Someday

Who’s going tonight? I texted Caroline, figuring she’d know who was planning on coming to play Frisbee.
Me, u, ivy, cathe, jon. That I know of.
Aaron and annie said theyd go. When do we leave?
Me, ivy and cathe are headed over. Jon said he’d meet us there.
K. I’ll get annie and aaron before I head over. Give us a couple minutes.
kk. I closed my phone and crossed my room to my dresser. I opened the top drawer and grabbed my blue fuzzy socks, knowing there was still snow on the ground. I put my socks on and texted Aaron and Annie that I’d meet them outside in a couple minutes to go to the park for the after dark Frisbee game with Ivy’s glow-in-the-dark Frisbee. I got downstairs and went to the office to tell my mom where I’d be for the next couple hours. I went back into the main hall and put my boots, coat, scarf, and gloves on.
I walked outside and saw Aaron and Annie walking next to each other across the street. I smiled at them and fell into step with them as we walked toward the park. I was walking on Aaron’s left with Annie on the other side of him. I twisted my head a little and raised an eyebrow and wiggled my fingers, knowing he’d understand what I was trying to ask. He shook his head gently.
“What’s up with the quiet?” Annie asked loudly, turning to face us.
“I don’t know. You hadn’t said anything.” I retorted.
“But you’re usually the one to talk first.” Annie pointed out. “And I figured you’d have at least said hi or something. At least to Aaron.” Her comment made me blush a bit, but thankfully we were far enough between streetlights she couldn’t have seen it.
“Sorry I have other stuff on my mind?” My statement ended up sounding like a question by the time I was done talking.
“Like what?” Annie questioned, darting her eyes toward her brother, trying to hint now that we were under the light again.
“Like the paper for history I have to write next week.”I said, half truthfully. Our conversation ended as we entered the park gate and we walked over to join the Frisbee game. We played Frisbee for about half an hour before Caroline got cold.
“Does anyone want to walk back with me? I’m kind of cold.” Caroline said, shivering visibly in the dim light.
“Yeah. I need to clean my room.” Cathe said, walking toward Cars.
“I will too. I need to talk to my mom about stuff. Can I have my Frisbee back?” Ivy asked, looking at me.
“Uh, hang on. I’m not ready to go yet. Anyone else want to stay?” I asked, turning to Aaron, Annie and Jon.
“Yeah. Sure.” Annie and Aaron said in unison as Jon nodded.
“Can we keep it here? I’ll bring it home with me and you can come grab it tomorrow.” I said, looking at her.
“Yeah. I guess. Just make sure I get it back.” She said, turning to run to catch up with Caroline and Cathe. I threw the Frisbee at Aaron, starting the game again. We played Frisbee for another half hour before Annie got cold and Jon got tired.
“You ready to head back?” Annie asked, eyeing Aaron and I.
“Sure. I can go back. It’s not a big deal for me.” I shrugged, knowing I still had the mile walk home with him if nothing else, and if I was lucky some time after that. Jon started walking toward the bridge back to the other part of the park. Annie followed him and left Aaron and I to bring up the rear. I looked at him as we passed under the light to keep the island from complete darkness. I rose my eyebrows and could tell he saw the question on my face.
“Maybe.” He whispered, just loud enough for me to hear, but not near loud enough to carry to Jon and Annie ahead of us.
“Annie!” I yelled at her. She spun in the foot deep snow to look at me. “Take Ivy’s Frisbee back.” I waited for her to nod and chucked the Frisbee in her direction. We walked back slowly as a group of four, but in our small group we were definitely split, Annie and Jon, and Aaron and I. Our conversations merged as Aaron and I caught up to them. I nudged Aaron as we walked between lights about a quarter of the way home, looking down at my slightly outstretched hand reaching for his. He smiled and took my hand.
Our group continued walking back toward home and Annie and Jon never really looked back at us, except when they were talking directly to us. They never really actually looked us, joined hand in hand, and made no acknowledgement of the fact. I knew they knew now for sure, but I was surprised that Annie didn’t say anything. Jon said goodnight as we passed by his house and the three of us continued toward home. We stopped on the street between our two houses and said goodnight to Annie. I wasn’t ready to let go of Aaron yet. I was still happy he was mine and letting it be known. I pulled gently at Aaron’s hand as their front door closed behind Annie.
Aaron followed me down the street til we reached the corner. He nudged me to turn left when we stopped for a second. I obliged and we walked down the darkened street.
“Thank you, by the way.” I said, turning to look at him.
“For what?” He asked, curious.
“For everything. For letting them know. For giving it a chance. For showing me that you kind of care.” I shrugged, acutely aware of the tingle in my hand and the fact that my heart still hadn’t calmed back down to normal even though he’d been holding my hand for twenty minutes.
“No problem, Riah.” He said the last word quietly, enough so that I almost didn’t hear it. I smiled anyway.
“But, Aaron, yes. It is a big deal. At least it is to me.” I squeezed his hand a little tighter as we sat down on the curb on the corner. He smiled gently and shrugged. “Is something on your mind?”
“A little, yeah.” He said after a while.
“Like what? C’mon, talk to me.” I nudged him with my shoulder and he pretended to fall over.
“It’s just that we have a week til spring break.”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“I don’t know. It just seems like a lot of time to not get to see you. It is three weeks.”
“I know. And I’m gonna figure we won’t be able to talk while I’m in Europe.”
“And my grandparents don’t have internet.”
“Yeah. That too. So we get to text for just over a week while you’re at your grandparents, then I’ll talk at you whenever I get the chance in Europe, cuz at least one hotel is bound to have wifi, and I’ll text you when I get back to the States. It’s not like we’ll be going three weeks without talking at all. It just won’t be much.”
“I guess.”
“But what? I can hear the but there.”
“But it just seems like a really small amount.”
“Compared to what? Cuz we haven’t exactly talked a lot this week. And it’s only been a week…” I let my sentence trail off.
“I know. Let’s go home. I’m cold.”
“Okay.” I rolled my eyes and stood up, letting our hands fall together again as we started walking home.
“Sorry. We’ve just been outside for a couples hours. And my fingers are frozen.” He sighed, wiggling his fingers against the back of my hand. I pulled my hand out of his and let our fingers curl together to see how cold his fingers actually were. I closed my hand over his and gasped.
“Holy buckets. They’re freezing!” I repeated, not believing they could actually be that cold. He nodded at me and smiled, flipping his fingers so they were between mine again. We walked back toward home and stopped outside my house on the sidewalk. He pulled me easily into a hug. We stood there just hugging each other, and I smiled to myself because at the moment that was enough. He wasn’t a touchy-feely person, and he had pulled me into the hug. I knew he wanted it. I gave him one last squeeze before I pulled back and smiled at him.
“Good night, Riah.” He said the new nickname again, stronger than before, and I smiled at him. I liked it.
“Night night, Aaron.” He smiled and I let my hand trail down from his shoulder, landing in his hand for a brief second before I turned and went inside away from the cold. I hung my coat up in the hall and kicked my boots off before heading into the living room and dropping down on the couch.
“Mars!” My sister, Sarah, screamed, running over and jumping on top of me. She gave me a hug and squished her little face against mine. She pulled back quickly and slapped me.
“Sarah! What was that for?!” I screamed at her, where she slapped me was stinging because my face my cold.
“Your face is cold!” She jumped off me crawled across the couch.
“Oh, go to bed.” I said, standing up and yawning. I headed to bed and fell asleep. That was the first night I actually dreamt of Aaron as being mine.