"Simon, where are we going?"
I smile. Bram's usually the one who does the surprising; finally, it's my turn.
"Currently to my car," I tell him. "Sorry for any disappointment."
"You know what I meant," he says, squeezing my hand. I spin on my heels to face him and link my other hand in his.
"Mr Full-of-surprises, I thought it was time I did something shocking for a change. So we're going on a little adventure."
Bram squeezes both my hands, and my eyes flicker down to where they're entwined. It's pretty close to another area too, but I lead myself away.
"In school time? Simon's becoming rebellious," Bram teases. I choose to ignore the joke.
"It's going to be awesome, I promise."
"Jacques a dit, therefore it must be. Right?" He winks at me and I melt a little inside. Just that small reference is enough to send me back to the excited nervousness of our first few emails to each other. He's so adorable.
I kiss Bram on the cheek. "Right."
"Put whatever you like on," I say, chucking Bram my iPod.
"Hard decision," he replies, flicking through the list.
Of course he picks an Elliott Smith song. Of course. Because it's Bram, and he's perfect. I melt a little more as I think about the T-shirt.
"I even brought Oreos for the journey," I add, pointing to the shopping bag near Bram's feet.
"With milk?"
"Do I look like I'd forget?" I say, raising an eyebrow. He chuckles, taking out the two pots of Oreos and the cartons of milk.
"If you spill any milk in my car, however, I'm afraid that Oreo dates can no longer exist."
"So that's what this is?" Bram asks, opening one of the pots.
"Could be." I smirk, and ignore all the questions that follow. It's nice to confuse Bram for once.
We drive for a while, Bram eating whilst I focus on the road. He playfully strokes my arm a couple times, and right then I want to stop the car and kiss him. But I don't. That has to wait. Instead, I wiggle my fingers, inviting his hand into mine.
Bram's eyes widen in surprise as he looks at the time. It's almost halfway through lunch already.
"You're going all out, huh?" he says.
I look at him quizzically.
"Missing the rest of the school day, something's wrong with you!"
No, Bram. That's where you're wrong. I have a boyfriend, I think I'm in love, and everything is right. Completely, utterly right.
"Where are we?" Bram asks. He seems confused as he looks out of the car window and sees the parking lot outside. "If you wanted to show me a parking lot, we could have just stayed at school and eaten Oreos there."
"But that would have been boring," I remind him. "Besides, that's not the reason we're here. Turn around."
Bram strains in his seat to look out of the back windscreen. A small gasp escapes his mouth.
"How did you know where this was?"
"I had to do a little bit of research, but it wasn't so hard to find," I say.
Bram continues staring, and I start to get a little nervous.
I stammer over the words in the question. "Are you… are you annoyed that I brought you here?" He doesn't respond, so I squeeze his hand in an attempt to make things better somehow.
I thought it would be a good idea, bringing Bram back to a place as important to him as this. To many people, this is just a park, something they can look at briefly as they whizz past it down the road. But to Bram, this is something more. This is the park. It's memories, stashed up in the trees and in the grass. It's somewhere he hasn't been in years. The last time he came here was with his dad as a child. I realise only now that it should have been him who made the decision to come back here, not me. And all for the sake of some silly picnic.
"I'm sorry. This was wrong," I start to say. "I didn't think about it, about how weird it must be to come back here like this…"
"Are you kidding?" Bram replies, turning to face me. "It looks like the perfect place for a picnic. That is what you're planning, right?"
And I thought I'd been planning a surprise. Of course he'd guess.
"I saw a picnic blanket sticking out of your bag this morning in English. I appreciate the effort Spier, but you're never going to beat my skills of surprise." He nudges my arm lightly. I pretend to sulk.
"We should have the picnic somewhere else though."
"Why?" He looks at me quizzically.
"Well," I start, not wanting to sound dumb, "I thought… I thought this was the park your dad used to take you to."
Bram nods.
"I realised that it's a bit crude to bring you on a date here. It seems a bit like I'm competing with your memories with your dad before… you know, before the divorce."
Bram shakes his head, smiling. My turn to look quizzical.
"Simon Spier. You are just the most adorable guy ever."
I raise an eyebrow.
"You must be the only person I know who would even take something like that into consideration, so you didn't upset someone. It's adorably caring of you."
"So you don't mind me taking you here?"
"It looks like the perfect place to me, honestly."
"But-" I start.
"And shut up. Please. You're not competing at all - I have space in my memories for both of you, and this looks like a brilliant place for a date."
He kisses me on the cheek, and I twist so my lips meet his. My hands find his face and I kiss him again, more strongly than before. He responds in equal measures.
"Now," I say, pulling away. "Are we going to go and have a picnic or what? I'm not wasting all that food."
"Your mum wouldn't be happy with you stealing it all and then not eating it, right?" Bram teases. "Your actions are so obvious, Spier."
I mutter a couple of curses under my breath. So much for being inconspicuous.
"Keep it up though. It's adorable, and there's nothing wrong with that."
I smile. Bram's right. There's nothing wrong. Right here, right now, everything is blissfully, amazingly right.
