When I was seven, the rule was to wear socks on the trampoline. Its surface was covered with splintering branches and sun-baked leaves, and it was dangerous to climb onto the mesh material and jump without some sort of protection for our feet. So I grabbed my socks by the door and pulled them over my feet, making sure they were situated in a way that I didn\u2019t feel the seam. After wiggling my toes to ensure this was the case, I sprinted out the front door and picked my way across the grass, dried by California\u2019s sun, and over the gravel driveway. When I made it to the other side I scampered up the small stepstool that reached the entrance of the thin fabric fence that protected us from jumping out and landing somewhere on the hard ground. I pushed my way inside and peered at the obstacles that had gathered in our play area. I turned to you, whose parents hosted this party but hadn\u2019t bothered to clean off the trampoline. You flashed a smile at me, wide and eager as you climbed in beside me. You stood as I sat on my knees. You weren\u2019t wearing socks.<\/p>\n
The idea had crossed my mind, of course, not to follow the rules. I had momentarily considered it, but the rule was made to ensure we didn\u2019t get hurt. That\u2019s what ultimately pushed me to tug those thin strips of fabric over my feet and feel confident that I was protected from all outside harms. I got to my feet next to you, and together we bounced.<\/p>\n
It was hard not to be enraptured by the hypnotizing rhythm of the rising and falling twigs in the middle of the trampoline. They flew into the air when we landed hard against the black material beneath us, then shattered upon impact when they fell, adding more small caltrops to be avoided. Some broke until they were practically dust, rendering them harmless. But one large stick seemed stubborn, and moved ever closer to both of us, prepared to gouge a hole into our soles.<\/p>\n
I asked why you didn\u2019t wear socks. You said you\u2019d just avoid the problems as they came. And you didn\u2019t like wearing socks.<\/p>\n
I thought this was curious as I jumped across from you. I liked the warmth socks provided. I always ran cold, even in California. They gave me a certain comfort. A protection from the outside chill, even on warm summer nights. How could someone dislike socks so much?<\/p>\n
My foot met against the surface of the trampoline and slipped, but my body did not stop falling down. My ankle twisted. A ninety-degree angle was formed between my foot and my leg, echoing a sickening snap through my bones and rattling in my skull. I collapsed. The world went dark for a few seconds, and when I opened my eyes, my hands were clutching my leg, and my mother was there, grabbing at me to pull me from the trampoline.<\/p>\n
And there you were, opposite of me. You were barefoot, standing on the edge of the decaying tree parts circled in the middle, separating us. You hadn\u2019t followed the rules. You didn\u2019t like socks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When I was twenty-two, the rule was to be honest. Struggles between clarity and fear of coming off in an unintended way caused us both to keep feelings and emotions pulled under the surface of what we showed the world. We promised during a game of Left 4 Dead 2, while I played Ellis and you played Coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just need to promise to be honest with one another,\u201d I said, stocking up on ammo for the oncoming zombie waves we were about to fight. In the safehouse, we could chat more casually, so I turned my character around and pictured him leaning against the table as he reloaded his shotgun.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we won\u2019t judge each other. I need to work on it, too, but just\u2026 if we\u2019re upset, we just need to tell one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d she said as Coach picked up a machete. \u201cI agree.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust you, Ashley.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust you, too. I\u2019ll tell you next time I\u2019m upset.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so we did. Each night we would chat, and we would tell one another, randomly, whenever we were feeling it, that something upset one of us. We\u2019d work through it together\u2014the issues often coming from outside daily life, and solved by conversation and company. It made things easy between us.<\/p>\n
Then one day I found out she didn\u2019t like socks. She had never told me that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was seven, the rule was to wear socks on the trampoline. Its surface was covered with splintering branches and sun-baked leaves, and it was dangerous to climb onto the mesh material and jump without some sort of protection for our feet. So I grabbed my socks by the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[283],"tags":[158,157,12,238,375],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s27tjX-rules","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winter-publishing.com\/welcome-to-winter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}