Carry Us Away

Garrett:

My eyes fluttered open and I immediately closed them from the sunlight streaming in. A pillow flew into my face. I threw it off me and sat up still squinting. Gabrielle was running around picking up my clothes and throwing them on the bed next to me.

All she had on was a shirt—my shirt.

“Uh, sorry. I can’t find your shirt at the moment, but I really need you to get up because I have class in half an’ hour which means I’m supposed to leave…” She paused to check her phone. “Shit, fifteen minutes ago.”

She turned away from me and started rummaging through her dresser pulling out things to wear. Nothing seemed to be good enough for her to wear and soon there was a small pile on the ground. I got up and quickly put on my pants.

“You do know that you’re wearing my shirt right?”

She looked down at my gray “Young & Dumb” shirt and frowned. “Oh, I didn’t even notice. Here.” She whipped it off and threw it in my hands, returning to the pile on the ground letting different colors of clothing fall from her hands in a hurried frustration. She was in nothing but a purple bra and white boy shorts and I tried my best not to let my eyes linger on her tan body. Her eyes moved up to me and my cheeks immediately grew red. A smirk spread across her mouth, she got up and made her way over to me.

“I like that I can do that to you.” She said as she rubbed my cheek lightly.

“You do not make me blush.” I let out a groan as my cheeks grew warmer.

“It’s okay.” She said, pecking my cheek. “It’s cute.”

I wrapped my arms around her waist and brought her body up against me. “But I don’t want to be cute.”

She let out a small laugh before growing silent to look me in the eyes. I reached up a hand to tuck a strand of hair that had fallen over her eyes behind her ear. A faint blush crept on to Gabrielle’s cheek.

“You’re beautiful.” I whispered.

Gabrielle’s blush deepened and she looked down momentarily before looking back up shyly. She pushed me away. “Don’t do that, Garrett.”

I stared at her confused as she picked up a plain navy blue v-neck from the ground and white-jean shorts. She put them on quickly and then went over to her dresser to find her brush to brush her hair quickly. She stared at him.

A smile crept up on her face. “I wish I could stay longer, but I really need to go.”

I made my way over to her and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Can’t you just skip one class?”

She closed her eyes at my touch and a faint hum came from her lips. She looked like she was really considering it. Finally without a word she walked over to the opposite side of the bed and picked up her bag, quickly shoving things inside of it. I felt my stomach sink realizing that she was getting all her stuff ready for school. Her eyes went up to me and without warning she ran over to me. Her sudden kissed shocked me, but once I realized what she was doing I let my body relax into the kiss.

“Rule number two,” She began after we pulled apart. “when dealing with guys you like: make sure he likes you too.”

She let go of my hand before walking away. I just kept watching her wondering what she wanted me to say. Once at the door way, Gabrielle paused and looked over her shoulder. I ran up to her and spun her around. “What if I told you that I’m not gonna let you go to class? What if I kidnapped you for the day? What if I did all this so that I could prove to you that I like you?”

She smiled, not smirked, but actually smiled. It was like that smile I saw when she was taking pictures of that little girl. It made me feel really good to see it. I couldn’t help but feel like Gabrielle was rarely genuinely happy. I wanted to be the one to make her happy.

“I’d say that you have yourself a date, Mr. Nickelsen.” She told me.

We laced our hands together and made our way outside. I knew my face had to be reflecting her exact same smile. At first I was just relieved that there wasn’t anything awkward between us after last night, because to be completely honest, last night had been amazing. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want many more nights like that. Now however, I was more than relieved, I was ecstatic that I could make a girl like Gabrielle happy and blush. It seemed unreal.

“So how did you know my last name?” I asked once we were out of her house.

Gabrielle let out a laugh. “I went through your wallet while you were asleep.”

“Oh, that’s—Wait, you what?”

We came to a stop outside of her car.

“I woke up at like four this morning, because I couldn’t sleep. So I went to get something to eat, because that’s what everyone does when they can’t sleep, right?” She let out a small laugh. “Anyways, I tripped over your pants and your wallet came out and I was curious. Cute driver’s license by the way.”

I grabbed her by her thin waist and leaned my back against her car door bringing her close so that she was leaning against me. “Okay, even though you invaded my personal stuff. I’ll forgive you if you tell me your last name.”

She squinted her eyes at my in seriousness. “Um… I don’t know…” She teased. “I don’t want you to know my full name and stalk me on Facebook or some shit like that.”

I pretended to be offended. “Why would I stalk you on Facebook when I know where you live? I would much rather stalk you in person.”

She giggled and I could feel her laugh from the closeness of our bodies. “You’re a funny guy.” She released herself from my arms and threw her keys to me. “Here. You drive, since you’re the one taking me against my will, I will tell my professor that just so you know.”

We got into the car and started driving, but Gabrielle stayed quiet. I glanced at her every once in awhile as she looked out the window just smiling to herself. It was weird to not be in my car with my music so I didn’t want to touch anything. Maybe that’s where we could go first, my favorite music store so that way I could introduce her to some new stuff.

I looked over at her uncertainly, “Are you sure you want to do this? You’re just gonna let me drive you around town, where ever I want?”

Her eyes focused on my hands on the steering wheel. She nodded. “You can take me and my heart anywhere.”



Gabrielle:

He turned back to face the road with a small lopsided smile on his lips. I smirked out how good he was feeling.

“Oh, and it’s Stephenson.”

He turned to me in confusion.

I let out a small laugh. “My last name, it’s Stephenson.”

He grabbed my hand and held it lightly over the console. “Well, Ms Stephenson, be prepared to have the greatest day of your life.”

We soon pulled up to this remote shop called Zia Records. I got out of the car before I noticed that Garrett had hurried to my side to open the door for me.

