Page 3 of Fall From Grace

“One minute, a girl will be mad at you for saying something, then the next, she’s trying to be sweet.” He shook his head and sighed, ripping into the wrapper before sticking the popsicle in his mouth. “It’s so annoying.”

“What’s wrong with trying to get along with you despite our first meeting?”

He shrugged his shoulders in reply. “Are you going to tell me your name?” I asked him.

“Noah,” he answered. “Noah Phillips.” He lifted his gaze. “And yours?”

“Grace,” I chirped. “Grace Harper.”

He snorted. “Figures.”

I gave him a hostile look. “What?”

“Even your name sounds prissy.”

“I am not prissy,” I protested.

He nodded his head like he wanted to say,sure, sure.

I lifted my chin up, remembering the way he entered the yard. “You just reminded me, I saw the way you entered the yard… You look like you know your way around the woods.”

He smiled smugly. “I know these woods like the back of my head.”

I rolled my eyes before smiling. “Good.” He lifted a brow in question. “Take me on an adventure.”

His reply was the lift of his eyes and mouth as he moved across the creaking wood in a hurry, shimmying down the rope. I got up and followed after him. I looked over to the house before following him into the hills where he spent hours testing me with steep places, high tree branches, and small creeks. The only thing that he managed to get a reaction from me was when he lifted some sort of bug in my face, and I jumped back screeching. He grabbed his stomach and pointed at me as he lurched over and laughed.

I huffed. “Put it down!”

He lifted himself up and nodded. “Yes, Miss Priss.”

“Don’t call me that, either.”

When he smiled at me this time, it was different than the times before, more relaxed. “Ya know, you’re not so bad for a girl.”

His smile was contagious. I tucked my hair behind my ear. “I guess that makes you my first friend here.”

He rubbed a hand down his dirty shirt, almost like he was as self-conscious as a seven-year-old could be. “I guess having one girl as a friend won’t hurt,” he said slowly.

I stepped closer to him. “Then it’s a promise.”

He frowned. “What is?”

“That I’ll be the only girl you spend your time with,” I giggled innocently, not understanding the true gravity my words placed on him that day. “I’ll always stay with you as long as you promise something.”

His eyes searched mine. “What?”

“That you’ll always take me on an adventure.”

He smirked. “I can do that.”

I nodded. “I think so too.”

“Gracie!” In the distance, my mom’s voice rang loud.

“Oh no,” I whispered, “it’s my mom.”

I took off running as quick as I could down the hill, occasionally scooting on my butt and leaping over branches and puddles of mud. Noah stayed right behind me, and soon I was laughing as we made a game out of it.