wander

27|her place

Romeo's pov:

As she digs through a basket on a rusted princess bike, I look around me. There's nothing but trees and a gravel pathway. I see a gate with a padlock so I assume Chiara is looking for something to get in. I don't know how we're going to get in because she wouldn't have a key. It's public land so no one owns it I don't think.

"Got the key!"She shouts. Key? What? I thought we were sneaking in not like getting in without having to hide. I decide to forget about it and just follow her. She inserts the key and the lock clicks. She pushes down on the gate and it screeches open. Chiara turns her head to look round at me and she grabs my hand.

"Come on. I really want to show you!" She says with a huge smile. I follow behind her and she leads me by her hand.
"Close your eyes. It will be a surprise." She covers my eyes with her hands and pushes me forward. We keep scooting further and we laugh because I don't want to trip over. We come to a stop and I laugh.
"Can I open my eyes now?" I beg.
"3...2...1..." She lifts her hands from my eyes and my eyes flicker open.

Tall trees that hover over us surround a beautiful lake. There's a small fishing dock reaching out into the water and there's a small wooden box sat in the corner of it. It's so beautiful and now I see why she wanted to keep it a secret from everyone else. I look at Chiara and she's smiling at me.

"Chiara this is so beautiful. I can't believe you found this place." I look around and she's walking up to the small wooden box. She opens it easily and pulls something out. I walk out towards her and she's lifting out a blanket. Her eyes look up to mine and I grab the other side of the blanket and we set it out on the dock. We lay down on the blanket and look out sight in front of us. Her head rests on my legs and she watches the small ripples in the water.

While she's not looking I take a photo of her and as the camera shatters her head snaps up to me. She's fakes a sad face as to say she wasn't ready for a photo. She turns her head and reaches into the box again. Her hand pulls out and she has a book in hand. Moby Dick. I've never read it, I've never been one to read. She flicks to the first page and I take the book from her hand.

Her mouth drops and she snatches her book back. She drops her head back to my legs and flicks to the first page. I reach down for the book and take it away from her. She lifts her head and I lay her head back down to my legs. I flick to the first page.

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." She quotes with me as I read the book aloud to her. I continue reading as her thumb strokes little circles on my leg and my free hand rubs her arm.

As we sit here reading, the sun begins to set and Chiara takes the book from my hand and puts it in her bag. She turns her head to me and smiles.
"Can we take photos. It's so pretty here!" She asks sweetly. I don't even answer her question an I take my phone out of my pocket. I flip it to front camera and we pose in front of the sunset. The golden tones behind us create a fire and I go to my spotify account.

I play 'somebody to you' by The Vamps and go to my camera. I press record and Chiara gets up to dance in the sunset. I capture every movemnt, every smile and every laugh. She is so beautiful and confident. She doesn't hide anything and lives everything in the moment.

"Come dance with me Romeo." She pleads.
"Oh I do not dance." I reply.
"Please, for me!" She whines.

I sit up and she takes my hand. She takes control and I follow along. I have not a care in the world while I'm dancing and living my life with the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on. I'm still recording but I'm not embarrased, if anything I'm happy I can keep the moment.

The next song comes on and it's 'Let it go' by James Bay. I would always sing along with this song whilst I played it on my guitar. I decide to start singing along and Chiara stops dancing and looks at me. She takes a seat back on the blanket and I do the same in the instrumental. I finish singing the song and after it's finished. Chiara and me are staring into eachothers eyes. We don't speak but we just watch eachother.

I smile at her and she exchanges it. I blink and her lips are suddenly on mine. I don't move away, instead I kiss her back. My heart explodes into a million pieces and I feel our heat increasing. I hold her waist and her hands are on my face. I'm so happy in this moment and I don't want it to end.

But it ends. The music is still playing. This time the song playing is 'Somebody to you' by The Banners. I end the video that's still recording and pause the music. I take her hand in mine and we fold the blanket and put it back in the wooden box. We leave and she locks up the gate. She drops the key in the basket of her bike and hides it under some leaves from the tree. I take her hand again and we walk down the gravel pavement.

"How did you find that place Chi, it's amazing?" I ask.
"The first time I came here was when I was 11, on my bike after a fight with my mom and I was so mad. I saw an enterance in the bushes and I was intrigued. I put my bike in the bushes-"
"The same bike? The princess one?" I interrupt.
"Yeah, that bike. Well I hid it in the bushes because I didn't want it to be stolen. Not that anyone would have wanted it anyways. Well it got stuck in the mud so I left it there, to this day. Then 3 years later, I got that gate put in because I didn't want anyone to know about it but myself. Selfish, I know."

I laugh as she tells her story. The princess bike hasn't moved after 7 years. It really was her place.

I want it to be our place.