The sound of a gong followed by ocean waves from the large speakers mounted on the wall makes me jump. Skylar's aunt inhales deeply and her eyes flutter open.
"Skylar! It's so great to see you! I was just finishing up savasana." She picks herself up from the floor and stretches her arms over her head.
"Hey Auntie! I think you scared Casey here. She probably thought you were dead." Her aunt laughs and pulls her into a big bear hug. After ruffling Skylar's hair she turns towards me with her arms wide open. I step towards her hesitantly and she pulls me into her chest.
"I'm glad your here, Skylar has told me a lot about you." She cups my face gently before pulling away and waltzing out the room. I glance towards Skylar.
"What did you tell her about me?"I ask as I close the distance between us. She wraps her arms loosely around my waist.
"Not a lot, I mostly just showed her your your stupid tumblr blog and the pictures I took of you while you slept."
"Uh, creepy?"
...
I wake to the pitter patter of rain on the roof, which is an unfamiliar yet calming noise, considering I've lived in Cali all my life. I mean ya, it does rain in Cali but not all that often. I've learned to love it when it does. I feel soft warm breath wash over my partially exposed back, and two fists press lightly into my back as if to keep contact without overheating. My back feels ghosts of trails blazed by Skylar's fingers from the late night whispers and doodles against my skin.
Somehow I don't feel that we're missing intimacy. I used to think that the only way to get or give intimacy was through having sex, but I have found that is not at all the case. I found intimacy in midnight chats and letting my walls down, in laying in silence with our fingers intertwined and staring into each others eyes. I found it in the way Skylar asked if we could play a game of "what am I drawing on your back" and resisting the pull of eyelids as the soft dancing of her fingers traced shapes across my back. And surprisingly, I am perfectly content with that.
Skylar's fists unfurl and her warm palms spread across my back. Her arm snakes around my torso and pulls me in flush to her body. I feel kisses walk up my neck and one final one on my cheek.
"Morning gorgeous." Skylar whispers in a sort of sarcastic tone, propping herself up on her elbow to see my face. I crane my neck so our faces are but inches from each other. I smile and mumble a morning to her ruffled hair and smudged mascara. She leans down and quickly pecks my lips before flinging herself over my body and getting out of bed.
"Big day today," she says stretching her arms over her head. Her hair fluffs around her face and she adjusts her green bird onesie. "We are going to do something fun today. Remember, we're still going to all my favorite places." I smile and nod excitedly as Skylar reaches in her suitcase and chucks a pink wad of fuzzy fabric at my head. The wad of fabric turns out to be a matching pink version of Skylar's onesie.
"Oh my god, this is amazing holy crap." I flop around on the bed trying to put on the onesie without getting up.
"Well, I thought we needed matching onesies so I got you one. It's cute right? Matches your hair."
"This is mine? As in I can keep it?"
"Yes ma'am all yours." I quickly lumber over the bed on all fours in excitement and pull Skylar into a hug. "Thank you holy crap this is the best thing anyone has ever given me." Skylar gasps as I squeeze her tightly.
"Really? It's not a big deal. Just a onesie. Let's head downstairs."
I follow Skylar into a little rustic kitchen with a red fridge, refurbished wood counters and a little window box full of spices. Skylar starts flitting around the kitchen gathering supplies to start cooking. I sit on a stool by the counter and watch her cook, not wanting her aunts kitchen to end up like the last time Skylar and I tried to cook together.
"Would you make coffee? It's not that hard just put the grounds and water in the thing and press start." I nod and quickly set off to do what she asked, trying to stay out of her way as I did so. It was nice, waking up together, coming down and working on breakfast together, spending the entire day together. Am I in heaven? Did I die and heaven ended up being in Eugene, Oregon?
I come up behind Skylar and lightly grab her arms, trying to make everything difficult for her. I know I said I didn't want her aunts kitchen to get messed up but I can't help myself. I wiggle her arms around as she tries to stir eggs and she stifles a laugh. She drops the spatula and goes for the salt, but I jerk her hand and knock the salt off the table.
"Hey what the heck stop it I want to get this done so we can get out of here. We have a big day!" She looks back at me with a scowl and I give her the classic "lip out puppy dog eyes" and her scowl breaks. Hah, works every time. She kisses my nose and turns back around. "Why don't you go get ready while I finish up?"
After we eat breakfast and Skylar takes an hour getting ready; we get in my truck and head out. Skylar again decides to not tell me where we are going and just instructs me on how to get there. We first go to the kids science center which is fun, but we are the only people there over 10 who weren't parents. Skylar is enthralled at the exhibits and always knows the scientific reasoning behind them. Turns out she's a huge nerd that could probably be the next Bill Nye if she tried. And I thought I was majoring in a science.
Next we walk around the park outside of the science center and I get chased by geese and Skylar laughs at me. Geese are vicious and relentless. We sit on a bench and take selfies which I insisted on posting to various social media websites. We drive to a space pizza place and have pizza with the thinnest crust I've ever seen. I say space pizza place because I can't remember the name and the theme was space. We also take a pitstop at voodoo doughnuts to get a classic dozen, Skylar eats about 5 by the time we make it back home. I had thought that was it but Skylar says we are walking somewhere.
"It will be so fun, trust me. You will love it." Skylar hands me a fluffy snow jacket. "Since we'll be walking and it's supposed to snow, you should wear this." I throw on the jacket over my own, turning me into the sibling from "A Christmas Story." Skylar giggles at that and walks out the door. Just as promised, it was snowing just a little, but it's enough to make me excited. I contemplate sprinting around catching flakes in my hands and on my tongue but I resist until Skylar starts doing just that. We sprint down the sidewalk trying to catch as many snowflakes in our mouths as possible. Apparently she won but I think she lied; 150 snowflakes sounds like a lot for 2 mins of trying to catch them.
