Circles | ✔️

Thirty three*

Flashback
- 6 years ago, Gramwood High-

Isobel P.O.V.

"Kade!" I huffed. "Where are you taking me?!"

He remained silent, continuing to guide me with one palm on my back, and the other holding onto my hand. My eyes were blindfolded by a bandana as my feet stumbled hopelessly across what sounded like a gravel road and then onto something that could be like squishy grass.

"Okay, open," he said excitedly, finally stopping at our destination.

After pestering me for literally every hour of every day I finally agreed to let him take me out to "chill" on Saturday night this weekend. It's not like I didn't want to go because we weren't going to have fun- trust me, we had a lot of that as of recently. It was just because I didn't trust him not to do something totally ridiculous and also because maybe this whole new evolution of our relationship was completely nuts.

I finally opened my eyes to see that he had a large picnic blanket laid out on the beach with a picnic basket, cushions and fluffy throw blankets. On the edges of the little area, were white twinkling fairy lights and lanterns laid out like a halo surrounding us. It was quite magical. And even more magical than that, was that you could see endless bright stars illuminating the vast sky above us, enveloping us in a fantasy world.

"Wow," I whispered in shock and awe. He did all this?! Looks like he has a heart after-all. "Kade, it's beautiful."

"I know I am." He smirked playfully before holding out a hand to me. "Shall we?"

"I said it's not is y'know," I retorted, taking his hand as I stepped out onto the sand. It reminded me of the time he took me out to the beach a few months ago, to cheer me up from thoughts of my dad's passing. It was nice.

"You say tomay-to, I say tomah-to." He shrugged off. Unbelievable, it's not the same whatsoever.

"Well, when I say potay-to I really mean potay-to."

"Now you're just confusing." He scrunched up his brow curiously.

What?! He started the whole tomato thing! Ugh, whatever. I feel like this is a battle I'm going to lose.

I took off my shoes to let my feet sink into the cool sand as I sat down gazing up at the gorgeous star lit sky.

"Ravioli?" he asked, uncapping a container full of steaming hot pasta from it's foiled thermal control bag.

"Huh..." I blinked at him in surprise. "Yes please." I nodded, taking it and a fork from his outstretched hand. He also uncapped a thermostat full of eggnog and poured some into a cup for me.

I took a sip of the creamy warm drink. "So christmassy." I joked.

"Well it is like next week," he stated matter-of-factly.

I redirected my attention to the food in my hand, feeling like I wasn't going to dignify him with a response to his very accurate and true response. Hmph. I brought one of the little pockets of pasta drenched in bolognese sauce to my mouth. A burst of savoury spinach and ricotta filling flooded my tastebuds as I took a bite. I perked up instantly. "Mmm! This is so yum!"

He chuckled at my current heavenly facial expression as I downed the pasta. "Well I'm glad you like it. Try mine."

I grabbed his dish eagerly to see he had some mushroom and chicken gnocchi in a cream sauce.

"Mmm, this is so good too," I said through mouthfuls of the potato pasta nuggets.

"Thanks, I made it."