Going Away or Saying Hello Again?

"Come on, we don't have all day," Alyssa yells down as a much more cautious boy climbs the rickety ladder into what has to be the oldest tree houses this town has ever had.

A wooden beam breaks beneath the boy's foot, forcing him to cling onto the rotting board above him for dear life.

"I... I don't think I like this," The boy mumbles.

Alyssa laughs from above him grabbing on to his arm. "Come on, Stephen," Alyssa pouts and tugs upward on Stephen's arm. With a little of foot flailing and shoulder tugging, Stephen finally gets to the top of the ladder.

"I think I told you this before I started, but I really don't like heights," Stephen groans, his face turning slightly green as he looks over the edge.

Alyssa shakes her head, begging, "Can't you just suck it up for a single day so we can set it up for your sister's party tonight?"

"Why does it have to be in our tree house?" Stephen mumbles, looking out the window again. Alyssa grabs his shoulder and yanks him back, laughing again.

"Firstly, because Jessie absolutely adores this tree house, this is the best place to host her going away party. And B, if you're so scared of heights, maybe try to not to look out of the windows every three seconds," Alyssa teases. She pulls a couple sets of fairy lights out of a bag she dragged up the tree house because somebody was too weak to bring the bags up.

Stephen grips the edge of the tree house window sill, groaning, “Firstly and B are not even remotely within the same scheme of points being made.”

“Sorry, you were always the smart one,” Alyssa comments, shrugging.

“Also,” Stephen grumbles, stepping away from the window, “This isn’t exactly safe to host a bunch of people for my sister’s going away party. We’ll be lucky if it doesn’t collapse beneath us.”

Alyssa rolls her eyes before saying, “Obviously this won’t be where everyone stands. This will just be where Jessie stands up to give a speech over how much she will miss us, especially me, and we’ll stand up to give much more eloquent speeches about how weird of a person she is.”

Alyssa gives a twirl around the small tree house, bumping into Stephen. The two fall in a flurry of limbs. Alyssa lands on Stephen. Hard. She rushes up, red burning her face. 

“I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” Alyssa questions, scurrying off of him and into a standing position. 

Stephen stays on the ground in shock. Alyssa fret a little while before finally lugging him off the ground, although he wasn't much help. “Are you okay?” Alyssa asks again, gently.

Stephen nods, stiffly. “I’m fine.”

“Oh, I’m such a klutz, sorry,” Alyssa repeats, sheepishly. 

“Don’t worry, I just forgot that you moved so much,” Stephen tells her, “Should we start setting up?”

Alyssa nods, grabbing the string of fairy lights again. “Could you sweep the dust out of the treehouse?” Stephen nods, grabbing a broom that Alyssa lugged up. Alyssa perches herself onto an open window sill, leaning out until nearly her entire upper body is hanging out. 

“Alyssa,” Stephen yelps, “What are you doing?”

Alyssa grabs that top of the window and pokes her head into the treehouse. “Stringing the lights,” She says, the duh obvious in her tone. 

“Is there not a safer way?” He questions, his voice quivering slightly. 

“Not one that’s easier,” She claims, her tone the exact same as before, “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” Her toned soften. She gives him a slight smile in hopes to reassure him but realizes that he won’t be happy. 

She slips inside carefully, making sure that the fairy lights don’t falter. Stephen releases a big sigh that Alyssa or him realized he was holding. The lights are harder to put up, with Alyssa having to contort her body in a way to be able to string the lights. 

~

After two hours of cleaning and setting up the tree house, both people are sweaty from all the work. Alyssa plops down on the wooden ground, a sigh going through her mouth. She grabs a bottle of water from a still full bag and takes a huge swig of water. 

“What time is it?” She groans, rubbing her back. 

Stephen checks his phone as he folds his long legs to sit down. “One o’clock, the party starts in two hours right? You need to get her over here at three, right?”

Alyssa grins brightly before saying, “I believe that it’s lunch time then. I brought some leftover pizza. Do you still like hawaiian pizza? We used to be the only ones to like it in everyone in the school.” The two companions let out a small laugh remembering their time as little kids. 

