37 | hollywood
I just love you, is all
Axel's leaning against his car in the school parking lot when I get out of my last exam. I smile to myself when I see him, a couple of our classmates around him, talking, and he's laughing, and opening up again, a little more than a week after his mother passed away.
He acknowledges me with a nod when he notices me approach, and goes back to shaking a dude's hand as he tells him, "I'll be there, man." He slips something into his pocket, and digs out some cash.
"Nah," the boy shakes his shaggy blonde hair, "think of it as a 'going away' gift."
Axel chuckles, tucking the cash into the back pocket of his grey shorts and throws an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in. "Thanks, dude," he chuckles, and glances down at me, "you met my girl yet?"
We both glance up at Axel's friend, and he shakes his head. "I have not," he says, but holds out his hand, "I'm Clay," and leans in a bit to whisper, "I'm your boyfriend's drug dealer."
I chuckle. "Nice to know," I shake his hand, but he lifts it up to place a kiss on the back of it, "I'm Avi."
"Well, it's nice to meet you," Clay says, and nods at Axel, "later, dude," as he and his group leave.
Axel's smiling down at me guiltily when I turn towards him and fold my hands behind the back of his neck. "Told you I was still working on the whole 'weed thing'," he says softly, wrapping his arms around my waist, drawing my chest against his.
I giggle, kissing his nose, and raise a brow, "you planning on sharing?"
He frowns. "I thought you don't do drugs?"
I grin. "Well, now I don't have the excuse of my boyfriend not approving, so—"
"Fine," Axel sighs, "I'll share. But only tomorrow night."
"Sounds like a lot more fun than prom," I laugh as we get into the car.
Axel sits back against his seat. "I told you I'd take you if you wanted to go, sweetheart," he tells me again. "Prom is dumb as fuck but it'd be fine if I was with you."
"Awe," I kneel on my seat to lean over and kiss Axel on the lips, "but no," I strap myself in, "I didn't want to go either. I'd rather just be alone with you."
"Cute," Axel teases, pulling out of the parking lot. "Can we do that today too?"
I nod. "Where should we go?"
"Oh, I already have the day planned," he smirks. He's been finished school for two days already, so of course he does.
"Is it with that Clay dude? I heard you say you'd be somewhere."
"No," Axel says, "he was talking about my moving away party. I still have a month. We're good."
I nod, reaching over to touch Axel's leg. "I'm gonna miss you."
Axel shakes his head. "We're not talking about this now. Again. Okay? I'm not going for awhile. Let's just have a great day, please?"
"I know, I'm sorry," I tell him as he holds my hand, and I tighten my fingers, gripping him like he might just slip away, like he's going to at the end of July. Every time we're together, I somehow bring up the fact that he's going to be leaving, as if I'm expecting him to end it with me at any moment because he doesn't want someone holding him back.
I know he's not like that. Maybe I want him to be. Maybe I know that I am, and that I'll be the one to fuck this up, and once again, I just want to place the blame on someone else.
I shake my head. I kiss Axel's hand. Something that feels this right can't go wrong.
・・・
"You got everything?" Axel asked me 3 hours ago. "Your hiking shoes?"
It's now 2 o'clock, and as we stand at the bottom of Mount Lee, gazing up at the Hollywood sign, I realize why that specific item was so important.
I chuckle, and elbow Axel in the side, "you sure can do this? I don't want to have to carry you half the way up. How long's the trail?"
"Um, of course I can," he scoffs, tickling me for insulting him. "I'm a little scared for you though, sweets. We can always turn back," he squints, smiling devilishly, and crosses his arms, waiting for my answer.
I snort. "Pfft. It's easy. How long's the trail? Two, three miles?"
Axel's smile grows on that smug, beautiful face of his. "Nah," he shifts his weight onto one side as he leans over, "we're taking the longest trail. 6 and a half miles."
I groan.
He bites his lip in hilarity.
I smack his arm playfully and he tries to grab me but I jump out of his reach. "I don't know what you're trying to prove, sweetheart," I snarl jokingly, "but you won't win."