We walk down a few blocks and around a few corners until we get to a mildly sketchy alleyway. Skylar heads right down the alley, but I hesitate because, I don't know, what if we get shanked? Eugene isn't necessarily known for its low crime rate. Actually it's kind of known for the opposite. She waves me to her and I hesitantly follow.
"It will be fine, trust me, you will love it."
"Ya you said that before, it's just, what if someone jumps out and tries to steal your purse, I'm not very strong I probably wouldn't be able to get it back for you."
"Well first off, no one will steal my purse; secondly, I can fend for myself, I took 3 years of self defense classes. It will be fine just come with me." Skylar impatiently grabs my arm and yanks me around the edge of a building. Preparing for the worst, we step inside to an array of pinball noises and the sound of people talking and the smell of crappy good junk food being made.
I look around and see row after row of back to back old arcade games and pinball machines. Wanting to go and touch all of them, I look to Skylar and she nods knowingly, following me as I flutter from game to game.
"Donkey kong! Mario! Froggit! PAC man? Oh my god....... Michael Jackson's MOON WALKER!!! Holy shit I have to play this." Skyler laughs and hands me a plastic cup full of change.
"Knock yourself out." She says, expecting to just watch me play, but oh no it's a two player game, and she is joining me. I put coins in both player one and player two slots, not giving her a choice. "Wait! Woah I suck at arcade games! I can't do that."
"Of course you can come on it's starting. You wouldn't let me die would you? My player 2?"
"Wow call me player 2, epitome of romance right there." We begin the pursuit of killing gangsters and transforming into radical silver and gold robo suits after completing a sweet moon walk. I die about 100 times, but Skylar, claiming she "sucks at arcade games" absolutely crushes it and carries the team all the way to victory, only dying a grand total of 2 times.
"Well, we played the whole thing. How does it feel?" Skylar asks, picking up the change I accidentally threw on the floor in my scramble to get more credits.
"It feels amazing. It pisses me off when you say you suck at things then absolutely rock them."
"Well what can I say? I guess Michael really brought out the best in me." Skylar proceeds moonwalk then a flawless Michael Jackson impression and I start to wonder what this woman can't do. She hands me the cup."Play to your hearts content. I'll always be behind you when you need a player 2." I give her I kiss on the cheek then begin to play every single game in the place.
...
The week seems to go without a hitch. Skylar took me to every place in Eugene she loves. A few being a great taco place with a plastic baby painted to look like the devil on the wall, plenty quirky cafes with cold pressed coffee and cat nip tea, and even an indoor water park; where I got to see Skylar in a very cute bathing suit. It was actually men's shorts and a one piece which you would think would be unflattering, but it was not at all. Today is the last full day we are here and Skylar promises it will be 100% romantic.
"Ready to go?" I turn away from my laptop on her desk to see her arms full of blankets and a large basket full of... stuff. I take some of the blankets from her and we make our way out to my truck. I remove part of the tarp strapped to the back and put the blankets in. There has been quite a lot of snow so Skylar made me go out and buy some snow clothes because "my yellow bellied valley girl body" couldn't take the snow. I'll have you know I can totally take the snow, I just might complain the whole time.
We meander through town, seemingly headed towards this big ol hill near the edge of town. My suspicions were right because before I know it we are going up the semi-steep roads to the top of the hill. We reach a parking area and she tells me to park it here and we'll walk the rest of the way. We get the stuff out of the back and head towards a path. The top of the hill seems to be a large clearing with trees lining it, with breaks in the trees down towards the town as viewpoints.
Skylar marches through the snow to a huge tree with branches the size of another large tree. The branches are so big and heavy that they sag towards the earth and some even touch. She sets the basket on the ground and gets out a handheld broom. She climbs up a couple limbs and brushes off the branch from snow. She climbs back down and pulls out a small tarp and tosses it over the branch.
She waves me over and takes one of the blankets from me and throws it on the tarp.
"What the heck are you doing?" I ask as she hoists herself up to straddle the branch.
"We are having a tree picnic in my favorite tree. Will you hand me the basket?" I pass the basket up to her and she hangs it on a little notch in the wood.
"In the snow? Why in a tree?"
"That's what the blankets are for, and it's more fun in a tree." I hand her up the remaining blankets and I climb up.
"That sounds entirely impractical and- woah check out that view!" From the tree you can see everything, you can see where it transitions from residential to downtown and all the little things I've spent the week getting to know. Since it's so grey and bleak out, you wouldn't expect the view to be all that beautiful, but it was. It was possibly the best way to end this trip, to literally look back at all the places I've been and all the things I've come to love.
I hear the snap of a camera sound in my ear and I turn to see her snapping pictures of me. I give her a smile and a light shove.
"You looked so wistful, I needed a picture of it. Also you look pretty beautiful." I pull her face in for a kiss, which is really the first really real kiss we've ever had. I mean we've done pecks and cheek kisses, but never to this... depth. It was sweet, and good, just about the right way to end this amazing week.
"Thank you, I love you." Skylar smiles and presses one kiss to my cheek.
"Your welcome, and I love you too. Even though it's only been about a month, this is the most I've ever liked anyone before."
"Same." I unfold one of the blankets and wrap it around both of us. I can't wait to spend more time with this amazing person, that would make me very happy.