“Hey. Want to go for a walk?” I blinked as he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet slightly. Shrugging, I said pulled the door shut behind me. He smiled briefly and stepped off of the porch, leading the way. I didn’t know where we were going but it was good to hang out again. I haven’t seen him in so long. “So what’s going on around here?” He asked, looking down at me with his bright blue eyes.

I shrugged again. “Not much. Go to school. Go to practice. Come home and do homework. The usual.”

“Nothing new at all? Come on, something has had to have happened since I’ve last been home,” he urged, gently knocking my shoulder with his own.

I shrugged once more. “No, nothing. Just, um, just waiting for you to get back,” I admitted, looking down at the ground. I heard him laugh as we walked down the street. The funny thing is...the one thing that I missed about him the most was his laugh. I know it’s weird for me to say but he had a contagious laugh and everything on his face lit up when he laughed. His eyes crinkled in the corner so much I was sure he’d have wrinkles there once he got older.

 “No,” he suddenly gasped. I looked up to see what it was that had him so upset. That’s when I saw the tree stump. My heart sank for him.

That tree was taken down about three, maybe four months ago. The city was worried about it falling in a bad storm. No matter which way it fell it would’ve hit a house and it has been swaying pretty badly lately. I watched as it was torn down and I just wanted to yell at everyone for taking away our memories.

We’d always climb that tree, it had nice sturdy and thick branches that we could easily climb up and sit on, talking the day away. It took me a few years to be able to climb it myself since I was shorter than him but he always helped me out.

I felt, while in that tree, we were really friends. I could talk to him about anything and everything up in that tree and he could do the same to me. It was our special place, a place where parents couldn’t bother us. Oh, the games we used to play…

“When’d they take it down?” He asked, walking across the high grass to the tree stump.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and followed him. “About four months ago. It was about to fall over. The city saw it as a hazard ‘cause it could’ve hit any house. It would’ve done a lot of damage,” I said as I came up beside him.

“I just…I can’t believe,” he muttered, gently running his fingers around the rings of the trunk. “I can’t believe it’s gone. I mean…this was the tree I broke my arm from falling out of trying to—“

“Tie up that rope swing,” I interrupted laughing a bit. “I remember that. You were trying to act all tough and stuff but we could all tell you just wanted to break down and cry.”

“You try falling from that height,” he laughed. “Look,” he pointed at a few branches that were stacked up in a pile. Leaning against it was a broken swing, the ropes frayed from where it was possibly cut off or split from frequent use. “I can’t believe we all used to fit on this swing.”

“I’m surprised we didn’t break it,” I commented. “Trying to fit three people on one swing was not a good idea.”

“Yeah, I remember mom yelling at us,” he added. “You kids are going to hurt yourself if you don’t stop horsing around!” He imitated her. He let out a sigh, shook his head, and turned to walk away from the tree stump and the swing. “Sometimes I wondered how you put up with me. I mean, I always dragged you into stuff that we got into trouble for.”

“Hey, sometimes it was my fault too,” I said with a shrug. “Like that time our cousin came over and we thought it was a good idea to have a water fight in the house.”

He laughed out loud. “I remember. We kept saying it wasn’t our fault it was so warm and we wanted a way to keep cool. Man, mom was mad about that for weeks.”

Silence fell between us as we continued our walk, stopping every now and then to watch some kids play, or watch a squirrel chase another. We went and got some ice cream at the local ice cream place and everything felt like it was before he got famous for being in *NSYNC. Everything felt normal. Like life used to be.

“Are you ready to go?” He asked. I nodded and stood. “Hold on, your shoe’s untied.” Before I could move he swooped down and tied my shoe.

“I’m not going to trip,” I sighed.

“Just making sure,” he replied before standing up. Then he smiled at me in that special way. “Reminds me of when I used to tie those pink ribbons in your hair to keep your hair out of your face.”

“I miss those moments,” I sighed. “I hate that you’re gone all of the time.”

“I know, I do too. But I’m doing what I love and…I just want to make you proud of me.”

I blinked and looked at him to see that shy look on his face. “I all ready am, Josh and I always will be.”

“Thanks, Heather.” He put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. “No matter what happens, don’t forget that I still and always will love you.”

“I know.”

“Good. Now what’s this I hear about you dating some football player?” He asked with a teasing grin.

“Josh!” I groaned as he laughed and directed me out of the ice cream place. He looked down at me and grinned in that way that let me know that everything would be ok. And I finally believed it would.