A Second Chance

Luke held on to my hand tightly, but not too tight. It was like a little kid pulling his mother excitedly over to the candy section of a store; Luke reminded me quite a lot of a little kid. But not enough that I couldn’t see what an incredible man he became.

Throughout the day it had grown to be dark, it was about dusk right now and the sun was slowly setting behind us. After a few moments Luke stopped pulling and running with me until we both calmly walked side by side. I turned and looked over at him with a smile.

“So, are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“I can show you.” He said with a devilish touch, looking over at me with a cock-eyed grin. There was just something about this boy that constantly wracked at my curiosity. He wasn’t like any other guy I had ever known in my whole existence, it was like he was a new species, and I always wanted to figure him out a little more. But the more I tried, I got nowhere; he remained a mystery. All the guys that I had known from back home were so different from all the guys that I had met here on Bell Fall Island. They actually knew how to treat a lady like a lady, and not just some good looking sex toy.

“Or you can just tell me.” I said ending with a hopeful smile. Luke looked over at me and laughed.

“No! I want it to be a surprise.” I leaned over to him slightly.

“What if I told you I hate surprises?” He looked over at me, making our faces quite close together.

“I’d tell you too bad.” I pulled away and sighed, while he held onto his little grin.

“Ugh, I hate to wait though!” I said loudly, not quite a yell, but loud enough. The boy chuckled to himself.

“Oh, come on. It’s one of the few places on the island that no one else knows about.” He paused talking for a moment and every ounce of happiness that was just seconds ago gleaming off his face was drained. He looked in front of where he was walking, though not looking at anything in particular. He looked to be deeply consumed in thought; either that or his mind just went totally blank.

“Luke?” I asked gently after a few moments. He snapped back to life some and looked over at me innocently with no expression.

“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just…thinking.” I knew I was really pushing our three day friendship by asking, but I wanted to get inside his mind.

“About what?” We were still walking, but walking quite slowly now; he looked over at me for a moment and opened his mouth like he was going to say something. But he then abruptly closed his mouth and looked away. I sighed in my head. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but you can tell me anything. I won’t judge you.” I said honestly. He looked over at me with his bright beautiful topaz eyes shining in the oncoming moonlight, but kept treading along. Where ever his secret place was, it was a ways from town.

“It…it’s nothing really. I don’t know why I can’t talk about it. I mean it’s just the place where—” He stopped short again. It was then that I realized that where ever his place might be, or what it might be, it was super important to him. He could barely even talk about it. So for him to be bringing me to this place, well I felt very honored and special.

He sighed loudly. “Come on Luke, it was years ago. Why can’t you talk about it still?” He said out loud talking to himself. I stayed silent; there was nothing for me to say. We continued walking for another couple of minutes when he suddenly stopped walking when we came to a patch of big bushes. As a surprise to myself, I froze in my tracks as well. I looked down to see what held me back when I got sight of Luke’s strong hand still holding my smaller one inside it. I started to blush quickly; we had walked hand in hand the whole way and I hadn’t even noticed.

“I can’t talk about it,” Luke said, interrupting my blushing. “So I’ll show you instead.” He let go of my hand and pushed some of the bushes away, all while looking at me like he couldn’t look at whatever he was showing me. “Go inside.” He said calmly. I stared at him unsurely but then walked through all the brush.

I walked into a fairytale.

I entered into a scene straight out of a Disney movie. My eyes grew a bit larger to take in all the sights around me, and my breath was taken away from me. What stood before me was a magnificently gorgeous waterfall landed right above a crystal clear lake. The whole enclosure was surrounded by the greenest trees I had ever seen; the sky above me was now dark enough so that the moon could cast its perfect reflection upon the water’s surface. Small dots of light flickered in the air around me; the fireflies seemed to dance to the rhythm of the crashing waves of the falls. The island was dark, nightfall had crept up behind us, and yet this place glowed in its own beauty. It was absolutely breathtaking.
As I took in the surroundings, I noticed that Luke had also walked through the gates into this fairytale land and stood beside me, just staring at the wonders before us.

“This place is amazing.” I said out loud, more to myself than Luke. He gave a gentle sigh.

“Yeah, it really is.” It seemed that was all he could say without hitting a nerve. The Luke, the goofy, fun loving, messing around guy, that I had gotten to know seemed to once again vanish into thin air, and be replaced with a deep thinking, emotional Luke. It was gnawing at my brain, I wanted to know why this place was so extremely important to him, but I was afraid to ask.

Without a word, Luke walked over to a ledge that protruded out over the lake and stood close to the falls. He sat down quietly; I followed and sat next to him shortly after he moved.
We sat in simple silence for minutes, until the calming silence grew a bit uncomfortable and awkward. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to say anything at the same time.

