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lips, sounding like hoarse snorts.

The shadow turned around a second later, and a light flicked on. Arabella

blinked into that blinding beam. She relaxed when her brain finally

computed that it wasn’t a terrifyingly huge animal holding a flashlight on

her, but a person. A lithe figure wearing black leggings and a black tank,

her hair flowing down her shoulders like ink from a broken pen.

“J-June?” Arabella stammered, blinking against the blinding light.

June lowered the flashlight towards the ground. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to

scare you.”

“You were up in the tree?”

“I was. It’s something I’ve done for a while now. If I can’t sleep, I come

out here. Climb the first few branches and sit. The tree’s huge, so there isn’t

any worry about falling out. Even if I did, it’s not a long way down. The

branches are crazy thick this close to the base anyway.”

Arabella spun and whirled around, glancing up at the thick branches.

They were huge, extending well out, the leafy bits not until the ends. She

judged the climb and figured June was right. It wouldn’t be hard to get up

there.

“My God,” Arabella panted. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Sorry. I should have. I wasn’t sure if you were going to stay there. And

then I wasn’t sure if I wanted to say anything. You looked like you were

settling in, so I figured I had better do something. I meant to jump a lot

further away, but I wasn’t thinking about how that would scare the life out

of you.”

Arabella’s hands moved to her chest, and she crossed her arms. “You

didn’t want to scare the life out of me? Because it was funny? Because I’d

deserve it?”

The flashlight’s beam wobbled a little. June slowly shook her head, and

even though Arabella really couldn’t see her face, she believed her. June

had always been like that. She’d probably never had a truly mean or spiteful