Jacob's Legacy {Book 2: ADKOR series}

The Daytrip

Chapter 12

The two boys met in the city centre and walked around for a while in silence, sharing glances at clothes in the windows they were passing now and then. Nothing was said but the glances and looks shared said 'I want that!'.

Finally Jarryd spoke up and told Kane they were headed to the train station.
"Which one?" Kane asked.
"We're going to Queen Street train station. Need to hop on a train somewhere."
"Where are we going?"
"It''s a surprise, did you bring your money?"
"Yeah, but-" before Kane could finish his question, Jarryd had his and out demanding the money from him. Kane handed him the money and did as he was told to turn around and face the opposite direction.

Jarryd walked off to the ticket office in the station and waited a few minutes in the line. He was seen to by a lady. Her name tag said "Arlene."
"Hi Arlene." Jarryd said, smiling.
"Hello young man, what can I do for you today?"
"I'd like two tickets to Dunblane please." he said politely, still smiling at Arlene.
"That'll be £19.20" Arlene said, now also smiling.
Jarryd handed her a twenty pound note and collected the tickets. On his walk back he noticed that Kane had moved from where he had last seen him. His head spun around in an awesome almost-360 degree whip. No where. 'has he run away?' Jarryd thought to himself. 'Nah, he's probably away outside or something.' Jarryd continued looking around the station but his friend was nowhere to be found. His heart began to race and his chest got tighter.

That was until he heard a familiar voice.
"So where we going?" Kane called out from behind him, shoving past a group of students with their traveling bags.
"Oh, there you are!" Jarryd smiled, "I told you. It's a surprise, so you can't know until our train is here."
Of course, as every train pulled in, Kane would ask if that was their train and Jarryd eventually told him that if he didn't stop asking they wouldn't be getting a train anywhere except home. On time, the train arrived in the station, Kane had almost fallen asleep on Jarryd's shoulder when he hopped up and said
"This is it!" he called out to Kane, his eyes shining.
"Aberdeen?" Kane asked, twisting his head to make sure he read the ferrograph right.
"Yes, well no, it's on the line."
"Is it Stirling?" Kane asked.
"No."
"Is it Bridge of Weir?" asked Kane, getting more irritable and impatient.
"No, you will see when we get there." Jarryd said, keeping his cool.
"But you promised!"
"What are you? 5?" Jarryd teased. "You're a grown boy, now act like it." he finished, poking Kane playfully on the shoulder.
"You suck." Kane teased in return. The two headed to the platform and boarded the train, showing their tickets at the barrier.

The train journey was short lived, the fields all became the same, everything became dull and lifeless. Though there were only three stops before theirs, and as Jarryd raised his arm to reach for his bag overhead, Kane's smile grew from ear to ear.
"Dunblane!" he called out in excitement.
"Yeah," Jarryd replied. Hushing Kane as people started to look their direction.

The excitement soon died down when they stepped off the train, looked around and Kane realised it was a small town.
"Why did you bring me here?" he asked Jarryd.
"Because I want to show you something."
"Something that important you had to show me today?"
"Well when our mums get too much, I'd like us to have a place to escape to."
"What do you mean, when our mums get too much?"
"Well, if we want to keep going, you know. Together, we have to have a place to come to."
"Jarryd, we can't. I mean, I'd love to, but... we're cousins. It's not okay."
"So what now? Give up?" Jarryd started. "I love you Kane, and I'm not ready to give up on loving you."
Just as he said that, an elderly woman walked by and stopped at the two boys for a second to say,
"If I were you two, I don't know the situation, but if I were. And you truly love each other, you can't let anything get in the way. Let your love thrive and grow. If there's anything I have learned from life, it's that you can't pass up the opportunity for love." she just smiled and walked on. The two boys stood there in silence for moments before Kane looked up from his feet.
"So then, you want to show me something." he said to Jarryd.
"Yeah, but it's a bit of a walk."
"I don't mind."
"Follow me then."

The boys walked up from the train station and around the corner, they came to a dual carriageway and turned left. They walked up to a traffic circle with a few red signs on it. The road sign just before showed a sign heading to a motorway. They continued down that road and after about 45 minutes the two stopped and Kane spoke.
"Are we nearly there yet?" he asked his friend.
"Nearly, another twenty minutes or so." Jarryd replied.
"Jeez this better be worth it."

It certainly was. The hours walk took the two boys to a private hotel and restaurant. The Cromlix and Chez Roux. It was a beautiful, large estate which had a stables, a cottage square and the hotel, though that wasn't the grand sight to be seen by Kane and Jarryd. No. Jarryd had planned for them to take a little tour on the grounds of the hotel. Jarryd took Kane past the back entrance of the hotel, to a small path which they followed into the trees. A few minutes of walking took them to the Cromlix Loch, not much of a Loch, more of a pond really, though the two found on the loch-side, a small wooden cabin, it was barely big enough to hold a table and two chairs, but it was from that moment on, their run-away place. Kane had no words, his mouth simply dropped in the awe of the place, the lights in the early evening made the whole estate look like a fairy town.

The two boys reconnected as the hours passed, making up for the weeks and months lost coming up to the winter. The weather was harsh and the rain was falling like comets colliding into the earth's crust on their skin, but they weren't phased by the cold or the wet weather. They were too busy enjoying each other's company.
"I'm sorry." Kane said, after almost an hours silence between the two of them.
"For what?" Jarryd asked.
"For being a douche! I'm sorry because I shouldn't have ignored you until now. I just-" but he was cut off by Jarryd.
"Stop it. You're ruining our nice night together under the stars by this beautiful Loch." Jarryd said, "I don't care about what happened, I care about what is going to happen."
"Right." Kane replied.
"I want to know that you want this too. Can we come here, when things get too much? Can we move on with this, maintain a relationship? I know we'll have to hide it and especially from our mums but I can't live without you Kane. I need you in my life and I want you to be my boyfriend. It sounds silly, and I probably sound like a school girl, but I just want to be able to call you my boyfriend, even if it is only to myself."
"Well. I guess if you put it that way, then yeah you can. And I will call you mine. To myself of course."

The two quite literally kissed and made up, but returned to sitting in silence. Not because neither had anything to say, but because they were just enjoying the serenity of the open wilderness.

The two eventually decided it was time to return home, they certainly had some answering to do when they arrived at each of their houses.
"Where have you been Kane? I've been worried sick!" Tracy asked her son, colour beginning to rush to her face again.
"I was out."
"I know you were out, but where were you?!" She demanded.
"Out with friends. We went to the beach for the day."
"The beach? It's winter!"
"We're teenagers, we don't need a reason to go to the beach in winter mum." Kane said snarkily.

Jarryd arrived home to Nicole asking similar questions.
"Where on earth were you today?" Nicole asked.
"Out."
"Why was your phone off the whole day?"
"It wasn't off."
"Then why couldn't my calls go through?"
"I had no signal."
"Where were you?"
"Out."
"Jarryd, you need to tell me where you were. I don't want to be the bad wolf, but I need to know where you were today."
"You're not going to like it."
"Why?"
"I was with Kane."
"Where?"
"Out."

Nicole gave up asking anything further as she knew the response she was going to get was going to be the same each time she asked.