Transitions

I'd Do Anything Just To Hold You In My Arms

His hands emerged from behind his back, holding a single red rose. I gently took it from his hands and looked at it.

"It's beautiful, thank you. I'm going to hand it to Luke so he can go find a bottle of water to put it in so it remains alive." I said, making a slight adjustment in the tone of my voice so Luke knew to make himself disappear back to the jeep.

I looked at Nate. His light blonde hair was pushed up and he had a red bandanna around his forehead. This revealed his striking eyes. He was wearing a red t-shirt and a pair of black basketball shorts with black converse, similar to mine. He reached out his hand, and I placed my hand in his as he intertwined our fingers. The sparks I felt holding Nate's hand were 20x more than with Michael. He leaned in and placed a light kiss on my cheek, making me blush. I took my Polaroid camera out of my bag and snapped a picture of me and him. The photo came out of the slot on the side of the camera, and it was too cute. I put the camera and the photo back to my bag and looked at the blonde haired beauty standing in front of me.

"Are you ready to go rock climbing? I haven't been in years so I'm really excited."

We walked downstairs with our hands linked, laughing and smiling. I led him down to the parking garage and over to Luke's jeep where he was waiting patiently. I jumped in the backseat with Nate and watched as Luke drove in the direction of the climbing gym. We sat in the backseat and talked about everything from music, to the upcoming tour and life in general. Luke finally pulled into the lot for the climbing gym, letting us out and he set off to find a parking spot. Nate and I walked inside to be surrounded by the loud, fast paced, motivating music and all the people. I stepped up to the desk.

"How many in your party?" he asked.

"Just the two of us, thank you."

The kid at the desk handed us a paper and then proceeded to ask our shoe size so he could get us the proper shoes. We signed the waiver and handed it back to the boy in return for a pair of climbing shoes. We walked over to one of the couches in the middle of the climbing floor and sat down to change our shoes. I untied my converse and slid on the climbing shoes. We picked up our shoes and my backpack and put them in one of the cubbies and made our way over to the wall. There were separate harnesses sitting on the ground attached to a cable on a pulley. I stepped into the harness, securing the buckles in their designated places. I had to ask Nate to come and help me tighten them as they were still too loose to fit around my tiny frame. I also assisted him in tightening his harness. Once we were settled, a floor assistant came over to quickly brief us on how to climb and belay. He checked our harnesses quickly and said we were free to climb and have fun. I grabbed hold of the first rock in my reach that was orange, pulling myself up and wedging my left foot on a blue rock. I made my way up the wall with Nate coming up next to me. He stopped almost exactly next to me and held on with one hand.

"Hey beautiful. How's it hangin?" he asked, trying to be funny.

I looked at him and rolled my eyes, continuing to climb.

"Were my pick-up lines terrible?" he asked.

"Yes. That was horrible. It was adorable, but it was so lame."

He smiled at me and kept climbing up the wall. I climbed a little further up and looked down, making my heart race in anxiety. My face turned red and my palms became sweaty. Nate looked down at me with an expression of concern.

"Are you okay love?" he asked, starting to put himself down the wall to meet my level.

"Heights. I've never climbed a wall this high. I don't remember how to go back down." I said with panic in my voice.