I waved good bye to Emery and laughed as he winked at me. That old man sure thinks he knows a lot of secrets. Well, he kind of does. He knows mine at least and I think he may be right about my feels towards Kyle. Not to mention Kyle’s feels towards me. We almost kissed twice today so that has to mean something. We also both experienced the electric jolt when we touched. You don’t have that kind of chemistry just with anyone. The thought of our two almost kisses just makes my cheeks burn and I can’t help but smile. Then I remember that we aren’t from the same world. I’m not even awake in my world. What happens once I wake up? Will I ever come back here? And if I keep coming back here will we continue to see each other? What about relationships? I can’t really date someone or even marry someone if I’m meeting up with someone I have crushed on for a while. That’s not fair to any party involved.

“What has you thinking so deeply, little flame?” Kyle’s voice breaks me from the ongoing onslaught of thoughts of what to do and what if. “You’re chewing your lip and you haven’t heard me calling your name for a few minutes now.”

I let go of my lip from between my teeth and looked over at Kyle. We had stopped walking and he was staring at me, expecting an answer. I’m so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t even realize we had stopped walking. I turned my back to him and looked up into the trees. This is insane! I can’t stay here and he can’t come with me! It’s not possible.

“I was just-” I paused and sighed heavily before turning back towards him. “-thinking. And stop calling me ‘little flame’! Why do you insist on doing that? It’s not like you don’t know my name, Kyle!”

Kyle crossed his arms and smirked at me. “You know why I call you that. It’s endearing in a way. Only I call you that. Why don’t you like it?” He dropped his arms and stepped closer to me. “And what were you thinking about so intently?”

“Stop.” I put my heads on his chest and kept him back at arms length. “Today has been exhausting to me mentally and physically. I can’t think clearly when you get so close to me. And I happen to think you like to call me that because you know it annoys me. Not because it’s an endearment-” I looked him in the eyes, completely shocked. “An endearment?”

Kyle grabbed both of my hands and pulled them from his chest. He stepped closer and my heart started beating faster. “Yes, an endearment. I don’t say it just to annoy you. You’re my little flame.” He took a piece of my hair in his fingers and gently caressed the strands. “You’re hair and temper gave me that idea and it does suit you. Now, how am I making it difficult for you to think?”

I looked down at my hair in his fingers and had to keep my gaze down. “It’s not rocket science to know that there is some kind of chemistry between us. I feel it and I am almost positive you do too.” I took his hand and pulled it from my hair and when I looked up at him, he was smiling a little. “But we can’t. I don’t belong here and you can’t leave your sister to follow me. The ending for us is not a happy one.”

Kyle straightened up and pulled his hand from mine. He was irritated, that much was clear. But before he turned completely from me I saw the hurt in his eyes. It can’t be helped. It’s the truth. No matter how much I want it to be different, it isn’t. And it hurts me too. He walked several steps ahead of me and then stopped. He was looking at me so seriously and my heart caught in my throat.

“I know what you’re saying, I really do. But that isn’t going to change our current situation. We don’t know how long you will be in that coma in your world. I don’t know what happens if… if...” Kyle ran his hands through his hair and spun in a circle. “What happens I you die in your world? I don’t think you would be able to remain here. And then what?”

I had no answer for that. “Kyle, I can’t get deeply involved with you and then be ripped from your world if I wake up. I’m going to be hurt and you’ll be hurt too. Why should we let this become more than what it is?” I turned from him and crossed my arms as I looked up into the trees. “I can’t just never wake up or disappear from my world. My friends are my family. And you have family here that need you, like Lena. This isn’t a fair situation and I know it. Don’t make it more difficult.”

I didn’t hear anything from him for a while. I closed my eyes and sighed. He probably ended up storming off. It wouldn’t surprise me considering his temper. He gets very touchy about things and just storms off half the time. I turned around expecting to follow after him and he was right behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders and stared into my eyes. A fire was burning there and I felt likely I was being burned, but not in a bad way. I was warm.

