On the Other Side

Chapter 16

NYX

RB dropped me off. He said he will be doing errands for her mother. I called for Astryd but isn't answering back. I thought that she's not home. I went to the backyard. I find peace in there. I got my phone out and plugged my earphone. I closed my eyes after hitting play.
'Call it magic, Call it true, and Call it magic, when I'm with you'

When I opened my eyes again Astryd was there. She was smiling to herself. I stared at her. Then she stared back at me.
"Ahhhhhh." Astryd shouted. I took my earphone off. "What are you doing here?" she added.
"You're brother dropped me off minutes ago. I thought no one was home and I find peace in here."
"Oh gods, why?" she said covering her face. "Why are you always there? This is the second time already. Ahhhhrg."

There was an awkward silence. But she broke it.
"So. Pizza?" she asked. So what we did is ordered pizza. We were in the kitchen eating pizza.
"Are you gonna say something about what happened twice now?" I asked.

She tensed up. Okay I'll leave it a mystery. I'll respect her privacy on that.
"What happened? Why did you quit volleyball?" I asked.
"Well, you see, I was never really into sports."
"So why did it in the first place?" I asked. She looked at me closely. I can sense that she was figuring me out.
"Why?" she asked.
"Why what?" I was confused.
"Why are you asking me this?" her green eyes was looking right into me.
"Well, I wanted to know you more." Which is totally true. I want to know something about the person who gives me the butterflies and the only person whom I felt something with.
"Why?" she asked again.
"I want to be your friend."
"Why?" she looked at me funny. I felt hot everywhere. How does she does that thing she was doing.
"Do you always do this to every person who wants to be friends with you?" I answered her 'why queries' with another question.

She sighed. Maybe it was a sign of defeat for her. I smiled at her.
"So why did you quit playing volleyball?" I asked her again.
"Dad." She answered
"So why did you start?"
"Dad." She had a neutral tone.
"Why?" I asked. She answered thriftily and I wanted to know more.
"My dad was a fan of volleyball. My brother was into basketball and other sports but not volleyball. He said that volleyball was for girls. It made my dad sad so what I did was volunteer myself to learn it by heart. He taught me to play and made me play on the school's volleyball team. Then I he left us without warning. I was devastated. I quit volleyball. Then a month after we learned that he died of cancer. He had cancer and he didn't told us. He left us believing it would hurt less. Well he was wrong. It hurt a lot." I could see her eyes glittering from tears.
"I'm sorry." I said.
"It's okay. You would've know it from RB anyway."
"He doesn't talk about your dad. Maybe he was hurt just as much as you are."
"I just hope he never left. We would've had fun even if he was sick. The bright side is, my school's team was state champion before I had quit. I made him proud didn't I?"
"Yes you did a great job. I just hope you didn't quit playing. You hade pure talent on you."
"Thanks. But I really hate sports." We laughed hard.
"Can I ask you one more thing?" she looked at me trying to figure out what was on my mind. I stared back at her.
"Is it about the tree?" She answered unsurely. I could hear it her voice.

I was silent. I was unsure if I would ask her that. I was going to ask her if why did she had no friends. But okay I wanted to know that thing too. I looked at her. I was reading her reaction, but I failed, it only made my stomach flipped my ears hot.
"It's a family secret, for girls. It's a magical tree that can bring you into different stories, different worlds. I really loved adventures, so my grandmother told me about the tree. When you go inside the tree, you must finish your adventures in exactly an hour, you'll know if its time when you saw a glowing door, you must go into it before it disappears or you'll be in the story forever. You must never mess up the story, if you do so, you must fix the mess you made."
"Isn't it dangerous? What if you were stuck there forever? Our world wouldn't be the same without you."

She was stunned. I didn't knew why the heck I said that.
"Uhh, isn't it dangerous?" I repeated my first question.
"I know. But I loved the adventures." I could see in her eyes the happiness that those adventures gave her. I wanted to give that happiness to her. Oh gods, what the heck am I thinking. But really I want to make her smile like that.