Connor was in black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black and green plaid shirt.
"We match, kinda." I look down at my lap, smiling to myself at my observation. Connor chuckles, keeping his eyes on the road.
The scenery around us matches our green clothing. We are traveling on a bitumen road, but are surrounded by forest. A pop station shuffles through the same 4 songs on the radio softly in the background, being the backing to our small chatter.
The harsh clicking of the blinkers breaks me from my thought's, as Connor turns onto a slightly less used track.
"Are you taking me somewhere to kill me?" I say, jokingly, but a small part of me wonders. Maybe I had missed a lot while we hadn't been friends. "That's a pretty rude move on someone's birthday bro."
Connor laughs, but his laugh is filled with warmth and comfort, like you could listen to it for days. It makes you want to grasp hold of it and never let it go, wrap yourself up in it, incase something happens and you never get to hear it again.
"I promise, this is a date, not my secret plan to murder you."
"That's what they all say." I look at him skeptically, mumbling under my breath. Of course, my statement just causes a whole new round of laughter to erupt from him, making my cheeks warm, but my eyes unable to look away.
The car comes to a gentle stop, causing me to look at my surroundings. We had driven through a tall tunnel of trees, which lead to a large, open paddock. Sun shone down on the scraggly grass, leaving a rustic feel it the area.
"What is this place?" I question, my senses still taking in the looks of the place.
"It's just a field in the middle of nowhere to be honest. I love coming here. It's only a 20 minute drive, but it feels so..." Connor trails off, getting lost in his own world. It gives me time to admire his face, as creepy as that may sound. I studied his hair, and how perfectly it was styled, compared to his normal messy look. His eyes were shining their wondrous blue hue, and his face looked relaxed.
His eyes suddenly meet with mine, causing him to snap out of his beautiful entrance.
"Stay there!" Connor hope out quickly, closing the door gently behind him. I can hear him grab something from the back of the car, and then run to my door.
"Such a gentleman." I blush as Connor offers his hand to help me down from the car. As soon as a waft of the clean air enters my senses, every worry floats away.
Looking around, my eyes trail on the basket in Connor's hand.
"We having a picnic?" I smile widely, feeling free.
"Yep."
Connor closed the door softly behind me, grabbing my hand once more, intertwining our fingers. Warmth crept up from my fingertips, to my shoulders, and up my neck, making my whole body flutter.
"You know I love picnics?" My mind fills with happy memories of picnics, the sunshine, the food, the company.
You could audibly hear Connor let out a sigh of relief.
"I chose well then." His strong, but comforting grip pulls me forward, to the grass paddock. Sun shone down onto my shoulder, but it was not warm. Expected for the end of spring. Sun, but not much warmth.
Letting go of my grip for a second once we got to a flat but of the field, Connor spreads out the large picnic blanket, and places the basket off the side.
"You want to sit down?" His hands gesture to the blanket. I sit. He sits next to me.
"So, how was your morning? I know things with your parents are pretty tight..." His voice trails off, but it felt as though the sentence was whole.
"It was actually very civil."
"Did you get anything good?"
My smile widens, just thinking about my parents gift once again.
"Yeah. I did. You have to promise not to tell any of the girls when we see them tonight though. I haven't had enough time to tell them yet."
"I pinky swear. I won't say a peep."
Secrets haven't worked well for me so far, but just keeping this one until I can tell them in person seems good enough.
Connor holds out his pinky, trivial, but cute.
I latch mine onto his.
"Pop it, lock it." Twisting our locked hands, Connor touches his thumb against mine.
"Excuse me?"
"I live in a house with a 5 year old sister. Cut me some slack!" We both laugh, letting it fill the air with warmth.
After we finish laughing, I tell Connor all about the letter from Steve Barnett, and what it means.
"That's amazing!"
"Yeah. I just haven't quite wrapped my head around it yet..."
"How was Taylor?" His question didn't sound compassionate towards her, instead, worried for me.
"She was surprisingly bearable. Self obsessed, yes. Annoying, yes. But she is my twin sister."
We both look at each other for a moment, saying everything we needed to say with our eyes.
"Let's actually start this date, shall we?" Connor reached for the basket, opening it, and pulling out its contents.
My mouth instantly starts salivating.
Soon, laying out in front of us was a mound of food. There were containers filled with potato salad, and coleslaw. In another container was what looked like chicken, and in a bag off to the side was fresh bread rolls. There was also grapes, and cut up apples.
"This looks so good." Connor sits back again, after opening all the containers.
