Dana craned her neck to see him. Kyle tightened his grip, keeping her behind him, and addressed the man. “Yeah, the engine died, and we don’t have a signal on our phones. I was wondering if you were possibly headed to town? It’s not too far away, and we have no other way to get home.”
Dana frowned. Way to make them seem like helpless victims just waiting to be slaughtered, Kyle.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m headed up that way. Hop on in, kids,” the gruff driver said. Kyle thanked him as he took Dana’s hand and let her to the other side of the truck, where she stared helplessly at the jump she’d have to make to reach the seat. Visions of splatting to the ground like Humpty Dumpty plagued her.
Kyle placed his hand on her waist, and kissed her ear. “Come on baby. I’ll help you.”
With his help, she managed to climb to the passenger seat and scooted to make room for Kyle, keeping a distance from the truck driver giving her a slightly creepy bright smile.
Kyle gracefully leapt to the seat, sliding in besides Dana, who huddled near him as the truck driver resumed driving.
“So,” he said after a few minutes of awkward silence. “What were you kids doing in the middle of Hyde Lane? It’s deserted here ‘cept for truck drivers and cattle ranchers.”
“We were just passing through,” Kyle replied.
“To where? It’s mostly factories and farms this way yonder.” Dana thought the guy was being a little too inquisitive, but wisely chose not to say anything.
“I, uh, my girlfriend-yeah, this girl- I was taking her somewhere special for Valentine’s Day.”
“Oh? Where, if you don’t mind my asking? It’s just that we don’t get many townies to these parts.”
Kyle clammed up, and Dana snorted. “He won’t tell you. It’s apparently more of a secret than the Order of the Phoenix.”
When the truck driver gave her a perplexed look, she blushed. She really had to keep her inner nerd from scaring civilians.
“Seems like it’s bothering you that he won’t tell you,” the driver said sagely.
“Heck yeah! It’s Valentine’s Day, and I trust him, but he knows I hate surprises. They’re the bane of my existence,” Dana harrumphed.
Kyle tugged at his blonde curls with force. “But I like surprises. Why can’t you compromise for me sometimes? Is it that hard not to control every aspect of everything?”
Dana sighed heavily. “We’re not getting into this again.”
“Well, why not? We have this very nice man, an unbiased third party, willing to listen to us. Let’s see who he says is right and who’s wrong,” Kyle demanded smugly.
Dana glared at her boyfriend, but he returned the glare tenfold.
“So what I’m gathering is that this little lady doesn’t like surprises and spontaneity, but you do? And you want her to be willing to compromise, am I right?” the driver listed.
“Yep,” Kyle agreed.
“Why don’t you compromise for her?”
“What?” Kyle asked, flabbergasted. Dana brightened, liking the direction the conversation was taking.
“If she hates surprises this much, and you’re trying to make her happy for Valentine’s Day, why don’t you just tell her?”
“Because she never lets me do anything special for her! I’m always, always trying to be the boyfriend she deserves, but it’s impossible. I’m just not up for it,” Kyle said dejectedly.
Dana’s eyes widened. Did he really think that? That he didn’t deserve her? The ridiculous boy! He had no idea how much he meant to her.
“Kyle-.” She started, but the truck driver cut her off.
“Son, most of us aren’t good enough for that special someone in our lives who makes everything brighter, happier. She wouldn’t be dating you if she didn’t like you the way you are.”
“But I want to be good enough for her.”
It was like Dana wasn’t even there anymore. She wondered if she’d blended in to the seat at some point.
“Why’s that? Why do you want to be good enough for her?”
“Because…because I want to make her happy.”
A smile was growing on the truck driver’s face.
“And why’s that?”
“Is that all you can say? ‘Why’s that’?” Kyle grumbled, frustrated.
“Answer the question, son.”
“Because I love her, damn it! And I want to deserve to have her love me someday too.”
Dana gasped, and it was like Kyle finally registered her presence. His cheeks turned bright red, and he muttered a curse under his breath.
“You love me?” she asked, her voice wobbly. She cleared it quickly.
