After All These Years | ✔

26 - CARLIE

As Christmas neared, Carlie found herself reaching for her phone almost every day, sending "Let's do something" to an always-obliging Louis.

So he took her hiking, or fishing, or cliff jumping like they had when they first became friends that summer day in the sun. He encouraged her to go for a job at the coffee shop in the main street, and he often waited patiently outside for her to finish her morning shifts, demanding a free coffee in return for being such a 'gentleman', as he described himself.

Louis was old enough to drive, and Carlie would take the test for her license in less than a week, but everything they decided to do either involved a lot of walking or sitting on the handlebars of Louis' push bike. Carlie didn't mind as much. It meant having Louis beside her, and his company was something that became more exhilarating every day.

One thing about their adventures was the fact that they got to talk. With only each other in company, they we able to nut each other out. Sometimes they were light-hearted and funny. Other times, the conversations became so meaningful it seemed too disrespectful to walk or jump, so they often sat on the sand, took a boat out or settled on the grass to talk it out. It was one of the things she loved about Louis: he could listen. She told him all her stupid theories and memories and he could just sit there until she was done.

He didn't listen all the time though, and they argued about stupid things, like whether or whether not it was okay to steal from hard rubbish, or whether a dress she tried on in a thrift shop was 'pink' or 'magenta'. He was stubborn too and a lot biased most of the time.

But it didn't really matter, because he ended up giving in to Carlie's opinion anyway. She was beginning to think she had a certain type of hold on him, and she found herself playing on it whenever she could.

They had endless conversations – she told him her theories and random facts she had found, and he ranted on about every chapter of the book he was reading or another curious thought he had about God – and she felt them become closer like every word was a small tug in a knot that was slowly tying itself.

One of the first of these talks happened when they had just completed the 5 kilometre hike to the top of the East Cliffs, a tall rock formation beyond the North-east corner of Lake Galle. They were exhausted, sitting together on an uncomfortable outcrop. Carlie chose it because it had the best view – looking towards the afternoon sun and the lake they loved so much.

Carlie had taken the lead, following Louis' directions on the walk up. She found herself wondering more than once what it was he found so interesting about her. Why he would choose to walk behind her. Why he chose her as his outlet and his partner for exploring and adventuring.

Surely he couldn't be interested in her, could he? She slipped many times on the way up, her worn Converses letting her down over and over, and he offered help by placing a hand on her waist, hip or back when needed. The touch sent electricity through her, but she was almost certain it wasn't the same for him. I couldn't be. He was too striking, a pretty boy. But not like others she had known before – he was almost never pushy or acted like he owned anyone.

She was just the new girl next door. Louis was kind to her, that couldn't be argued, but he was out of her league nevertheless. Even though they had so much in common, the insecurity in her still played games until anyone seemed like a better pairing with him in her mind. Ashley, perhaps, with her dark hair and strong personality that made any boy pay attention. Or even blonde and sarcastic Sarah who – with her surfer's sense of fashion and all-year-round tan – seemed like summer personified.

Carlie tried to think of all the interesting things about her own self. And even though all of them seemed silly and incomparable to Ashley or Sarah or whoever she pictured Louis holding hands with, when she finally reached the top, she had unconsciously written a list.

As she looked out over the lake, she remembered the day they jumped off the huge rock. The day he had asked "Tell me something I don't know about you" and she had avoided the question. It gave her an excuse to test her theory.

So, after they got their breath back, she cleared her throat.

"I'm scared of the dark."

Louis turned his head next to her, "What?"

"Not in the 'I can't function if there's no light' kind of way, I just sleep with the light on." She paused slightly, thinking, "I've never travelled by plane."

Louis did what he did best and sat back on his hands, listening.

"I think Jared Leto is incredibly attractive," Louis smiled at that. "Don't like bees. I read Pride and Prejudice at least twice a year. It's my favourite book." She smoothed her hair off her face with her palm. "I won a quite prestigious award last year for my art, but I lost the certificate, and I regret that. It was probably my biggest achievement of my life.

"And... I have a birthmark on the back of my shoulder that looks like a love heart."

"Really?"

Carlie's eyes found his and she nodded, and then looked down at her Converses, playing clumsily with the loose rubber, "I'm a foster child, but you already know that. I've never known my real parents. Apparently they both died in a car accident, but I used to fantasize that they were this badass couple like Bonnie and Clyde and they got killed in a bank robbery gone wrong or something, but that's just another theory." Carlie smiled, "I didn't really care though. I had my foster family, and that was all that mattered to me. It still does..." She paused, wracking her brain for more but coming up blank, "I'm sure there's much more, but I don't have anything else right now."

There was silence then. Louis didn't move an inch. But it seemed his brain was still processing though his body remained still. Carlie didn't know how to take it, so she lifted her eyes once again and let the afternoon sun warm her skin. She should've felt nervous and insecure, opening up to him like that. But it felt good, like she needed to let it out to somebody. If he cared, he would know that.

Carlie looked out over the view. She found it was amazing how they shared these beautiful long patches of silence, but it didn't mean they had nothing to say. It was almost like they had everything to say, but didn't feel like they needed to. They sat for so long that she almost forgot she was waiting for a reply. Finally he spoke, and the words fell off his tongue with no regret. As though the instance they passed through his mind, he whispered them without another thought,

"You're incredible."

A grin broke out on Carlie's face. She worked up the courage to look back. He was staring down at his favourite worn Nikes, a slight colouring his cheeks that may or may not be from the long walk. She wondered if he was meant to say the words allowed. Maybe he didn't even mean them in the way she thought he did.

But as Louis lifted his head, eyes squinting in the sun, and gave her that iconic smile that she was sure God designed for the very purpose of making her stomach flip, every single one of her doubts tumbled out of her, falling and disappearing into the lake below.