The treehouse didn't get finished in the fall. My mom hassled my dad to no end to make sure everything was "safe" and that no more accidents would happen like mine. So Dad and Mr. Horan spent a long time researching safer stairs and finally came up with a set of steps that went around the tree like a spiral staircase, with the pieces of wood lying flat and sticking out so they were easier to step on. This, of course, involved lots of brackets and reinforcements, and a double-rope fence thing that surrounded the stair case so we couldn't fall. By the time that was all finished, the snow had come and we had to wait til spring.

Now it was in April and we finally resumed work on our beloved project. Except that, for all the safety precautions, Niall was the one to suffer the season's first injury. Literally, the first time we went back to work on it, something went wrong, and this time it was ten times worse than stitches.

We had spent a long afternoon helping our dads put up posts and a roof. The dads were finished for the day, but Niall and I sat at the edge of the platform, admiring our hard work. We couldn't wait to get the rest of the treehouse finished, but we knew that our fathers had been working as hard as they could and we didn't want to push them. Even my mom had been up here, sanding the floor so we wouldn't get splinters.

I brushed the obnoxious piece of hair out of my face - that one that always came free no matter how I styled it. I wanted to get my hair cut again, but my dad convinced me to wait til the end of the school year mainly because life was busy and money was tight. Niall made a big change with his hair after I had gotten mine cut in the fall - he begged his mom to lighten it so it was much more blonde now. And he styled it with the top sticking up. It was weird because it seemed like he cared more about his hair than I did.

"Can I tell ya something, Meg?" Niall said quietly as we sat there on that unseasonably warm April evening.

"Yeah, you can tell me anything," I shrugged.

"Well, um, this is different," he said, biting his lip. "I want to tell you something really important."

"Just say it," I urged him impatiently.

He grabbed my hand and the words practically burst out of him. "Iloveyou!"

I looked at him in horror and tugged my hand out of his, not intending any harm, but he lost his balance. It appeared to be in slow motion as Niall tumbled over the edge of the treehouse platform and fell almost head-first to the the ground.

"Shit!" I said loudly and raced down the steps. He was lying flat on his back and his face was exceptionally pale. He wasn't crying or making any sound; he was just staring straight up at the sky.

"Shit," I muttered again. "Niall, are you all right? Can you sit up?"

"I...I don't know," he coughed. "My arm hurts really bad."

I glanced at it and saw that his arm bent where it wasn't supposed to and it was bleeding. I quickly looked away, not wanting to see it anymore.

"Dad!" I screamed, refusing to leave Niall's side.

Mrs. Horan was the first to hear us and she came racing out, yelling, "What happened?"

This time, I was the one crying. "I...Niall...fell out of the treehouse," I sobbed. I was so worried because Niall wasn't getting up by himself. By then, Mr. Horan and my parents were there; it was like déjà vu with Mr. Horan picking Niall up carefully and heading towards the car.

"Can I come, please?" I begged as I ran alongside Mrs. Horan.

"Maggie," Mom said sternly. "You shouldn't-"

"It's fine if she wants to come," Mrs. Horan interrupted her kindly. "She can help to distract Niall." I could tell she was worried, and it made me feel good that she wanted me there with him.

Niall didn't make any noise until the doctor at the ER started examining his arm; then I could tell he was really hurting. At least she was pretty and kept calling Niall "cutie" and "sweetie." They gave him an IV because they said he would need to have surgery. They also gave him some medicine for the pain, and they put it right into the IV. It made him drowsy, so he fell asleep within minutes.

As we sat and waited for the results of the X Rays, I started crying again, feeling terribly guilty for letting Niall fall.

"It's all right, love," Mrs. Horan said, putting her arm around me. "He'll be just fine."

"I know," I nodded, trying not to be such a wimp. "But I think it was my fault. We were sitting on the edge and he told me...." Shoot, I couldn't exactly tell them what he said to me. "He told me something and I pulled away really fast, so I think that's what made him lose his balance."

"I don't tink it was dat," said Mr. Horan. "Anyone could fall without da walls on it. Just means your dad and I'll have to finish it up right quick."

"I really didn't mean to hurt him," I persisted and both Mr. and Mrs. Horan hugged me from the side, reassuring me that I didn't do anything wrong.

