Three years earlier…

It was a day late in February when Estelle was told the tragic news."It's Kale's brother..." her mum said, "he's been in an accident..." "...bad..." "...coma..." "...might not make it..."

Estelle heard words but they weren't making sentences, just disjointed warnings which flashed in her brain.

In a state of stupor, Estelle could only stand there, a perfect O formed on her lips. As additional words left her mother's mouth, comprehension began to dawn. And for each utterance, another tendon in her heart ripped apart.

Kale... Not KALE. Not HIS brother. Not Corey. Nooooooo it couldn't be...

The first thing she wanted to do was go to him. And she knew where he would be.

The treehouse.

Everything around her was murky and muffled as though she were trying to swim underwater but slowly drowning. Sounds were consumed by bubbles. Her eyes blurred through liquid. She backed away from her mum mid-sentence and turned quickly, tears flying from her eyes as she began to run, banging open the door while her mum yelled "ESTELLE-!"

"Estelle-! It's too late today, please-!" Echoed her mums voice far off in another dimension somewhere while Estelle kept running. Down the street and towards the school. Running with all her might as the sun got lower and warm colours turned back to cool across the sky. Running with no concern for coming home again in the darkness -she'd never been outside the house in the dark without her parents.

To any of the other people out that night - those on their evening jog who Estelle overtook as she sidestepped around them, those walking their Mr Pickles and their Mugsys, those on a quick trip to the corner store because they'd run out of milk, it was a pretty night bedazzled in reds and purples and the air warm and mild. To Estelle it was anything but.

She ran full force up McEwan's driveway not caring to be careful in case he might be around and through the overgrown, empty section, feeling the long grass cut into her bare legs. The shorts she had on for the hot summer's day were not ideal for running through dense undergrowth past the sharp, low branches and thorn bushes which scratched deep into her flesh.

When she finally reached their tree she climbed the ladder with anticipation, she couldn't get up there soon enough. Her lungs at this point felt like they would also cave in on her along with her heart.

He was there. His dimming form hunched up in a corner of the tree house as the light escaped them. He sobbed into himself, all tucked up; head, knees and arms, the noise coming from somewhere within.

"Kale-!" she cried out.

A muffled "leave me alone" emerged from the bundle before her and it was these words which made her completely lose control.

"I'm so sorry..." she said sobbing as she crawled towards him, unconcerned at the fact that her bare knees on the wood were picking up painful splinters. She needed to hug him. She laid a hand on his shoulder and felt it shake with sorrow before he slowly lifted his tear stained face up to look at hers.

"Go away!" he said through pained raw eyes as he shrugged her hand off his shoulder.

Although stung a bit at his sharpness, she wanted more than anything to comfort him, to hug him, to tell him it would be alright.

"I know it's hard. I'm really, really sorry..." she said, more desperate now and moving in front of him, lowering her head close to where he had returned his to between his knees, arms stretching out to encompass him. She fretted over what might have happened to Corey and every part of her ached to ease the torment that was waging war inside him. If only he would let her touch him. Touch him like she used to when they held hands, like when he grabbed her and pulled her up into the treehouse. Touch him like when she laid her head on his stomach and made up stories together with him about the clouds in the sky, like when he gave her piggyback rides down in the wildflower meadow.

"You don't know!" he cried, causing her to jump back from him. "I heard it!" his little shoulders shuddered up and down as he got out between sobs- "I heard the smack of his head on the road-"

His sobs became louder and the choking, rasping sound he was making made his whole body convulse and his breathing turn shallow, making her worry that he might not be getting enough air. She reached out and grabbed his little head and he let her pull it to her chest as she stroked the mostly straight hair which was kinked and ruffled from having been curled into its own human ball.

"Is he-" she started so fearful of his answer.

"He was too far away-" Kale got out. "They hit him. They left him there. Those bastards! They will pay..."

"Where is he now? Is he in the hospital?" Estelle increased the urgency in her voice for answers, hating to think what the alternative would be at this point. Kale was in his own running commentary mode speaking out loud only to console himself.

"He's in a coma! And they wouldn't let me go!"

Estelle realised Kale's mum must have been protecting him from any distressing scenes. She tried to shake out the images which were now playing through her mind like a horror film on fast forward. Surely not… Not a young child only on the rim of his life's cup.

"Mum said he should pull through…"

It was the smallest of consolations, given the heaviness of the air around them, which although was still warm made them both shiver as she held onto him never for want of letting go.

"I haven't been yet… to the hospital. I'm waiting for dad to get back from work..." He gasped in strained words.

At least they would be doing their utmost to save him, that poor little boy on a huge barren bed, probably covered in wires and needles and apparatus to keep his tenuous flame of life still burning.

Kale's sobs interspersed with hiccups slowly faded into lighter snifflings until eventually he pushed her away once again. The sudden cold feeling of fresh tears meeting air chilled the exposed patch on her t-shirt against her skin.

"No!" He wailed as his hands dug deep into the fleshy parts beneath her collar bone, shoving and burning there as though she had just been twice branded by a hot iron.

" Don't! I can't, You can't!" She met his objections and the wide, wild eyes with confusion.

"Leave me alone! I don't want you near me, I don't want to be around you!"

Estelle fell back onto her hands, taken literally aback at this change in him.

"But…" She began to protest.

"Go away!" He spat with tears and saliva and pain at her. His eyes were now void of all the emotion that was swimming through them only mere seconds ago. A scary lifeless expression was all that was left.

This was no longer a boy hurt because his only brother had been in an accident, but a boy who wanted nothing more, from or with her and one she suddenly felt so distant from.

It wasn't hard with her throat already raw and the ducts in her eyes already primed, for a fresh batch of sobs to escape her, the tears blanketing her cheeks and she fumbled her way out of the treehouse and all the way home.