Wonderlust

To Be an Old Fern

We didn't exactly make up after that. We both just forgot the incident happened. Oregon flew by and we hit Northern California. It was at a gas station in the middle of an even taller forest that we actually started talking more than a few sentences.

"Hey, you know what's around here?" Dylan folded his arms.

I paused on my adventures through opening my bag of chips to look up at him. "Uh... trees. Lots of trees."

He snapped his fingers. "Yes exactly! But giant red trees, redwoods. What do you say?"

"Redwoods...?" I folded my hands across my chest.

"Come on we gotta. How about we camp out somewhere and you could draw them?"

I perked up after he said that. "Okay let's do it."

"Alright." He agreed happily.

Thirty minutes later we were climbing out. The smell of dirt and trees hit me as I stepped out into the cold California mountain air. It was different that the standard pine, earthier. It was like the scent itself was as ancient as the trees that grew here. The two of us being so young it almost felt out of place.

"Holy cow, look how tall they are!" Dylan marveled, breaking my chain of thoughts.

I opened up the back and pulled out my bright blue sketchbook with my pencil bag clipped on. With that in hand, I followed Dylan into the woods on the trails. I didn't talk to much as we hiked further into the sequoias, besides asking Dylan for the trail mix we bought. I was loving it. Trees had green leaves and you can trust the color green. Sequoias had rough and fraying bark that was a mix between red and brown. The trees were calm and each one had a unique personality while obtaining the aura of old age and wisdom. I like trees.

We passed other people on the trail, I didn't like to make eye contact so I focused the back of Dylan's head for a bit. His hair was growing out a bit and I could see a little bit of his roots. More evidence for my case that he's blonde. I stored away the evidence and moved onto the ferns lining the trail. They were big ferns, their leaves stretched out, trying to brush against the unsuspecting ankles of the humans who walked here.

"Did you know that ferns are one of the oldest living planets today?" I said offhandedly.

"That's awesome. Imagine what it be like to be an old fern."

"Hm. Stuck next to your family your whole life, unable to go anywhere. I don't know."

Dylan laughed like he always did. "Well it depends on your definition of family. For me, I think my family would just be me and you growing together."

The comment caught me so off guard I tripped on a root in the ground and fell, just catching myself at the last moment. Dylan glanced back and laughed, but not at me. I smiled and picked myself back up. Eventually we came to a log. One of the trees had fallen over. I wonder why. Was it lying, old and sleeping or was this some sort of fallen warrior. Maybe I was letting my thoughts get away from me.

Dylan started climbing up on top of it. Which I'm sure there was some rule against but there were no other people on this trail. He sat down at the top, looking to all the world like some sort of lanky young king figure. He grinned almost maliciously, like what he done was something to be proud of and he hadn't just climbed a tree. Not even a full tree, just the trunk.

"Come on up my liege." He patted the spot next to him.

I puffed out a laugh and scaled up the tree. From up here you could see above all the ferns. I liked the way it looked a lot. I pulled out my sketchbook and started working. Dylan was munching noisily on trail mix next to me. I could tell he was watching me draw out of the corner of his eye.

"Stop that." I warned somewhat playfully. "You're freaking me out."

"I am? My bad. I'll just be admiring this tree over here." He turned to look in the other direction.

I shot him an amused glance and couldn't really help myself. I added him in on the bottom corner. He just fit in with the scenery really well.

"Wow." Dylan sighed.

I looked up, startled, to see he was looking back again. "Dylan!" I shoved his shoulder lightly.

"Sorry!" He laughed. "You just get so into it, it's fun to watch."

I shook my head and blushed in embarrassment, then closed up my sketchbook.

Later we spent a few minutes in the gift shop. Mostly because Dylan was fascinated with those magnetic rock they sold at every first shop.

"Listen to that sound they make!" He said excitedly as he clicked them together. "Man! That's great."

"Then buy some dummy." I shoot my head in amused disbelief.

"But is it really worth it? Is twenty dollars really worth what could be a lifetime of continuous entertainment?"

While Dylan rambled onto himself about all his life greatest pleasures I noticed a group of older teenage boys walked inside. Usually a sentence like this sparked something intimidation for the speaker, and despite being an older teenage boy myself, that is still very much true. They came in laughing but not the way Dylan laughs, these boys were mocking someone. There were about three and they gave me drunk vibes, or maybe some other substance abuse. I locked eyes with one from across the room and watched as he tapped his friends' shoulders and pointed over, laughing. Embarrassed, I looked down at my feet and suddenly felt very uncomfortable with myself.

"I'm going to use the bathroom before we go." I pushed my sketchbook into Dylan's arms and walked away.

"Oh, okay." He frowned at my sudden coldness, but didn't push into it.

I went out the door and around the corner. Again, I hate using the bathroom in public, but it made feel a little better to find it was single stalled, but still gendered. I guess in that moment I was feeling pretty brave, and liked my chances, because I headed for the men's. Inside I did my business and stared at myself in the mirror for a long while.

I was just shaking myself up again. They weren't laughing at me because of how I looked. They were just stupid teenage boys. Just like me. I was stressing myself over nothing. Even if this is a situation that was all too familiar and had happened at school multiple times before.

All of a sudden there was a pounding and banging on the door. I audibly yelped because it scared me half to death. I figured it was just someone else who wanted to use the bathroom, because I had been in here for a while. I opened the door and slipped out. Only to see the three boys standing there, staring with equal amounts of teenage bloodlust, eager for confrontation. The one who joked about me folded his arms.

"Looks like little princess here overstepped her boundaries."