Mr. Horan finally drove me home when Niall went into surgery to fix the compound fracture, I think they called it. He ended up with a cast on his arm for several weeks, and the weirdest part was that he ended up with a scar in almost the same place as the one I had on my arm.

The treehouse was finished by the time school was out. Niall's mum wouldn't let him up there until it was finished completely; I understood but it was still frustrating. When we finally made it up into our brand new fort, we were both thrilled. Niall couldn't ride his bike very well with a cast on his arm, but it was just as well since we were happy to be in our own personal space in the back yard.

The ceiling was waterproof and the walls were pretty well protected. There were two plexiglass windows to keep out the wind and rain. Together we dragged old blankets and books up there as well as lots of junk food. Mom and Dad reminded me numerous times to clean up our food unless we wanted raccoons trying to get in.

The cast came off of Niall's arm close to the end of June. To celebrate, we asked our parents if we could spend the night in the treehouse. Luckily my dad had included a door that latched so there was no chance of either of us falling out in our sleep. Both our families had had enough of the emergency room for a while.

We asked our parents separately, hoping that if one set of parents agreed, they might help convince the other ones if it came to that.

"I don't know, Maggie," Mom said warily as she folded the laundry. Her favorite soap opera was playing quietly in the background and she sneaked an occasional glance to see what was happening.

I waited for her to finish her thought but she didn't. "Mom, it's totally safe. No one can fall out when the door is closed. It's plenty warm in summer, but we have blankets up there just in case it gets chilly. And we'll bring a flashlight in case we need to climb down and come into the house in the night."

"That's not what I'm worried about," she said almost mindlessly.

"Well can you please tell me what you're worried about?" I struggled to keep my tone of voice as non-sassy as possible because I really didn't want to blow it.

Mom stopped and stared directly at me. "You two are getting older. I just think that maybe it's not appropriate for a boy and a girl...."

She left the sentence hanging, waiting for me to draw my own conclusions. And my own conclusions totally grossed me out. "Ugh, Mom, you're not thinking we're gonna do something weird like kiss or something, are you?" Just a small slice of guilt pierced my conscience since we had actually kissed once.

She looked at me like that was the most ludicrous idea in the world. But then she said, "As you two get older, it's probably not a good idea for you to sleep in the same place. You might not want to kiss him now, but in a few years, you might feel different."

"No way!" I shouted, losing my resolve to remain polite. "That's disgusting, Mom. He's like my brother. You were always fine with it before, if I slept in the basement after we watched movies. He lived here and acted like my brother and that's all he'll ever be to me."

"I suppose," she said. "That's true. You two sure do treat each other like siblings. I guess it will be okay." I did a fist pump. "But will you promise me something, Maggie Mae?"

"Yeah sure, Mom."

"When you do start getting interested in boys - Niall or anyone else - will you talk to me about it? Feelings can be confusing when you're in junior high and high school. And I just want you to know you can talk to me about anything, even kissing." A look of dread played on her face as she concluded. "And even sex."

I felt sick to my stomach. I knew enough about sex that I understood how it worked, but I didn't understand how anyone would want to actually do it. It was so yucky - it was no wonder I was an only child. I rolled my eyes scarcely enough for her to notice and answered, "Okay, but I doubt you'll have to worry about that any time soon. It sounds revolting."

She laughed loudly and my cheeks burned as I walked out of the room.

That night, Niall and I were set up in the treehouse for our sleepover. We brought a bag of already-popped popcorn, Oreos, and two small bottles of water. We both had flashlights, but we decided to only use one at a time in case one of them started burning out. We were both wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts with t-shirts underneath since our parents had mutually decided that such an ensemble would keep us warm but also give us the opportunity to cool down a little if the night was warm.

We brought a few books to read and two Mad Libs books, along with pens to fill them out. We spent hours using the grossest and funniest possible words to make our Mad Libs sound crazy. I was pretty proud of the two of us for actually using some vocabulary words from school as well. I'm sure the neighbors could hear us laughing, but they never let on.

We started munching on our goodies and I heard a distant grumbling sound. Then I saw what I feared had made that sound. Lightning. I hated thunderstorms and Niall didn't exactly know that. I had been pretty successful at hiding my fear in front of him so far. I silently prayed that this storm would just pass by.

No luck. After two more lightning flashes - and Niall pronouncing them "awesome" - the rain pounded on the roof of the tree house like a stamped of wild horses.

