Permanent | E.K

Chapter 7~ safe place

I drove us to the park which was only five minutes away and parked up.

The five of us got out and Ricky, macy and Emery headed towards the swings.

"Such children" Liam laughed as he walked beside me.

"Race you to the seasaw!" I challenged him and started running. I heard him laughing behind me but also the sound of feet clapping on the ground. We reached the seasaw and he beat me to it.

"Looks like I win" he said and sat on one end.

"Whatever, you've got like the worlds longest legs!" I complained making him laugh. I sat on the other side.

"So how long have you know Ricky and macy?" He asked me curiously.

"About 14 years now, how long have you known the boys?" I asked him.

"Well I've known Emery my whole life, we're cousins, and Ricky for about 2 years now" he told me.

"Wait, you and Emery are cousins?!" I asked him in disbelief.

"Yeah" he chuckled.

"How did i not know that?!" I asked feeling baffled.

He shrugged.

"It's not something we say randomly" he said. I rolled my eyes but laughed anyways. We chatted for a few more minutes and I discovered he had a girlfriend called Brooklyn whom he's been with for two years now.

"Yo who's down for a meal at kathy's tomorrow night before we leave Saturday morning?" Emery suggested from his spot at the swings with Ricky and Macy.

Liam and I stood up to walk over.

"Yeah I'll do that" Ricky agreed.

"Me too" macy smiled.

"I'm in" Liam grinned.

"Same" I told them.

"Cool, what time?" Emery asked.

"Meet there at 7?" Ricky suggested. We all nodded in agreement and fell back into our own conversations.

Ricky and Liam were now trying to teach macy how to do a cartwheel (weird I know) and Emery had come over to me.

"Come with me, I wanna show you something" I told him and grabbed his wrist.

"I hope you're not kidnapping me" he joked as I dragged him away from the 'park' area.

"Shut up" I laughed. We walked in a comfortable silence towards some trees which had a pathway between them to enter the woodland are.

We walked a little further inside the waters until we arrived at a pretty lake which was calm and silent.

"Woah, what is this place?" He asked as he looked around. I sat on the bank that looked over the water and he sat beside me.

I shrugged.

"I don't know...it's just the place I come to when I need time to think" I told him gently.

"How long have you been coming here?" He asked me.

"Almost 4 years"

"Since your dad left?" He asked. I looked at him.

"You remembered" I smiled a little at the thought of him listening to me.

"Yeah, I'm a pretty good listener" he smirked. I laughed and pushed his shoulder with my hand.

"I mean, I guess it was just a place I could get my self to calm down whenever things got too much. A lot changed when my dad left so it impacted mine and Ryan's lives a lot" I explained.

"Yeah, I can imagine. Why'd you bring me here?" He asked curiously. I shrugged again.

"It's my safe place. And I don't know, I guess I just wanted to show you" I told him, unable to even describe why I did bring him here.

It went silent for a moment, but he eventually spoke up again.

"I'm sorry about your dad. No one should have to go through that" he told me sympathetically.

"It's okay, I'm over it now. Just sometimes I wonder where he is, who he's with, if he's okay..." I trailed on. He nodded.

"Well I'm glad you're okay." He told me with a smile.

"I don't want you to leave on Saturday, emery" I told him truthfully.

Oh god, here we go. The truths are coming out to the boy I met 6 days ago.

"I don't wanna leave either, Cinds" he told me. We stayed silent for a moment.

"When are you gonna be in Long Island?" He asked me.

"December 20th until January 3rd" I told him. He smiled.

"We're meeting up every freaking day" he laughed.

"I can't wait" I told him.

"Neither, you'll get to spend my birthday with me" he told me.

"What?! When's your birthday?!" I asked him.

"December 28th" he smiled.

"Awe you're a December baby" I cooed at him. He laughed a little.

"It's not a goodbye on Saturday, okay? I'm gonna make so much effort to see you when I can" he told me.

"And whys that?" I smirked. He smirked back a little.

"You'll have to wait and see" he shrugged. I blushed a little and lowered my head to look st the ground.

"It's cute when you blush" he laughed lightly.

"Shut up!" I laughed making him laugh harder.

"Guys! We're gonna go back to my place to watch movies, you coming?" Macy asked as she ran over.

"Yeah" I answered and stood up. Emery copied and the three of us walked back over to where Ricky and Liam were waiting for us.