Debt

19: Go With Me

Evan found Larielle up in Abrielle's room around ten, hoping she'd be awake. And she was, sitting up, watching TV, still in her jeans and sweater.

"Hey, I uh... This is weird. I shouldn't have-" he started, fumbling over his words.

That was something that had never happened to him before. Evan knew that he was good-looking; and he already knew that Larielle was interested in him. He didn't know why he was choked up. He just hadn't really pursued a girl in earnest since his last failed attempt at a relationship a year ago. And now here he was.

"No, no. It's fine," she told him, getting out of the bed. "I mean, if I had been dying for privacy, I probably should have closed the door, right?"

He could tell she was just as nervous as he was, and that somehow made him feel better about the situation.

"Ummm... I know it's late, but I was wondering if you would wanna take a walk with me."

"A walk?"

"You don't have to feel obligated to say ye- You know what. This was a real bad i-"

"Just let me put on shoes and a coat," she told him before he could talk himself down and leave.

"Oh. Great!" he said, relieved.

Larielle put on her black suede boots and her pale blue peacoat with her matching gloves and headband.

"Okay, I'm ready. What are you gonna wear outside?"

"I'm good," he told her, reaching for her hand. She took it willingly and let him lead her from the house.

There was silence awhile, and Evan looked up at the stars. "I don't know why I did this," Evan told her, stopping his trek, making her stop and look at him. "I don't have anything to talk about. This is weird."

Larielle just looked at him for a little while. And then she spoke, "You asked for a walk. Not a talk. I'm perfectly content to let the air fill with silence. If you don't make it awkward."

He just nodded and they resumed walking. He took her walking down a snowy trail with his footprints in the snow.

"Can I show you something?" he asked.

"You don't think it's weird?" she teased, smiling, displaying dimples he hadn't noticed before.

He smiled back. "No, it's cool," he told her, thinking her prettier and prettier as the time passed and the cold turned her cheeks rosy.

"You can show me."

He led her to a tree house, completely different from his uncle's with a ladder up into the house.

"After you," he told her.

"Are you being a gentleman or a polite pervert?" she wondered, climbing up. He smiled.

"Probably a bit of both," he admitted, watching her climb up. He waited until she was two rungs from the top before he started to climb in.

When he got inside, he sat with her, and there was silence awhile. He offered to take her coat and he hung it up on a hook.

"I like to come here sometimes at night. Clear my mind," he told her, laying back, looking through the skylight. "I could stay here for days at a time."

"Does that mean you have a lot to think about?" she asked softly.

Evan didn't immediately answer the question. He weighed it out before he gave a short, "Yes."

Larielle looked around the cozy treehouse. She'd heard of people living in treehouses that had all the accommodations of a house. But this was the first time she'd been in one.