"You actually look kind of... cute... right now"

Entry 12- Truth

It didn't feel real. Being there with him in that moment at that time. Being somewhere that wasn't the inside of my bedroom. It was amazing. The sky was clear but the clouds were rolling in as the day was slowly passing us by. I had everything planned out and it all went exactly like that. After we left my aunts place, we ended up going to a nearby park a couple blocks from her place. it was a childrens park with a playground and a large baseball field around it. A chain linked fence blocked off the playground, and the rest of the park/parking lot, from the hidden trail behind the tall oak trees. When we arrived he was confused as to what and where we were going. We arrived at the fence and he smirked to me, knowing what I was thinking but before he could confirm, I tightened the straps on my backpack and climbed the fence. He followed after me. When we jumped over the fence I giggled and pushed through the large trees till we found the hidden bath just beyond them, It was a cleared path with tall grass on either side of it. As we walked the thin path, we talked and laughed as I ran ahead of him with him chasing after me.

I wish you could have seen how beautiful it was one of the reasons why I missed living up there.

It was hidden so it was untouched and pure. Close your eyes and imagine hopping that fence, squeezing through the thick oak tress till you come to a narrow dirt trail that stretched through tall, knee high, bright green grass. The tall grass, that surround the lands beyond that fence and all around the large oak trees, pushing against your legs as the light breeze danced around you. What was left of the sun, shinning down on you as it peeked through the treetops. When you walked far enough there was a creek that was beginning to show itself as the trail wandered further and further into the wilderness. Sounds of the running water and birds chirping as you continued on your way, alongside that flowing river that eventually wrapped around and intercepted the trail that was now brought to a halt. A trunk, from a fallen tree, acting as a bridge to the other side, where the trail started up again and when walking the trail long enough you were brought to another gate where, on the other side, it led back out to another end of the park. Walking the trail would take you 30 minutes to get through. 30 minutes of just taking in the nature around you.

We hopped the fence and walked back out into the field till we got to the car. Our adventure was long from over though. I still had a few more tricks up my sleeve and biting my bottom lip, with excitement, I pulled from our parking space and went onto the road again. We stopped by a deli place in this small town my aunt live in, and the worker fixed us the best sandwhiches. We sat in that deli shop and ate and after that were were off again. We drove a long one lane, one way, narrow road, up the mountain. We got as far as we could till we came up to parking lot that was filled with a couple other cars. If you wanted to get to the top, you had to hike from here on out. I laughed to him as we got out and the look on his face was priceless as he studied the high mountain.

"We don't have to go all the way up" I said, tightening my backpack straps and walking on ahead, turning around to walk backwards. "There are like 5 other trails, some easier than others but they all have lookout points so each one is just as beautiful as the next" I said before leading the way with him following behind me. The hike up was harder than all hell we went up the 3rd hardest trail and he eventually took the lead just because he was faster than me. He reached our trails lookout point first and when I reached it, I stopped and bent forward. I remember breathing hard once I got there before actually going to look at the beautiful view that over looked the flat lands in the distance, the city was somewhere beyond that stretched land. We seen the mini trail we had just came from, and the town my aunt lived in where we got the sandwiches. There was a single bench and after taking a picture, I sat down and utilized it to its fullest. We stayed there for a good 20 minutes to just take in the view, talk a bit more about random stuff before the next couple came up. We exchanged hellos and then left so they could enjoy it just as much as we did.

The walk down was easy. I beat him, before we got to the car we decided to trail off to a couple other look out points but one of the tails didn't take us to a lookout point, instead, it took us to a small pond surrounded by dying weeping willow trees. There was a bridge we had to walk across to get to the other side of the pond but we just stood on the bridge and just looked at the still waters before we headed back to the car. After that it was about 3 and that was then the sun would set early still. We decided to drive to another part of town. It was a well known location called "Geyser Peak". I overlooked the same lands as before (From when we were on the mountain) but just from another view and at that point it was almost sunset. The sun was low so the sky was a bright orange color and the sun that shinned through the clouded skies, shinned down on all the vineyards and tiny farm houses that were randomly placed in various of places. We didn't have to hike anywhere that time. It was one where you can just drive up and park your car and just look from there if you wanted but we got out and went down the hill a bit of a ways and I sat on the grass and watched him snap a picture. Another scenic landscape to add to his collection but this one was special. As I looked out at the view I smiled to myself. This one was special because I showed him it, I was there with him and we looked at this land together. That's why it was special. It was about 4:20 when we decided to head back to the car. It was close to sunset, we had about another hour before the sun actually set and I looked to him as we loaded up in the car.

