Lauren Jauregui imagines

Stuck up a tree

(Your P.O.V)
Being stuck up a tree was not at all how I'd imagined spending my eighteenth birthday. Looking after my sister, Lydia's, ten-year-old twins hadn't been in my plans either. But then, it was hardly Lydia's fault that she'd gone into labour three weeks early.

One minute we'd all been sitting in her sunny, back garden sharing a rather nice bottle of Chardonnay (Lydia was drinking orange juice) and the next she'd been doubled over in agony on the patio.
"I think the baby's coming," she'd gasped between contractions. And my brother in law, Dylan, had gone almost as white as she was.
"You go to the hospital, I'll look after Aidan and Ariana." I'd said and they hadn't needed to be told twice.

Looking after the twins couldn't be that difficult, I thought, in blissful ignorance. They could play in the garden while I finished my glass of wine.
"Can we go for a walk?" Ariana asked, as soon as their parents had gone.
"Please, Auntie y/n?" Aidan begged.
"Just a short one, then," I said. Not that I minded particularly. I'd always liked walking and Dylan and Lydia lived on the edge of some heath land. The gate at the bottom of their garden led directly into the woods.

"Do you want to see our tree?" Aidan said, grabbing my hand and towing me along a worn out path, and not giving me a lot of choice in the matter. "There it is." He pointed to a large oak tree up ahead and I saw to my alarm that Ariana was already half way up it.
"Ari, you'll wreck your clothes," I shouted.
"They're my tree climbing clothes," she yelled back. "Come on up, Auntie Y/n, it's easy!"
"Look I'll show you," Aidan said, grabbing a branch and hauling himself up. "You just put your foot there and then it's like a ladder."

He was right, I saw, glancing up into the leafy greenery and seeing Sarah's grinning face peering down.
"Come on, Auntie."
I don't know what possessed me, I really don't. Perhaps I should blame it on the wine, but before you could say, 'don't be so ridiculous', I was following Aidan up the tree.

I hadn't climbed a tree for years and it was quite liberating going up between the solid old branches, higher and higher. By the time I reached Ariana I was laughing, and it was only when I looked down and saw how high up I was that I remembered, that I'm scared of heights.

Suddenly it wasn't so funny. We must have been fifteen feet up and my head spun as I looked down at the forest floor. The branch I was holding onto didn't feel as secure as it had done seconds before.
"It's cool, isn't it?" Ariana shouted down. "Come up a bit higher. You can see our house from here."
"Er, I think I'll stay here," I croaked. My fingers felt slippery on the branch and I felt sick. Not to mention very silly. How on earth had I got myself into this?.

Five minutes later I'd convinced the twins that I really was stuck. And even though, Aidan had scaled up and down several times in an effort to show me how easy it was, I couldn't move.
"You can't stay up there all day," Ariana said reasonably. "Who's going to get us food?"
"I'm not planning on staying up here all day. I just don't feel very well."
"We could go and get Lauren" Ariana suggested, wiping leaf mould off her jeans.

"She's our next door neighbour. She's always playing with us and helping us."
"Helping you get down from trees?" I asked incredulously.
"From all sorts of places." Ariana chimed

"Hang on a minute," I yelled, as the two of them started back down the forest path, but either they didn't hear me or they chose to ignore me and there was very little I could do about it.
Slowly and carefully, desperation lending me courage, I climbed up to the branch where Ariana had said she could see the house, which at least meant that I could see them and make sure they went straight home. For some reason it was a lot easier to get up than it was to get down.

Much to my relief I saw them go into their back gate and then I saw Aidan jump over the garden wall into the house next door.
And then it started to rain. Not just little drops of rain, it was pouring. Within seconds I was drenched and now there was definitely no chance of moving. The branch I was clinging to was too slippery.