Where to Find Me | Tyrus

Part 15

Four Months Later

Cyrus' POV

"Put the table over there, boys," Mrs. Kippen directs.

We carry it to the space between two trees, across the grass from where the screen and projector are being set up. Tonight's movie is The Lion King, and TJ and I are going to be serving popcorn as we always do.

"TK, can you unfold the legs?" I ask her.

She nods. TJ and I hold the plastic table on it's side while TK uses the force of her whole body to flip each table leg outward. She gives me a grin when she's finished.

"Done!" she says.

"Thank you, TK," I respond.

TJ and I stand the table up on the grass as TK runs off to help her mother by unloading bags of popcorn kernels from the car.

"She really likes you," TJ says with a smile.

"I'm glad," I say. "I really like her too."

"Cyrus, dear," Mrs. Kippen says, carrying bags of kernels alongside TK, "will you go grab the paper bags from the car?"

"Yeah, sure."

I return with a huge stack of empty paper bags, which get filled up with popcorn quickly once we've finished setting up and the audience begins arriving. TJ and I rush to serve each guest, only stopping when we see two we know.

"Amber, Andi!" I say as they appear at the front of the line. "You guys came."

"Yeah. Sorry we're late," Andi says. "I know we said we'd help set up, but Amber's parents wanted to take a million photos of us in our dresses."

They were both wearing floral sundresses under jean jackets, which I believe they picked out for each other.

Amber, who had her arm locked through Andi's at the elbow, defended her parents, saying, "We do look adorable."

Andi giggles at the memory. "And her dad still stares at me with his arms crossed when I wait for her the way my dad did when Jonah and I were dating." she tells us.

Amber groans. "My dad's so embarrassing."

TJ chuckles as he says, "Well, don't worry about being late. We handled everything."

"Thanks," Amber says, taking the bag of popcorn I hand to her. "We'll talk to you guys later."

Andi waves as her and Amber go off to find a place on the grass.

Once TJ and I finish helping the rest of the crowd, we sit up on the table so that we can see above everyone's heads. They're all spread out on the grass on the other side of the open field from us. We're decently far from the screen, but we can still see and hear the movie as it starts.

"I used to watch this all the time as a kid," TJ says.

Although the air feels cool against my cheeks, his arm feels warm around me. His hair blows around a little, even with the insane amount of product he uses. He looks especially good in this dim night lighting, and it makes me heart skip a beat when he smiles at me. Four months later, and he still makes me feel like I'm walking on air around him.

"Me too," I say. "I still know all of the words to the songs."

"Really? Then you need to sing along when they come on."

I take the challenge, and when "Circle of Life" sounds, we quietly croon the lyrics along with the film. It turns out he knows the words even better than I do, and when "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" comes on, I call him out on that.

"Well, it's only because my sister memorized every song from every Disney movie there is," he responds.

I laugh. "When did we become those annoying kids singing Moana songs four months ago?"

"We're not singing Moana," he points out. "This is The Lion King. Completely different."

We laugh together, and continue to hum the melodies for every song that follows. When "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" begins ringing out, I notice Amber and Andi sharing a kiss in the distance. They look so happy together, and I suddenly feel incredibly lucky to be here with in with this boy's arm around me.

I look up at him. "I actually had a dream once where we were dancing to this song."

TJ raises his eyebrows with a grin, then pulls me off the table by my hand, and leads me out into the open field, away from the crowd watching the film, but still close enough to hear the song. The first chorus of the song begins as TJ takes one of my hands and holds it up in his, putting his other on my waist, and I put mine on his shoulder. We start moving to the music, swaying back and forth with the melody. He has a wide smile on his face, which causes me to laugh a little, but he keeps his eyes on me.

"In your dream," he says, "what happened next?"

"Well, we did this one move where we spread apart and then come back together."

He steps  away, catching my hands with his, then pulls me back to him even closer than before. I feel his warm embrace encompass me as I put my arms around his neck and rest my head on his shoulder.

"Then what happened?" he whispers.

"Then . . . I told you I love you." I lift my head up to look at him. "Only, I can't remember what you said after that."

He smiles. "I bet I said . . . I love you too."

Then he kisses me, and the music fades out existence, and the people around us disappear, leaving just me and him—and this feeling.