Never to far

Keywords: separation, tree house, memories

1-

I let out a small sigh as I walked out of the crowded house and into the beating afternoon sun, loosening the tie at my neck. I hated being caught in these stuffy situations, family I barely even knew of, let alone spoke with, clapping me on my back and giving those damned looks of sympathy honestly were enough to drive me mad. It wasn't like it was my mother who had passed away. God I hated funerals.

Letting out a sigh I leaned against the trunk of the large oak tree in my cousin's back yard. I knew it was childish of myself to sneak away from the many mourning patrons and unmeant condolences of people who didn't even care, but even at the age of twenty-two I still could not stand large crowds. There was a reason for my working at home as a periodical writer.

I lent my head against the ruff bark of the tree after finally removing the choking tie from around my neck and the inhumanly warm jacket from my shoulders. It was only a matter of time before someone came looking for me, whether it would be my Mother, great aunt Matilda, or my cousin I was really unsure so I decided to enjoy the silent solitude while I had the chance.

The sun was incredibly warm against my skin as I lay there, which wasn't too unusual for mid-July weather in California. I worried for a moment about my face burning and simply shrugged it off. If I burned I burned, wasn't very much I could do about it anyway with my skin type.

Closing my eyes was blissful against a growing headache I had felt coming on for the past half an hour. However the pounding in my head increased rather surprisingly when something hard suddenly hit my skull, causing a hiss of pain and some rather choice profanities to leave my mouth.

Looking up I eyed the tree with disdain, figuring a squirrel or maybe a local cat had knocked a branch loose when my eyes registered a mass that lay within the overgrown branches of the tree. I squinted my eyes as I tried to register the shape, cursing the fact that I had left my glasses in the house. The gasp that left my lips however surprised myself as I recognized the tree house hiding in the foliage.

The chuckle that left my throat caught me half off guard as a smile spread across my face. If my uncle Roy had caught a glimpse of me at the moment he would have said something along the lines of, "The boy's finally lost it, I knew it wasn't healthy for a kid his age to stay locked up at home."

I pulled myself up off the ground and circled around the tree, my hand running against the trunk as I saw the plywood pieces my cousins' had hammered into the wood. How many times had we clamored up this tree in our childhood? I could only imagine, remembering the scuffed knees and forgotten shoes.

A sudden flash of dark blue eyes ran through my head and I stood stock still. That was right, it was under circumstances similar to now that I had first met that kid. My smile soon dropped to a frown as I eyed the trunk, my hand running over one of the steps that had some how withered the years and not fallen. How long ago had it been? I wondered, closing my eyes and letting the memory wash over me.

-

My Mother clutched tightly to my hand as we walked up the front porch of my Aunt's house. I had finally given up on trying to pull free of her death grip, even though I felt I was too old to be seen with my hand firmly secured in her own. What would my friends say if they saw me, eleven years old and being treated like a baby?

I fidgeted on the front stoop as she rang the door bell, the suit I had been forced to wear itching like crazy against my skin. I didn't feel it was fair that she had drug me along to this stupid funeral. I'd barely even talked to my Uncle Tim, and it wasn't like I had any remorse for the fact that he had died, he was never around when ever we came to visit.

"Stop that David." My Mother scolded as I once again pulled at the tie wrapped around my neck. Her normally green eyes were red from crying and dark circles marred her skin. Her red hair hung limply at her shoulders and the black dress she wore was slightly wrinkled from the forty-five minute car ride it had taken to get here. I lowered my arm to my side at her chiding. I never liked seeing her upset, it reminded my too much of when my Father had left.

I looked up in slight surprise as the red door in front of me flew open and a woman similar to my mother in a appearance stood there with a crying four year old clinging to her black skirt. "Lydia." She said quietly as she brought my Mother into a hug.

Relief washed through me as my Mom finally released my hand to embrace her sister, and I quickly wiped my sweaty palm onto my pant leg. I watched as the two woman held each other and cried for several moments, adding to the volume of my already sobbing cousin. I detested tears.

As if finally noticing my scrunched up face my Aunt looked down at me with a sniffle as she tried to form some composer. "Hello David." She hiccupped as she also pulled me into a hug, which I decided not to struggle out of from the warning glare my Mother gave me.

"Oh Emmett, please stop crying sweat heart." She said in slight distress, pulling away from me and lifting him against her hip. He quickly buried his face into her neck and let out a few more sobs before stopping.

"Alexis! Ryan! Come and say hello to you're Aunt and Cousin!" She called up the nearby stairs.

A surly looking girl descended almost immediately, her dark brown hair pulled into a pony tail and oversized t-shirt covering most of her jean covered legs. A boy with flaming red hair followed after her at a slower pace, a blank look covering his face, dressed in a suit similar to my own and I could only guess he felt just as uncomfortable.

The girl stood a few feet away from her mother and my eyes widened at the glare she sent at her. "My name's Alex Mom." She said lowly, before looking at me and giving a slight smile, a hand balling in the oversized material. "Hi David." She greeted, but the normally cheerful tone she always used was lacking.

"I'm not about to argue with you Alexis, I will call you by the name on your birth certificate and nothing more." She told her daughter sternly and the thirteen year old just looked up at her defiantly.

"Whatever." She mumbled reaching out and grabbing my hand before pulling me into the house and away from the two woman, Ryan following closely behind. I could have sworn I heard my Aunt saying something about how hard it was to raise a teenager during this trying period, but I could have been wrong.

Before I really had time to register where I was being led I found myself pulled through the backdoor and into the backyard. Without pause Alex led me over to a large oak tree and dropped my hand before scurrying up freshly nailed in foot holds and disappearing into a tree house several yards above.

