Falling Into Whatever This Is

April

When April rolled around, the competition directors finally decided that it was about time to let us know the results of the competition. Mrs. Wood had gotten an email from Eileen-unknown-last-name that said that we, in fact, did not come in first place, but in fifth place, which was pretty good considering that the last two minutes were complete improvisation.

We didn't earn anything from getting fifth place, competitively, but the school did earn 100 dollars, for what, I don't know.

I was pretty upset that competition was over so we didn't have any excuse to hang out together. Until one day...

***

"Hey, Ellbud," Levi bumped my shoulder with his. He seemed really excited about something.

"Hello, Levi." It was a rainy day and a school day.

We still hadn't talked about our kiss so I was confused. I didn't want to be the one to bring it up. I was content in the stage that we were in. At least we both knew that we liked each other.

"So what's up with you? You seem really excited." I ask him. The hallways in our school were lined with windows and I really loved it. It helped wake us up. Now I love them because the morning light allowed me to have a better understanding of Levi. The light shown through his light brown eyes and made them gold.

He smiled at me. Eyes squinting and teeth showing. "I'm just happy to be talking to you."

WHAT DO YOU EVEN SAY TO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?! Yeah, I obviously didn't know.

I just stared at him and he stared back at me. I seemed like staring was our "thing" now.

"You're alright, Ellie."

"Ditto, Levi."

We walked silently for a few moments down the hallway.

"Ellbud, what do you say to walking home with me from school today?" Levi asked me confidently.

"I'd love to."

"Great, I have something special in store," he winked at me and walked away, towards his classroom.

He left me all too excited and curious for this afternoon.

***

The rest of my classes went by in a daze and I think I was mostly daydreaming. Yes, about Levi.

"ELEANOR!" I heard Addy's voice down the hallway.

"Why have you not informed me about you 'walking home' with Levi tonight?!" She asked, shaking me.

"I know I should have! I'm sorry! I've been daydreaming," I told her.

"Well it's dismissal so you'd best be off," she winked at me and walked the other way.

I was happy that I didn't need to be nervous for my...what was it even called?. My whatever with Levi. He was just easy.

***

"Hello, Miss Eleanor." Levi greeted me with a smile and kiss on the hand.

"Oh thank you, sir," I said giggling. The air had cleared up from the rain earlier today and was the perfect spring day.

"C'mon, this way." Levi took my hand and guided me to the left.

"Where are we going?" was the question I had been eager to ask.

"Well, I'm glad you asked. There's one place I like to call my 'happy place', but not the 'find your happy place' happy place. The place where I feel the most infinite. For me, it's a little grotto behind my house. We have a little stone bench and a hammock in a clearing in between a few trees." He paused and picked up our pace a little bit.

"I love it there. It's my favorite place in the entire world." When he stopped talking, I stepped out of my daydream I didn't realize I had fallen into. I was picturing his grotto.

I looked around the street. No one from school would be around here.

I laid my head on his shoulder then picked it back up to look at him.

"My favorite place in the entire world is the city. At night, not in the day. One time, when I was little, my mom took me to the top of Mount Washington and had me look over the edge. The lights of all of the buildings make me feel infinite.

All the people in all of those buildings. They live the same way we do. Isn't that amazing? Humans are so dependent on one another, it just makes me feel so much better about our society. We matter."

I stopped talking because suddenly Levi was very close. His forehead touched mine and I was taken back to this moment before, in the woods.

The light sweat on him transferred to me, but only our foreheads were the things that touched. I didn't care, the moment was perfect in it of itself.

"C'mon, Levi. I wanna talk in the grotto."

***

We walked the rest of the way to Levi's house, but took the back way so we could cut straight to the grotto.

It was much more extravagant than I expected it to be. There was a semi circle of trees in Levi's backyard and a patch was cut out. When you walk through you end up in a circle of dirt and there is a fairly large woven hammock attached to two trees near the side of the grotto. In the middle is a small stone bench built for two. A small fence was woven with lights and afternoon light peeked through the trees.

There was no denying how bad I wanted to kiss him, but I did exhibit some self control.

"Levi...it's amazing. Did you build all of this?" I asked as he sat down on the hammock and motioned for me to join him.

He rested me head on his shoulder and held my back.

"Yeah. My neighbor over there and I used scissors to cut out all of the plants from here," He looked at me.

"Scissors? Like little scissors?"

"Yep...we must have been six."

"Quite an ambitious six year old."

There was a pause in the conversation.

I looked up slightly and slowly our mouths came together. He smelled like Levi. Laundry detergent. Nothing fake.

Our kiss was a bit more intense this time. I felt his tongue in my mouth and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

We broke apart slowly and he grabbed my cheek, his eyes searching my face.

"What?" I asked.

"I just wanted to make sure you're real." he told me and pulled me into him.