"D...do you want to go inside?" I asked Niall.

"Why would I wanna do that? This is cool."

"Oh, I just thought you might be scared," I shrugged, trying not to show him that I was starting to quiver.

Before long, we heard Mrs. Horan's voice, shouting over the noise. "Niall, dear? Do you and Maeghan want to come inside?" Smart woman.

"No Mum, we're good!" He yelled back. He settled back next to me and noticed I was frozen still. "You all right?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," I said casually flipping my short-again hair. It didn't sound like a bad storm, like the kind that knocked down trees and caused power outages; if that was the case, our parents would make us come inside for sure. I didn't want the storm to get worse, but I wanted an excuse to go to my own nice, safe and comfy bed.

Two lightning strikes flashed in rapid succession and just after that was a loud crack that sounded like it ripped the sky open, followed by another smaller thunderclap. Instinctively, I threw my hands over my ears and squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn't care less if Niall figured it out at that point, this was terrible.

My saving grace came when I heard my dad at the bottom of the tree, calling up through the rain. "Maggie, do you want to come inside?" I knew my parents' thought process - they didn't want to embarrass me so they had waited to see if the storm got worse before coming out to get me.

Niall whispered loudly, "No. Stay, please!" 

"Maggie?" He called again, and I could hear his feet hitting the boards of the stair case he'd built with his own hands.

Niall was whispering to me, begging me to stay. My dad opened the door and came in, sitting down at the feet of our sleeping bags. Niall informed him, "I tink she's scared, Mr. Foster."

I wanted to punch him and say, "No shit, sherlock," but then my dad would have made me come inside the house for swearing.

Dad chuckled a little and said, "Yeah, she is Niall. But everyone's afraid of something, right?" Niall nodded, knowing that all too well. "So you ready to come inside?" He directed this question at me. "I think there's a lull in the storm if you want to make a run for it."

Niall gave me that pleading face that boys seem to know so well, his mouth moving silently with the word please while he pressed his hands together like he was praying. I glanced at Dad and then uncertainly back at Niall. I didn't want to miss out but I didn't only hate thunderstorms. I loathed them. That was one of our vocabulary words last year.

"Tell you what, Maggie," Dad said. "I checked the radar and it looks like the storms will be done by midnight. It's 9:30 now. What do you think? Can you tough it out?"

Niall added, "Yeah, and I'll help you tink of other things, okay? We'll have some great craic and ya won't know the storms are even here!"

I nodded bravely. "Okay."

Dad hugged me and shook Niall's hand. "Take care of her, all right Niall? If things get too bad, you guys come on over to our house."

"Sure thing, Mr. Foster."

Dad left, along with any hope of me escaping now. I was starting to second guess myself when Niall put his arm over my shoulders. "Remember when ya helped me in the cave? I'm gonna do the same for you."

I was surprised at how much better he made me feel just by putting his arm around me and saying that to me. I would never tell a soul that he put his arm around me like I was his girlfriend, but I knew that's not how he meant it.

Another loud bang of thunder made me physically jump and Niall tightened his grip on me. Suddenly, he sounded much older in my ear. "It's okay, Meg. I gotcha. I won't let nothin' happen to ya."

He kept one arm around me while he grabbed the MadLibs books and we got started on another round to keep my mind occupied. And it worked! I couldn't believe when we finished countless more rounds and I stopped to listen - no more rain, no more rumbles, no more flashes.

"I think it's gone," Niall volunteered.

"Me, too!" I said excitedly. "I did it! We did it!" And then, "Thank you, Niall." We climbed into our sleeping bags and snuggled down inside them. Before we knew it, we were waking to the early morning sun.

* * * * *

Let's just imagine Niall looking something like this in this chapter:

Sorry for the lag in updating. I got a little carried away with The Stacks, and now I'm back.

I borrowed Maeghan's reaction to sex from my neighbor's 3 girls. They're grown up now, but she told me that when they were young, she told them about sex. One of her girls responded by saying, "You mean you and Dad did that yucky thing THREE times?" lol

My son and I filled out the Mad Libs that I created for this story. I hope you'll be able to read them. Now our house is in a full-blown Mad Libs craze and we're installing the apps on our phones so we can play together.

I HAVE ANOTHER UPDATE ALMOST READY TO GO. Hopefully I can post it in just a little bit.