The Love of a Stranger

Young At Heart

After spending the rest of the day cleaning the rest of the house and packing most of our stuff for Australia we decided to have some rest. Dan walked over the couch, placed his feet upon the coffee table and turned on the Tv and started skimming through channels until he was satisfied with what was on which was some action film. I remained standing in the hallway deciding what to do with myself now that there was no more cleaning, no more planning and no more packing to be done. I went to the bedroom and sat upon the window ledge and watched the sun set in the clear orange sky. It looked peacefully quiet considering how London is always buzzing this late. It was too good to miss. I walked back through to the livingroom where Dan was still sitting watching TV with his head resting on his hand and his eyes threatening to close.

"Can we go a walk?" I said startling him.

"What? Why? Where?" He asked at a million miles per hour.

"Walk, bored, park." I replied simply, answering his questions. He sighed deeply considering my request. He looked out the window and searched both ways.

"God, it's quiet. Too quiet."

"That's why I wanted to go out, it's a nice night, I'm bored and it's quiet and peaceful." I smiled clasping my hands together.

"Oh alright then, how can I resist that smile?" He smirked also adding in a wink at the end. My heart fluttered and my cheeks burned up. He noticed and chuckled to himself.

God, shouldn't I be used to this already?

"You don't." I shyly mumbled turning my back to him hiding my blushing face and also getting my shoes. He had done the same and we met at the front door where he placed his arm around my shoulder and we left together. We walked out into the warm night and headed to the park walking at the same pace. It was silent but it wasn't an awkward silence, it was comfortable.

The swing park was in sight and was completely empty, the swings creaked as the wind gently blew it and the little merry-go-round swayed back and forth. My inner child was bursting for joy, who doesn't love a swing park? I noticed how there was only one functional swing and I wanted to go first, so I jumped out from underneath Dan's arm and ran as fast as could to reserve my seat on the swing.

"Me first! Me first!" I shouted like a child and started swinging throwing my legs forwards and backwards trying to gain speed and height.

"Aw is baby Laura having fun on the swing?" He asked putting on a child-like voice. He walked round to the back of my swing and when every time I approached him he would push my back making me go higher and higher, so much that I nearly fell off the swing when I reached the top.

"Dan! I'm going too high!" I screamed.

"Just like your voice" He mimicked, laughing after.

"Oh shut up and just get me off this thing!" He slowed me down eventually until I was scuffing my feet off the ground. Dan walked round the front and held his arms out wide.

"Jump, I'll catch you." He said preparing himself. Is he joking?

"No way I'll squish you!"

He scoffed.

"Nonsense, you're as light as a feather, now jump!"

I timed my jump perfectly as my body flew through the air and landing just in time for Dan to catch me...or attempted to. The force was too much as my body crashed into Dan's which made us both fall, landing on the grass with me lying on top of him. We were both weak with laughter.

"Are you alright? I told you I was going to squish you!" I said still laughing.

"No, you didn't squish me! I just lost my balance." Then he gave me that convincing smile which led me to believe his excuse.

When we composed ourselves I rolled over his side with my head resting on his shoulder. Each star in the sky twinkled back at us as we both relaxed in the warm summers night.

"There's no other place I would want to be right now." He whispered. I lifted myself up so that I was leaning on my elbow staring down at him.

"I love you." I whispered back, kissing his cheek. I lay myself back down and snuggled into him with my head resting in the crook of his neck.

"I love you too."

We lay there on the grass star-gazing for a couple minutes when we heard drunken voices coming from the entrance of the park. I sat up and watched them stumble in, obviously drunk. It was just a group of friends that had been out for a couple of pints, infact maybe more than a couple. They saw us sitting together and wolf whistled coming closer and closer to us each holding a can of some cheap beer. I motioned to Dan that we should probably start heading before anything serious happens, he agreed and we walked away from the group of boys. Just before we got to the exit of the park I heard one of the boys shout;

"Oi mate! Your bitch is well fit! Where you going?" He said with a heavy south London accent, his friends laughed along with him like he was a comedian. Charming. Dan stopped in his tracks and turned round to face them with irratation written all over his face. I tugged on his hand wanting him to just ignore them and walk away no matter how annoying they got.

"What did you say?" Dan shouted back sounding threatening.

"I said, your bitch is well fit. Bring her over!"

"Dan..." I murmered placing my hand on his chest holding him back from trudging over and starting a fight. I'll deal with this. I turned round facing the group of boys away from Dan's confused face.

"Like fuck am I going to walk over to your drunken ugly ass, that's the last place I'd want to be, so why don't you just fuck off and leave us alone." I shouted, with each word getting louder and louder as I went on. As soon as I finished I didn't wait for a reaction I just turned round, grabbed Dan's hand and dragged him away with me. I took one last glance at them before I noticed that they were soon following us. I calmly turned round, head close to Dan's, and I whispered;

"They're following us - I suggest that as soon as we turn round that corner we run."

As we did so, we sprinted as fast as we could making sure that we could keep up with each other. With the group of boys noticing us running away they did the same, but very drunkly. I flung my hands up in the air enjoying the adrenaline pumping through my veins. Fortunately for us our flat was just around the corner and we arrived at our door within a matter of minutes. My lungs had given on themselves and it wasn't helping that I was doubling over with laughter as Dan was struggling to slot the key in through the lock in the same conditions. We opened the door and stumbled in drunk with laughter. We slammed the door shut and sat down behind it gaining our breath back, well for Dan, but for me, my face was turning blue, my chest uncomfortably tightening and my lungs gasping for air. Before I knew it darkness surrounded me, the last thing I heard was Dan's voice calling my name.