Quarter Mile

Love

"What's it like to be in love?" Eli mumbled from the end of Dakota's hospital bed, asking no one in particular.

It was eleven o'clock on a Friday morning, the day Dakota was to be discharged from the hospital. Parker was in his usual position; next to Dakota in the bed, propped up by pillows with Dakota resting his head on his chest. Eli was sprawled across the end of the bed, facing the ceiling, and Harvey was sitting on the armchair next to the bed, his legs dangling over the armrest.

Dakota had been in the hospital recovering for a total of two weeks now and he hadn't heard from Beck at all.

"That's deep," Harvey pointed out. "I couldn't tell you. I've never been in love."

"I have," Parker piped up.

"Pfft," Harvey chuckled. "Who, Macey?" Parker shook his head no.

"I like Macey, yeah. But I don't know if that's quite love yet," he said. "No, I believe I was in love with Kiara." A booming cackle came from the end of the bed.

"Kiara? Dude, wasn't she, like, your fourth grade girlfriend?" Eli laughed, earning a kick in the side from Parker.

"Yes, dickwad, she was. But I still think I loved her. We did everything together. We were pretty much inseparable."

"Okay," Eli nodded. "Fair enough. What about you Dakota? We all know you're in love." Dakota thought for a minute, tracing the veins on Parker's arm.

"Well..." he trailed off. "I guess I don't really know what love is exactly. It's hard to describe." Parker gave him a nudge.

"G'head, Koda. Give it a shot."

"It's gonna be cheesy," he warned, and after all three boys nodded for him to continue, he did. "I think it's hearing him say "you're an idiot", while his smile betrays the words that just came out of his mouth." He paused, wincing as he looked at the faces of his friends, but his heart warmed as he realised they were looking at him with awe. "It's hearing his soft knock on my window at eleven o'clock at night, wanting to be let in from the cold air and to cuddle up in my bed. Love is him blurting out exactly how he feels about you when you ask why he's looking at you 'like that'. It's unplanned and sloppy, the exact opposite of how you wanted it to be, but in a way it's perfect and special and exactly how it should be. Love is being afraid to open up about certain parts of yourself but doing it anyway. It's making breakfast together and getting food everywhere, and getting ice cream at ungodly hours of the morning, and going on spontaneous adventures; letting the road take you wherever it wants. It's dancing with him and singing with him and intentionally getting the lyrics wrong just to hear him laugh."

"Wow," Eli breathed.

"Like I said," Dakota added. "I don't know exactly what love is, but I know what it feels like and the feeling is magic."

~

Dakota was discharged at two thirty in the afternoon. Eli and Harvey had gone home, but Parker had stayed to give him a ride back to his house.

"You sure you don't want me to stay? I don't want you to be alone," Parker said. Dakota's mother was still at work.

"I'll be fine, Parker. Besides, I'm going to look for Beck and I have a feeling I know where he might be."

"Okay," Parker replied from his car window as he backed his way out of the driveway. "Let me know if you need me." Dakota saluted and walked towards his own car, getting in and driving the familiar route to the lake.

Once the green jeep came into view down the narrow, dirt road, his stomach started doing flips in his chest. He hated the fact that he was now nervous and scared to talk to the boy he once felt so comfortable around.