Dear Darius,
I was but a young sapling when I first saw you. You were six years old. You were playing with your friends from school. Your face was flushed with blood. Your body was glistening with sweat. You were prancing around your friends with a blue ball in your tiny hands. You looked so happy!
You tossed the ball at another boy and turned to look at me. You wiped the sweat from your forehead as you gazed at me. Your eyes were twinkling like the stars in the night sky. You beamed like the bright sun in the morning sky when you watched me. I was blushing like a bride. My face was as pink as the tulips that grew beside me, but you couldn’t see me blushing, because I was just a sapling. I was not a human. I had no face. My emotions and expressions didn’t show.
Then you turned thirteen, and I seven. I remember the night you snuck out of your house when your parents were sleeping so you could meet your girlfriend. She was standing under my shade. Her long raven black hair was gently swaying and her floral frock was fluttering in the breeze. You held her hands in yours and whispered sweet nothings in her ear. I was there. I heard it all. You pushed her up against my bark and pressed your lips against hers. You had your first kiss in my presence.
You might think I’m just a tree. You might think I have no feelings or I feel no pain. But when I watched you kiss your lover, my heart twisted into knots. It felt like someone was chopping into me with a...