My Winter Days with Ty

(Part 4)

I think of my final autumn days with Ty, when the leaves fell from the trees, shriveled up on the ground, and the air grew chilly, threatening cold fingers and toes. One certain day sticks with me, the day that happened to be earlier today. It started with what I thought would be a simple day at the mall. It was pretty simple, actually, until I spotted someone special standing outside a store a few doors down and decided to greet him.

"But look at me! I'm breaking free!" I sang.

Some people kept moving, some glanced at me and lost interest in two seconds. But getting Ty's attention was all I wanted.

When he turned, I grinned and waved. He smiled too, and made his way over while singing, "Just look at me, singing joyfully!" Once I met him in the middle of the walkway, we sang together, "I dare you to come to stop me! I'm breaking free, free, free!"

More people looked to us; we even stopped a baby from crying and spared his parents earaches. But we didn't blush, only because we learned to expect reactions like these. After all, that was how we met for the first time, and now we meet like that all the time.

"So, Ty," I said to him. "Whatcha up to?"

"Oh, you know," he responded. He held up a small shopping bag, the logo reflecting the music store he was standing in front of earlier. "Shopping."

"Yeah, I could've guessed that." We blended with the crowd and walked together. "Whatcha got?"

"I'm glad you asked." He flashed me that beautiful smile. "C'mon, I'll show you," he said as he took my hand and led me to a wooden bench in a resting area. I didn't know if Ty thought anything of it, but I floated like a balloon as fantasies of me and Ty played in my mind for the millionth time since I met him. I realized the more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to sing, dance, and hang out with him, forever and ever...

When we sat down, he let go of my hand; I fumbled with my hand and finally decided to place it in my lap. That seemed normal, and it was alright. Sitting so close to him that our knees touched a little was enough, for now.

"So, you know of the album Flaming Ice released yesterday, right?" Ty asked excitedly.

"Yeah, the new one from the band that made our song," I replied. Saying "our song" made it seem like we were married or something, but I kept that thought to myself. If I told Ty and he thought it was embarrassing, I would absolutely die. "What about it?"

"Well..." Ty said. He held the bag in front of his chest and waggled his eyebrows.

I gasped. "No! You didn't!"

"Sure did!" He pulled a CD case out of the bag; sure enough, there was the new album. "Their CDs are impossible to find - almost," he beamed. "It makes it hard since they aren't very popular, but I did a little digging and came across it. I snatched it up and - you should've seen me run - I bought it in five seconds flat!"

I took the CD from him and examined it. "Wow Ty, that's great!" His happiness was contagious.

Then an idea popped into my head.

"Hey, maybe we could listen to it together, if you're not busy." I turned to him. "Dad can pick up pepperoni, as usual, and if Dakota's there, I can always lock the door to my room." It'll be perfect, I thought. Just me, Ty, and no one to interrupt.

"Sounds good to me," Ty agreed. "Let's do it."

As we walked to my house, I didn't want to think about how my cluttered room would look in Ty's eyes, how Dad might order the cheap pizza that tasted like rubber, or even how my stereo only worked when it wanted to work...but I worried anyway. To fix it, I busied myself by focusing on every word Ty said to me. I loved the book, he said. Not so much the movie, he said. What did you think? he asked. Silence...why did he stop?