Past The Lens

Chapter 10

"Luke, where the fuck are we going?" I said as I trudged behind him, the sand getting into the crevices of my shoes. "We've been walking for ages, it's almost three am."

"Hey," he stopped and turned to me, holding his hand up. "Will you chill out? Your whining killing my mood."

"Yeah? Well your date is killing my sleep," I said to his back as he kept walking down the shoreline. "Jesus, where are we going?"

He told me to shut up as we walked for a little while longer; I shit you not, we walked for about thirty minutes down the shoreline until we got to a portion of the beach with no shops, no parking lots, no boardwalk, just pure sand and water.

"You made me walk for almost an hour to have milk and cookies on the beach?" I asked as we got to a plate of cookies, two jars of milk and about a million pillows scattered about a blanket.

"What can I say? I'm a simple man," he said taking sitting down on the blanket and grabbing a cookie.

"A simple man means dinner and a movie," I said taking a seat across from him on the blanket and taking a cookie for myself. "You, Luke Hemmings, are a hopeless romantic with a lip ring."

"Would that make you the realist then?" he asked grabbing a pillow and putting it behind his head before laying back.

"No, see, a straight realist wouldn't bother watching a film like Stuck In Love," I said also laying back so that our heads were on opposite sides of the blanket. "I like to think of myself as a wishful realist."

"Yeah? And explain to me what that is," he asked as he dunked a cookie in the milk.

"I," I said sitting back up so I could look at him during my explanation. "I accept the ideas of a realist, I understand the concept of just packing every attractive boy in with the others. But as much as I accept the ideas of a realist, I have a sliver of wishful thinking that God put us on this Earth to be with one person."

Luke smiled at me as he sat up and rested himself on his elbows; he looked straight into my eyes and said, "If you could steal any small animal from a zoo, what would it be?"

I almost choked on the piece of chocolate chip cookie I was eating as he looked so serious when he asked this question.

"I would steal a...seriously? After my deep explanation that's the question you want to ask?" I laughed as I lay back down and faced the cloudy night sky.

"Yes, believe it or not, this will also lead to an immensely profound explanation," he laughed back as he imitated my actions.

"I would steal a small fox maybe?" I said reaching for my jar of milk. "Now, let's hear the profound explanation for that stupid question."

"I lied, there isn't one, it's just good to know you'd be up to stealing a small animal from a zoo," he laughed. "Okay, let's play a game, for every bite of a cookie I eat, you have to ask a serious question, for every drink of milk I drink, a silly one, and vice versa."

"What's the point of this game? How do we declare a winner?" I asked.

"It's the 'getting to know' portion of the date," he simply shrugged and took a bite of a cookie. "And, first one to fall asleep loses or last one to finish their food."

"Alright, Lucas Robert Hemmings, have you always wanted to be a musician?" I asked taking a drink of milk.

"Yes, but there was a point where I wanted to be a footballer, but for the most part it was just music," he said. "Would you rather drop kick every kitten you see or cry every time you see a puppy?"