want to think about it. There was nothing to think about.

“Well...” He began to speak, sensing the strength of the unbreakable silence I held.

“Before this, before I met you, I was at my house. Nobody else was there. I felt lonely, I wanted someone to come home, no... I didn’t. I didn’t want to be hit. So, I uh... I went outside. I looked at the houses around me, they all seemed happy. I wanted someone to come home too, so I climbed a tree, the one in my backyard. It’s an old tree, it’s been there a long time. It’s huge, and its branches are easy to grab. I climbed, pulling myself up by the big branches until I reached where I could see the second-floor stories of houses. I sat on a branch, and I thought. If the tree fell, it would destroy my house, I wouldn’t have a house anymore. It didn’t make me sad; I didn’t care. If it happened or not, I would be the same. While I thought that, I looked at your house. I could see you through the window. You seemed nice, and I was bored. I wanted to sleep after climbing the tree, it made me tired. So, I decided to go to your house the next day. For fun, I didn’t care what would happen.” He paused his rambling for a moment, he seemed deep in thought.

“And I realized, when I met you. You were pretty weird. But I was bored, so I didn’t care” His speech ended. It was funny, he was funny. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. He was weird, odd. He was strange. I wanted to know more of him.

Only my laughter filled the air, and once it passed. Silence did, and we fell asleep.