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could just see half of a tree which stood at the front of the house.
    The day was bright. Although he couldn’t see it, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The tree waved in the wind and Lepus could see a common myna bird, hanging on tight to one of the trees smaller branches.. Even though the bird was swaying uncontrollably in the air, it continued to sing, gripping on with all its tiny might. As Lepus watched it tweeting away, the image of the photo he had seen drifted into his mind. He closed his eyes and tried to visualise something else. But all he could see was their happy, excited faces. His arm behind her. Not over her shoulder, but resting behind her. Her shoulder against his chest.
    Alice stared at the ceiling. Lying in Lepus’s arms. His arms were tight around her, and every once in a while she would nuzzle her face into his chest.
    “What are we now? ‘Cause I still don’t even know.” Alice said.
    “We can be whatever you want us to be, I don’t want this to end, but I can’t force you to be mine. What can I change? What do you expect me to do?”
    Alice wriggled, “I… I don’t know, what I want… or what you should. You can’t ask me that.”
    “What do you want?”
    “I feel like, no matter what I do, I’m gonna lose the person closest to me in my life.”
    “You don’t have to lose me.”
    “You said you don’t want to be friends afterwards…”
    “You want me to promise friendship, when if you leave me I won’t even be able to have to live in this house anymore. It’s filled with too manypainful memories, you can’t expect me to stay here and your friend, watching you grow, change, move on. I’ll feel like a ghost.”
    “I’m just not ready for this…”
    “I know… please don’t tell me that again, I understand. I still don’t see how.”
    Lepus sighed, and his arms eased their grip.
    A soft tune started to play in his head, as he starts to imagine living in his house without her coming over all the time. He moved there because it was on the way to her house, and her work, but now he loved it.
    His life ahead, without her, plays out in his head.
    Lepus sat up on the bed.
    “So that’s it then, you’re ending us?”
    “No… you are.” She said starting to sniffle.
    §“You’ll be fine,” Lepus echoed, “You are gorgeous, strong, and brave . I love you.”
    As Lepus’s arms slip from her, she crackles through tears, “and you?”
    “What does that matter?”
    “Why aren’t you holding me anymore?”
    “I’m not going to cling to you, lie next to you, force closeness when you don’t want it. What do you want from me?”
    Alice moved like lightning, walking out the door, tears streaming down her face.
    “Why would I get into bed with you if I didn’t want you to hold me?”
    Lepus jumped out of the bed and followed her downstairs.
    The next thing he knew, he was standing in the doorway. Alice was holding back tears. She turned from him and pushed through the fly screen. Her flip-flops were loudly hitting the pavement.
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you so upset, I don’t want it to end like this,” he said, as he followed her, but she was moving faster than him. Once he got to the gate, she was gone. She was gone, and it was over.
    ***

Critters
     
    The next morning Lepus awoke early. Eager to see if either of his exciting trinkets had returned.
    He raced downstairs and bounded up to the tree. He looked and looked, but there was no sign of either of them. Soon his mother was calling him and his brother to school. His brother was yelling that he had to be there early for football practice. Once he had returned home from school Lepus ran inside and bumped his bag in his room. Then went straight down to the bonsai tree.
 
    The tree’s roots had continued to grow, feeling the dirt underneath the day which had bound them. The pot was now only just holding in the plant.
 
    Lepus shook the small tree in frustration. As he did, it seemed to get