Open Your Eyes

“You came!” I had been contemplating all afternoon whether or not to actually come and meet Will like he asked me to earlier. My conclusion was that I had nothing better to do tonight unless I wanted to see Hansel again, but I wasn’t in the riding mood, and so I decided that I might as well come. Besides, Will seemed like a nice guy and I’m new. I don’t really think I should be passing up a new friendship when, besides Evan, it was probably the only one I was going to have for a while.

It was still light outside but it wouldn’t be long before the sun set and the darkness took over. It was pretty outside though so I was glad to be out of the house and enjoying the weather, as cliché and as lame as that sounded. I had spent so many nights inside alone or with Evan that it was different, but a good different, to be spending time with somebody else. I wasn’t the kind of person that needed to be centered around people, but I wasn’t somebody that liked to feel lonely either. I don’t think anybody liked to feel lonely. Elizabeth and Evan were great, don’t get me wrong, and I liked the feeling I got whenever Evan and I were together, but they were familiar. What I needed was something new and refreshing; a friendship that didn’t feel so similar.

“Well I figured that it would be awkward at work if I hadn’t showed. I think I did us both a favour.” I thought back to what he had told Kindle before about having to watch someone and wondered why he was asking me to meet him when he had other priorities. “I thought you had someone to take care of?” I asked genuinely, trying not to sound like I was prying. There was nothing more annoying than somebody who was always nagging you about your own business.

“A good favour indeed,” He said walking over to me and raising his arm for me to hold. “And I do have something I need to do tonight, but I have an hour to kill until then so I thought I’d show you something. Don’t worry; I’m an excellent tour guide.” I didn’t try to correct him and tell him that I had lived here once before because part of me was curious as to where it was he wanted to show me. I didn’t want to ruin it by confessing that I knew my way around the neighbourhood for the most part. Instead, I linked my arm with his and allowed him to lead me in the direction he wanted me to go.

“So where are we going?” I asked curiously, wanting desperately for him to tell me. He smiled and shook his head at me but didn’t say anything. “Are you going mute now?” I saw him laugh from the corner of my eye but still he said nothing. I continued letting him lead me though which when you really think about it, was probably a stupid idea. I hardly knew him and in the movies the girls who followed the guys they barely knew always ended up dead.

“You’ll see.” He said smirking as we turned around a corner and he lead me down a narrow street that I faintly recognized. I stopped to face him, anxious to know where we going. He smiled and walked away for a second bending down to pick something up from the grass.

“You keep saying that,” I said crossing my arms, “But I still don’t have any answers.” He turned his head to face me and watched me intently with a look of curiousity displayed on his face. He looked very gentle right now, with the way his eyes rested on mine softly and his cheeks were a very faded shade of pink. He was wearing his work clothes still which really seemed to suit him for some odd reason. It was just black pants and a white shirt, but when he didn’t have them all tucked in to look prim and proper he looked sort of sexy.

“That’s because,” he said getting up and walking over to me. He lifted his hand to my face and grazed my jaw line as he traced a path to my ear and I felt something soft get tucked behind it. “You need to learn to be patient.” I just stood there staring at him wondering where on earth he picked up his charm. No other boy had ever picked me a flower and placed it behind my ear before. No other boy had ever even picked me a flower before… well, besides Evan, but that didn’t count because they were always dandelions. I touched the petals, wanting to know what kind of flower it was but refusing to take it out from behind my ear to look at it. If I wasn’t blushing before, I had to be blushing now.

He lifted his arm for me to take again and we continued our walk down the street. It was a very long street and it took us about ten minutes just to reach the end of it. At first I thought that he just wanted to show me the end of the street and thought I’d be all impressed with how long it took to get to it, but then he lead me through the some trees that were spread out near the curb and I was staring at a bridge. It was a beautiful stone-paved bridge that stretched out above a small river. The sun was peeking through the trees, illuminating the water and adding beauty to the scenery.

“I love coming out here at this time,” Will said letting go of my arm and resting his elbows on the ledge of the bridge. I walked over beside him and looked down at the water where little schools of fish were swimming around. I noticed a few lily pads floating around and I liked the idea of little frogs hopping around livening up the place.

“It’s beautiful!” I said turning my head to face him. “How did you find out about this place?” I guess when you really thought about it, finding out about this place wouldn’t have been that difficult. All you had to do was walk to the end of the street, go through a couple of trees, and you were there. I could easily find my way back to it if I were to ever want to come here again. It seemed like a great place to come to relax or read a book.

“Um… well, my friend – best friend, did.” He said shakily. His mood seemed to have changed a bit since being here. “He and I used to come here all the time together.” I watched his face when he said this and something about the way his eyes glazed over told me that I probably wasn’t going to be given a very happy ending to this story.

