step into the sun || c.m

chapter twelve

The rest of March went by rather fast, and April went by even quicker. It seemed like ever single second and minute was rushed. It felt like every photo that was taken was just another thing bringing them closer to parting. He hated it. She hated it. But they pretended it wasn't happening. They pretended that they had completely forgotten that they were going to be further apart than ever before soon.

But Cierra had already gone through one of her ten packs of film and a half by the end of April. She still had twenty five left, and he hoped more than anything she wouldn't run out by August second.

"This is still my favorite one." She declared, sitting criss cross on Connor's bedroom floor, all of the photos spread across the carpet. She was trying to put them together in some kind of scrapbook. He watched her put together her book as he sat on his bed, some watercolors and a cardstock sketch pad lied on his lap.

"Like soccer moms do for their kids." She had said to him, proud of her black leather scrapbook she had found in her basement. She had told him that her father had probably left it there, thinking nothing of it. She had only brought some white pieces of paper and some glue. She had asked to borrow a sharpie from him. She made the blandest of all the scrapbooks he had ever seen made. "It isn't done!" She protested as she taped photos on white cardstock, giving them simple titles in her own messy curly handwriting, and sliding them into the clear protective sleeve.

"It looks so incredibly dull." He started on his watercolor painting while she was at work on her scrapbook, specifically the one from two weeks ago when they went down to the city. They had only taken one photo that day, he had insisted upon taking a photo of her walking down the sidewalk, all the lights and the bustle. It was a great day, really. They had found a run down ice cream shop that probably had about seventeen different heath violations just in that cup of icecream, but damn, it was good. Cierra got the same ice cream flavor everywhere they went, mint chocolate chip. She said it was some of the best ice cream she had ever tasted, probably because of the amount of sugar they poured into the mix. Connor never got the same thing. He decided on the cherry ice cream, and he couldn't decide if it actually tasted like cherries. The guy behind the counter looked as if he had been here for years, hating his life, continuing to feed the four customers they had a day diabetes in a cup. They didn't really go into any other shops, but they walked in the city late into the night, and hadn't even realized it was morning when it came around. It was honestly an amazing day.

"Well the day wasn't dull." She breathed, flipping to the next page, which she had decided was the one from her birthday, placing the two photos down next to one another, completely not level.

"I see we are also not putting them in chronological order." He added, looking down at the paper. He hadn't quite realized that he was painting the skyline of the city, thinking about the day that they had spent together. It actually looked nice, so he went along with it.

"No, that's dumb." She continued on with her scrapbook, scribbling 'My Birthday Dinner' at the top of the page. He smiled at her, even though she wasn't looking.

"Do you wanna go somewhere for Spring Break next week?" Connor asked as casually as he possibly could force himself. It was Wednesday, and a lot of people were leaving for Spring Break on Friday, so it was probably too late to plan anything. They had always talked about going on a big trip together senior year during Spring Break or something. Now they really didn't have the chance or option to do that.

"Where?" She added, not even looking up from the page that only consisted of a photo of Connor, his hair pulled into a ponytail, driving. That day wasn't really anything special, they had decided to drive out to the park which was about an hour away, so Cierra considered it a roadtrip. Her legs were draped over Connor's lap, his hand was on her ankles, he was actually trying to get them off of him whilst he drove. He had a pure and happy smile on his face, teeth showing. He was laughing at something Cierra had said they he couldn't remember for the life of him, but he really wished he did. He actually really liked that photo, mainly because it really did look like one of those gross couple photos you see online, especially with his hand on her ankle, even if he was just trying to get her off of him. "Connor?" He realized he had been dazing off for a while, completely lost in thought for a little while.

"Oh, yeah I'm sorry. Um... Mexico beach, yanno the one in Florida?" He had already looked up places that they could go. He hadn't just decided to ask today, he had been thinking about this for a while. "It is kinda far away... But I mean that isn't really an issue." He mumbled, seeing as to she hadn't responded for a few minutes. He couldn't help but look up from his painting, she wasn't working on the scrapbook either, and he was slightly surprised to see she was looking at him, that smile spread across her face.

"Oh my god, yes!" She had hopped up, scurrying over to Connor, making sure she didn't smudge the city he was working on as she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his torso. He placed the arm that wasn't holding a wet paint brush on her waist, pulling her in just a tad bit closer. "Yes! Seriously, we can sleep in the car and um... Shower I guess at a YMCA, cause my mom has a membership or we can sneak in... I don't know we could always shower in the ocean for all I care it's going to be amazing!" She had basically squealed, pulling away and pretty much twirling around the room, making sure that she didn't step on all of her 'hardwork.' She was smiling, and this time, she was showing her teeth. "Oh my god, this'll be amazing. We can just skip school on Friday cause who gives two fucks, and we can drive down an-" She continued to go on, explaining every day and exactly what she wanted to do every night. A lot of it wasn't quite registering, but he was so happy to see her so happy, talking about all the beach walks and polaroid photos and beach days they were going to have. He hasn't seen her this happy since her birthday.

And boy, he knew that this trip sure was gonna be something.

author's note// sorry this was short i have so much stuff to do and there won't be an update in a lil while i have so much this week so ahhhh hope yoy liked i had callbacks today they went today im still shooketh i love you