It took a little while to find the river, but it wasn't five minutes after midnight that I found it. The only problem was that I didn't know whether to go left or right. The note didn't say exactly where to meet him.
So what was I going to do?
Now, a normal person might go, 'Eeny-Meany-Miney-Moe' to choose which way, but I wasn't normal. I tried to remember what the note had said. I knew it was, 'Meet me _ the river, Midnight' but what was the blank? Was it up? Or was it down? I thought really hard…and finally remembered it. 'Meet me up the river, Midnight'.
I followed the river up, singing Taylor Swift songs. My favorites were "Tim McGraw" and "Love Story". "Tim McGraw" because…well, I don't know why, really. It's just a really good song. I liked "Love Story" because it fit what Erik and I were doing. Well, mostly. There were some parts that didn't fit us. "Today Was a Fairytale" fit us the very best; I sung that song a lot while walking.
I'd been walking for a while. At probably 12:15am, the river started to thin and turned into a creek. It got lost somewhere, and the path I was following trailed into a forest. I debated going into it, to keep following it, or to stay where I was. I leaned forward into it, and said, "Erik? Erik, are you in there?"
"Rose?" I heard a familiar voice call out. Erik emerged from the trees, wearing black jeans and a dark grey T-shirt. He looked me over, and then smiled. "There you are. I was worried you weren't going to show up."
"And why wouldn't I show up?" I asked, a playful smile on my face.
He shrugged. "Probably because you didn't know who gave you the note. And it said midnight…" he trailed off.
I rolled my eyes. "Jamie said she heard two people talking: mine and the one from the boy at lunch who said 'it's just a table', so I knew it was you."
"Damn it," he said sarcastically. "I got busted." I laughed.
"So, why exactly was I supposed to meet you out here? And how did you know where to put the note?"
"Ethan and Aliss are kind of failing math, so they stayed after school for tutoring, and since it was my car we drove, all five of us were stuck. So I gave Rosalynn and Jayson my keys and followed you home. I waited until it was late enough that none of you would notice me if I stuck a note in your mailbox, and ran off." Erik looked a little ashamed…like he knew what he did was wrong, but I honestly didn't mind. "And I thought you liked me, so I just wanted to make sure…which is why I wanted you out here."
"But why midnight?" I knew he understood the real meaning behind my question.
"Ok, so maybe if I gave the note to any other girl she probably would've called the police," Erik said, exaggerating. "But I know you, and you would've come to investigate, not call the cops…wait…does your family know you're here?" he asked, carefully.
I sighed. "If they did, do you think you'd be alive right now?" Yeah, my sarcasm definitely gets us into trouble.
Erik thought about it for a moment. "Yeah, probably not." Then he smiled. "So, would you like to know why I asked you to come out here?"
"Yes, I would."
Erik smiled the same crooked smile he did in Biology—nearly melting my heart—took my hand, and said, "Come with me."
And he led me deep into the forest, just going further and further until he stopped.
"Um, where are we?" I asked, completely lost and confused.
"This is where I like to go to think about things for a while." Erik answered.
"The middle of nowhere?"
"No…well, actually…um…kind of, it's…hard to explain…" he paused. "You know what, why don't I just light it up."
"Light what up?" But Erik didn't answer. Instead he pulled a lighter out of his pocket. It ignited, and he lifted it, causing something to light. That small light went around a circle, lighting little things. For a brief moment, I wondered what it was, but when I looked at where we were, my heart nearly stopped.
