Falling

21

I glanced over at the lake where the moonlight shined and illuminated the ripples in the water and silently laughed at the memory before turning my gaze back to Vinny. He stared straight ahead, but he seemed to be even more comfortable now that we were here. He took in a deep breath as if savoring the fresh air before looking to me and tilting his head to the side in a gesture for me to follow him.

Wordlessly, Vinny led me down a path that led to the nature trails. It was then that I understood what Vinny meant when he said the path was better at night. I looked up to see the clear sky above us, the stars more visible than ever. The lake was visible through the trees with the shine of the moon. The night around us was glowing.

"I fell out of that tree once," Vinny suddenly spoke, pointing to one of the tall trees in front of us.

The tree had already lost most of its leaves, but there were still quite a few orange and red ones that were hanging on by a thread. The rest of the leaves pooled around it like they were decorating the ground.

"That doesn't really surprise me," I told him with a chuckle. "You seem to have made a habit of doing things that others would consider dangerous."

Vinny snorted and let go of my hand, picking up his pace toward the tree. I tried to keep my mind off the sudden coldness traveling through my fingers, shocked by the loss of the warmth Vinny's hand had provided.

"You're going to climb that tree that you've already fallen out of?" I shouted after him as Vinny grabbed onto a low hanging branch and pushed his feet against the trunk.

Vinny didn't answer as he continued up the tree, my stomach tightening as he went higher and higher until he settled on a thick branch and sat down with his legs dangling.

"You coming up or what?" he shouted down at me, and if I wasn't so infatuated with him, I would curse at him.

I made the swift decision to follow him up there. I didn't want him to think of me as a coward and I wanted to spend time with him. There would be no time spent together if I was on the ground at the bottom of the tree he was currently sitting in.

I worked to keep myself steady as I used all of my upper body strength to heave myself up into the tree. I couldn't even be embarrassed at the thought of Vinny looking down at my struggle because I was too focused on making sure I didn't fall to my death.

My stomach dropped as my foot slipped, but I quickly pulled myself up and finished the climb. I let out a heavy breath when I sat down next to Vinny, gripping the branch beneath us so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

"I don't know how you find this enjoyable," I breathed out, turning my head to him to see that he was already grinning at me.

"Is it really that surprising?" he asked.

"Not really," I admitted. "But it's definitely not enjoyable."

Vinny let out a quiet laugh before the two of us sat in silence. Then, after a few moments, Vinny's hand found its way to mine, resting on top of it like it was trying to pull the tension from me.

"I haven't been here in a while," Vinny said quietly. "Not since— not since the summer."

"Why not?" I asked him, suddenly feeling more at ease with his hand over mine.

"I just stopped coming, I didn't want to anymore," he said. "It used to be my favorite place to think. I would spend hours here."

"And you wanted to come here tonight?"

"With you, yeah," Vinny sheepishly replied, his pink cheeks visible under the glow of the moonlight and stars.

I was beaming at him once his words registered in my mind.