Well, Hey...Fancy Seeing You Here?

Chapter 23 - Heartbroken...

After we'd all finished our lunch, I dragged Dan across the mall and out the entrance to a park I'd spotted on the way in.

"I hate shopping centres and malls, there are too many people about, shoving and shouting a losing their kids all the time. I feel like I'm in a whirlwind of noise and I'm stuck there for hours.

"I'm pretty much the same," Dan replied, tangling our fingers together and rubbing my knuckles with his thumb, "I'm forever losing Phil in shopping centres if it's busy. Plus I hate people shouting whilst someones telling me something,so if Phil's telling me when and where to meet and someone else is shouting I'm like 'eurgh asdfghjkl, yeah sure' but in reality I heard none of it and get an angry phone call off Phil an hour later asking where I am." Dan moaned, waving his hand about in frustration.

"Jesus...I just dont like them. You, on the other hand, have serious unresolved issues with them!" I laughed, resting my head on his shoulder as we walked. The smell of the greenery became stronger as we strolled through the big black gates with the stone posts and into the park. All the trees were beginning to blossom and the daffodils were dancing in the gentle breeze.

"This place is nicer than I thought." I muttered, in awe at the beautiful scenery around me.

"Yeah, it is. I can't believe I never noticed it before!" He whispered, before untangling our fingers and wrapping his arm round my waist as we walked.

One beautiful willow tree stood tall and proud at the far side of the park. Not many people were over there so I gently nudged Dan over towards the tree and sat down. I say gently, but it was more like I yanked his arm out if it's socket and threw him on the floor before jumping on the ground next to him and sitting cross-legged before realising I possibly might have hurt him.

"Shit, Dan are you okay?" I questioned, leaning forward and shaking his shoulder a bit. I received a groan as a reply and it worried me. "Dan, answer me are you okay?". Nothing. He was lead face down on the ground, clutching his other arm. "Dan? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. It was an accident, I got carried away, I wasn't-" I was cut off by Dan rising from the ground, grabbing my waist, pulling me underneath him and being tickled to death.

"Apologise! That hurt you know!" Dan cackled, digging his fingers into my sides making me squirm uncontrollably. I couldn't speak for all the laughter, so he kept tickling, and tickling and tickling. "You do realise I'm not going to stop until you apologise." He smirked.

I took hold of his wrists, momentarily causing him to stop. I took a deep breath and said, " I'm sorry, Dan. I didn't mean to hurt you." I stared into his sparkling eyes with the straightest face I could manage.

"Thank you." He whispered before leaning down and pecking me lightly on the lips. He rolled off me and grabbed my hands, pulling me up. "I think we should be childish and carve our names into this tree." Dan sassed.

"You have anything to do it with?" I asked, searching around for something relatively sharp.

"Yup." He shouted, before pulling a penknife out of his jeans pocket and brandishing it proudly.

"Dan, why the fuck have you got a freaking penknife in your pocket?" I questioned.

"To become the Manliest Of Men!" He stated before raising it like Excalibur. I couldn't control my laughter anymore. "It's not that funny, Brooke. Come on, let's do this!" He shouted leaning on the tree trunk and engraving his name before passing me the knife, and I too engraved my name into the wood. "Now we will be here forever, even if we never come back. Let's take a photo to remember this." He said before reaching into his other pocket and pulling out his phone. He put his arm around my waist and left just a big enough gap for the markings to be seen between our heads and snapped the picture.