Rain Season in The Holy City

sunday morning picnics

I sat on the grass by the lake, the woods behind my back and the sun coming up over the trees on the other side of the water. A week had passed since the night at the pool, since I met this boy who may or may not be different from anyone else I've ever met. I hadn't decided yet.

I sat with my other best friend besides Athena, Terra, sharing some muffins from our favorite bakery in town and sipping on a shared bottle of strawberry wine. This was our usual Sunday morning ritual. No matter how hungover we were from the Saturday night before, no matter how crazy the night had been, no matter how hot or cold it was, if both of us were home from school we would both meet at our favorite lake a few miles out of town. We would meet in the gravel parking lot, Terra picking up the breakfast choice of that morning and me providing a picnic basket and blanket to sit on, and we would trek through the woods to the clearing by the lake always 30 minutes before the sun was supposed to rise. We always kept this ritual a secret. We started it when both of us had turned 16 and could drive. Not even our parents knew about this because we would both sneak out before they were even near waking up, making sure both of us were back home before they got up. As the sun began to come up over the trees, we laughed about how grand this summer would be for both of us.

"So Clara, Athena texted me last week telling me you guys met someone who was nice and charming and handsome and funny and..."

She trailed off at the end, noticing my shift in body language.

"What? Is he not all of those things? Tell me about him."

This was not what I wanted our topic of discussion to be, but oh well. No better time than this warmer than most Sunday mornings in May.

"Yes, he is all of those things and more probably. I just don't know him all that well," hesitant to give her any more information about Harry in case nothing came of it. I didn't want her holding out hope like everyone else was that I would be moving on from Dylan any time soon.

"Well, what about Nate? He messaged me about it saying you unadded him on snap."

"Hey, no absolutely not. He unadded ME. He was butthurt that I invited Harry to the pool, but he did not even announce that he was comi-"

I was cut off by my phone dinging next to me. I looked at it, only to see Harry's name pop up with a goodmorning text, telling me he was on his way to work and that he hopes I have a good day and that he was looking forward to seeing me for dinner.

During the summers, or really even whenever he was home from school, he works for his ex-girlfriend's dad's auction house, having him up and moving furniture by 6am most days.

I smiled at my phone and then realized I was smiling at it, and quickly put it back down, but not quick enough to avoid the curious gaze of my best friend. She knew me all too well, well enough to know that I don't smile at just anyone's texts that light up my phone.

"At least let me see a picture of him," she said, her voice trimmed with the hint of her actually saying "please tell me all the details and let me live my teen romance fantasies through you."

I opened my phone and scrolled to last week, a picture of Harry standing next to his classic car and me sitting on the hood, with the sunset in the background. Truthfully, it looked like an album cover or a picture a kid would find of their high school sweetheart parents in a box covered in dust. We complimented each other very well and I could tell that our first picture would be something I would look back on in years to come and long to be back in that moment.

"Clara, he is exactly your type," She said, her eyes wide, " He is the spitting image of what you have said you wanted ever since you were little."