The summer we turned thirteen (Published)

Chapter thirty-five: Irreplaceable

James

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It was the way she could illuminate even the darkest night with her smile.

It was her ability to talk to me about anything and everything like she understood, even when she didn't.

It was how she always taught me how to be brave, even when I believed I couldn't.

There were so many reasons that caused me to fall in love with Harlee; it wasn't possible to name them all.

It wasn't necessarily instant like some people say it is with love. No, "love at first sight" or any of that. In reality, Harlee intimidated me a lot when we first met. Sometimes, she still did.

But the more I came to know her, I realized even with her bold exterior, she was kind, warm, compassionate, understanding, and so much more.

"James! Wake up!" a voice called out to me, waking me from my slumber.

Did I mention how she was also very loud?

I sat up in my tent to see Harlee poking her head into it.

"When did you wake up?" I asked, rubbing my eyes tiredly.

It was the morning after the campout we'd had in my backyard.

It had been a fun night once I got over my usual routine of paranoia and all. The night had become a bit spooky when I'd heard noises outside of the tent. Before I could talk her out of leaving the tent, Harlee hurried out to see what it was.

It ended up only being a pair of hungry raccoons.

Harlee found them adorable and started feeding them some of our camping treats. At first, I was hesitant for her to play around with wild animals because I was concerned they might have rabies or some other horrible disease.

But Harlee talked me out of the fear like always, and we both fed the raccoons our leftover camping snacks together. The discussion on fear continued after that, and she helped me realize some things about standing up to what I was afraid of.

I still hadn't found the courage to tell her the truth yet, though.

And it worried me, but also relieved me to think maybe, I never would find it.

"I've been up for ages waiting on you to get up," she said, climbing into the tent. "Thanks for putting my blanket over me when I fell asleep, by the way; it was a little chilly this morning when I woke up." She sat beside me.

I smiled at the fact she'd noticed the gesture. After Harlee had fallen asleep, I made sure to cover her up just in case it got cool during the night. Even though it was summertime, the temperature could still drop a lot during the early morning hours, and I wanted to make sure she didn't get sick.

"No problem," I said, checking the time on my phone.

Wow, I did sleep late, I thought to myself.

It was nearly noon.

"But the sun is out now, and it's heating up, so guess what we are going to do today?" she asked cheerfully, her eyes dancing as she spoke.

I tried to stop gawking at her beauty so obviously by focusing on my reflection in my phone screen.

"What?" I asked, trying to flatten my flyaway hair strands.

"Can't tell you. It's a surprise," she replied with a shrug.

"Then why did you bait me like that?" I laughed.