When I'm With You

Chapter three

    "wow" 

    " I found this place a couple of years ago while running the trail" 

    "it's beautiful" 

"It's where I come to think when I want some quiet"  he doesn't respond but keeps staring at the view. 

"you're the only person I've ever brought here" she says and he looks at her his hard expression long gone. 

"why me?" 

"because you seem like you could use some peace and quiet" she says softly.  

Her words shake him to his core, and he feels the need to hug her but refrains, nobody had ever really cared about him before, he wasn't used to this type of treatment. He begins to realize that she had always tried to be nice but he would act like a jackass, his stomach fills with guilt. Why was he so mean to her? Was it really because he hated how perfect her life was? How it's the complete opposite of his. A mom who cares and a dad who doesn't beat the shit out of her. Unlike her, all he has is his grades, a chance to escape his life, of course, she didn't know any of this why would she? 

"thank you Macy really" he says sending her a small smile. 

She says nothing and sends him a smile in return, they stare at each other for a while and then finally break away. She pulls out her essay and he continues helping her improve it. Before they knew it the sun had set and it was 9 o'clock, the two had done all of her work and even cracked a few jokes in between. Today was a major success for Macy, she had gotten him to smile and feel comfortable to make jokes. He made her feel so different than Jackson ever had, and she was worried about it. 

    "do you need a ride home?" he asks

    "no, it's ok I can call my dad" 

    "no!" he says too quickly, he clears his throat and scratches the back of his neck "I'll take you" 

    "are you sure? do you want gas money I have a twenty on me" 

"no its fine you don't need to pay me come on" he says leading her out of the forest and back to the car. They get in and he plugs in his phone making loud piano music play through the speakers, he turns it down and she looks over to see a pink tint covering his face.

    "wow I didn't take you for a classical type" she says laughing 

    "yeah the piano calms me" 

    "do you play?" 

    "yeah but I'm not that good"

    " I would love to hear it sometime" she admits 

"yeah sure" he says feeling himself get nervous at the thought of another person listening. 

"well how about we play some happy upbeat music huh?" 

"okay" he says, he quickly searches through his Spotify for the best song, he stops at the song 'Iris' by the Goo Goo Dolls and plays it. Nerves rush through his stomach as the song expresses all of the words that he could not say. 

"I love this song!" she says rolling down her window and turning up the music, he smiles as she sings along to the song loudly without a care in the world. He was having fun for the first time in what felt like forever. He sings along to the lyrics softly, glaring over at her with the wind blowing through her hair beautifully. 

"I just want you to know who I am" he sings, accidentally catching her eyes. 

The pair share a look, neither were able to hide the intensity of the moment. How much they both seemed to have changed their opinion about the other. Things had shifted so quickly. Now he wondered how it would feel to touch his soft skin, run his hands through her gorgeous red hair. By the time the song is over he pulls up in front of her house and he starts to feel sad that their fun night is over already. She rolls up her window and turns to look at him. 

"thank you, Charlie, this was really fun" she says getting out and smiling at him, he smiles back and she turns to walk inside when he calls out to her. Her heart skips a beat thinking maybe he'll ask her to hang out again without studying.

    "hey I forgot to tell you I'm doing a volunteer thing tomorrow so I can't tutor" he says 

    "ok that's fine, see you Monday" 

"see you"  he watches her walk inside her house and he feels like the dumbest kid on earth, why couldn't he man up and ask her to hang out? He sighs and drives away thinking about the redhead girl who had cracked him.