Summer Flings Are Just Little Things, Right?

Chapter 7

"Okay, so where are we going first?" I questioned Luke as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot.

He turned and looked at me and smiled, "It's a surprise." He then looked back at the road.

I gave him a blank expression. "I don't like surprises. Just tell me." That part came out a little harsher than I intended it to so I added a "Please?"

He chuckled. He seemed to be doing a lot of that. I wonder if that's normal for him. "Fine, I'll tell you. First, I'm taking you to downtown. That's all I'm going to say though." I just smiled and nodded my head in approval.

About 5 minutes later, we were parking. I got out of the car and looked at my surroundings. Downtown was super cute and looked sort of chic yet modern at the same time with an old look mixed in. There was a variety of shops around. Clothing, toys, electronics, books, housewares, and so on. There was also a ton of different kinds of restaurants.

"This is so cute! I love it! I would totally go shopping right now, but I won't. I would feel bad making you follow me around for hours. Plus I would probably make you carry my bags. So self-control Brynn, self-control." I exclaimed.

This made Luke laugh, "You're so cute, but come on, let's go get some ice cream."

He led me further into downtown and we stopped in front of a a little ice cream parlor called 'Frosty's'.

"Wait. Uhhhmmm....isn't it too early for ice cream?"

He looked at me shocked and put his hand over his chest to make himself seem dramatic, "It is never too early for ice cream. Ice cream is good any time of the day, any time of the year."

That made me smile and laugh really hard. He was completely right. Ice cream all day, everyday. That's going to be my new motto. Actually, it probably won't, but still who cares, you get the point.

"I like the way you think, Luke." And with that I pushed passed him and walked right inside to look at my flavor choices.

They had so many flavors to choose from, but I had to stick to my favorite obviously. "May I please have a scoop in a cup of French Vanilla."

"Seriously? That's so basic," Luke exaggerated. "I'll have a scoop of Rocky Road in a cup please."

My jaw dropped at his choice, "You have no room to call my flavor choice basic! Rocky Road?! That's more basic than mine! At least mine has the word French in it! That makes it more fancy!"

The worker behind the counter was clearly laughing at us but tried to hold it in. They handed us our ice cream and Luke paid again for me even though I already had my money out.

After our ice cream, Luke took me to the beach which was about an hour away. It was just like the beaches back home in California. Now I could officially say I've been to both coasts.

The beach he took me to had a boardwalk with some rides and attractions. We explored here for about 2 hours. Then we decided to head back to town. We got stuck in traffic on the way back and at some point I ended up falling asleep.

"Brynn, wake up, I have one more place to show you," Luke shook me awake.

I yawned and did a very unattractive stretch with it, "Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep during our conversation. I feel really bad."

He smiled a reassuring smile, "Don't feel bad, we've had a long day, I understand. But there's one more place I want to show you." He got out of the car and I realized we were parked in his driveway.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and got out as well. I looked around and I didn't see Luke. "Uhm, Luke?!" I whisper yelled.

"Over here!" I heard him from down the street a little bit away. I jogged up to him and he just continued walking once I reached him so I just followed.

"Where are we going Luke?"

He kept quiet and then turned the corner at the next street. I saw a ton of trees up ahead. "You're not taking me to the woods to kill me now because I fell asleep, right?" I joked.

He full on laughed at that. I couldn't help myself as I watched him. He looked really adorable when he laughed. His face would scrunch up and his head would fall back just a little bit. And his dimples would be at their max. If dimples were models, him smiling would be his dimples at a photo shoot, but when he laughed, it was like his dimples were strutting their stuff on a catwalk. Wait, did I really just think that?

I was brought back to reality and away from my weird abnormal thoughts when he spoke, "Noooo, I'm not taking you to the woods to kill you. I'm taking you to the park instead." I raised a questioning eyebrow. "Okay, yes our park is built into the edge of the woods." Now I had both eyebrows raised. "And no I'm not going to kill you for falling asleep during our conversation." I smiled at his response.

We arrived at the park and it was quiet. There weren't any kids playing because it was dark already. But there were some people out for their nightly runs and jogs. "This park is cute. I would love to see it during the day."

"Well you can do that another day, but this isn't the last stop. The last stop is a surprise that not many people know about because it's hidden in the trees and people are too afraid to walk in. You have to walk a little ways into the woods to reach it."

He headed into the trees and against my better judgement, I followed him in even though I hate surprises and the walking into the woods was scary.

Instead of watching in front of me to see where I was going, I was watching my steps to make sure I didn't trip over anything. Because of this, I didn't realize that Luke had stopped walking until I walked right into him.

"Ow," I mumbled rubbing my nose.

"Well, here we are!"

I moved out from behind him and my breath was caught. We were standing in front of a small creek with a waterfall. The trees opened up at the top to allow the moonlight in and glisten off of the water. There were hundreds of fireflies flying around as well which made the water glisten even more. It was so peaceful sounding here. The whole sight and atmosphere was beyond beautiful!

"Oh my god, this is unbelievable!" I started walking towards the water and took my flip flops off and stuck my feet in the water. It felt amazing. It wasn't too cold nor too hot.

"I know right?" Luke said while sitting down next to me putting his feet in as well. "My parents told me about this place. No one else really knows about it. And it's not a place that teens our age come to chill and throw parties. It's a place that I like to come to when I need to take my mind off of things and just get away. Basically it's my little secret. It's so peaceful here. I have never brought anyone here before, not even Blake, Josh and Dylan, and to be honest, I'm not really sure why I brought you here."

I turned and looked up at him to see him staring down at me. "You're secret is safe with me. Don't worry. And I'm really glad you brought me here. This is just the spot for me to allow myself to think and forget everything that has gone wrong in my life back home."

He furrowed his eyebrows in curiosity, "What happened back home? Is everything alright?" He seemed really worried. But I couldn't tell him what happened.

I attempted a smile, "Well, like I said. I don't have any friends." Luke seemed to understand that I wasn't going to tell him what was wrong. But he let it go after a little while.

"I told you that I was your friend. I hope that bringing you here to my secret place is proof enough," he smiled a heart melting smile. That gave me a ping of butterflies in my stomach.

I ignored them and smiled back, and then we both looked back out at the water. This felt really good sitting here next to Luke at this peaceful place where it felt like all the worries in the world had vanished.