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Chapter Ten

"So where are we actually going?" Hazel asked him. She began rolling the window down, hoping to catch a breeze.

Theo just laughed, putting his hand on the back of her headrest to back out of the driveway. "I'm not saying a word about where we're going. That's for me to know and you to find out."

Hazel poked her tongue out at him. Propping her arms on the top of the door, she leant her chin on top of them and tilted her head, watching the streetlamps pass by in a blur of orange light.

She was shocked when, for the first time in weeks, a puff of cool air brushed the top of her head, ruffling her hair.

~

Theo drove them all the way to Helensvale train station. They talked the whole way there and even though Hazel's stomach felt like the recently-acquired home of a few dozen butterflies, she found herself saying whatever came to her mind, which made Theo laugh more than once. Theo had a great laugh. It reminded Hazel of a guitar riff in a low key – deep and vibrating.

When he parked, Hazel frowned. "Are we getting on a train?"

Theo checked his watch. "Yes, in about... ten minutes. Come on." Without another word, he got out of the car. Hazel had just pushed hers open when he was there, holding it open for her.

Hazel briefly wondered if he was trying to make a good impression by acting this way, but quickly banished the thought, remembering how he did things like this for his grandfather as well. Theo was courteous all the time. It was an ingrained part of his character.

They got on a Brisbane train, which thoroughly intrigued Hazel. After miraculously finding two seats together, they sat down. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Brisbane, huh?"

Theo just smiled mysteriously and offered her an earbud. She accepted it with a smile. They spent the next thirty minutes fighting over the music selection. Hazel managed to get Theo to listen to 'Take Me Home, Country Roads', despite him thinking it was a corny song. After they listened to it that first time, she noticed that it kept edging its way back in to their earbuds, until it became almost routine to listen to John Denver after every second song.

The train stopped at South Bank and Theo pressed pause. "Come on, we're getting off."

They left the train and the station, then began walking. Hazel followed Theo. She kept her hands buried inside the pockets of her jacket, watching her Vans clump along the concrete and feeling her watch stick to the skin on her wrist, like it always did in summer.

"Almost there," Theo said. It was the first thing either of them had said in almost ten minutes, but it didn't feel awkward. Hazel didn't have a word for it. It was almost like they'd gotten over the bit where they felt the need to fill the silences as much as possible. The silence felt like going to sleep at the end of a long day.

Her hands began to get sweaty inside her pockets. She brought them out and smoothed them over her jeans casually. Theo reached out and caught her hand in his, which made her feel like a kid standing next to a giant, but in a good way. She didn't know how to explain it. Almost without her noticing, her butterflies had disappeared and it was just her and Theo, going – somewhere.

"Can you tell me where we're going now?" she asked.

Theo pointed ahead. "We're going to that."

She looked up and her eyes were immediately confused by all the lights and noise.

"Where are we?" she shouted to Theo, as they walked closer to the source. She could see a demountable about the size of her bedroom ahead of them. A fence covered in black tarps circled the stage and the massive crowd, guarded out the front by two bouncers in black T-shirts and jeans.