Freefall ✓

01 | calm

Storms they may come, but I'm here to stay

—bella ferraro

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AUDREY

THE TREE BRANCHES swayed back and forth rhythmically, their leaves rustling softly at the movement. The soothing smell of eucalyptus stroked my nostrils gently and warm sunlight tickled my skin, as I hung from a tree branch like a wild macaque, struggling to get the camera to focus.

"Are you quite done there?" I heard my best friend, Sydney, complain as she lay sprawled on the grass, in an overly-dramatic attempt to imitate a Vogue model pose.

"Excuse me, did you just complain? Who's the one hanging off a freaking tree branch here?" 

You see, the cons of having an amateur-but-aspiring-to-be-professional photographer best friend, were that when it came to taking a picture of her, the standards were at the same level as her own photography. Which were sky-high. And given my own poor photography skills, to have said that I was struggling would've been an understatement.

I finally snapped the picture and jumped off the darned tree. Sydney disentwined herself from her "casual" posture and rose up to check them out.

She would normally be taller than me, but today the thick platform of my sneakers made me seem almost about her height. She tilted her head sideways, carefully studying the images, some of her dark brown curls falling in the way of her black chocolate eyes.

I heard her sigh. This could have meant two things: either she was just tired of this photoshoot or genuinely satisfied with the photographs. I hoped for the latter.

"Alright, screw this photoshoot, let's go."

I snorted. Welp, reading minds certainly wasn't one of my hidden talents. "So you don't like the picture." 

"Not really." I gave her an offended look, intentionally exaggerated, as we started walking. "Oh no, but it has nothing to do with your photography skills, the angle was just perfect. It's just my  face that ruins everything."

"Stop saying that! You know you're an absolute bombshell," I flipped her hair, deliberately overdramatizing, as she laughed at my attempt of lifting up her self-esteem.

"Sure thing, chicken wing," she said, with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm absolutely serious—"

"Shh," she interrupted and stopped walking, eyes focused on something ahead of us.

"What is it?"I whispered, confused as heck.

"Look," she said, pointing at something in front of us, by the lake.

I gasped when I finally spotted it. Just a few feet away from us and nearing the lake, was a cute little fox cub. Its red fur glimmered in the sun gracefully. The tiny creature bent down for a drink.

"Aw, it's adorable!" I squeaked. I had a thing for furry little animals. Well, who didn't? They always managed to make my heart melt.

"Let's come closer," Sydney whispered. We discreetly approached the foxie, trying not to make a sound, until we were literally inches away. The foxie drank water nonchalantly, completely unaware of our presence.

"Foxie foxie," I risked, reaching out and stroking its silky fur. My face expression must have been beyond control as the fox stayed still and Sydney gave me an amused look. 

"Give me this for a second," she reached for the camera hanging off my neck and quickly snapped some pictures of the animal. It didn't seem to mind.

"I didn't know there were foxes around here," Sydney said, while busy on her photoshoot. "How are we gonna call him?"