Brown Eyed Boy

The Dinner (Jessie POV)

Believably enough, Carlos wasn’t done yet with our valentine plans. His mom loaned him the car and after opening the passenger door for me and closing it, he climbed into the driver’s seat and started to drive. At first, I thought he was driving us back to his house or even mine, but then he drove past both and even past the school on to the road leading out of town. “Where are we going?” I asked curiously.

Carlos smiled widely, turning to look at me briefly before focusing on the road again. “You’ve lived here your entire life,” he said. “Shouldn’t you be able to tell me?”

“Just because I live here, doesn’t mean I’ve been everywhere,” I answered as I looked out the window beside me. All the houses were gone and everything on either side of the car was either a tree or covered with something green. “Are you kidnapping me?”

“It’s not kidnapping when you voluntarily get in the car,” he laughed.

“It is when I get in thinking we’re going one place but end up somewhere else,” I answered. Carlos turned on to what looked like a rarely used back road and my curiosity grew.

“Well it isn’t kidnapping when you want to be with the person,” he countered.

“And who said I wanted to be here with you?” I teased as I turned to him. The car began to lurch to a stop and Carlos turned off the engine before looking at me.

“That hurts Jessie,” he said with mock pain. “That hurts.”

“I’m sure,” I laughed and looked out of the car around us. “So now, where are we?” The car was parked just out of the road we had taken to get there and in front of us was what looked like an abandoned sitting park area. There was a kind of observation deck with an old telescope to the left and on the right was a just as old looking bench. And in front of them both was the river that I had forgotten passed through the town.

“I don’t know exactly,” he answered. “My mom kind of found this place on our way into town. She made a wrong turn and then there it was.”

“It’s… pretty,” I said, trying to think of a word to describe it. It wasn’t storybook beautiful with rainbows and bunnies everywhere. It was damaged, raw, time altered, natural and had a sort of eerie feel about it that made it seem beautiful in its own way. And somehow, as I looked at it, it reminded me of me.

“You don’t like it,” Carlos said, sounding disappointed.

“What?” I asked, turning to him quickly. “Are you kidding? I love it.”

“Really?” he asked skeptically.

“Yes,” I answered. “You know I wouldn’t lie to you.” After a few seconds, the skepticism disappeared and a new emotion that I couldn’t place words to appeared.

“Good,” he smiled. “You almost scared me for a second. Now come on before we miss it.”

“Miss what?” I asked, suddenly confused again.

“Get out of the car and I’ll show you,” he winked. “We have fifteen minutes.” I gave him another confused look before hurrying out of the car. He met me in front of it and grabbed my hand, dragging me off to the side of the observation deck. Two trees later, we stopped under another and Carlos looked at me as he pointed up. Turning my head up, I found a tree house above us with its ladder next to him.

“You’re joking,” I said to him. “Is this thing even stable?”

“Jess, do you really think I would ask you to come up there if I didn’t already know it was safe?” he asked sincerely. I bit the inside of my cheek, knowing that he wouldn’t.