Boot Camp

Boot Camp [ 13 ]

Lane Daniels (AHH NO WAY YAS)

When I was seven years old, I fell in love with my best friend. I remember the exact moment, like it only happened yesterday.

We were at the neighborhood park, sitting under our favorite tree. Our moms sat over on a bench, discussing the latest book they had to read for their book club. I don't remember what it was, only that it had a picture of a basically naked man on the front, which at the time made me go all "ew gross."

Back under the tree, he was pulling out chunks of grass, some with the dirt still attached, and placed them on my out stretched legs as I laid on my back. I didn't complain, he would continue if I did and he would continue if I didn't, so what was the point?

I continued to look up at the blue sky and the clouds, making pictures in my head and coming up with stories. The one right above us was a dragon, next to it a princess who could slay the dragon all on her own, without a prince to save her. When I grow up I'm going to be a book writer and none of my books will have basically naked boys on the cover.

"Hey Lanie," he says as a freshly pulled clump of grass is placed on my knee. "Did you hear what Peter Blake was saying at recess this afternoon?"

I look away from the clouds and face him. He's stopped pulling out grass and is looking at me with curiosity in his eyes. I sit up and brush the grass and dirt off my legs. "The part where he was telling the other boys that Cassie Turner had cooties and tried to kiss him or that he climbed the giant tree in his backyard?"

He sighed and shook his head at me. "The tree part, obviously Lanie, cooties are an urban myth." He looks at me like he's sorry for me that I don't know this information.

"What about it? No one saw him climb it, how do you know that that's not an urban myth, too?" I shoot at him.

He ignores this though, and looks up at our favorite tree. "He's always showing off," he murmurs. "Says that no one can beat him at anything. I think I can climb our tree." He turns to me again. "Do you think I can climb our tree, Lanie?"

"Of course," I say, because he's my best friend and I don't want to hurt his feelings by telling him he can't.

He gets to his feet, brushing the grass and things from his backside before turning to the tree and looking up. "I can climb it. I bet this one's higher than Peter Blake's tree, too! And I'll make it to the top." He grips onto the lowest branch to haul himself up. He was actually doing it, he was climbing our tree and I couldn't help but smile and giggle and cheer him on.

But then he wasn't climbing anymore, he was falling. He fell all the way to the ground and let out a scream as he did. I ran over to his side. He was holding his arm at a weird angle.

Our moms had taken notice to his yell and were jogging over.

"I'm sorry, Lanie," he says, and I ask what he could possibly be sorry about. He just fell out of a tree! "Because," he says, "because you believed in me, you said I could do it and I couldn't."

I stepped away then, because our moms got to us and his mom was picking him up, being careful of his arm, and started rushing toward our cars.

He thought he could climb the tree because I thought he could. I believed in him so he believed in himself. I smile. I smile to wide my lips and cheeks hurt and mom is asking me why I'm smiling when he just got hurt and I can feel my cheeks burning red as I shrug my shoulders and try to tone down my smile.

That was the day I fell in love with Ryan Brooks. It was also the day he fell out of our tree and broke his arm.

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