Enemies

23. "Jealous?"

I hear Gillian struggling to keep up with me which urges me to immediately stop and wait for her to catch up.

It takes a few moments but she does eventually catch up to me, a little out of breath.

"Can you slow down a little?! Jesus fucking Christ!" She pants breathlessly.

I roll my eyes at her dramatics.

"You're so over dramatic." I say as I hold my hand out for the auburn-haired girl.

Gillian wastes no time reaching out and grasping ahold of my hand. My heartbeat speeds up in my chest at the feeling of sparks that spread all throughout the hand that Gillian is holding. The brown-eyed girl interlocking her fingers with mine does nothing for my racing heart.

"Ready?" My voice comes out more breathless than intended.

"Yeah." Gillian responds, nodding her head.

I lead her the rest of the way to our destination with my hand in hers, only stopping when we have reached said destination.

"Uh, what am I supposed to be looking at?" Gillian speaks up.

"This!" I say, using my freehand to motion towards the large object in front of us.

"A tree?"

"Yep."

"You dragged me all the way out here to show me a tree?"

"Yep."

"I'm leaving."

Before Gillian can walk away, I use our conjoined hands to keep her near my side.

"You're hurting her feelings." I say.

I drop Gillian's hand and walk up to the large oak tree, pressing the palm of my hand up against it before gently caressing it in a caring manner.

"It's okay, baby. She didn't mean that."

A scoff leaves Gillian's mouth as she crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"You're not seriously consoling a tree right now?"

"Jealous?" I tease, turning to face my best friend.

Gillian rolls her eyes at my question.

"You're crazy." She states with a small smile.

"Don't forget it." I wink at her.

I detach myself from the large oak tree and reach into my back pocket, retrieving a small pink pocket knife. My mother got me this for my thirteenth birthday so that I could protect myself from bad people. Who are these bad people? I have no clue who they are.

"Whoa! What are you doing?!" Comes Gillian's worried tone of voice. I can hear the autumn leaves crumbling underneath her shoes as she walks up behind me.

I admit that I am momentarily distracted by the warmth that her body provides mine.

Fuck! Here I am reveling in her warmth when she probably has no clue how close she is to me right now.

Ignoring the girl behind me, I flip open the knife to reveal a small silver blade. A small smirk makes its way onto my face at the sight of the knife.

"Courtney-"

"Relax, Gill. I'm just making sure that people know that this is our tree." I say, beginning to slowly carve into the bark of the tree.