The Test of Time

109 ~ June

"Stop!" I exclaim, holding my hands out to get his attention, "Okay, over here!" I gesture, walking towards the left hand side of the clearing, my eyes zooming in on one particular tree. Stepping under it I quickly push the shovel into the ground in an attempt to start digging.

"What are you doing?"

"Shut up!"

"Stop!" Brett exclaims, his hands covering mine before wrenching the shovel from my hands, "Let me do it."

"I am perfectly capable..."

"Stop fighting me." He orders, a smirk on his face as I step back, "Alright." He starts to dig, far faster and more eloquently than I was, "How far am I digging?"

"Not too far." I shrug, watching as he goes to work, the sight absolutely breathtaking. Brett Winters undertaking manual labor, the muscles in his arms bulging at every step, I think may have drooled a little. "Ah ha! There it is!" I finally exclaim as I spot the light brown wicker.

"What the hell?" Brett exclaims, dropping the shovel and pulling the box out, "Did you bury this here?"

"I did." I confirm as he places it on the ground in between us.

"When?"

"Five years ago."

"Why?"

"Okay." I reply, sitting down onto my knees and grabbing hold of the clasp, flicking it open and lifting the lid of the box. Brett's eyes widen and I smile at the sight of the diaries, the deep green of his college jersey, the pile of pictures in the corner.

"What is this?" Brett asks, slouching down beside me.

"You were a dick in high school." I say and he smirks slightly, nodding his head in acceptance. "But I still fell for you harder than I ever knew was possible." I admit, "When you broke my heart I stuffed everything that reminded me of you in this box and took it out to leave for the garbage collectors but... I couldn't do it." I explain and he raises an eyebrow, "So I took the box, brought it all the way up here and buried it. Out of sight, out of mind."

"Whoa!" He breathes out, his eyes fixed on the piles of memorabilia.

"After we broke up at college I dug it back up and added to it." I snort at the ridiculousness of it, "Bit of a weird thing to do."

"Just a bit." He smirks and I giggle slightly.

"For some reason I couldn't destroy any of it." I shrug as he picks up the red book and opens it to a random page.

"July 2019. Brett Winters is the most arrogant asshole that I have ever come across in my entire life." He stops, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Yep." I nod in agreement.

"November 2019, Month three." He begins before glancing back at me, "Month three?"

"I... I started counting the number of months that you spoke to me." I admit, "Almost as a joke. I was imagining it wouldn't get passed five."

"Today Brett kidnapped me. You know what I mean, he threw me over his damn shoulder again like the cocky jerk that he is." Brett smirks as he reads, "He took me up to this secluded waterfall in the middle of nowhere. I had no idea that beauty like that exists in Edgewater and yet Brett Winters is the one who showed me it." He continues and I smile at the memory, "I don't know what is happening to me and why I feel butterflies every time I look at him. When I left I had to force myself not to look back at him, terrified that he'd be watching me." I reach into the box and grab a stack of photos, smiling at the two of us, "I was even more terrified of the idea he wasn't watching me leave." Brett finishes, looking up at me with slight awe in his eyes, "Sav..."