Dreams and Wishes

I walked into school the next day and sure enough, everyone was talking about him. Apparently his name was Jonathan Kings and his dad is a rich man who bought the old mansion on the edge of town to fix it up. All this sounded pretty close to what I had guessed about him. Just another rich boy who thinks he can live normally in small town life. Sam and her boyfriend, Ryan walked me to my homeroom where they kissed goodbye and Ryan and I walked in together. Of course who seems to be seated in the seat right next to mine is Jonathan. He’s leaning back with one hand tapping a rhythm on his desk, the resting against his neck. I plopped down next to him, Ryan in front of me and couldn’t help but notice how good looking he was. It’s not like I go around checking guys out, but I think every girl tends to process how a guy looks and this one was not bad looking.

“Hey, I’m Jonathan. Just moved here.” He said this even though he probably knew he didn’t need an introduction. Small town gossipers aren’t exactly quiet about it.

“Cat.” I replied simply. He looked confused and surprised. It was like his eyebrows were trying to do two different things and it made me giggle. “Catherine,” I clarified, “but you can call me Cat.”

“Okay… Cat.” He grinned as he tried it out. The bell rang so we both faced the front and began the school day.

I never have much to report about school, so I’ll try not to bore with too many details. Jonathan was only in one other class than me, English, which is homeroom and art. I was curious to see what sort of things he was interested in drawing. Because I have art sixth hour I usually stay behind to work on some things, or talk to Mr. Den, the art teacher. Jonathan also stayed behind and was working with oil pastels. I walked past to see a beautiful drawing of the night sky. His clouds contained color and form and the shading was stunning. I couldn’t help myself as I stared and he turned around. When he saw me observing his art he flushed, all embarrassed.

“That’s, that’s really good.” I stuttered. Man was I the Queen of speech. He shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“What are you working on?” He pulled a paper out of my folder. “Wow.” I grimaced as he stared at my charcoal sketch. It was of a snowy field with one lone tree in the middle and a forest in the background. Kind of how I view myself. It had a lot shading, something Mr. Den has had me working on. “You know,” Jonathan began, “since I am new here and all I don’t really know any place, but there is a gas station that sells really good icee’s really cheap if your interested.” He kind of tapered off. “You know, if your into that sort of thing and not too busy.

“It’s not like a date right?” I asked ever so subtly.

“No, not at all. I just don’t know many people…”

“Okay, I’d love to.” We gathered our things and walked out to the parking lot. I began to walk to my truck when he grabbed my arm with a wild look in his eye.

“Ever been on a motorcycle?”

“Um, no…” I could already picture myself spread across the road like human peanut butter and I felt my anxiety start to kick up. It had been a good day so far, nothing to tragic happen and I wasn't looking forward to that dark gloom visiting today.

“Come on, you can wear my helmet, we will leave our stuff in your truck.” He saw my hesitation. “Trust me. I know what to do. Its so amazing though, you have to try it.” Reluctantly I walked to my black beauty, (my truck) and dropped my backpack. He did the same with a grin on his face.

I fastened the helmet extremely tight. So much that he turned around and loosened it a bit. “You want to be able to stick two fingers under the strap.” He demonstrated. I enjoyed the feel of his hand on my face more than I should have, but soon I was just worried about balancing. We started of and the feeling of not having any doors on the sides was just crazy. It felt so unnatural. Once I was past that I was able to enjoy the feeling of the wind kissing my bare arms and tugging playfully at my hair. If you have never ridden on a motorcycle I suggest you do and soon. It’s a feeling you shouldn’t miss.

We pulled into the same gas station where I had first spotted Jonathan and dismounted. We got our icees and paid, then enjoyed them in sun. Summer was coming soon and you could smell it on the breeze. We talked for a bit. Mostly about art, some about his old town and about family. Small talk mostly. Though at one point some wind blew my hair across my face and I thought I had pulled it all back but apparently I missed some and he reached across and placed it behind my ear saying, “You know I would love to draw you. I love drawing beautiful things.” This was followed by a slightly awkward silence while I regained my composer. Then we began talking about art again.

Finally the sun began going down so he said he’d take me back to the parking lot so I could get my truck.

“Now that you’ve gotten used to the motorcycle I’ll show you just how fast we can really go.” He said with a sly look, and, well, to be cliché about it, we sped off into the setting sun.