"I have one more place" I said. He gave me that chuckle, that light chuckle he did and that chuckle that I love so much. He nodded and that's when I drove the 30 minutes to the beach. When we arrived he laughed.

"The beach? I did not expect this" He laughed more and ran down to the sand. I giggled and after slipping on my warmer clothes, ran down after him, slipping off my shoes and attempting to job through the thick sand to catch up to him. It sucked because the clouds had taken over, there wasn't any sun but we didn't care. We ran through the beach and as I seen him looking around through the sand I ignored him and for the first time, (Yeah that was my first time going the beach) I allowed my feet to touch the oceans water. I took in the sunless, grey sky and the ice cold water on my feet and began taking pictures as he ran up to me. He held out a round, grey hard, light, thing. I didn't know what it was. It had a barnacle on it. I stepped out of the water and took it, shaking my head.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Its a sand dollar. It's rare to find one fully in tact cause they are fragile. Even though it has a barnacle on it, it's still cool." I smiled as he talked, I didn't care about the ugly, old barnacle. It was his first gift to me ever. He went around and stood beside me, his head just over my shoulder as his fingertips grazed over the carvings of the sand dollar. It was engraved with what seemed to be like a leaf of some sort. "Isn't it cool. its so lightly engraved on it" He said, smiling down at the sand dollar. I nodded.

"Yeah. I love it thank you" I said, turning to him. He turned to me and smirked before walking away, looking through the sand. I put it in my sweatpants pocket and looked with him till we gave up and ended up sitting on this large rock. It was so nicely placed in the shallow end of the ocean. It was so pretty even though the skies were grey. The waves crashed against our rock as we sat in silence and watched. He turned to me and I looked to him. "What?" I chuckled, he hated when I looked at him for long periods of time, he said he hated the attention and ordered me not to do it so i didn't but when he looked at me the way I wasn't suppose to, I questioned it nervously. He shook his head and looked back to the ocean and I remember every word he said.

"You surprised me today" He started off with. I smiled and looked at the ocean.

"I'm glad. That's what I was trying to do" I nudged him lightly "Did I earn some brownie points?" I asked. He laughed and nodded

"Yeah...Look, I'm sorry about before. I was a jerk and I didn't...I wan't you to know that I do like you but I don't want any kind of relationship. I don't do good with relationships. Obviously." He mumbled. Given how he was, how he didn't like PDA, he hated meeting new people, he hated planning, he hated being complimented and he isn't one for complimenting either. He hates anything corny, he doesn't like to put effort into things he doesn't have to and he doesn't like affection. "That's why I left." He looked to me and I smirked. "Why did you forgive me?" He asked.

"My papa always use to say; 'If someone comes back after making a complete fool of themselves, they deserve a second chance.' I never use to understand any of his lingo or stuff he says until I got older and after he past." I looked to him and he smirked and looked away.

"You're a very forgiving person. Be careful you can get hurt"

"Yeah I know but." I shrugged and looked back to the waves in the distance. "That's how I was raised. Everyone deserves a second chance" It was silent after that for a good five minutes and then I turned and looked to him after remembering all the corny romance movies. "This is my first time at a beach, I deserved to be kissed on one, like in the movies" He turned to me with a 'hell no' look. Eyebrow raised and a scoff leaving his lips.

"Woman, the fuck does this look like?" He scoffed again and turned away, shaking his head. I knew it was a long shot. He hated corny/cheesy things AND he hated PDA. I smiled and looked to the beach.

"Shall we head home?" I asked. He nodded and jumped down off the rock before me. I was kind of upset i'm not going to lie but I wasn't for long. As we walked closer and closer to the car, along the shoreline, before we had to walk up to the parking lot he snapped his teeth, turned around and kissed me lightly on the lips.

"There." Was all he said before leading the way up to the car.

It was then I knew, that I was glad to have listened to my Papa. I was glad I gave him that second chance because without doing so, I wouldn't have had my first kiss on a beach just now.