I'm Anxiously Awaiting Your Arrival Now

"I have something really important to tell you." He said yet again.
I nodded and waited for him to continue. My pulse nearly exploding.

“And uh, I really like you and everything and I was, I was wondering. I was wondering, ifyouwouldliketogooutwithme.” he finished quickly. So quickly that I didn’t understand what he had said.
“Sorry I didn’t catch that.” I laughed. He sighed, frustrated and I laughed more.
“I was wondering if you would go out with me. Like, be my girlfriend, you know. So will you?” He asked hopefully. I smiled. I couldn’t have turned him down even if I tried. The look on his face was a mix of hopeful and scared and unsure.
“Yeah. Yeah I will.” I answered.

Relief washed over his face and he dropped my hands and pulled me into a very tight hug. I like his hugs. Because for a moment, it seems like nothing is wrong. Like it all goes away with one hug. We broke apart and he pressed his lips to mine again. But this kiss was cut short by Bryan bursting through the door. He stopped when he saw us. A cheesy grin spread across his face. “What are you two doing?” he asked in a weird voice.
“What does it look like?” Ronnie scoffed.
“I don’t know but I’m leaving.” he said turning toward the door.
“I thought you were already gone!” I laughed at him.
“Nope, I’m just that quiet.” he smiled and left the room.

About a month later, we were at the park, all of us, hanging out. It was fairly late. Probably about 11 PM. But that was okay because we were having a lot of fun. Craig was messing around on the swings, pretending that he was a dancer. He was swinging around and ‘la, la-ing’ to himself.
“Hey, guys. I want to show you somewhere.” Max said jumping up from the teeter totter.
“Where is it?” Mike asked not looking up from his phone.
“Just like a mile away.” Max answered.
Ronnie looked at me. “Do you wanna go?” he asked
I nodded then said, “Sure lets go.”

It seemed like we were walking forever. It had already been an hour. I’m starting to think that Max misjudged and it’s a little more than a mile away. I was starting to get impatient. I looked around and I could see Mike fidgeting with his hands and frantically looking around.
That meant two things, 1. He was getting impatient like me. And 2. He was scared. I know all Mike’s little quirks. He is my best friend out of all the guys.
I nudged him. “Mike,” I whispered. He looked down at me. “Are you okay?” I asked. He nodded but didn’t look so sure. I grabbed his left hand with my right. My left hand was already occupied by Ronnie’s.

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. “Max!” I yelled. “Where is this place?”
“It uh, shouldn’t be too much farther?” He more questioned than stated.
“You don’t sound so sure.” Lauren growled. “We better not be lost.”
“Settle down. I’m sure were not lost. Right Max?” Craig asked
“Well I don’t know.” He responded quietly.
“Great. This is just great! You got us lost.” Mike hollered. “Way to go Max!”
I squeezed his hand. “Calm down Mike. We’re gonna be fine.” I assured him. Though I wasn’t so sure myself.

We continued walking. Every once in a while one of us would curse Max. I started to get the “Hopelessly Lost” feeling. All I wanted to do was go home. I kept hearing noises but I thought I was imagining it so I let it go.
All of a sudden I heard a low growl coming from my left. I stopped dead in my tracks. This time I knew I wasn’t imagining it because everyone stopped. No one moved. No one spoke. We just stood there. Waiting. Max slowly turned his head. “Guys we’re here.” he whispered. At that sound the bushes rustled. I let go of Mikes hand and glued myself to Ronnie. He protectively wrapped his arms around me. I put my head into his chest and I could hear his heart beat. It was normal. Where as my own heart was going crazy.
“Maybe we should go into there.” Ronnie whispered gesturing to the old warehouse that Max wanted to show us.
“Yeah lets go.” Craig agreed, also whispering.
We cautiously made our way over to the run down building. We stood in the front of it and Max waved his hand, motioning us to follow him. We went around the back and Max felt around on the smooth metal wall until he found the door handle. He slowly turned it and the large, old door opened.
We stepped inside and found ourselves in a large, open space. Once we were all in safe and sound, Max closed the door. “Bryan, can I have that little flashlight I gave you earlier?” Max asked. Bryan nodded and handed him the little blue piece of plastic. Max clicked it on and disappeared behind a fairly tall pile of old boxes. We a series of clicks and Max reappeared with 4 flashlights plus the little blue one. “I have a lantern too, but I don’t have a lighter with me.” He sighed handing a flashlight to Ronnie.
“I have one.” Mike spoke up. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small black lighter. He threw it at Max.
“Thanks man.” Max said and Mike nodded.
Max reached into one of the many boxes and pulled out a lantern. He flicked the lighter and lit the lantern. It flickered to life and lit up the whole room.
Meanwhile Craig and Lauren had been looking around the ware house. “Max, how did you find this place?” Lauren wondered running her fingers over the dusty old couch that was oddly placed in the corner.