I bit my lip in thought as I looked after where her form had been, jumping slightly as a hand was placed on my shoulder. "You should take your jacket and tie off before climbing up." Ryan muttered and he stripped out of his own offending cloths and draped them over his one arm.

At fifteen he was over a head taller than me and lanky, though he had seemed to have gotten broader around the shoulders since the last time I had seen him. Compared to the high school freshman I felt slightly insignificant, but my admiration for him and want to fit in led to my own shedding of cloths which he quickly took from me.

He motioned for me to go ahead and offered a gentle push as I tried to find my footing. I had never been that good at climbing trees, or really even the monkey bars on the school play ground now that I thought about it. I had to stop several times on my way to the tree house and when a hand was offered to me through the opening I didn't hesitate to take it.

I was however startled to see that instead of my cousin Alex pulling me in, it was a boy I had never seen before. He had dark black hair and skin nearly paler than my own, which was weird in itself because I had never met anyone with skin as pale as mine. He was a little shorter than myself, but he seemed to look older and I wondered briefly if he was one of Alex's classmates. But what made him stand out the most was his rounded dark blue eyes. They reminded me of the sky right after the sun had set but before the moon rose.

I hadn't realized I had been sitting there staring until I felt Ryan pushing at me from below, trying to unblock the entrance so he could squeeze in with us. I let out a small grunt of embarrassment as I felt my cheeks heat up with color, which would probably make me look like a lobster with freckles now that I thought about it and I tried to will my face to cool down.

Trying to act as if nothing was out of the ordinary I looked around the wooded tree house. It had a fresh pine smell to it and the wood looked fresh, though how I knew this I have no clue. The walls were covered in various posters, some of bands, others of cartoon characters and sports players. What caught my attention though was a picture hanging in the center of one wall with two men clasping each other's shoulders dressed in police uniforms.

"Our Dads' built this for us last week you know." I blinked out of my daze and looked over at Alex who was busy hugging her knees in a corner of the structure. I was unsure what she meant by "Our Dads'" however.

My face must have led on to my question and I turned at the sound of a throat clearing. "My Dad and Alex's." Said a musical voice and I immediately looked back to the boy that had helped me up the ladder.

"Oh." I said blankly, kicking myself at my lack of ingenuity, my face heating up again in embarrassment. He laughed slightly as he caught sight of my face which only caused me to blush even more. I had no clue why but this other boy was making me all unsure of myself.

His laugh died down quickly, though a toothy grin now covered his face which only made me feel more uncomfortable under his stare. "My name's Kaine but you can call me Kai, you must be Alex and Ryan's cousin David." He said holding his hand out to shake.

I looked at it dumbly for a moment before gingerly grasping it in my own, a shock like static electricity coursing on my skin caused me to pull back quickly in alarm. Kai had a similar look of surprise on his face as he stared down at his hand before a blush of his own covered his face.

I covered my mouth with a hand to keep from giggling at the look he gave me, Now I knew why he had so easily been able to laugh at me. Alex and Ryan however weren't so accommodating and both the older teens burst into loud laughter. "You two look as if you just shook hands with a ghost!" Alex snickered, acting more like her old self than she had since I had arrived.

"Shut up Alex." He muttered sending a glare at her. I felt a shiver run down my spine at the look, if he ever stared at me like that I think my heart would have fallen out of my chest. Wait, what kind of thought was that?

My eyes screwed up in confusion as I tried to sort through my thoughts. Why did I feel like I did when I had had a crush on Amber Coolidge last year around this boy. I ran a hand through my strawberry blonde hair nervously as I shook the thoughts out of my head.

"Knock, knock! Is anyone up here?" I gave a short yelp of surprise and scooted away from the opening as a head of black hair and a face similar to Kai's popped into the tree house. He blinked in confusion at us, especially at me and the fact that I had some how scurried onto Kai's lap, much to Alex's amusement. "Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you kid, I was just looking for Ryan." He told me, turning his head to the side and giving my eldest cousin a grin. "And I think I just found him."

His voice sounded like a purr as he pulled his amazingly tall body into the already cramped tree house and crawled over to Ryan. He lent over and placed a chaste kiss on to my cousin's mouth before pulling him away from the wall and into his lap before kissing him again.

I felt my eyes go wide as I watched these two teenagers kissing each other. However the gagging noises coming from Alex and Kai quickly broke the tension. "Ryuu, can't you find somewhere else to be all lovey dovey with your boyfriend?" Kai questioned, and it took me a second to register that I was still seated in his lap, though he didn't seem to mind.

The boy who I now figured was Ryuu, a really odd name now that I thought about it, simply rolled his eyes as Ryan seemed to curl up contently in his lap and lay his head on the elder's shoulder. "It's not like I'm bothering anything bro." He told him, a small smirk coming to his lips. "Besides, you seem quite content with that kid in your own lap." He teased.

My face immediately reddened as I scrambled away from Kai, though he didn't make a move to do the same. On the contrary, his face also burned red, but his eyes were narrowed in anger. "Oh lay off it Kai." Alex said from her corner, eyes rolling comically. "You know we'll be going to high school with them next year anyway so you might as well get used to his teasing." My eyes widened at this statement, I had just spent the last several minutes in an eighth grader's lap, a boy eighth grader none the less! If my friends ever heard about this I would be doomed when I started middle school.

Kai turned his head to the side indignantly before looking back at me sheepishly. "Sorry about my brother, he's can be an ass sometimes, just because he's sixteen and a sophomore and all." He tried to apologize, his brother letting out a snort as if he was fully prepared to tell his brother off but Ryan stopped his with a hand over the mouth. I just nodded my head in an automatic response, not really sure what to think of this entire situation. My poor head was pounding from over use.

"David!" I heard my Mother yell, but I felt unable to look away from Kai. "David!" She sounded closer now, my mind however, was only processing how deeply blue his eyes were. "David!"