Never

I found her asleep in my tree house the night before my thirteenth birthday. I remember wondering if I should wake her and tell her to get out or bring her a blanket. At thirteen I opted to wake her up and ask her what she was doing in there. She woke with a start and braced for violence. I was confused by that action and scared by it. She seemed to relax when she realized where she was. She looked up at me with the greenest eyes I could imagine anyone having. They were almost glow in the dark. I thought I was strange for noticing something like a girl's eyes; then I realized that I was thirteen now and it was about time I started thinking about things like that. Its been fifteen years since that night and I can still perfectly recall how the knot started in my stomach and worked its way to my chest and then to my throat. It sounds ridiculous, but I knew right then that I loved her. She looked so scared and all I wanted to do was hug her, but I didn't know the rules. She asked me not to tell any one that she was there. I nodded, still unable to talk past that knot. She told me her name was Ivy. Ivy, I swallowed and repeated it. Hi, I said, I won't tell anyone. She smiled at me. I wanted to ask her a million questions. I wanted to know why MY treehouse, where she got that black eye, and why she ran away. I didn't though. My family taught me never to ask too many questions or talk about anything strange. Instead I climbed back into my room through the window and brought her my brand new sleeping bag, my brand new portable CD player, and my flashlight. I didn't know what kind of music girls liked, so I swiped one of my mom's CDs. Patsy Cline, she seemed girl friendly to me then. Ivy smiled at me again when I brought it all back to her. She took my hand and asked me to stay with her until she fell asleep. I put the headphones on her and pressed play. She didn't let go of my hand, even when Patsy said something that made her cry a little. I was sweating; I had barely started talking to girls and I had fast forwarded to letting them using my sleeping bag and holding their hands. She finally fell asleep and I relaxed. I didn't want to let go of her hand, but I had to go back to my room so my Mom wouldn't suspect anything the next morning. Over the next five years, she spent alot of nights in the treehouse. She never told me much on the nights she was there. She wasn't in school, I knew that much, and she was scared to be at home. I held her hand every night she stayed, and she started to bring her own music to sleep to at night. She left me a little poem every morning. I never told anyone about her. She wasn't my girlfriend, and we never made love. I graduated highschool and went away to college. She kissed me the night I told her goodbye and she asked if she could keep the CD player. I gave it to her without a second thought.

I missed her more than any of the classmates that I had spent every day with. I worried about where she was sleeping and hoped she didn't have to go home.She showed up at my apartment the night I graduated college and made me promise I would never leave her again. I promised her and I meant every word. But never can make a liar out of anyone.