“My mom used to bring me here all the time.” Luke suddenly said. I looked over at him; his eyes looked distant as he stared into the glimmering lake filled with fireflies. “We would just lay out here for hours at a time and watch the waters.” A small smile absentmindedly came to his face as he thought of the memories in his head. “We would play games, and count how many fireflies we could find. She would sometimes splash the water on me then run around when I chased her. I remember one time I fell in the lake and she came into get me, even though the water was freezing.” He added a soft chuckle at the end. He wasn’t looking at me, but I knew how bittersweet this made him to talk about it. “She was…amazing.” He said in almost a whisper.

I could see all this in my head; a young, rambunctious little Luke running around the waterfall chasing after his mother. His face would be as bright as fireworks, smiling so brightly. He would catch up to his also smiling mother and she would lightly splash water on him, causing him to chase her more. She would run, but allow him to catch up to her, so she could hug him, and kiss him, and love him. I knew my imagery wouldn’t be accurate, but I can believe it would be closely related.

I stared at Luke, who still looked distantly out at the waters. I didn’t know what to say, or if I should say anything at all. I simply chose the road of silence and looked out at the lake, and distantly thought back to my own mother. She was nothing like the woman that Luke had just described. I can’t remember one time when my mom laughed with me, when she would hug me, or kiss me, when she would love me…

I mentally slapped myself. I looked back over at the boy solemnly sitting next to me. His facial expression was indescribable, a saddening look of pain and misery that veiled over his normally cheery smile, that was no where to be found.

I could tell by his use of past tense that his mother was no longer with him; that was another reason I chose to stay quiet.

“She died when I was six.” I knew it was coming, and I tried to mentally prepare myself for what I could say, but when the moment came, I didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. “Her bringing me here is all I can remember about her. I don’t know what her personality was like, what she looked like. Sure, I’ve seen pictures, but it’s not the same.”

He looked over at me for the first time since we entered the falls, and with a sigh began to speak once more. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to dump all this on you. This place just really brings everything back to me. And I haven’t been here in so long.” He looked back away for a moment. “Not since the day she…” He trailed off in his own words. His eyes ran back over to me; they were most definitely filled with a bittersweet swirl of sadness. “Sorry, I know I’m getting pretty deep here.” He offered a small apologizing smile. I was going to smile back, when a sudden thought popped into my head. Instead of the smile coming out, the thought came out.

“How come you brought me here?” It sounded rude, but I knew Luke understood what I meant. He sighed and leaned back on the grass with his hands.

“I just wanted you to see the good parts of the island, and not just the crappy normal ones.” He paused and wouldn’t exactly look at me. I had a feeling in my gut that that wasn’t the only reason he brought me here. He didn’t speak for a few moments, but then looked over at me. “This place is special to me and well…” He stopped for only a second. “You’re kinda becoming special to me.” His cheeks grew pink, but his expression remained un-phased. A tiny smile crept on my face as my stomach began to flutter furiously with butterflies. “I mean, you’re just so different from every other girl I’ve ever met.” He glanced over with the smallest of smiles. “And I sort of like that about you.”

Since I met Luke a few days ago, I knew I liked him more than just a friend, but I was unsure how much more. Now, looking at him in the moonlight in the most special place he has, I knew it was a lot more than I thought. I gave him a smile.

“I’m glad someone thinks so.” He moved the slightest inch closer to me but wore a confused face.

“What do you mean?” I sighed to myself. He had just told me about his mother—an obviously touchy subject—and now I was given the offer to spill my guts. But could I? Would Luke even still like me if he knew my secret?

“Uh, back home, people always told me that I would never be good enough, for anyone, anything. Yes, I come from the land of Dream Crushers. No one believed in me, and my parents—” I stopped in my tracks. I was being cautious. I didn’t want him to know my secret, not yet at least. “Well, my parents were pushy and temperamental.” Luke simply stared at me.

“Wow, that must have been awful. I can’t imagine living in a place like that. How’d you deal with it?” Oh Luke, I wish I could tell you.

I shrugged beside myself.

“I moved here and got away.” Once again, he inched closer, though if I hadn’t seen him do it, I wouldn’t have known he moved.

“Well, I’m happy you did.” Would you really be happy if you knew the real reason I moved here? I smiled simply at him. It wasn’t a fake smile; it was real, only a little forced.

Luke and I lay in the grass for hours just talking and watching and listening to the waters. Time slowly crept away from us; only did I notice the time when I noticed the position of the moon in the sky.

“I should probably head home.” We both got up and brushed the grass off of us. He smiled sweetly at me.

“Let me walk you home.” I grinned happily at him, and we began our way back to my house.