Accidentally on Purpose

Chapter Eighteen

It was a nice day out; the sun was still shining brightly, but not too hot, the breeze whizzing past me softly and making my hair sway lightly. Grace was cuddled snugly into my arm, while my other arm was carrying her carrier, and my backpack secured on my back. The school yard was still filled with a bunch of students, but it was no longer too crowded as it was almost four o'clock already.

Jonah told me to let Grace loose when I knew it was time. But how would I know when it was?

I cooed to Grace as she snuggled deeper into my arm. "Where should I let you loose, huh, love?"

She meowed in response, and I smiled back at her. God, she was so cute.

From the school entrance, there was this certain stone path that went along to the back side of the school building. Because I didn't know where else to go, I just followed the path, looking for something that could be the sign to drop Grace off.

Then suddenly, I saw a suspicious looking paper coffee cup sitting on the grass next to the stone path. I said suspicious because it just sat there without any reason, and also because it had the name of my family diner on it.

It was a paper cup from the diner.

I immediately crouched down, putting the carrier down on the ground and inspected the cup. Slipped under the cup, there was a small paper, the same kind of paper that I found on Grace. So I took it out without lifting the cup, and read what was written.

Don't let her out of your sight.

(You can leave your stuff here.)

So I carefully dropped my backpack next to the carrier while still holding Grace. Before I let her down onto the ground, I took the cup. It was still warm.

"Careful, Grace," I said. "Don't run too fast."

When she began sniffing and meowing at something, I realized that there, right beside the stone path, were pieces of dry cat food, spread into a long line that formed its own path. Grace munched on the piece of dry food, and once she finished swallowing, she lightly ran to the next piece of food about a man's step far, and it kept going on like that.

While following her, I took a sip of the drink and smile. Green tea latte; the first drink Jonah had ever made me. It was warm outside, but I drank the latte anyway.

Then Grace began to steer away from the stone path. I curiously followed, still sipping into my drink. Slowly, I began to recognize the surrounding—Grace and I were on our way to the little garden in the back of the school building. The last time I went here was last school year, for some biology assignment. I remembered that the garden was pretty; it had a bunch of different flowers and plants ranging from the small ones to human-sized.

The gate to the garden was closed, but not locked, so I pushed it open and let Grace lead me the way. The cat food was still spread, far into the garden. Finally, she stopped under the small water fountain in the middle of the garden, and I noticed that there was a bowl of cat food there where Grace was happily eating from.

My heartbeat began to speed up as I realized that this was the destination. This was it, and it was obvious now. It felt like a scene from a cheesy movie, but I couldn't help but feel the warmth that began to spread onto my cheeks. I hid the smile that I couldn't hold back by taking a long sip of my latte, before sighing.

I was here. So now what?

I glanced at Grace, still calmly eating, so I figured that it was alright if I left her to look around the garden.

I checked each one of the flowers to my sides, finding nothing on them, no more notes with Jonah's handwriting. I went over to the collections of daisies, hoping to find something there, but then I realized that he didn't even know that those were my favorite kind of flower, so he wouldn't put something (cough, a ring, cough) over here.