“I ran away from home once. And I was out walking around and I just sorta found it.” he shrugged. “So I came back here and brought flashlights and a few blankets and things in case I ever came back.”
“Where are the blankets?” Ronnie asked. I had been shivering so I think that’s why.
“Right here.” Max reached into another box and pulled out a black and white fleece tie blanket and tossed it at Ronnie. Who in turn, wrapped it around me. I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled warmly back at me and kissed my forehead. I frowned and he looked down at me and laughed. This made me mad and I pouted, sticking my bottom lip and turning away from him. He scoffed and placed two fingers under my chin and slowly turned my head so I was facing him. He turned the rest of me around but I turned my head away again. He grabbed my chin again and tilted it up. He leaned down and placed a sweet kiss on my lips, and pulled away. But I wanted more, I know, I'm greedy. Damn me for wanting such a hot guy! I put my hands on the back of his neck and pulled him back down to meet my lips. He immediately kissed back. It was such a lustful kiss, you could practically feel the passion irradiating from it. We broke apart and I smiled. "Aww, that was really cute." Lauren cooed. I gave her the finger and snuggled into Ronnie's arms.

Max took out an older looking blanket and spread it across the dust couch. Lauren did a silent “yes” and sat down. Everyone followed her lead and piled onto the large couch. It was so big that everyone could fit. “Was this couch always here?” I asked
“No, I brought it here.” He replied.
“How?” I wondered how a couch this big would fit in his tiny car.
“I took my dad’s truck.”
“Oh.” I nodded.
“So, do you come here often?” Mike asked, stretching out on the couch.
“Well, kind of.” He replied. “I just come here to you know, think.”
“Oh I see.” Ronnie said. “But how long have you been coming here?”
Max thought for a moment. “I’d say it’s been about a year since I initially found this place but I didn’t really start coming here a lot until about 6 months ago. And I wanted to show you earlier but I just didn’t know when to do it.” He said.
Ronnie nodded. “So how long are you going to stay here?” I asked looking at my phone. It was 2:30 in the morning. Max shrugged.
“I don’t know. Not long. I want to be back to my house.” He said. “You guys should probably stay when we get back so your parents, err, moms don’t freak.”
We all agreed and then stopped talking. It had started to rain outside and we could hear it pounding loud on the metal roof.
“I hope there are no holes up there.” Craig said gesturing to the roof.
“That would pretty much suck if there was.” Lauren said “Its cold in here.” She pulled her sweatshirt tighter around her. Ronnie snuggled closer to me, making sure that I knew he was cold too. I smiled and snuggled into him too. He wrapped his arms tighter around me and wedged his face into my neck. Mike smirked at us and stood up.
“Then be glad we have blankets.” he said walking over to the box and pulling one out. He walked back to the couch and handed it to Lauren.
“Thanks.” She smiled and patted the spot next to her. Mike laughed and sat down.

We stayed there for about an hour, until the rain stopped. We left and started to walk to Max’s house. This time we didn’t hear any noises, walking past the set of bushes, that we had earlier. The whole way back we were talking and laughing. Mike brought up Max’s dream that he had a while back. Max was so mad that he ran away and Craig ran off to find him. He found Matt up a tree. Matt said that he heard a weird noise and shimmied up the tree. When Craig finally convinced him that there was nothing there, Max jumped down. When he jumped, he landed directly on Craig. They came back laughing, or rather Max came back laughing, Craig was pouting because his butt hurt.
When we arrived at Max's house I looked into my driveway and saw a very unfamiliar car. Which was strange because my mom wasn’t home, and there was a light on in the back of the house. I pointed this out to the rest of them.
“That’s really strange.” Lauren said with a puzzled look.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Craig said.
“Yeah, your mom probably went out with some friends and they took your moms car and left theirs here.” Mike added.
“But that’s the thing.” I said. “My mom is working. She hasn’t been home for hours, and every light in the house was off when I left.”
Ronnie swallowed hard. “Well uh, lets go in Max’s house for a while. And if the car is still here, then we’ll go check. But I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.” Something told me he wasn’t so sure.