Page 111 of Lake
“I just thought that one day, maybe, you’d be on the back of my bike again.”
He didn’t ask.
He didn’t give any kind of time to when he wanted this to happen.
He simply dropped a big hint and left it dangling out there.
This helmet was more than something to protect my head. It was a hint at something more. At something that could be.
At the possibility that we would see each other again.
And I came to love it even more.
I realized that once it was out there, that there was another road I could take for my future— even if I chose not to take it. That the world was wide open and just about anything could be tangible.
“I’d like that,” I said feeling like I was speaking the words straight from my soul.
“Me too.”
There was a long beat where we got lost in one another and I hated that he wasn’t right here for me to touch.
“Oh!” he said shaking himself out of his daze. “I got you something else. Sort of. Kinda. Here, just look.”
He tilted his phone up a little.
There on the wall above his boring, wooden headboard, was a painting. It wasn’t huge but it fit perfectly over his bed.
“Is that a painting of a bridge over a lake?” I said squinting to try to make out the details on my small screen.
“No, it’s aLakeunder aBridge.”
“Oh my fucking God!” I said as I busted out laughing. “No. No, you didn’t…”
“Yeah, I did. Had Cami paint it for you.”
“Holy shit! She did that? Wow, that’s fucking awesome.”
I couldn’t believe that he remembered that awkward comment. It was so bad and my cheeks may have been a little red from embarrassment as I remembered it.
“So, if that gift is for me, how come it’s hanging onyourwall overyourbed?”
“Because I was afraid that if I mailed it to you something would happen to it.”
“Still doesn’t explain why it’s hanging on the wall.”
“For safety purposes. Duh.”
“You totally whacked off looking at it didn’t you?”
Now it was his turn to go bright red.
“Oh, shit. You did?!”
“Only because it reminded me of you and well, thinking of you usually does things…”
“Gives you a boner. You can say it, Lake. You’re a big boy now.”
He rolled his eyes at me and I couldn’t stop laughing for a good long minute.