“Used to?” I asked hesitantly. “Did he move or something?” For some reason, I could sense from his vibe that his friend hadn’t moved; something bad had happened. It made me wonder why he decided to take me here. It seemed like a pretty important and sacred place to be taking some random girl you barely knew who lived on your street and worked with you.

“Not exactly,” He said quietly, “He, he’s dead now.” I let the words hang in the air not knowing how to respond. I had no idea what to say to somebody when they told you that somebody important to them died. I didn’t want to say sorry because nobody liked to hear that when someone passed away, but it was the only word I could think to say.

“Oh,” I said, instead of sorry. “That must be really hard.” His face looked pained now and I wanted to just reach out and hug him. I didn’t know if I should or not though so I just took my hand and placed it over his instead. I got the feeling that he didn’t really have many people to talk to in his life. I felt weirdly content with being the person he decided to bring here.

“Yeah,” He said taking his hand away from mine and turning around so that he was leaning against the ledge. “Well, I just thought that you might want to see this place. It’s kind of awesome.” His face turned from pained to smug in a matter of seconds and I figured that it was just best to leave the subject alone. We stood there in silence for what seemed like hours but only ended up being twenty minutes, before we decided to head back. It was a short outing but I felt connected to him somehow after it. Like I knew a little bit about him that nobody else did. Thinking about this made me feel good; it made me want to hug him for thinking I was worthy enough to be taken to a place he kept close to his heart.

Halfway up the street he started to ask me questions, like, what my favourite colour was and what I wanted to be when I was older. He asked me to describe the perfect evening and I told him that star gazing while lying on a blanket, drinking hot chocolate, in the middle of nowhere was probably the best idea I had never tried. I wasn’t someone who knew a lot about space and the way it all worked, but when I was in P.E.I and I would be leaving Hansel at night, I would always stop to take a look at the night sky. The stars always blanketed the entire sky in a way that you would only be able to see if there weren’t any lights on around you. It was always beautiful.

I asked him most of the same questions and found out that his favourite colour was a light blue, he wanted to maybe pursue a career as a firefighter, and his perfect night would be anywhere remotely quiet with a few good people and a couple of beers. It had been so long since I had attempted to get to know someone that I forgot how great it felt to discover things you didn’t know about someone new. It amazed me how people could just make friends and then just stop trying again after they thought they found the right people. It seemed idiotic even though everyone including myself does it.

He began walking me home after we reached the top of the street again and the whole time it felt like I was talking to an old friend. He wasn’t an awkward person and it was easy to see that even though he was charming, he had his flaws. I hadn’t ever met someone who was so open to revealing so much about themselves in one night.

“So I guess I’ll see you later,” Will said as we reached the door to my house. I thought he was just going to casually walk past my house and let me go my separate way but he ended up following me to my door instead. I liked the fact that he did it, but it made me feel a bit antsy, like this night out had been a date or something. There was still one question on my mind though and I wasn’t about to let him leave without getting my answer.

“Why did you bring me to that bridge?” I sounded sort of blunt when I said it which I didn’t mean to do, but the words just came out on their own; I didn’t really think about how to phrase it. “It was a very special place to you, so why me? Why did you bring me there?” I watched as he bit the bottom of his lip, trying to think of a way to respond to me. His green eyes rested on mine for a long while and I hated how he liked to leave me with more questions than answers.

“You seemed like the kind of person who would appreciate it.” He said shrugging. “I thought maybe you’d want to see it.” I decided that that was a good enough answer and nodded before hugging him goodnight and going inside. It seemed weird to me to have him read me so well. He knew I would appreciate it? Wouldn’t everyone appreciate a beautiful spot like that? It seemed almost impossible to me that someone would hate being brought there. It was the kind of place a person could go to think or to get their minds off of things. It was peaceful.

I walked up to my room and sat on my bed, refusing to let the creepiness of my bedroom get to me tonight. All I wanted to do was lye here until I fell asleep. I didn’t want to think about anything at the moment. I didn’t want to think about Evan and the way my stomach fluttered when he was around and I didn’t want to think about Will and how drawn I was to him. I just wanted to close my eyes and shut out the world for a little while. Every time I did though, I pictured that bridge with the pretty river below it and I smiled. It made me sad to think about how Will had lost his friend, a friend he used to go there with all the time. I guess it was that one place he could go to when he wanted to reminisce on everything between them.

I turned on my side and felt a soft petal touch my face. I had forgotten that Will had placed that flower in my hair earlier. I ran my hand over it, feeling how soft it was before gently taking it out from behind my ear and looking at it. A smile spread across my face as I looked at the orange petals and a stirring began in my stomach. Out of all the flowers he could have picked, he ended up picking my favourite one. Out of all the roses, and buttercups, and god awful dandelions he could have chosen from; he chose a tiger lily.