Kyle sighed, cupping her face with his hands tenderly. He kissed her nose lightly. “Of course I love you. It’s not a surprise to me.”
“And you think I don’t love you?” she asked, incredulous.
Kyle released her, crossing his arms over his chest and looking out the window as they got closer and closer to town, the familiar stores and neighborhoods coming into view. “I annoy you all the time.”
“You do.”
“And I manage to screw up everything I try to do for you.”
“Well…”
“And I’ve done nothing but be a half-assed boyfriend,” he went on.
Dana let him rant and discredit himself until she couldn’t take it anymore. Ignoring the fact that there was a total stranger/ possible axe murderer less than two feet away, she knitted her hand in Kyle’s golden curls and tugged his surprised face near hers.
“I love you too, you moron,” was all she said before she kissed him so fully and deeply that the truck driver cleared his throat. They both sat back, short of breath and flushed.
The truck driver had a full-blown grin as he parked the car in front of Darwin High. “Figure you kids know how to find your way home from here,” he chuckled.
They thanked him profusely as they jumped to the asphalt. As Kyle walked away to call for a ride, Dana turned back to the driver. Something about his round face and twinkling eyes was strangely, instinctively familiar.
“I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your name,” Dana said as he revved the engine.
He winked at her. “Just call me Cupid. Oh, and honey? Say no.”
With those words, he drove into the night, leaving Dana gaping open-mouthed after him. He couldn’t be…surely, he wasn’t?
Kyle pocketed his phone as he came towards her. “Caleb will be here in a few minutes with Phoebe. Sounds like we interrupted something, but he’ll get over it.”
Kyle inhaled deeply and took her hand. “Do you want me to tell you where I was taking you?”
“Oh, and honey? Say no.”
Confused, bewildered, and more than a little awed, Dana tilted her head back and winked at the street. Kyle gave her an ‘oh shit she’s lost it’ look.
Hooking her arm through her boyfriend’s, Dana walked towards her old high school.
“No, don’t tell me,” she replied.
“Seriously?” Kyle asked, his expression disbelieving.
“Yup. I think for once, I won’t mind being surprised.”
Phaleb
“Run!” Caleb bellowed, pelting away at full speed.
Phoebe struggled to catch up to him, casting a terrified glance behind her at their pursuers. Oh God, she wasn’t going to make it. She’d never imagined she’d go this way. Her parents would be so upset. Caleb shouted for her to run faster, but he was a soccer player, running was second nature for him. As for Phoebe, her running experience ended at sprinting to class when she was late.
“Caleb, they’re getting closer!” she screamed as she felt one nip at her heel.
“We’re almost there! Just hold on!”
Her foot caught on a loose clump of dirt, and as if in slow motion, she saw herself spiral to the ground, and white filled her sight.
*****A FEW HOURS EARLIER******
“What do you mean, you have too much homework?” Caleb demanded over the
phone. “Who has a significant other and does homework on Valentine’s Day?”
Phoebe harrumphed, laying her pen on her desk as she prepared to deal with an irate boyfriend. She wasn’t used to this, having to consider someone else when she made decisions. Caleb was the most serious boyfriend she’d ever had. He didn’t seem to remember how much senior year sucked the life out of you first semester, now that he was all snazzy in college. She’d never understood the importance of Valentine’s Day, and until sophomore year, she’d been perfectly content calling it a commercial holiday with no actual emotional investment.
“Caleb, I’ve got testing next week. The teachers couldn’t care less if I had romantic duties to fulfill.”
“Babe, that ranks pretty low on the list of reasons to blow off your boyfriend on Valentine’s Day, especially our first Valentine’s Day as a couple. I barely see you as it is, Phoebe!”
She bit down a sigh, knowing he was right. With him at college, even though it was nearby, she’d only seen him every other weekend, and had to depend on the phone and Skype calls to keep her from missing him too much.
Decidedly, she flipped her textbook shut. “What time are you coming over?” she asked, and was rewarded by his loud cheer.
