Page 16 of What Comes After

“Well, I did it with my dad, but yeah, we built it.”

Devyn gave me a funny look before she returned her attention to the treehouse. I watched her as her eyes moved all over the outside space. “You have a tire swing hanging from it. I think that’s so cool.”

“I also have a zip line,” I revealed.

“What?”

I reached out for her hand and tugged on it, wanting her to follow me. “You can climb up this rock wall we put in to get up onto the deck. Once you’re inside, I can show you the zip line.”

Devyn quickly and easily climbed up the rock wall to the deck and waited for me to join her. Then I led her inside the house.

“You are so lucky. I wish I had something like this.”

“You do.”

“No, I don’t. Trust me, I’d never leave my treehouse if I had one.”

How could she be my best friend and not understand that this was just as much hers as it was mine?

“You have this one,” I explained. “Whenever you want to come over and hang out, you know I’m not going to care.”

Devyn stared at me for a few seconds without saying anything. Finally, when I thought I was going to have to say something else to get her to speak, she said, “Okay, maybe I’m lucky, too.”

As soon as she said that, especially when she was looking at me like she was, I felt really hot. I didn’t understand why and decided to ignore it.

“So, over here is the zip line,” I said, moving to the opposite side of the house.

I showed her the handles, where the line went to another tree in the yard, and the way to get down once she made it to the opposite side. Of course, I also explained how to bring the handles back into the treehouse, so the next person could go.

“Can we try it?” she asked.

“Yeah. Do you want to go first?”

She shook her head. “No. You go first, just so I can see what I need to do.”

So, that’s what I did. I grabbed onto the handles, walked to the open edge of the deck, and stepped off. When I made it safely to the opposite tree, I let go of the handles and told Devyn to reel them back to the treehouse. While she did that, I climbed down from the tree and waited for her. Within seconds, she was laughing as she soared through the air on the zip line. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d seen her so happy.

When she climbed down from the tree and met me at the bottom, she declared, “That was so much fun!”

“I thought it was a good addition to the treehouse,” I replied as we started walking back toward it.

“What else are you going to do there? What are you planning to put inside?” she questioned me.

“I was kind of hoping you’d help me figure that out.”

“Me?”

I nodded. “I expect you’ll be spending a lot of time hanging out with me here, so I was thinking that you should have a say in how it gets decorated.”

For a few seconds, Devyn didn’t respond, and the two of us continued to walk back to the treehouse.

“Could we do homework there when school is in session?” she eventually asked.

I hadn’t even considered that as an option. “Definitely. My dad said he’d help me get anything up there that I can’t take up on my own, so if we need a table, we can get one.”

“A table would probably be a good idea if you’re planning to have lunch up there when it’s not too cold outside, too,” she added.

She had such great ideas about what to do. It was just another reason why I was glad I brought her over while it was like this. Devyn would make sure I didn’t forget anything, and it really would be a place that the both of us would want to hang out together all the time.

---