From the Window

chapter 4

Our adventure led us to the park a few blocks away. I hadn't been to the park since I was a kid, but I still knew it by heart. I sat on the merry - go - round. My feet hung from the rail. Bradley sat opposite of me. We had just finished swinging because some kids arrived and I thought it would be best if the two teenagers didn't hog them. Bradley just wanted to keep on swinging.

He truly was a kid at heart.

I did get him to move though. When we moved away from the swings, we started a game of would you rather. It was his turn to ask the question. "Would you rather have one best friend for the rest of your life or ten okay friends?"

I looked away from him and bit down on my lip. That was such an easy question, but also I didn't want to explain. For each answer, we had explained our reasoning. I didn't know how to look at him and say 'I don't have many friends and few that I do have are really only my friends because they were Brighton and Rowan's first'. I could feel him watching me so I finally looked back at him. Sighing, I began to say my answer. "I guess, one best friend."

"Okay, why?"

"I don't know, quality over quantity, I guess."

He nodded. "Yeah, same."

"Really?" I asked.

Standing up from his seat on the rails, our eyes became level. "Why do you seemed shocked by that?" He quipped.

I stayed seated as I answered. "I don't know. Every time I have seen you this week you are always surrounded by a group of people. There's nothing wrong with that, but you just seem like you would prefer quantity."

"You are in fact mistaken Nirvana," he shook his head as he spoke, "I might have a lot of people around me, but I like to have quality people in my life."

"Mmkay," I hummed, standing up from my own rail. Our bodies were close for a second. I wondered if he could hear my heart beat quicken. He jumped down from the merry - go - round quickly after I was stood up.

"You hungry?"

I shrugged, jumping down as well. "I guess I could eat."

He clapped his hands together with a small smile. "Perfect, I say this fro-yo place that I saw earlier this week."

I gave him a small smile in agreement. I had a feeling that even if I didn't want fro-yo, we would still somehow end up there.

We walked side by side down the pavement. I had no idea where he was taking me, but he claimed to know the way. Even though he had only lived here for about a week and could very likely get us lost, I trusted him. I hadn't really thought about it, but in the past few days, I had grown to really trust Bradley and I wasn't scared about it. It was just second nature to trust him it seemed. I liked that. Being able to trust him without worry.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't noticed that he had reached for my hand. Maybe he held it to help direct me in the right direction or maybe he held it because he wanted to. Although I trusted him, I was too scared to ask him why he was holding it. I just knew that I was okay with it and I wanted him to not let go as we walked.

A few minutes passed and we were stood in front of this small place I had never been to before, but it looked like your typical build your own fro-yo shop. As we approached the door, he finally let go of my hand. He held it open for me to walk through. At the end of the entrance, there was a line of yogurt dispensers with a variety of flavors. My eyes instantly fell to the yellow cake batter. I grabbed a cup from the stack near the dispensers and worked my way over to the cake batter flavor. Once my cup was as full as I could make it.

Not waiting for Bradley, I walked to the toppings display. I scooped crushed graham crackers, chocolate and white chocolate chips, and brownie bits onto my yogurt before adding a little caramel drizzle. Finished with my dessert, I headed over to the register and set my yogurt on the scale. The girl behind the counter began to ring in the yogurt on her register as I went to grab my wallet out of my bag. "Was that all for you today?" She asked.