“I’ll be there in an hour. I’m taking you out,” he said, and she smiled at the excitement in his voice.
“I’ll be waiting.”
They hung up, and Phoebe dressed in a teal, knee-length dress, a sparkly black scarf, and her favorite flats. She frowned at her short dirty blonde hair and resolved to pin it with a sparkly hair clip. Hopefully she’d dressed right, because Caleb had, per usual, neglected to mention what they were doing.
When the doorbell rang twenty minutes later, her excitement at seeing Caleb had tripled, and she flew into his arms the minute she opened the door. He held her tightly, and she nuzzled into his neck, loving the soap and grass smell on him. He played for his school’s soccer team, and his bulk had increased significantly since when she’d first met him. She felt like a doll in his arms as he set her down and grinned at her.
“I knew you couldn’t resist my charm.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and she snorted a laugh as she locked the front door and walked to his car. He opened the door for her with a wink, and she curtsied playfully. As he was climbing into the drivers seat and setting the GPS, she rifled through the picnic basket he had in the backseat. “We’re going to have a picnic?” she asked happily.
“That’s not even the best part,” he chuckled, giving her a quick kiss on the lips as he reversed from her driveway. They chatted as he drove, both tripping over their words in their eagerness. Phoebe’s heart swelled as she watched him talk animatedly about his new friends at college, and how Dana and Kyle bickered like an old married couple.
“Actually, I think he’s taking her to an ice cream factory today. It’s a surprise, so God help him, since Dana’s not well-known for handling surprises.” He rolled his eyes with a fond smile.
Sometimes Phoebe envied the place Dana and Ivy had in Caleb’s heart. He’d do anything for them, and while she wouldn’t have it any other way, sometimes it felt like she had to compete for him. It helped that she knew they both thought of Caleb strictly as a brother, and he’d choked once when she asked if he was dating either of them.
“How’s Ivy doing?” Phoebe inquired. She had a kind of hero-worship for Ivy Robello. She wasn’t exactly sure what had gone down with Ivy in the middle of her senior year, but she knew the girl had one of the kindest hearts she’d ever encountered. She’d gone to a different college than Caleb and Dana, but they were all still tight-knit.
As for her boyfriend, Asher Grayson- Phoebe suppressed a shiver. The guy scared the bejeezus out of her. It was amazing how Ivy didn’t even seem the least bit intimidated by him.
She tuned back in to what Caleb was saying. “So Kyle’s majoring in Microbiology- I know, how ironic is it after all the Petrie Peters jokes?- so now every time Dana sanitizes her hands, he gives her a detailed description of why the sanitizer is basically useless and a waste of money. Last week she slapped him with her pizza.”
Phoebe collapsed with laughter. She could definitely picture Dana doing that. Caleb leaned over to twine his hand with hers and smiled. “I’ve missed that laugh more than I care to think of. How’s school? Any new Plastics, or did the generation die out?”
She was breathless with excitement over the compliment, but she tried to control her giddiness and answer him. “Actually, yes. They’re a pale imitation of Brenda and her crew, but they’re Plastics nonetheless.”
She neglected to mention that him and his friends were practically legends there. “It’s going okay, the teachers are trying to torture us as much as possible since they know their hold on us is slipping.”
Caleb was intent on the GPS, and she doubted he’d heard her. She finally took a second to take in their surroundings, and her breath caught. It was lovely. A sparkling blue lake edged with tall trees, and a flock of birds singing sweetly above. Caleb turned the car onto a dirt path, and they bumped along the trail. She held on to her seatbelt for dear life as tree branches scratched at the windows. Caleb finally stopped when the trees became too dense to navigate through and exited, rounding the car to her side.
Picking her up by the waist, he twirled her once in the air before setting her on her feet. She giggled, flustered, and accepted his outstretched hand. Caleb took the picnic basket, and she folded the blanket under her arm. “It’s not far from here,” Caleb told her. After a second, his brows drew together. “But I don’t want to get your clothes dirty…”
In a sudden movement, he’d hoisted her into his arms. She blinked as he started walking easily, her small frame balanced in his muscular arms. She wiggled and thumped his chest. “Caleb, put me down!”
