Catch You

   Dani looked up for the nth time and sighed. The popsicle that she bought a few minutes ago was melting. There, sitting just about 15 meters away from her was Violet, happily swinging her legs and humming a song, as if she won’t break at least five bones in her body if she falls off the branch she’s currently perched on. 

   “Vi, it’s almost 8 pm, come back down now so we can eat dinner already,” Dani said, already feeling tired from standing under the tree for almost three hours, “I’ll even cook you your favourite, ramen with naruto and half an egg,” she tried. Violet however just grinned at her and replied, “Only if you’ll catch me.”

   Three hours ago, Dani, the stressed out college student, trying to review for her finals, received a call from a friend who was passing by, telling her that her roommate, and childhood friend, Violet, was sitting on a tree in the middle of their campus, and people were already staring at her and at some point a guard had tried to coax her down but to no avail. Hearing this, Dani immediately abandoned all her studying and practically ran to where Violet was said to have been seen. 

   When she arrived at the courtyard, she immediately spotted Violet, she wasn’t hard to miss, really, ignoring the small crowd under the enormous tree, she saw Violet waving at her, huh, I guess the view from up there makes me easy to spot, Dani thought. 

   As Dani walked up to the tree, she observed her friend. Violet was simply breathtaking despite being at least fifteen meters up. Her eyes sparkled and reflected the setting sun’s rays making them warm and light brown, contrasting perfectly with her dark brown locks that swayed a bit thanks to the wind. Violet’s smile could light up an entire town if she wanted to or she could make anyone melt if she directed her smile at them, and Dani agreed to that, for she herself would melt every time Violet would smile at her. 

   “Vi, how long have you been there?” 

   “Since 1, I think.” 

   “Why did you go up there?” 

Violet smiled cheekily, “do you remember that time when we were nine, I climbed the tree next to the park and you came running to me just like now?” 

“Of course I remember that,” Dani mumbled, “you made me run across the entire neighborhood trying to look for you just to find out that you were waiting for me on top of a tree.”

“And I didn’t know how to get down too because I thought my skirt would get caught on the branches and I’d just be hanging there for the entire night,” Violet laughed at the memory

Of course Dani remembered it. 

It was a warm summer afternoon when she was waiting for her friend, Violet, nine years old at that time, at their usual hangout spot at the field in their neighborhood. They would usually meet there at 4 pm when their moms would let them play for a while before calling them back inside to their respective houses for dinner. 

That day however, Violet was late for their usual meet up which was odd since she would usually be on time if not even earlier than Dani. After waiting for around thirty minutes more, nine year old Dani decided to search for her friend who she assumed, at that time, was in great danger because she was late. Several scenarios flashed through Dani’s head, from someone kidnapping Violet to her mom not letting her go out or maybe even worse, Violet must have tripped and fell and hurt herself on the way to the field and now she’s somewhere crying her eyes out waiting for someone to help her. This sent a wave of panic through Dani making her run all over the neighborhood trying to look for her possibly wounded friend. 

Dani found Violet an hour later, right across the neighborhood sitting on top of a branch on a tree next to the park smiling down at Dani seemingly unwounded and relieved that her best friend finally found her. 

“Vi, how long have you been there?” 

“Since 4 I think.”

“Why did you go up there?”

Violet smiled cheekily, “I wanted you to come look for me,” she said, “I thought that maybe playing hide and seek for today would be fun. And see, you found me, although I was worried you wouldn’t find me.” 

Dani sighed but couldn’t contain her amusement as she smiled up at her friend, “come back down now, it’s almost dinner time and our moms are probably looking for us. You told me yesterday that your mom is cooking you your favourite, ramen with naruto and half an egg right?”

When Violet failed to answer immediately, Dani tried again “Vi, come down now I’m tired already of running around looking for you.”

Violet looked nervous for a second, trying to avoid Dani’s gaze, chuckling lightly she said, “yeah, well about that.”

 “You said you’d catch me, right?” 

At this, Dani, stopped laughing and looked up at Violet. 

“I’ll always catch you,” Dani replied seriously, “I’ve said that a thousand times before whenever you try to climb a tree. No matter how high you go, or no matter how many neighborhoods I need to run across from, I will always catch you when you fall.” 

Violet smiled at her once more and simply replied, “good.” 

But that was three hours ago when the sun was still up and Dani thought Violet would go down once she saw that Dani was there to take her home. The first hour of waiting passed by surprisingly quickly with the two roommates just recalling their childhood and all the times that they were put in the same situation, eliciting laughter and maybe even tears from the two but attracting stares and odd looks from passersby. 

The second hour Dani suddenly remembered that she had to review for her finals and she abandoned all her studies to run to Violet. This sent a wave of panic to Dani who still needed to go back to the dorms now and review if she still wanted to graduate on time. Violet however, did not feel the same panic and anxiety as her friend, choosing instead to blabber on about just about everything, from their childhood, to what happened to her just this morning. 

“--and that’s how I ended up here!” Violet finished her story grinning at Dani. 

Dani stopped pacing and stared at Violet, momentarily forgetting about her worries for the finals instead focusing on the girl above her. She obviously didn’t catch the reason how Violet ended up fifteen meters off the ground but knowing the girl for almost her entire life gave her a vague idea as to why. Dani guessed that the stress from the university became too much for Violet so she looked for a place to get away to, and Violet being Violet, decided that the tree in the middle of the campus would be the perfect spot for her to escape the stress. Dani mulled over a few other ideas too such as Violet probably lost a bet with her classmates and that was the consequence, or maybe she missed her childhood days too much and decided to relive it by climbing up a tall tree and staying there for 6 hours and counting. 

Deciding that Violet wasn’t going to come down anytime soon, Dani gave up worrying about her finals choosing instead to observe her childhood friend. Twenty year old Violet was not much different from nine year old Violet, Dani concluded. She was still the same impulsive, careless person who laughed as if there are no problems in the world. The same Violet who would climb trees to “play hide and seek” or would talk about her mornings as if it was the most interesting thing in the entire world. The only difference between the two is that twenty year old Violet already knew that no matter how many times she would climb up a tree, Dani would always find her and catch her if she falls from the tree. 

“I’ll always catch you.”

That was the promise Dani told Violet ever since the first time she climbed a tree. That was the same promise Dani would repeat over and over whenever her roommate felt like everything was falling apart or whenever her best friend would refuse to go down a tree because she needed to escape from the stress of life.

That was the same promise Dani never repeated again ever since the accident happened. 

It has almost been a year and a half since Dani stood under the tree in the middle of campus, laughing at whatever absurd story her best friend would tell her from a branch fifteen meters above her. 

It has been almost a year since the accident that left Dani alone in a world where she was supposed to face everything with her best friend by her side. 

Dani looked up for the nth time and sighed. She took a bite off her popsicle and willed her legs to move away from the tree before her. As she slowly walked away from the tree in the middle of campus, she swore she could hear humming somewhere from a branch on the tree fifteen meters up.