"Thankyou. I'm not going to lie, mum did help me. I'm not too great with all of this..." I smile at his honesty.
"Oh! Something the infamous Connor Marklin isn't good at?!" Acting surprised, the sarcastic comment rolls off my tongue.
"Rude!" Connor slaps me slightly on the arm, whilst me both start laughing.
I don't think I have ever felt so carefree. We ate, and talked. It was nice to be enjoying the sunshine, whilst being away from all the worries of reality.
After a couple of hours, my new position was lying on my back, looking up at the sun, whilst Connor sat next to me scribbling on his sketch pad.
"So have you decided what you are going to enter into the showcase yet?" I ask, turning my head to look at him.
"Yeah. I think so." Connor pauses, putting down his pad, looking straight at me.
"I love art. And that's what I want to do. Become an art teacher, and be the person that my teacher has been to me. I know we still have a year of school left, but everyone is saying this is the time for you to get your name out there."
"That makes a lot of sense." Thinking of Connor as a teacher makes my heart flutter. I push myself up from the ground, crossing my legs over each other to we were facing one another.
"What about you? What do you want to do?"
"Be in the music industry. I'm sure you probably have guessed that."
"Yeah, but what's your backup plan? I mean, you guys are amazing, and I can't imagine you not making it big, especially after that email today. But would you try going solo? Or anything else?"
Connors question makes me think.
"I don't know. I don't think I could go solo-"
"Have you heard yourself?" Connor becomes defensive.
"You are more than amazing!" He moves closer to me,
"Your just saying that..."
"I'm not. But if that's how you are going to play it then we can move on." Connor smiles, letting the subject go.
"Thankyou. It's just I've had this job plan set up in my mind for so long, and it just completely freaks me out having to think of something different. I know that one day I probably will. But I guess that day just isn't today."
"I get you." Connor looks me.
Did I say too much? Does he think I'm a rambler that talks too much about things? Do I sound self obsessed and selfish talking about all my dreams-
I didn't even notice how close Connor had moved during my mental debate.
"You know you look stunning today?"
My cheeks instantly become red, like the strawberries I had just consumed.
"You already said that... but you look pretty good as well."
"Thanks." Our eyes were aligned, mere centimetres between us.
"I forgot to say!" Connor shoots back suddenly, his eyes embarrassed, "Lucy wanted to know when you were going to come over next to say hi. I said that maybe you would come over this afternoon before we head over to Faith's?"
Why did he move back? Of course... he probably doesn't like me that much.
"I would love to." I look at my hands, playing with my fingers, trying to hide the disappointment in my face.
"Hey, if we want to get back in time, we should probably get going..." Connor scratches his neck again, keeping his eyes lowered as well.
We both stand up slowly, letting awkwardness consume us.
How did this suddenly happen?
The whole day we had been comfortable with each other.
And then he probably realised he didn't like me.
Did I like him?
Is it my fault?
"Are you okay?" Connor touches my shoulder lightly, making my thoughts stop. Electricity runs down my arm, as if flames were burning where he touched.
Stuff it. He asked me on this date.
I turned, lightly putting my lips against his. Might as well embarrass myself now, and get all of this over with-
Just as I lost hope, Connor removed his hand from my shoulder, and pushed it up onto my cheek, pulling us closer together.
My heart was racing, but Connor's soft lips against mine stopped me from moving a muscle that may cause this moment to end.
His placed one hand gingerly on the small of my back, causing shivers to shoot there. I reached up with my good hand, putting it at the base of his neck, softly pulling it through his hair, whilst I let my casted arm rest on his shoulder.
The kiss gets more heated, us pulling each other closer together. My lungs are running out of air, so I know soon it will be time for this blissful moment to stop.
I pull away slowly, savouring the feeling of Connor's lips against mine. We both took in a deep breath, letting the tingling sensation settle down.
"I think we may need to do that more often..." Connor winks at me mischievously, his breath gently fanning my face.
"Maybe..." I loosen my grip on him, readying for the loss of heat of our bodies together.
"I think maybe it's time for us to get home..." This time, there was no awkwardness in the statement.
"Yeah." We both reach down, grabbing a corner of the blanket each to fold.
Once everything was packed up, Connor opened the door of the car, letting me hop in, the came around and got in the driver's seat.
Then he intertwined our fingers again, letting the heat rush up my arm, straight to my cheeks.
"I had a really good time. Thankyou." I felt as though my voice was frail and weak, but Connor heard, and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.
"Thank you for agreeing to come with me Miss Danielle Norm. It has been the best day I have had in a very long time."
"Me too."