All That and a Bag of Chips

Chapter 16

Collin had never known that such a small touch could cause wildfire to spread throughout his body. The air seemed to shimmer and crackle, all the oxygen being consumed by the flames of his desire. His pupils dilated and the world itself seemed to radiate.

Was he dreaming?

He concentrated on walking, knowing that nothing would ruin the moment faster than tripping over a crack in the sidewalk. With all of his leftover energy, he focused on just breathing, fearing that if he spoke, the spell would break.

They walked with their pinkies hooked for the next block.

Then, a group of people came walking out of a restaurant, and in the momentary sidewalk traffic, their connection was dropped.

"So," Collin said, mostly to steady himself. "Where did you grow up? I know you mentioned the valley, but which one?"

"Um, what? Like, I'm not your stereotypical valley girl?" she said in an exaggerated impression of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless, and then laughed. "I grew up in the central one. My parents live outside of Fresno."

Collin had never really been there. The closest he'd been to spending time in the central valley was driving on Interstate 5 to get to Los Angeles. But did that pass through Fresno? He didn't think so. "That's pretty close, right? Do you go home often?"

She shook her head. "It's about a three-hour drive one-way, depending on traffic, and I don't have a car. How about you?"

"I grew up just outside of San Francisco. I–" He almost said that Avery had a car and would drive them up at least once a month, but he stopped himself in time. "I don't have a car yet, but my folks said they'd get me one over the summer."

"That's nice of them."

"Well," he said as he held his palms out, "they know that if I have a car that I'll come up more. Also, they think that next year I should start applying for internships and things like that, and a car would give me more options."

"An internship doing what, exactly? Translating documents from Latin?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye and sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"I mean..." Collin shrugged with a self-deprecating chuckle. "Guess I can't live on their dime forever. I'll eventually have to figure it out."

They stopped at the corner of Pacific and Laurel, waiting for the light to turn so they could cross.

"Are you close to your family?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, my folks are cool." It was more complicated than that. Layers of sedimentary build-up with ribbons of conflict and resolution, misconceptions and understanding. But there was no need to give a full geological history of his relationship with his family, and right now, present tense, things were cool. Heather was present tense. The past was irrelevant. "How about you?"

The light turned green, and they stepped into the crosswalk.

"My parents work a lot, but they also make sure that the time we have together is really special."

As they walked down the next block, the wooden slopes of the Giant Dipper came into view, and they could hear elated screams woven into the ocean breeze.

"I'm guessing visiting the boardwalk were some of those special times?"

"Yeah." Her voice took on a far-away sound. "We always had a blast when we came here... Except for the time I ate too much cotton candy and..." She snorted. "You don't need to hear that story!"

"Now I really need to hear that story!" Collin gave her a gentle shoulder bump.

"Let's just say that puking on the cyclone is as horrendous as you might imagine!"