He shook his head and grinned. “Actually, I’m quite comfortable. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before. And we can’t have those pretty clothes getting dirty, hmm?”
She scowled at him but admitted to herself that it did feel nice to be tucked into the safety of his arms. Resigning, she laid her head on his collarbone as they neared the lake. When they finally broke through the maze of trees-South Dakota was the place to go if you wanted to try to find Narnia- Phoebe gasped at the dazzling view.
A large lake with clear blue water lapping gently at the soil met her wide-eyed gaze, and a small waterfall over clear obsidian rock splashed merrily in the corner. The sun’s position in the sky cast a shimmering gleam over the water, and Dana felt like she’d walked into a small piece of heaven.
The best part for her, though, were the ducks. In a separate little pool, ducks swam around peacefully, their adorable fluffy bodies floating in the water.
“Oh Caleb,” she whispered. “It’s perfect.”
He came up behind her, pulling her into his chest and resting his chin atop her head. She felt all her anger and resentment that he was in a separate world from her drain away. He was still the guy who’d tracked her down at Darwin High and tried to ask her out, only to get a soccer ball to the head when his teammates came by. She remembered accompanying him to the nurses office, where he’d told her it was pretty much inhumane to reject a date from a guy who might only have six months to live.
How could she say no to that?
Caleb began to set up the blanket, and Phoebe located some bread next to the cabbage-Caleb’s mom had some serious obsession with cabbage- and trotted over to the little pond with the ducks. She tore a piece and clucked at the ducks, who swam towards her when they realized she had food.
“Babe? What are you…aw shit! Phoebe!” Caleb yanked her away from the adorable little ducks.
She frowned at him. “What?”
“We’re not supposed to feed these ducks!”
“Why not? I always feed the ducks.”
“There was a sign…it’s kind of why this area is off-limits,” he admitted sheepishly.
Her jaw dropped. “This area is off-limits?! Ca
leb, what if there’s some kind of toxic poisoning or something? What if we get quarantined?”
He shook his head quickly. “No, no! There’s nothing like that. I just know it had something to do with the ducks and a kind of behavioral study they were conducting.”
She watched the ducks with a new wariness, and she noted that they did look a little strange. Their beaks were sharper than normal, and it was as if their eyes were following her around…
Slightly creeped out, Phoebe retreated from the pond’s edge and went to relax on the blanket. Caleb had set out a myriad of food for them to sample, and she felt the tension slip from her body as they talked. After they’d finished eating, and the sun was beginning to set, Caleb handed her a small gift bag with a shy smile.
Relieved that she’d had the foresight to tuck her present for him in her purse, she handed him the wrapped box. Caleb tore into the box with the abandon of a ten year old while Phoebe gently extracted the tissue paper from the bag to get to the buried gem.
A green leather bound diary fell into her hand. Laurels adorned the cover, and a feather pen was in a small side pocket. Phoebe traced the crisp empty pages of the diary just begging to be filled with words. She turned to Caleb with tears swimming in her eyes.
He was looking with equal adoration at her as he held the VIP package she’s bought him to his favorite soccer team, and the pass to meet them after their game. He gestured to the diary. “I know how much it bothers you that we’re apart because of school. You don’t tell me because you don’t want to make me feel guilty, and that’s not right, babe. I want to know everything I can about you, and it bothers me like hell that we’re apart. This way, you can write about what happens in your life so you don’t forget to tell me all about it. I have one at home.”
She tackled him to the ground, kissing him feverishly all over his boyishly handsome face. He laughed as she clung to him. “Thank you, Caleb,” she sniffled. His gift was so…thoughtful. She hadn’t known what was expected or customary of a Valentine’s Day gift, so she’d just gotten him the VIP package.
“Do you know how much I’ve wanted to go to one of their games?” Caleb asked, gesturing towards the tickets. “This is amazing. Thank you, Phoebes.”
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