Ella

I run through the forest, run and the nightmare that has been this past week can’t catch up, run and maybe I’ll forget. Tears streak down my red cheeks, out of my puffy eyes. My legs are pounding, I want to keep running but I can’t. I just can’t. I sit down, leaning my back against the bark and let my heart spill open. Ugly sobs shake me, they rack my chest. I cry, for my mother, my mother who died in a shooting. I cry, for my father. The same one who drove a car right after drinking all his pain away in the form of whiskey. I was going to be a sister. I was going to have a baby sister. But now she’s gone too.

Caleb

I’m worried about Ella.

She’s not spoken to anybody in days. Not answered any texts or calls. She’s gone silent.

I know it’s only been two weeks, but without a parent…

I’m worried in case she harms herself, physically or mentally.

So I walk through the forest, which she once mentioned as her favourite place.

The leaves crunch underfoot, the wind rushes past me, and I see her.

Sitting at the base of a tree, arms wrapped around her knees. Her long brown hair falls to either side of her face. She’s wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, but she doesn’t flinch or shiver as the wind slams into her.

I step closer to her, but she doesn’t look up.

“Ella,” I say softly.

I hear her sniff but she doesn’t respond.

I sit down next to her.

Ella

I hear the leaves crunch as Caleb sits down. “Oh Ella,” he whispers as he wraps his arms around me. I release my knees and melt into his embrace. I cry into his shoulder. My arms are wrapped around his neck but he doesn’t complain, he just strokes my hair and hugs me. I don’t want to leave. Everyone I love is dead. Except Caleb. I have loved him for years.

Caleb

“Thank you,” she whispers against my shoulder.

I know this is a terrible time.

I know I shouldn’t say this now.

But I can’t help myself.

“I love you, Ella. I am in love with you. I know it’s not a good time to say it, but I have kept it in long enough. I love you. I’m not asking you to reply, but I need to tell you.”

She stays silent and I think all my fears are confirmed I think she doesn’t like me back or I’ve scared her off.

“I love you too,” she says, so soft, barely a whisper, but that whisper has made me happier than I have ever felt.

I feel her lift her head from my shoulder, she readjusts herself and smiles through her tears.

I lean down and kiss her.

The leaves rain down around us as a shaft of light reaches through the canopy and places an ethereal halo around Ella’s head.

I kiss her again.

We stay like that for a while.