Why I Can't Rule The World

No. 15

"The key to
a happy life
is to accept
that you are
never
in
control."
-- Owner of the Park;
"Jurassic World"

<<<<<<<<<<

    When I walked out of the house, the first thing I spotted was indeed her.

    She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but I didn't mind at all. There was so much more about her that went beyond her physical appearance and I adored all of her. The more time I spent with her, the faster I let myself fall. Sometimes I wondered if I even knew what I was doing -- I was only seventeen after all.

    Then I would have another conversation, another look into those dancing eyes, another hand on hers. Every worry would fade, every thought would slow.

    Which is why I almost tripped over my own feet when I was walking toward her.

    "I'm okay!" I declared as I stumbled.

    She giggled and I noticed she was holding two bikes with her. Quickly, I walked over and she handed me one of the handlebars.

    "I hope you like riding bikes. I just thought it would be something fun for us to do," she said, climbing on hers.

    "Anything's fun with you," I replied, getting on my own blue bike, holding my foot down on the gravel so I wouldn't roll down the small incline of a driveway.

    "Even getting paint on your face?" She winked at me and I felt my cheeks heat up.

    "Especially getting paint on my face."

    She laughed effortlessly and started to pedal down the hill. Grinning, I went after her, quickly catching up and pedaling by her side. The air swept up my arms and caused goosebumps. My cheeks stung slightly from the cooler atmosphere, but I didn't care. Leaves fell from the trees and rose up after we sped past them.

    The setting sun danced in the trees as we continued on the dirt road and around a bend.

    "Don't worry!" she called over the wind in my ears. "We don't have many neighbors, so there shouldn't be a lot of traffic!"

    "Sounds good!" I said, smiling over at her.

    Joy danced behind her eyes as the breeze lifted her hair off her neck and shoulders. I noticed I was falling behind and hurried to catch up to her. It felt good to ride a bike again, I realized I hadn't ridden one in a while. It was nice to just go along for the ride, let the events that had happened recently roll off my shoulders.

    We didn't talk much as we rode. For one, she was going pretty fast, and two, the trees swaying in the wind along with the crunching of leaves provided quite a bit of background noise. Eventually, we travel up a pretty steep hill and had to get off to push the bikes up.

    When we made it to the top, I took in the view.

    Down below, I saw their house through the patchy tree branches and I concluded that we must've made a loop. When I turned back to what was in front of me, I was awestruck. A huge barn sat in the front of the large, cleared place of land. In the back corner, I noticed cows roaming in the fence and a large garden out of their reach. Another shed was next to the garden.

    While it was all ordinary, I was left in shock. The setting was beautiful. Instantly, I reached for my camera and quickly got a shot of the setting sun over the landscape.

    "You coming?!" Alivia called excitedly, already a ways ahead of me. She had dropped her bike in the gravel and carried a blanket in her arms across the flat.