“Don’t do this, Kyle.” I begged, staring into his burning eyes. “I can’t do this. Don’t force me.”

Kyle dropped his arms and stepped back. “I would never force you to do anything. I’m not that type of man. You should know that by now, little flame.”

I didn’t answer him. I just turned towards home and walked as fast as my body would allow me. I didn’t know if he followed, but I didn’t care at this point. We needed our own space and I needed to clear my head. This most definitely was not fair to either of us.

I arrived back at the tree house and fully realized that Kyle was not behind me. I didn’t think he went too far away, but I didn’t look up in the trees to see if I was right. Lena came outside to meet up with me, looking very relieved. Behind her was a beautiful, tall brunette with striking white eyes. Lena smiled at me and took my hands.

“I see Kyle has disappeared. He must be up in the trees.” She winked and turned to the brunette. “Amy, this is Chelsea. She is an family, um, friend.”

I looked at Lena’s face at her sudden hesitation to say the word friend. “Um, hi. I’m Amy, I-”

“I know who you are, walker,” she snapped looking down at her nails as if she was bored. “I don’t need anymore than what Lena has told me. All I need to know is you don’t belong here and are no concern of mine. I was hoping to see Kyle, but he has escaped my visit. Again.” She sighed and turned to Lena. “Tell him he needs to meet up with me. I want to hear again why he declined my father’s request for marriage. And I don’t want to hear about this whole fire elementals can’t marry air elementals. We all know that is just a very lame excuse.” She looked at me from head to toe, raised her eyebrow and then looked back at Lena. “I will visit again.”

She pushed between us and walked past. “Bye, Chelsea! Looking forward to it.” Chelsea didn’t bother turning around or even acknowledging Lena said anything. “That girl is such a pain! We don’t have very air elementals and while most are very pleasant, there are some that lack certain qualities. Like politeness or a sense of being unwelcome. Chelsea is the latter.”

I watched as Chelsea disappeared down the road and eventually did turn. “She seems to not like me. And what is it with all these nicknames? First little flame and now walker? I think I prefer little flame over walker, but still. I have a name.”

“Well, I’m glad to know you prefer little flame.” I heard Kyle’s voice come down from the trees. I looked up but couldn’t see him yet. So I crossed my arms and just glared up into the trees.

“You know that is not what I meant at all, Kyle! How convenient that you missed your visitor. Did you know she was going to be here today?”

Kyle jumped down and landed right beside me. “Of course not. That would have been rude to make sure I wasn’t here when she was.” He was trying hard not to smile, but his eyes were laughing.

Lena smacked his arm and walked back towards the house. “You lie. You knew she was coming because she said she was coming today to visit. Thankfully, you were out at granpa’s rather than sitting around here. But she isn’t going to be patient forever. If that’s what you want to call it. She wants to know why you won’t accept the offer of marriage. The real reason, Kyle.”

“She’s not for me.” He said simply and looked straight into my eyes. “She isn’t kind at all and always acts like she is better than everyone that isn’t her immediate family. I’m not going to lower myself to that.”

I looked away from his gaze and walked past him. I can’t talk about any of this right now. I’m exhausted from our walk physically, and I’m mentally exhausted from every thing else. I walked in past Lena and straight up to my room. Thankfully, Lena did not ask me anything; she just watched me walk by and up the stairs. I went into my room and closed the door. I leaned back against it and sighed heavily. This is too much to handle right now in my opinion. I looked towards the balcony and walked over. The branches from the tree were so close I could just reach out and touch them. I hope to be able to climb them soon. It would be a shame to leave here before I could climb them. I brought out the rocking chair that had been sitting in the corner and just relaxed into the seat. The breeze was gentle and the rustle of the leaves soothing. I leaned back and just let my eyes close and before too long, I was asleep to the sounds of the trees.