He groaned. “I was going to do that for you!”

I couldn’t help but find him really adorable. Nobody had ever tried to do that for me before, but I had already messed it up. “Oh no! I can like sit back down and then…” I stopped realizing how different I sounded. I didn’t really get concerned about other people’s feelings.

“No, no, it’s okay.” He offered his hand quickly changing the subject he said, “I love this place. It’s where I come for all my favorite vinyls, because they have all the old classic stuff as well as new shit. It’s awesome.”

I let him drag me inside to be welcomed by a dimly lighted shop. The two owners greeted Garrett with a head nod. The inside was actually a lot bigger than it appeared on the outside. There were rows upon rows of CD’s, movies, records, posters as well as a section of pointless toys and stuff.

The older man who was big, graying and balding gave Garrett a high five. “Garrett, my man, long time no see. What have you been up to?”

Garrett shrugged. “A lot of stuff with the band. We’re working on a new album, kind of just coming up with a lot of new ideas and playing around with them and of course practicing songs repeatedly for our upcoming tour.”

I grew fascinated with the way Garrett talked about making music. He made it sound so easy, but everyone knew how hard it was to catch a break in the music industry. I suddenly realized that I didn’t really know this side of Garrett at all. From the beginning I had just been toying with him, stringing him along for fun like when I showed up to his show to surprise him—to make him uncomfortable. I don’t think I even paid much attention to them perform.

Well, now I was uncomfortable standing next to him as he talked about things I had no idea about. What a bitch it was to practice the same bass strumming pattern over and over? I didn’t have a clue. Pat wanting a new snare drum? Consider me absolutely oblivious. Oh God, and then they started to talk about zombies. I bit my lip in anxiousness.

Why did Garrett want a girl like me anyways?

He seemed like the type of guy that would be perfectly content with a girl who was down to earth, someone that actually appreciated his music, and someone that would watch Zombie movies with him. Let’s face it. The only zombie movie I had seen was Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead. Those were more comedy than thriller anyways. So, why was Garrett taking me out today? Most guys went after me for one thing, but that couldn’t be Garrett right?

He seemed too nice.

I tried to shake the next thought from coming into my head, but it did anyways. I couldn’t remember what number it was, because it was one I had made up a long time ago, but tended to forget… or tried to.

A rule when dealing with douche bag guys: never let the nice ones trick you. The nice ones were always the ones to look out for.

It was back when I was seventeen. He was my first real love, only my second boyfriend… and I fell hard. I was a sophomore and he was senior. I remembered feeling so lucky that someone who was eighteen was paying attention to me an underclassman that wasn’t even sixteen yet. He was my everything. He did everything a gentlemen was supposed to do, that’s what the books said anyways. He did it all, held my hand and kissed me in front of his friends, let me sit with him at lunch, got me presents of stuffed animals, candy, even a necklace.

But it was all a show to get one thing.

When I was younger I didn’t know that I was the main event of this show.

Garrett pulled me close to him pulling me away from my thoughts.

“This is Gabrielle. I’m taking her around town today.” He said proudly. “And Gabrielle, this is Hank. He owns this awesome place along with his son James.”

“Nice to meet you.” I extended my hand. I loved meeting new people.

He gave it a shake and nodded towards Garrett. “Garrett here’s a good kid, very odd at times, but good.” He joked, but I caught the worried look he flashed me.

I took it in and realized that while I was worried that Garrett was just playing me everyone must see Garrett and I and think that I was using him. That wasn’t true at all. So, couldn’t I give Garrett the benefit of the doubt?

Garrett tugged on my hand eagerly like a kid in a candy shop. “Come here. I want to show you something.”

He dragged me to the back quickly through disorganized aisles of CD’s and movies until we got to the back. There were surprisingly a lot of people in here. Who knew such a place would attract so many people?

Garrett brought me to the back where there were nothing put rows and rows of vinyls. He grinned and let go of my hand before sifting through the thin cardboard covers. After probably about a solid five minutes of browsing, he let out an excited exclamation and pulled out a record.

“No fucking way.” He said as he turned it over in his hands.

I went up behind him and looked over his shoulder. I had to stand on the tips of my toes. “What is it?” I asked.

“This album,” He said, holding it up for me to see. “My dad had the CD when I was younger and I used to listen to it all the time, but we lost it and I’ve been looking for it ever since. Now, not only have I found it, but it’s the fucking vinyl. I don’t think I’ll even play it. I’ll just like put it up on some sort of pedestal.”

I grabbed it from his hand and read the cover. Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams. I looked up at Garrett and opened my eyes wide in shock as I pretended to drop it.

He about had a heart attack and took it quickly from my hands. “Don’t even joke like that.” He said seriously.

“I was just kidding, Gare. I know he’s your man-crush. It’s really cute.”

He groaned in frustration. He ran his fingers through his messy hair before grabbing my hand. “Here. I want to get you something.”

“What?”

He lead me through the another aisle and we had to dodge a few people. Finally, we came to a stop in front of the CD’s. “I need to get you into some good stuff other than the crap that gets played on the radio.”

I shrugged. “If I can dance to it, I like it.”

I stared up at him while he tapped his chin. His eyes were squinted as he focused on the tiny writing on the thin CD cases before exclaiming ‘aha’ and grabbing a album. “I’m not sure if you’ll like them, but you should give them a try. They’re a great band. Very sarcastic sounding, just like you.”

I looked at the CD in my hand.

“It’s Cage the Elephant.” He explained. “That’s their newest CD and it’s the shit.”

I looked at it uncertainly. “And you think I’ll like it?”

He grinned. “Most definitely. Consider it a gift for you, because you’re so awesome.”

I grinned at his word choice.

He really was… adorable.