Midnight Flock

Chapter 13: Nathan's Date

"All I ever need is you Nathan, just your true self. Nothing more, nothing less." His bright smile shone down on me, lighting my life with dazzling color. "But... you're not going to tell me where we're going, are you?" I smirked at him, knowing all too well he could keep a secret.

"Nope." he responded, popping the "P" at the end to taunt me. I watched out the window, our fingers woven together. We chatted about our day, though Nathan was vague, just saying he was busy with some stuff and the guys helped him out with a couple of things. We drove north along the coast until we came to a secluded little beach. It was on some private land I suspiciously assumed belonged to the Academy somehow, but didn't want to say too much in front of mixed company. The small road turned to gravel, then dirt and then it was just two columns of packed sand. I couldn't believe the driver would risk his vehicle on this path. I couldn't even call it a road anymore.

"Nathan." I whispered to him and the car slowly crawled along.

"Yes?" He whispered back, amused.

"Should he be driving this far? Would it be better for us to walk?" I whispered again. His grin grew.

"Sang, why are we whispering?" He chuckled quietly.

"Shut up! I don't want to be rude!" I whispered back, this time my tone a little angry at his mirth. I didn't want the driver to get mad at us, or think that I wasn't confident in his driving skills or something. I also didn't miss the fact that Nathan never answered my question.

I didn't have to wait long though to find out what was waiting for me at the end of the dirt road. We came out of the trees onto a small packed earth parking area behind a dune. There was space for a couple of cars and to turn around. There was a wide opening at the far side of the parking area that looked like it went down to the beach. The town car pulled over toward the end of the parking area, stopped and the driver promptly got out and opened my door. Nathan followed me out as I stepped from the car. The smell of the ocean was overpowering and I could hear the crash of the waves on the shore. We were really close. I bet the water was just on the other side of this sand dune that obstructed my view. I bounced on my toes ready to get moving as I waited for Nathan to thank the driver and tip him generously before the car turned and left us.

"Where's he going?" I nodded toward the receding car lights.

"Don't worry about it, Peanut. I got us covered. Just enjoy yourself. I've taken care of everything." He slung his arm over my shoulders and we started to casually walk toward the path to the beach.

"I would have brought my suit if I knew we were coming to the beach." I was a little disappointed that I couldn't jump in the water.

"We're not here to go swimming." He explained as we continued to follow the lazy path. I was going to explode with excitement if he didn't reveal his big secret. As we meandered through the sand dunes, I swear he was purposefully taking longer than necessary, I started to hear over voices. None of them were familiar to me, but I couldn't make out what they were saying over the sounds of the ocean and the gulls flying above us. Just as we were rounding the last obstacle and I could start to make out the bright blue of the sparkling water, something started rising up into my view. It was brightly colored fabric, but I couldn't figure out what it was. A large kite maybe? I'd heard of people who could fly ginormous kites of all manner of design. Was Nathan bringing me to watch kite flyers? Would we get to fly kites? I was excited for that. I enjoyed it the few other times the boys had brought me to go kite flying. I noticed the sun's position in the sky, we wouldn't have much time to fly before it started to get too dark to see anything, maybe an hour, hour and a half at most. I didn't realize how late it had gotten.