The Tree's Girl

Chapter Fifteen

We knew each other. We were chidlhood friends. I forgot about her cause of my accident. But that short, tiny, little memory might mean many things. It might mean that we became friends that day or it might mean that we became enemies. Could she remember me?

"What's wrong Joseph? Paralyzed by my beauty?" Ugh. She's so full of herself.

I pushed her away and dusted of her germs, if you could remember she jumped and wrapped her arms around me.

"I have a question and you better answer me."

"Hmm. What might that be?"

"When did we meet ?" A very confusing question. But I know she'll understand it, if she remembers our meeting that day.

"When? Um, I guess, when we were kids." she does remember!

"W-were we friends?" I can't believe I'm asking her this, but I want answers, and what's a better way to get answers? It's through asking.

"You don't remember anything?"she didn't know I had an accident? Was she really my childhood friend?

I hesitantly shook my head. I guess my accident didn't get out. Mom didn't know my friends so there is noone was she could ever tell them that news. Heck, I didn't even knew I had friends up until know, I mean, if Nina was my friend.

"Well Silly you. Did you have an accident?" she said with an innocent smile. I can tell that she's acting, I've already seen a real smile and I know the difference of fake and real.

"Yeah. I did" The words I let out are few, I shouldn't say anything that is not needed.

"Well, You don't have to worry. We were and are friends" she said and held both of my arms, with a very fake smile. She's obviously lying. Why should I believe her. Her fake smiles says it all.

"Sure, can you leave now?"

"AWW. But we just had our reunion."

"Yeah, I really don't care. Just leave."

"C'mon Joseph-"

"I said. LEAVE!" I glared at her. She's so annoying! Maria would be here any minute and we need privacy to talk about the tree. I can't have her here.! Nina needs to leave! And another thing, I now Mari would freak and exploed in jealousy when she sees us together.

"Why?" she turned serious.

"I need privacy, that's all." I calmly said.

"Fine." she replied. Finally she stops fighting. She walks away and finally walks out the door.

I looked at my watch, how long will Maria make me wait? If it were not for her lateness, I wouldn't have remembered such a useless memory.

I heard a thump from behind, the door just closed. I hope this time it's Maria.

"Joseph, I'm here" Yes it's her. But she sounds a little down. Oh well.

I won't ask her what took her so long, I don't want to waste answers on a silly and useless question. "Explain yourself" I started. "Why does the tree need to eat again? What do you mean by I'm starting to remember? And, first of all, How did I even hear your conversation with Nina?"

She looked like she knew this was coming. She should know. I've been wanting answers and she hasn't given me any. This time, I demand them!

"Do I really need to answer them all?"

"YES!" I raised my voice,, she has no choice but to answer me. I deserve to know, this information is about me!

"No, Joseph, you don't need to know" she was aout to hold my hand but I jerked it away.

"How can you tell?!" My emotions are now getting the best of me. "You don't have a life like mine. I'm so confused right now. I hated the tree, but it's the one wo's keeping me alive. I hated you, but you were killing for my sake. It feels so heavy! All the thing that caused me fear and misery, all the things that ruined my life started form one person none other than me!!" I shouted everything. I was loud, I'm sure anyone could hear if they were listening. My feeling poured out, but I'm not crying, not again, not in front of her.

"You're not the only living that life... believe it or not, we're the same.. That's actually the reason I love you."

I was shocked. Did she just say that we're the same? She lives the sme life as me? That's impossible!! She's the one who owns the tree! How can she live the same life as me?!

She walked in front of me and hugged me. I was still shocked and tranced, I still can't believe that we were the same. But it was revealed when she pointed at my side.

"You have a bruise here right?" She even knows about my bruise. "I have the same one too." Another shocking statement released from her mouth. She took a step backward and raised her blouse, just high enough to see a black and blue bruise on the same place as mine. She was telling the truth. We are the same. Just like me, she's connected to the tree so that means, we're connected too.

I'm connected with a tree's girl.

Knowing that piece of information, I felt.......... lighter? Because, knowing that you're not the only one with a problem is kind of helpful.

"Fine. I'll answer your questions, but not all the detail, it would be unfair for me." Unfair for her?! It should be unfair for me! We live the same life but she knows answers!

"First of all, you heard my conversation with she-witch cause of the tree" The tree again!! UGH! "You can actually hear everything around the tree wether you want it to or not."

"If I can hear everything around the tree, why did I just experience it now?" I asked.

"Have you seen other people behind the school except for me, you, your disgusting bestfriend, Nina, and some teachers?" I haven't. I wonder why? A cherry blossom tree is a great place to have lunch, play, do assignments or just plain rest, but I wonder, why aren't there people there? "Actually, the back of the school was actually shut down for a month cause of the death of the three idiot gangsters and also I told the teachers that my family's experiment needs to be stable first."  Oh, so that's it.

"And, the tree has to eat again because of your carelessness!" M-my carelessness? "You punched the tree's bark, did you not?! It didn't just gave us identical bruise, it also shortened our life span! Now it can only be longer if it eats" Great! Another thing I did.

"Does it have to be human? I mean, can't it eat pigs and cows?" I'm just trying to find  less canibal way of feeding.

"For some reason, it only eats humans" I guess there is no other way.

Tsk! It's official, I'm connected to a tree, and if it isn't fed, I would die, Maria would die. For us to survive, we need to kill other people. In order for only two persons to survive, countless people needs to be killed. Isn't that unfair? And even if we would be making the world a much better place if we fed Nina to the tree, it still wouldn't be right.

"That's all." What?! That can't be all!

"I still have one question! What do yu mean by I'm starting to remember?! Do you know my past?! Please answer!" I shouted. That's the most important question!

She looked down, the air turned twenty degrees colder. What happened? Did I say something wrong?

"Joseph, it's unfair. It's unfair!" Unfair again. What's so unfair?!

"Just like you I forgot my memories! And it took me a long time to remember you! It was the hardest time of my life! It's unfair if I told your answers but I had to work for mine! I love you but I can't help you in revealing your past, cause it's just - unfair." she started to cry.

Why did I just realize our similarities now?