The Playlist

This is Gospel

The sound of the alarm clock struck my head like that brick it so often released. On that day, I woke up to the smell of dust and old books. It was rather cosy, like an artisan cottage.

I didn't know what to expect when I looked at myself fully clothed still, it was becoming a rather bad habit. I sat up and the dizzy fireflies flew into vision. I got dressed into a newish pair of skinny jeans and a baggy white t-shirt with a chequered jacket. Then through my Totoro backpack on. I looked at myself in the mirror and took a Poké ball plug from the little box of spikes and plugs I had. I noticed the little shiny pendant from all those years ago, lying at the bottom. I had sworn I threw it away. Either way, I wore it, as a reminder I wasn't crazy.

I slumped downstairs to the smell of cheese on toast, yum. As usual, we stuffed the food into our mouths and then were off to another unknown destination. Sometimes I wondered if Blake had been a previous CIA agent, off to a different destination every day and then to a hidden house. I guess not.

"Today, I think we should put yesterday behind us and go to a nice place."

When he said this, it sounded rather mild. But it wasn't.

I didn't realise he could drive until we got in and he gave me that devilish but still adorable smile. Sure enough, I soon recognised where we were going as we approached the unaffordable parking spaces that seemed to all be taken, apart from a tiny strip of grey that threatened to force us into a shining new Portia. We avoided collisions, by the way.

With a squeak that threatened to rip out my eardrums, he wrenched open the boot and drew out a rather nice picnic blanket and a hamper. He smiled and held out an arm to me so I shrugged and took it, as if we were off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz.

I felt rather like Hazel Grace, if I'm very honest. That isn't just because the film had come out or I read a lot. No, it was because she went off with a stranger out of him just being nosy yet remarkably attractive. Sort of a horribly similar coincidence that we were having a picnic. It made me sick, thinking I was acting in a way that was so fictional. That's ironic.

Looked over to him, slightly, as he guided me to the location we were heading to. From the jet black lip ring to the matching spikes and sun ray eyes, he was so beautiful. That's odd, isn't it, that beautiful can be a word to describe boys too. I laughed at my naive sexism. He turned to me and smiled. I was almost hoping it would be a real date, but may I remind you I'd never been in a relationship so it was probably just jealousy hormones speaking. We were just friends. Insignificant people searching for comfort in the big bad world.

I started playing with my earrings as the warmth of his body grabbed hold of mine. He was so fragile yet his strength of mind amused me almost.

If you guessed correctly, yes, it was the same park we had met in. The leaves still glowed with the orange passion of a sunflower.

We set up the blankets and he put down the hamper, we'd just had breakfast so of course we could just lie and chat about things. Shoulder to shoulder, we stared up at the ever darkening sky. It was as if the sky was as tense as I was. I put my phone onto the playlist; it instantly started playing "This is Gospel" by Panic! At The Disco.

It started out with joking till we had nothing else to say, nothing else to argue about. Nothing we didn't really know about each other. It was as if we were desperately scrambling through a forest of secrets and loves and wishes. Desperately trying to pick up the pieces that matched are own and see if they made up the little pieces of this everlasting puzzle. Question after question, answer after answer. He felt so distant, yet so familiar. Maybe it was just the information I had acquired.