Steam Punk Goggles and Ink Stained Hands

SHANE’S POV

~

Unpacking the last couple of boxes into my new room, I took a second to look around and take it all in. I was moving in with my dad – my newly appointed legal guardian after a court judged my mother unfit and he gained full custody of me. Twenty minutes’ drive away lived a boy who changed my life - my beautiful boyfriend Drew - , who made this all possible two months ago when he re-united my father and I.

At first, it wasn’t all smooth sailing and I had some ups and downs with getting to know the man I never really knew as a child and it didn’t always seem like it was going to work. Somehow though, we’d managed to make it work and I found myself actually feeling affection towards him; I actually felt like he was my dad.

We’d been shopping since I’d made the decision to come and live with him a couple of weeks ago, meaning I actually had proper clothes to put in my wardrobe now rather than just the few I went to Drew’s with. That’s the one downside to this whole thing - I don’t get to live with Drew anymore.

Still - as my dad pointed out when we were re-united – I couldn’t stay at theirs forever, not to mention the fact Drew wasn’t actually that far from me and we still went to the same school. Honestly though, I did still feel a little sad that I wouldn’t see him all the time, but I knew this was the logical thing to do.

I was snapped out of my Drew reverie when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and – in hope it was Drew texting me – I whipped it out of my pocket double quick, only to find it was a Snapchat notification. My smile dropped a bit when I realised the sender display name didn’t read CyrusB123 but perked up again when I realised it was from Kier.

Tapping the screen gently to open the Snapchat, I wandered over to my bed, sitting down as it loaded and pressing the message when it did to reveal the picture.

It made me grin to see that the photo was of Kier and Laurence cuddling on what looked like Kier’s bed, both with matching megawatt smiles as they gazed into the camera lens, arms wrapped tight around each other. It would have been a very sweet and normal photo, had Laurence and Kier not had weird hats on their heads… (Laurence’s was a panda/bear hat and Kier’s looked like he stole it off someone in a cowboy movie).

Once it had displayed for ten seconds, the picture disappeared and I quickly sent a photo back, taking a second to muse on how adorable Drew looks when he takes photos of himself (even though a good ninety percent of them are him derping) and that was what made me miss him all over again. Seeing Kier and Laurence so happy made me want to see Drew again, even though I’d only seen him yesterday, so I decided that while I had the App open, I would send him a picture message.

You know, one of the good things about living here is that it’s actually pretty near the park Drew took me to the first time we kissed. If I looked out the window of one of the bedrooms on the other side of the hallway my room was in, you could actually see it. Wandering into one of those rooms and pushing open the medium sized window, I held my phone out in front of me and zoomed in, letting the camera focus on the park and pressing the capture button when I was satisfied. Now, all I had to do was add a caption.

Back to the place where we began? ;) I typed, using up nearly all of the characters you were allowed to use for Snapchat messages and sending it, eagerly anticipating a reply as I set my phone down on my bed and started putting some clothes in the wardrobe from the boxes.

When the reply came, I was quick to snatch up my phone and read the reply (which was a photo of Drew grinning along with the caption ‘be there in 30 ;) xx’. With thirty minutes until I needed to be there, I decided to get changed – I wanted to look my best for Drew because that’s what he deserved.

I know I’m not perfect, but I can try to be as close to it as I can because I know that’s what Drew should get.

*****

Approaching the park hand in hand with my wonderful boyfriend, I pondered on whether this would become our ‘couple place’ now. You know, one of those places that signifies a lot for a couple and that they always talk about when reminiscing on their pasts.

I voiced this wondering to Drew, who looked deep in thought for a second before tilting his head up to look at me and stretching up to kiss my lips.

“Yeah, I think it is” he agreed, swinging our hands gently between us as I continued the conversation, thinking about the past since we were already on the topic of memories.

“You know, everything is so much better now than it was the last time we were here. I feel like so much weight has been lifted for me and things are really starting to look up, and you know what? It’s all because of you. I don’t have a load of worries anymore; I feel like a kid again. I love you” I admitted, giving Drew’s hand a squeeze and drawing us to a standstill so I could look into his chocolate coloured eyes as I said it.

“Shane, I love you too, so, so much. You’re so special and amazing to me and even though it may not seem like it on the outside, but you’ve changed my life as well. I feel so different inside knowing that you’ll always be there to stand by me” his reply had me kissing his lips with such passion, despite it being a public place.

I didn’t care though, not one bit, for I was kissing a boy I loved dearly and felt like I was on top of the world, like nothing could bring me down.

“Since you feel like a kid again, you wanna have a swing jump contest?” Drew asked with a childish laugh, causing me to remember how it was swings that caused us to kiss the first time we’d come here.

“Of course!” and with that, we both took off running towards the swing set, free to be childish as no one else was here. Looking down at our entwined hands, I realised that once again, I had ink over mine from where I was working on some art this morning. It was a picture of Drew and I from when we first met, sitting in an art room with ink on our hands from the activity and my steam-punk goggles tucked safely in my pocket, barely visible.

Not concerned about the splatters on my hands, I continued to run with Drew, feeling so free and careless.

Nothing mattered in this moment except Drew and I as we ran towards the swings, in love and hand in hand.

Just the way it should be.