Stephen nods, a small smile graces his lip. “Yeah, everyone thought we were strange.”

“God,” Alyssa sighs, shifting so she can lean against a rickety wall, “We used to get teased mercilessly. I suppose they just never tried it.”

“Thomas especially,” Stephen adds.

“You’re telling me. I swear he hated you. Tommy teased me till the sunset each day. But you, that was straight down abuse. But you always defended my honor. I didn’t thank you enough did I?” Alyssa ponders. She grabs a plastic container from the bag. Four pieces of pizza sitting inside the code. She grabs one and pushes it to Stpehen. He picks one up and bites into it. 

“This is so good. Where did you get it from?” He immediately asked. 

“I made it,” Alyssa tells him, “I always loved to bake. I’m just better at it now.”

“Yeah, you would always bring your strange types of cookies. That was always the highlight of my week,” Stephen tells her. 

Alyssa, blushes. “Why did we stop hanging out? You were always the only fun kid in our class.”

Stephen shrugs. “You started hanging out with my sister, and Thomas and all those other kids. Your time got stretched too thin and I was the one willing to give you up.”

Alyssa looks at him, her eyes casting down. “I’m sorry. You were my only friend from so many years. I never should’ve ignored you. Especially for a bully like Thomas.”

Stephen shrugs her off. Not looking overly upset. He’ll never tell her this but after a couple years of being a wreck, he got on with life. Adapted to not having the bushel of energy and happiness spinning around him. Adapted to not having her. 

“No one gave me a hard time after they became friends with you. So, I guess I should thank you about that. Also, Thomas wasn’t a bully. He was just jealous of me,” Stephen reassures her. 

“Jealous?” Alyssa questions, her eyebrows scrunched together, “Of your mind, killer smile, very rare laugh?”

“Of you.”

“Me?” Alyssa questions in the same way as before, “Why because of me?”

“I got your time,” He explains.

“Oh please,” Alyssa says, brushing him off, “My time was never that valuable. He teased me too.”

Stephen laughs, already starting in on his second piece of pizza. “He was a little boy with as much of a grasp of his feelings as I had of mine. That was his sad attempt at flirting.”

“Oh hush, I’m sure you had plenty of crushes on the girls in our grade, but you were always the perfect little gentleman if you could even speak to them,” Alyssa argues.

“I didn’t not have plenty unless you count one as plenty. I would never tell her though, never would have risked her laughing at me,” He admits. 

“She wouldn't have laughed at you. The girls in our class were dreadfully dreary and never would’ve laughed at anything. Especially you,” Alyssa reassures him. Her small laugh accompanied her words. Like much of the things she said. 

Stephen sighs. He sets his pizza back into the container and leans his head against the wall. “Not her, she laughed at just everything under the sun.”

Alyssa cocks her head to the side. Did she completely forget about a girl in their grade? No, most of the girls weren’t mean but weren’t exactly entertaining. 

“Who was she?” Alyssa asks him, leaning forward. 

Stephen stays quiet. “My best friend.” 

Alyssa stares at him. Stephen can all but see the gears turning around in her head. His cheeks flame up under her inquizitive glare as he rubs the back of his neck. 

“You’re not very helpful,” Alyssa finally tells him. 

Stephen chuckles quietly to himself. “Well, I think that this tree house looks great, although I refuse to look out the windows. I’m going to go. See you tonight.”

“Wait, come on. Just tell me her name,” Alyssa yells. She gets up to look out the window as he crawls down the ladder, his face going slightly pale. He gives a sigh of relief once his feet hit solid ground before looking up at her. Stephen shakes his head slightly. 

“Fine, I’ll get it out of you next time we hang out,” Alyssa promises. Her laugh bouncing through the branches of the tree. 

“As long as you promise to laugh at everything under the sun like you used to,” Stephen tells her. 

Alyssa nods, cheerfully. “Of course, life wouldn’t be the same without it.” Stephen just laughs smally, shakes his head and walks inside his house, leaving Alyssa alone in the backyard. 

Then, as if a lightbulb went off over her head, her eyes widened in realization.