Surely there hadn’t been a flowery vine there when I leaned on it or I would have seen it.
Right?
Right.
But then…where did this come from?
I glanced around to all the other trees but none of them were flowering. It was just this one. I looked down at my hand and sighed. Right, I did that. Get ahold of yourself, Saffie.
“Saffie!” Savannah shouted again and I jumped. When I glanced over she was walking toward me with a frown. “Are you okay?”
I blinked and looked down at my phone to the bird-less picture…then up to the trees where they sat singing away. Then to the random flower on the trunk. “Um…yeah…”
“Come on, let’s venture out a bit,” she yelled out to me and waved her arm.
I frowned but hurried over to her with my phone gripped tight in my hand.
“You all right?” She cocked her head to the side. “Something wrong?”
“No, no, it’s nothing. I just —”
A loud screech erupted from her pocket. She cursed and dove toward the sound, then pulled her phone out and held it to her ear. “Hi, Mom ….” She grabbed my hand and dragged me down the street.
My question on the birds hung on the tip of my tongue, waiting for her to get off the phone as we skipped down the street. We passed red brick homes and wooden ones painted in pale colors like white, gray, and yellow.
“Okay, Mom,” Savannah grumbled as we caught up with Gigi at the corner. “Yes. I will….no, Ma, I have Gigi. We’ll be fine hanging tonight. You do you. Have fun…all right. Yes. Okay. Bye, Mom.”
Gigi chuckled and shook her head. She waited for Savannah to put her phone away, then said, “slumber party night?”
“You down?”
Gigi rolled her eyes. “Duh.”
Savannah turned to me and smiled. “Do you want to join us tonight, Saffie?”
I opened my mouth then shut it. My bird question vanished. “What…what is a slumber party?”
“It’s when friends all hang out at one person’s house and sleep there.” Savannah wiped snow off her camera lens but peeked up at me with kind eyes. “You don’t have to answer now, and it’s no pressure. But you’re invited if you’d like to, okay?”
“Yeah, you can think about it.” Gigi yawned. “Plus, you wouldn’t have to sleep over, either. We could just hang for a little while and then bring you home.”
My heart fluttered and my cheeks warmed. “Thank you. I will think about it? Is that okay?”
Savannah grinned. “That’s perfect.”
Gigi stuck her thumb up at me, which I had no idea what it meant but she was smiling so I went with it. “Now, we’ve reached the corner. Which way you wanna go, Savannah?”
“Hmmm…good question…” she tapped her chin with her finger and pursed her lips.
Unable to curb my curiosity, I turned and looked back down the street. Even from several houses down I still saw those blue and green birds in the tree. I held my camera back up and looked through the little peep window — I gasped.
Riah.
There you are.
His long golden hair and sharp cheekbones filled the frame of my camera. He stood in the middle of the street with his hands in his pockets and that black hood pulled over his head again. What is he doing? Where’s his camera? I turned the lens on the front of the camera until his face appeared to be closer than it was.
And then he looked up at the birds and his lips curved ever so slightly on one side.
He sees them!
That made me feel worlds better. It must have been something with the phone.
“Come on, Saffie!”
I jumped and my finger hit the button. The camera clicked and snapped a picture of his beautiful face as he looked up at the birds. Savannah grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the corner of the building. Gigi bounced next to me. I glanced over my shoulder…but Riah was gone.
We walked to the next street, then turned left. Savannah stopped immediately and crouched down to take a picture of something on the ground while Gigi took a picture of her doing it. I put my camera up to my eye then slowly spun, searching for a narrative picture to jump out at me. I moved slowly until a large, dark object stepped in front of my camera down the street. I zoomed the lens out and my heart fluttered.
Riah?
How did you get over here so fast? No, I’m imagining things.
I lowered my camera and peeked over the top – and my heart stopped. Riah wasn’t there. I scanned the street and brick sidewalks, then behind the trees and cars. He was nowhere. Two guys from our photography class jumped out from between buildings – one of them was tall and wearing a black hoodie. I sighed. Oh, Saffie. You really ARE imagining things.
With a groan, I turned and marched off with my camera in my hands. Savannah and Gigi had ventured off but I saw them in my peripheral vision close by. I needed to stop thinking about Riah. I needed to just focus on my assignment and breathe. When I got an opportunity to speak with him, I would take it. I think.
Just breathe, Saffie. You’re confusing yourself. You’re freaking yourself out.
Take pictures and relax.
It was hard to do that since I had so many questions, especially about this boy. Starting with what was he doing that night on the wharf and ending with why did I feel so drawn to him? But I had to push these thoughts aside before I drove myself crazy.
Something touched my foot and I jumped. When I looked down I spotted a little gray bunny rabbit sitting between my feet. I smiled and held my camera to my face…and waited. A few seconds later, my little visitor looked up at me and I clicked the picture button.
“Thank you, you’re so pretty,” I said softly to the rabbit.
It wrinkled its nose, winked both its little black eyes, and hopped off. I kept the camera pointed at him as I pulled the lever back. My little friend left the cutest little paw prints in the snow as he bounced through it and headed toward the street. I crouched down low then took a picture of the paw prints stretching across the street.
I smiled and followed after him, crossing the street to the other sidewalk. I pulled the lever back just as the little rabbit jumped up on a ledge in front of a red brick building. The clicking noise of my camera made him leap off and into a leafless bush.
“Oh no, sorry!” I said and hurried over to the bush.
There were no leaves since it was winter, so I could still see him down on the ground. I hated that I’d scared him. I reached out and pulled the empty branches aside – and green leaves popped out from between my fingers. I gasped and yanked my hands back, but the leaves kept appearing until the bush was thriving with life. Red heart-shaped flowers hung from the branches. I jumped back with wide eyes. What. The. Hell. I looked down at my hands but they looked perfectly normal.
My heart stopped.
My stomach twisted and turned.
No, no, no. I’m imagining this. I have to be. This has to be my mind losing it.
The bush rustled and leaves dropped to the ground – and then the bunny poked his head out from under a cluster of flowers and gazed up at me with big black eyes. He blinked and wiggled his nose. I couldn’t have said why, but I got the sense he was happy with his new bush. Even if I was freaking out on the inside. Because there was no way this entire bush had just come back to life under my hand.