Red lights on the highway

Chapter 13: goodbye childhood

(A.N. Two quick things, 1. I decided against a Christmas chapter, not really in the mood for that 2.you'll understand why it's called goodbye childhood at the end so bare with me)

6 months later- June

Lauren's pov

It was 8:30 when I woke up, sun shinning through my blinds directly on my eyes was uncomfortable at best. There was a weight on my shoulder it was heavy and solid, not like when Lisa's cat comes in to my room, looking down I see the top of a red head fast asleep arm draped over my stomach. I don't remember getting to bed, last thing i remember is lying on the couch watching movies, her sweet perfume engulfing my senses.

Reaching up I open my window listening to the morning noises, birds, light traffic, wind, all the good morning sounds. Shortly after that Nat rolled off me laying on her back, the absent of weight of her head begging for her touch again, I rolled over to lay on her chest, giving her a light kiss on the cheek, closing my eyes once I laid my head down. Must if dozed off because I was woken by feather light kisses on my cheeks and forehead, once she realized I was a wake I received a gentle kiss on my lips.

"Good morning beautiful" I grumbled, loving how I woke up but mad at myself for falling back asleep, she kissed me a little deeper the next time before pulling away.

Common get up I wanna take you somewhere special. Her eyes looking sweetly at me, even if they looked like a war going on inside. I nodded getting up to shower not locking the door, we've developed a system; first I shower while she brushes her teeth and picking out her clothes, then when I get out she showers while I dry off get dressed, by then she's normally done and while I brush my teeth she gets dressed and we dry our hair and put any make up if any on, she tends to finish 10 minutes before me but it's better then her waiting an hour, oh and of course we "sneak" kisses in every once in a while.

Now that we're dressed we head down stairs slipping on our shoes, "Nat do you want me to drive?" She hesitates but shakes her head no.

I've gotta drive again someday might as well get It over with now, I mean it's been 4 months since I woke up and almost a year since the crash. (9 months) she grabs her keys slowly and we head out grabbing coffee and to wherever she's taking us. I make sure to remind her I can drive if she's nervous, when we get to lights to she can talk.

Her hands were gripping the wheel tightly, I could sense the nerves coursing through her veins. I rested a hand on her thigh in an attempt to comfort her, at first it seemed to help but it didn't last long. "Nat it's ok how much further?"

As we rolled to a stop she closes her eyes to pause and think about the mileage left and time relating to it, about 15 more minutes. A light squeeze on my hand before we continued driving, after 10 minutes she pulled over handing me a blind fold. Can you put this on I want it to be a surprise? She smiled through her nervousness, though a little uneasy myself but complied nonetheless.

Driving felt like eternity with a blindfold on, time judgement isn't my best skill, my only way of judging where we were was by the force of being push back or forward and left or right; A light, left turn, brief pause, uphill and then a windy down hill, hard left, steep downward with a soft left another hard right and we rolled to a stop. I felt the car rock fallowed by the door being closed, suddenly I felt like I was falling by the absent of my door but immediately felt safe with her warm arms wrapped around me.

A light tug on my hand motioning me to stand, both hands holding her left arm as she carried something else in her right leading me down a path. The sound of gravel under my feet crunching with each step didnt last long, it was replaced by what I can only assume to be asphalt, I could feel a little heat of the ground as it muffled our steps, that also was short lived, another patch of gravel then something much softer, a little damp but the blades touched my heal and I knew we are walking on well kept green grass and I'm assuming it's freshly cut.

The rest of our walk was grass down a small hill, another hollow hard surface, back to grass then I'm unsure what surface it was, it didn't make any noise as we walked but it wasn't soft like grass, that was much shorter then the gravel we walked on earlier, then more gravel I think and maybe sand?

"Natasha where on earth are we?"

A very uneasy walk and the sound of rushing water engulfed me and I wasn't so annoyed anymore. When we stopped walking 'W.A.I.T.' Was spelled onto my hand, so I did taking in the sound of water.

After a moment or two I felt a body push against me, fallowed by a light kiss on my lips and the blindfold being taken off.

I opened my eyes to see Natasha nervously looking at me, this is my grandmas house, well the river by her house. We used to come up here all the time in the summer, I have so many memories swimming in this river climbing on that rock and jumping off that one down there, it's one of my favorite places to be. She's selling it but I wanted to take you here before it was gone, I wanted to show you my childhood.

She finished with tears in her eyes, hurt that her childhood was being ripped away from her, like so many times before. "Thank you for bringing me here Nat, I love it and I'm sorry she's selling it"

She shrugged not much she could do about it, sitting down I see she brought a picnic and that we were under a tree or a viney bush of some sort.

The area was gorgeous, river rock everywhere, trees making the little river secluded even though a busy road was on the other side, a shelf on the far side of the river making it something to sit on, though the water was neon green it still looked like an amazing place to be in the summer. After scanning the area I noticed Natasha was also scanning it tears in her eyes but smiling, it's hard to lose something you've known your whole life, I'm just happy she showed me.

"Thank you again for showing me this Nat" I smiled kissing her cheek lightly, sitting down beside her she handed me a water and a snack from what she had packed.

After we ate, she told me stories of what her and her siblings used to do here, along with her cousins. After a few hours we headed back to the house and sat on the back half of the yard, as she continued telling me stories of the stupid things they used to do, riding in a wagon on the slope to see who could go the farthest, and how she almost broke a leg riding a tricycle down the bigger hill. When we got to the yard closer to the house there was less stupid idea being told but all the parties they had here. Unfortunately there was a renter so we couldn't go in the house but I was happy she showed me nonetheless.

It was getting late when we left sun had already set, I drove us home, When we pulled up Nat was already asleep. "Baby common wake up let's go lay in bed." She grumbled but got up anyway, after getting her into comfy clothes she laid now already knocked out. I cuddled up to her whispering "good night love, I love you" letting the even breathing of my sleepy baby lull me to sleep.

Word count: 1360

While the image above isn't the exact spot I grew up it's not far from it, I wish I would have taken a picture of it but I never thought to. This was very nostalgic for me, my grandma called right before I started writing this, and told me she sold the house I spent my summers at as a kid. It hurt I never thought she'd sell the house but it was time, so this was my way of letting go and reliving memories as I wrote it. Yes I really did almost break a leg riding down a hill on a tryc but in my defense it was a really steep hill and I hit a rock...

Anyways thank you for going down memory lane with me, as I join the rest of you in quarantine, day 1 of 14

~thanks for reading R.J.~