Between You and I

Chapter Twenty

May 12, 2012: 19 Hours Before

No, I wasn't a huge fan of McDonald's. Not at all. But, it was the cheapest place around, so I decided to let it slide. We were sitting across from each other, Valentine eating a Sausage McMuffin and I was stuffing my mouth with a Big and Tasty. I honestly have no idea how the cashier held himself back from saying, "That's what she said," when I told him, "I'd like one Big and Tasty." No idea. This whole thing can be just one whole innuendo. Even Valentine laughed at it.

"Would you rather..." She started, picking up a french fry.

"Streak around town, or see Mrs. Roberts naked?" Oh God no. Just hearing 'Mrs. Roberts' made me want to throw up. Literally. Mrs. Roberts was way past her youth, and it was way more than obvious.

"I'd streak, hands down," I coughed choking on a piece of burger, the image of a naked old lady burned into my brain. Valentine was full out laughing, and I found myself laughing just as hard despite my scarred memory.

"Jesus. It's fucking stuck in my head now! You know I'm a visual person!" That only made her laugh even more.

"Is her... Butt... Smooth... Or hairy?" She gasped between her fit.

"NO! Don't even go there!"

Once our laughter died down, we ended up just looking at each other and grinning like idiots.

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When Valentine and I were younger, we would drive my parents insane in the car everytime they drove us to Chucky Cheese by singing the worst we could, the loudest we can. Yeah... We were pretty much demon spawns at times. We'd sing hits from the Backstreet Boys to classics like the Beatles and Barry Mailow.

My parents weren't here with us now, so we decided to not torture each other with horrible singing, and we just sang along to Sleeping With Sirens' 'If You Can't Hang'. To be honest, Valentine and I have never really been pop music people.

Never really liked the type of sound Katy Perry and Justin Beiber gave off. I guess that's just us. We were and are more into bands like Sleeping With Sirens, Pierce the Veil, You Me At Six, Fall Out Boy, Maday Parade, and there are too many good bands to list them all! Pity Fall Out Boy broke up a while back though. They were mind blowing.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII don't wanna take all of your tiiimeee! Cause you're such a pretty pretty pretty pretty faaaccee, but you've turned into a pretty big waste of my time!" We both belted out with Kellin Quinn as we continued down the road in Valentine's car.

"You're the lowest type, you're the looowwesst. I met a girl stuck in her ways, she found a boy she knew she'd change. I changed my clothes, my hair, my face, to watch us go our seperate-"

"Dan, turn!" Valentine quickly pointed out to the right, where the road branched off into another.

"You're the boss," I joked, turning the wheel and driving off of the main road.

We drove for a while, still blasting Sleeping With Sirens songs on the stereo. I think we ran through a whole album and a half until she told me to pull over.

"You sure?"

"Yep. Right here," Beaming, she nodded. She can't be serious. The car slowed to a stop, dead center of the road.

"We're going to cause serious traffic-"

"No, we won't."

"Valentine-"

"No one really uses this road. Calm down," She laughed, getting out of the car. Fine. If someone starts honking its not my fault. I shut the engine and followed her out of the car. Valentine was twirling and her hair was wild in the wind, her arms outstretched.

"Welcome to Nowhere!" Ha.

"No, shit!" I yelled back, walking over to her. The air smelled like spring and was refreshingly cold in my lungs. I'm not going to lie, I had no idea where we were. Well, I knew we weren't in a different state, but I knew we were far away from home. Trees lined the sides of the road, swaying and dancing along with the breeze.

"Isn't this place amazing?" Her grin pulled from ear to ear as she sat down, breathing out and stretching as if she's been cooped up in a small space for years. I sat down next to her.

"You really hate it at home, don't you," I whispered. All of a sudden, her eyes went dark, and her smile disappeared.

"Yeah, I do." A silent passed between us as my mind raced to say something to make her feel alright.

"Well... At least you have my shit to focus on now until you leave," my voice was light despite the heavy feeling on my heart, but it seemed to work because I got her to laugh.

"I want to remember this," Everything seemed to be alright again, and the heavy weight lifted when she brandished a camera and scooted closer to me.

Click.

"I should take pictures more," She said proudly, looking at the screen that held our smiling faces. I felt like the air went hotter as my cheeks flushed.

"Yeah, yeah you should." She looked up at the sky, mulling something over.

"Do you remember the bench? It's right in the middle of all the trees. You remember the clump of trees right? Where we buried Dacim the Vampire?" Well, how could I forget?

"It's the one place I could hide," Her gaze tore away from the sky and she stared at her camera. Hide? Why would she hide?

"Maybe I'll take you there again next time, and it would be nice to visit his grave one day again. Its been so long!" Hm... Maybe it would be good to visit that 'dead' bastard. I took her hand in mine, and a small shocked look was sprawled on her face as I gave her a tiny smile.

"Next time sounds good to me."