Restart ✔️

06 | Mi Casa Es Tu Casa

When James pulls up in our driveway in a very nice black Mustang, Sandy throws the door open and runs out to him. Huh that's funny...I didn't know she had a date with him too.

Sandy stops herself before she jumps on James and makes him fall over. Instead of hurling herself at him, she stops to give him one of those bear hugs she's famous for. James looks like he can't breathe, but he hugs her back anyways. He looks up at me and smiles. I smile back and wave.

When Sandy detaches herself from him, he says something to her and starts up the walkway towards me.

"Hey, Clover."

"Hey," I respond with a sweet tinge in my voice.

"You ready?"

"Yeah." He takes my hand, and I yell over my shoulder, "Bye!" to Sandy who's standing in the doorway with what looks like tears streaming down her cheeks.

"So," James asks when he starts the car, "Where do you want to go?"

I look at him, befuddled, "I thought we were going to the game?"

"We were...but soccer isn't really my thing and football hasn't started."

"Oh. Ok." James turns to look at me. He smiles.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who's rusty on the concept of high school."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I look at him and pretend to be offended as he pulls out of the driveway.

"Come on, any regular high schooler would know that the football season doesn't start until like late next month."

"And you're obviously not the regular high schooler being the captain of the basketball team...mhm...sure."

"Hey! I WAS the captain. Now I'm just a small town guy. And by the way, they didn't have sports at my last school, so I'm not too caught up on sports at all...BUT I did know that there wasn't a game tonight. I just wanted to see if you knew..."

"Yeah, sure. So you wanted to see if I was a regular person? Did you get your answer?"
I look at him expectantly, holding back a laugh.

"I did," he moves his eyes towards me for just a slight second then he looks back at the road, "You're not a regular high schooler."

"Then what am I?"

"You're special." I blush and lean on his shoulder like we've known each other forever.

"So where are we going exactly?"

"You'll see."

After ten minutes of listening to the crappy rap music they play on the radio nowadays, James pulls up on a cliff. He goes trunk first, so of course, I'm over here freaking out. He stops only a foot away from the edge of the cliff and shuts the engine off. I reach out to slap him, but he catches my hand.

"Relax," he says in a soothing tone, "You know I would never try to hurt you." He turns the radio to a better station. One with actually good music. He unlocks the car and grabs a picnic basket that I completely missed. Guess I was too distracted by something else...or someone. The car tilts towards him when he steps on the side and lifts himself onto the roof of the car.

"No offense, but won't the car roof, like, bend under your weight?" I ask him. He doesn't say anything, just holds out his hand to help me up. I take it, and soon enough, we're eating his, apparently famous, PB&Js and listening to slow pop music. He puts his arm around me and tells me the story of how he discovered this "sacred ground".

"It was when I first started to realize how much life had to offer other than this stupid little town. So I ran away," he looks at the view of our quiet little town. "I didn't get very far, of course," the corners of his mouth twitch up into a smile. "I only went three hours alone.  I got tired and wanted food. And I didn't have any money. A failed runaway plan from the start, I know. But during my time of self discovery, I found this place. I could see everything. And I mean everything. The teens smoking pot in the shadows, the women getting into cars that didn't belong to their husbands, everything. Everyone in this town didn't seem to care about anything real in the world. Not the wars, the mistreatment, the tons people starving on an every day basis," he looks at me, "I know it seems stupid—"