Somewhere in Neverland ➳ Connor McDonough/ Before You Exit Fanfic

Seven

Julia's POV

        My surroundings weren't completely clear but I was able to make out, what looked like, an old cave.

I decided that it was pretty much the best place to hide. And according to how long I've been walking it was also pretty far from the tree house.

I stepped towards the cave and immediately squealed when my foot came in contact with something liquid.

Then I recognized where I was.

When Connor and I were fooling around by the water yesterday I noticed the cave but I didn't really think much about it.

Even if I wasn't able to see much, I was able to notice a trail of rocks leading up to the cave.

I hopped from stone to stone and tried to muffle my shriek with my hand as I nearly fell off of the slippery rock that I was standing on.

"Julia? I can sense your presence. You're really near", I heard Connor say. The voice was still distant but Connor takes huge footsteps so he'll probably be here in 15 seconds.

I quickly hopped onto the rest of the rocks until I finally arrived at the entrance of the cave. It was dark and gloomy just like caves should be like but something at the end of it seemed to be glittering. Even with the blindfold on I could see the light sparkle of something that was on the cave floor.

I approached it slowly and when I was right above it I lifted my blindfold, just enough for my left eye to peek out and see what it was.

The thing that lay on the floor was a huge, shiny, gold coin that was probably bigger than my eye.

I picked it up and examined it carefully and as expected it was heavier than your usual penny back home.

"You took your blindfold off. That's considered cheating". 

Connor was suddenly hanging upside-down and I let out a scream that shook the cave and made some of the walls vibrate. His blindfold was also gone and his blue eyes seemed to glow in the dark as he stared into my eyes with great disappointment, like that look your parents give you when you fail a really important test (based on my own experience).

"And you also ruined tomorrow's activity".

"And what is that, exactly?", I asked, as he finally stood up normally and snatched the gold coin away from me.

"I was supposed to take you treasure hunting, but you already found it and this is the best hiding place there is here".

"Well.. um... sorry.. I just couldn't find anywhere else to hide", I said but his arms remained folded.

"C'mon Connor. Do you forgive me?".

"Hmmm... let me think", he said stroking his chin as I started poking his sides and he started jerking to the side.

"Don't do that. I'm ticklish".

My eyes brightened and an evil grin spread across my face as I started poking him even more until he was laughing so loud he was practically screaming.

"Stop it. Fine.. fine.. I forgive you", he finally said and I hugged him.

"Yay!", I muffled into his shoulder and it was like he was frozen.

"Connor? Are you okay?"

"What are you doing?", he asked and I looked at him like he was crazy but I kept my arms on his shoulders.

"I'm hugging you".

"Hu-gging?", he said, questioningly.

"You don't know what a hug is?!". he shook his head.

"Well, a hug is when two people, if not more, put their arms around each other as a sign of friendship, happiness, sadness, excitement, comfort... love", I explained and he looked even more confused.

"What's love?"

"Oh my gosh, Connor! How can you not know what love is?", I asked and he just looked at me with those big blue eyes, begging me to explain so I did but it turned out to be harder than I thought.

"Love is... uh... love is the best feeling in the whole entire world. When you're in love it feels like you're floating and you'd do anything for the person you love", I said feeling a bit weird that I had said all that considering that I wasn't really the mushy type.

Suddenly, he took both of my hands off of his shoulder and just held them.

"Do you love anyone?", he asked and I was slightly alarmed by his question.

"Well, I love my family and of course I also love the McDonoughs but other than that no. I'm not in love with anyone", I replied and he seemed to flinch a little when I said McDonough.

We stayed like that for a while, our hands still intertwined and the same question that he had asked me was itching to get out of my mouth.

"Have you ever loved anyone?", I asked, not really expecting a reply but I just really wanted to ask him that.

He looked at me once more and let go of my other hand.

"Let's go back to the treehouse. I'm tired".