"Really?" Axel walks up to me, so close that I almost have to take a step back because he towers over me. "Just like I wouldn't win during game night?" I glance away in annoyance. That was one time. I just had a bad day. Axel chuckles and places a wet kiss on my lips and holds out his hand, "come on. Teamwork?"
I snort again. "Nah, I'm leaving you in the dust, boy," I say, and jog off ahead of him. It hardly takes him much effort to keep up with me with these short legs of mine. I give in, because I literally cannot jog for more than 5 minutes tops, and walk beside Axel, as he tries to shorten his long strides.
We walk in silence for what feels like a very long time, but it's comfortable, and somewhere along the way, our hands have found their way into each other's.
The sun is hot against my shoulders, and my face, but I have on a hat, sunglasses, and a whole lot of sunscreen. I glance up at Axel in his aviators and the black hat he took from Will, and bump him with my hip.
"What?" he asks.
I shrug. "Nothing."
He butts me back. "Getting tired?"
I shake my head, obviously out of breath. "I just love you, is all."
Axel chuckles. "Is that code for 'Can you carry me?'?"
I laugh. "No, but since you offered—" I hold my arms out to him.
He stops, and sighs. "Fine," he mumbles, reaching out to me.
I giggle. "I was kidding. You're sweaty as fuck."
"No, come here," he taunts, trying to take me into his arms, but I continue running up the path.
We reach the Hollywood sign minutes later. I make Axel take pictures of me to send to my mom, and then we get other hikers to take pictures of us together, and it feels like the most normal thing in the world. I've wanted to come here for years now, and just like that, Axel made it happen.
We get to the Hollywood walk of fame later that evening after changing our sweated clothes in the public bathrooms when we reached the bottom of Mount Lee again, and ended up making out in the car.
Time doesn't even seem to exist when I'm with Axel. There's just him. Him buying me vegan ice-cream that Will recommended. Him making me take a picture of him flipping off Trump's star. And then him with a bunch of random people flipping off Trump's star.
We skip the Universal Citywalk for the day and go down to the Santa Monica pier. The sun is setting by the time I suggest we go on the Ferris Wheel like almost every couple in almost every romance novel I will never admit to reading. But Axel doesn't hesitate to get us tickets. I text my mom pics as we wait for it to start going up, and Axel throws his arm around my shoulders, hugging me close.
"I had a lot of fun today," I whisper, and kiss his cheek.
He kisses my forehead. "Me too."
We stop at the top of the Ferris Wheel and gaze out over the water. Axel glances back at me and grins, cupping my face to kiss my lips. So he probably knows I'm a sucker for cheesy things like this. He definitely knows when he decides to take a selfie of us. I kiss his cheek for one of the photos. And then his lips. And then we make silly faces. Maybe it's not just me that loves the sort of normalcy of being just two kids in love.
"Hey," I lift my head off Axel's shoulder, "let's not go home tonight."
"Hm?"
I shrug. "It's like a three hour drive. We'd get back after 12. Let's just get a hotel room."
"What about your parents?" he worries.
"I already told my mom I was staying at your place anyway," I admit.
"Did you now?" he smirks.
He knows exactly what I had in mind. I'm sure he was thinking about it today too, especially during our makeup session in the car. And it's been awhile since we've gotten that far again in our relationship. He's needed time to heal. We've been trying to graduate, and now that were here, going off to university this fall, and won't be seeing much of each other, or being able to touch each other, we have to make up for it somehow.
I bite my lip. "I'm prepared."
Axel cocks a brow.
I blush madly. "I mean—" I inform, "I brought my toothbrush and pyjamas."
"Oh okay," Axel says rather loudly, "well I brought condoms, but if you don't want —"
I slap his shoulder and shush him. We've almost reached the bottom and someone is bound to have heard him. He laughs out loud. I snicker into his arm and try to hide my embarrassment, but deep down, I'm in a hurry to get a hotel room.
We book one when we get to Axel's car. Mom texts me hoping I had a good time, and I tell her I did, even though the night isn't close to being over. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.
・・・
Helloooo
Thank you for reading! I'm going on vacation for a week so I won't be updating next Friday, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter <3 Leave a vote and comment if you did
-ADI
(your votes help a lot, and thank you guys so much for 240k+ reads wow)