Page 2 of Fall From Grace

Once I saw it was just a boy instead of a monster hiding in the treehouse, I brought my hand to his and pulled it from my mouth. He watched me cautiously as my eyes darted toward the heap of clothes and blankets behind him. “Do you live here, boy?” I asked him quickly.

A flash of color hit his cheeks so quickly, I probably saw wrong. “No, but this is my treehouse,girl,” he snapped back with venom.

I lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe.” I gave him my battle smile. I always got what I wanted, but in this case, this treehouse was already mine. “But, not anymore. My parents bought this house andthisland, and that places this treehouse asmine.”

His eyes held a gleam to them that made my smile falter for a fraction of a second. “Wanna know what happened to the last family that lived here?” he asked me, and I leaned in for what he was going to tell me. “They moved away because of me, I scared their son so bad he begged them to move!”

I blinked a few times before I burst into giggles. “You’re a liar.”

“Ask anyone,” he hissed. “His name was Jeremiah, and they moved seven months ago. This treehouse has been mine ever since.”

“How old are you?” I asked. “Six, like me?”

“No, seven.” He grinned smugly. “And don’t think that just because you’re a fancy little girl that I’ll let you have your way.”

“Fancy?”

He pointed toward my dress. “What kind of creature wears polka dots? You look like a unicorn shit on you.”

I gasped, my hands flying over my mouth. “You said a bad word. You can’t say that!”

“What?” He genuinely looked confused at first then an evil smirk claimed his lips. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.”

I gasped again. “You’re such a foul and dirty boy!”

He laughed at my choice of words, and my cheeks warmed. “And you’re such a bratty girl,” he argued back.

“Get out of my treehouse.” I stood up, twisted my body halfway, and pointed toward the exit.

He turned around and grabbed a couple of clothes from the pile. “Like I’d want to stay here and fight with a loud-mouthed girl anyway,” he told me.

I dropped my hand finally and just watched him slip past me. My eyes fell back on the blankets and clothes he was about to leave behind. Even at age six, I looked too deeply into things and saw them for what they truly were, not how a normal child would. I glanced back to him as he was tossing his clothes on the ground. “Do you have somewhere to go?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Where’re your parents?”

He turned around, a dark storm brewed in his eyes. “I wasn’t living here!” he yelled. “Stupid girl!”

My eyes grew wide. “I was only—”

“You were only being nosy.”

I practically blew steam from my nose as I glared at him. I brought my leg out to kick him but he saw what I was about to do, and jumped. I hurried to the edge and looked down to see him scooping up his clothes. “Don’t come back,” I said haughtily like I had done something great to make him run off.

He smirked. “Oh, I’ll be back.” And it was a promise because the very next day, he came again. I guarded the treehouse like it was a treasure trove. I just knew from the looks of him he was going to be a persistent pain in my butt. When I wasn’t in the treehouse that day, I was looking out the kitchen window eating a popsicle. That was when he came back. He snuck in the backyard through the hills so that told me he knew his way around the woods. I hopped off the counter and headed for the door.

“Where’re you going?” Mom asked me.

“Treehouse,” I replied. I didn’t want to give away the boy. If my parents knew of him, that might ruin the fun I was sure I would have with him.

“Be careful.”

I stopped at the door and ran to the fridge, tiptoeing to get another popsicle in the freezer. “You and popsicles,” Mom laughed, shaking her head.

I grinned at my own secret as I hurried outside. The boy let out a frustrated sigh the moment my head peeked above the treehouse where he sat. “You should stop wearing those dresses if you plan to keep climbing up here,” he pointed out.

I couldn’t respond to him just yet with my popsicle wedged in my mouth. I gripped the wood and tossed the extra popsicle to him as I finished hoisting myself into the treehouse. Once I was inside, I walked over to him and sat down, bringing the popsicle out of my mouth with apoppingsound. He watched me cautiously then glanced down at the popsicle in his lap. “I brought it for you,” I told him.

His eyes widened. “This is why girls are strange,” he muttered.

“How so?” I asked, leaning on my hand as I spoke.