— ARIA —
It had been four days since we'd arrived at the holiday park, and within the four days we'd been here, no goals had been completed - I missed it, I wasn't going to lie because although we were together and these past four days had been some of the best I'd ever had, having all of us come together to complete the goals was one of my favorite things. It was how we all bonded together to get things done and how we all shared the ideas to help make each goals worth the while. It made my heart go funny.
It was late in the evening and we were sat in the parks club, having come in just after the kids section was coming to an end, and Rye had gone to the bar to get everyone something to drink while we sat at a table; one on the floor near the stage, tucked right in the corner, the same table that we seemed to have acquired when we first came here on that first night. This was our table now apparently because whenever we came in, nobody was sat in it as if leaving it free for our group.
"Andy" I said to him suddenly, deciding to be a little bit cheeky - his face immediately dropped, recognizing my tone and I couldn't help but chuckle. "Odds on? Listen to the music, and when a song that you guys have covered comes on, you and Rye have to get up and dance for the whole thing in front of everyone. Deal?"
"Absolutely no deal" he said immediately, shaking his head. "Absolutely not"
"Look here kids, Andy Fowler backing down on an odds on" I said even cheekier, knowing if I called him out on it he would never be able to pass it down.
"I'm not passing it down, it's just-" Andy started, but Brook and Mikey cut him off.
"Randy, Randy, Randy" they started chanting under their breath and I saw Andy cover his face with his hands in embarrassment. It was a little while before we managed to convince him, but in the end, all the calling out got a little too much for him.
"Alright, fine" he said and I chuckled at his tone. "But, because I really don't think this will end well, especially not with Rye, the odds on is between one and one hundred"
I thought about it for a minute before agreeing. There was this thing about Andy which I knew and remembered each time we did an odds on which would help me in winning.
"Three, two, one" Mikey counted back.
"Sixty-nine" we both said at the same time and everyone but Andy cheered.
"How?!" Andy said confused. "How did you get that?"
"Really Andy?" I asked him. "You didn't think I knew you would chose sixty-nine?"
He frowned at me before smiling a little.
"God damn you Ari, you know me to well" he said and I chuckled.
Happy with the succession that I'd just made, I was smiling when Rye sat back down after bringing all our drinks back on a tray. He looked at us all confused and Brooklyn laughed. He had no idea what Andy just just gotten him into.
"Just you wait Rye" he said. "Just you wait till you find out what Andy's done"
"Wait what?" Rye said confused. "Andy, what did you do?"
Andy buried his head in his hands, still defeated.
"You'll find out soon" he said. "Just listen out for a song we've covered and you'll find out what I did. I swear it was an accident and I'm so sorry in advance"
We waited, and it wasn't long before This Town by Niall Horan began to play and me and Jack pushed Andy and Rye up onto the dance floor while Mikey filmed in secret so the videos could go all over Twitter later. Despite how embarrassed they tried to act when it was happening, I could tell they were both enjoying being in each other's presences and it was something they were both enjoying - when they sat back down they acted to us all as if it was the weirdest thing in the world to be doing but when they thought nobody was looking, they would steal glances at one another and every now again catch each other and start giggling like lovesick teenagers.
This is where true love will start. Here, in the middle of a holiday club after they've just had their first proper dance together. This is the start of something new for them both.
It was nearing half eleven, and Jack kept pulling his phone out of his pocket every now again to check the time. It was like he was waiting for some thing, maybe a call or a text and it was only when it was closing in on midnight that Jack whispered something in Andy's ear and he nodded. He then proceeded to stand up and grab my hand, leading me out of the night club and into the night air.
"Where are you taking me all of a sudden?" I chuckled as he walked me passed the small playground and up one of the paths to the beach. He pulled out some paper from his pocket and I knew it was my bucket list.
He'd taken it out of the pocket now - it had taken a lot of convincing on mine and Andy's part and we had to reassure him that it wouldn't get ripped and it must've taken us over an hour on convincing but we got there in the end.
"Read goal number four" he said, handing it me. "Everything will make sense"
[[ Walk along the beach past midnight with Jack ]]
I smiled at him before he grabbed my hand, taking me by surprise at first but then our fingers mounded together perfectly.
"I couldn't think of any other way that I'd want to spend my night" I said and he smiled at the ground, giving my hand a squeeze before he stepped onto the beach with me.
It had always been a big thing for me to walk around at night. I'd always preferred to walk around in the dark rather than walk around when I could see the light - it was so peaceful and perfect to walk around in the dark, listening to all of the sounds that came as a package deal with all the darkness. There was so much empathy with walking around in the dark, always some type of joyous feeling which I was never able to grasp during the day.
There was nobody I could think of that I wanted to walk with more than with Jack. Being alone at this time with my best friend made it easy to grasp onto the fact that he was real, grasp onto the fact that I'd really managed to keep hold of him all my life and just be able to grasp the serenity of the situation.
"You're so perfect" Jack suddenly mumbled as we stopped to stare out at the moon that was hanging precariously over the sea. "Honestly, you're so perfect in every damn way"
My heart fluttered a little.
"Hush Jack" I said, nudging him a little with the corner of my elbow. "You're making me blush"
"Lying is a sin so I will not lie" he said, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him. "You're so perfect in every damn way - with everything that's been happening these past few weeks I've been trying to grapple onto serenity in situations and this happens to be one of them moments. I'm so thankful to be here with you in this moment and there's nobody else i would rather be here with. Thank you for being here"
There are moments, specifically moments like this one where I forget I'm walking around with Stage 4 cancer. Jack was like a breath of fresh air - he was the reason I forgot about what was happening inside of me, he was the reason I spent every day like it was my last and he was the reason I'd learned to hold onto the tethers of life and not let them loose. He was the person I would consider to be my rock, and I never would've been able to get through half of the stuff I do without him.
"I'm so lucky to have you" I said softly, leaning my head on his shoulder; I wasn't able to find many words as the thoughts i my head wouldn't form into sentences. "Thank you for absolutely everything you've done for me Jack. I'm never going to be able to express to you the extent of how much you mean to me and how thankful I am for you so just take this as my thank you. So many thoughts won't fathom into words but you know what I'm getting at"
"My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations" Jack said softly, quoting a line from one of my favourite books. He smiled widely at me as we began to walk back along the beach again, right to the end of it where another path was laid to lead us back up to the never-ending sea of caravans.
"I couldn't have asked tonight to go any better, thank you" Jack said. "I spent the most perfect night with my best friend and now we get to go back to a silent caravan. All the boys wil be flat out and it will just be you and me for the rest of tonight and that makes me very happy"
I chuckled at him.
"How about we watch Me Before You when we get in?" I said to him and I knew there was no way he would be able to pass down such a romantic movie. "To end a perfect night?"
"Sounds fantastic" he smiled as we walked hand in hand back towards where our caravan was - anybody passing us who didn't know our relationship would probably thought of us as too in-love teenagers. "Although be warned, I'm feeling emotional already so I may cry"
"More than usual?" I chuckled. "God help me"
He shoved me a little as we shared small chat back to the caravan. The song "Yellow" by Coldplay raced around my head as we walked, the sky shining bright stars down upon us as we walked along the desolate paths.
"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you"