by Mia Evans
Their RV struggles for a bit, getting up the hill, but they climb faster and easier than Matilda. Then, they turn to the left. As they go around the corner, they honk once more before they are out of sight.
"Did you have a good weekend?" Will asks me, packing the last of our things into Matilda.
I smile at him and nod. I haven't had this good of a weekend in a long, long time. He was right.
Once everything is packed up, Will looks around the campground once more to make sure that we haven't forgotten anything.
I'm sad that we are leaving. I wish that life could be this fun and carefree for longer than just the weekend. I wish I could spend more of my time doing things like this with people like Will, Matt, and Maddie.
I am going to miss the fresh air, seeing the stars at night, and being able to do things like start a fire and go swimming whenever.
In places like this, the only things you have to do are the things that are going to make you happy. If you don't feel like doing anything, you don't have to. This trip proved to me that there is a world out there besides to-do lists, obligations, and deadlines. The world goes on without those things, and parts of nature never depended on them in the first place.
"I wish we could stay here for another day," I admit, hoisting myself into the passenger seat.
Will climbs into the driver's seat and starts Matilda. She sputters to life, growling as she does. After a couple of seconds, her engine evens out and goes down to her usual purr. I wrap myself in the quilt I put in my seat last night. It smells good, like a campfire.
It also reminds me of how it got there in the first place.
I remember the feeling of Will's hungry lips against my own, his hands tightly gripping my body in his desire. Our sweet moments and our mutual explorations of each other's bodies.
I woke up in his arms this morning, still firmly held against his chest. When he realized that I was awake, he had nuzzled his face into my neck. We had made love once more before the sun came up.
After, he had wrapped me up in blankets, and the four of us watched the sunrise. We didn't speak of what happened last night, nor this morning. Our bodies did the talking for us.
Even though it's hard, I'm just trying to let things happen. I don't want to ask questions that Will may not want to answer, and I may not want to hear the answer to. I'm just enjoying it for what it is right now.
Though Will turned Matilda on, he doesn't make any move to start driving.
"You know, we could. You could call into work, tell them that you quit, call your mom and tell her that you're moving, and then we live in the woods like nomads, only going into town when we need supplies. Eventually, we could get enough materials to build a little cabin. And then live out here for the rest of our lives, threatening anyone who dares cross our land."
Will finishes this all in one breath and then raises his eyebrow at me. I crack up, and he laughs with me as he puts Matilda in drive.
"You know, I don't think it's that bad of an idea," he jokes as we start our ascent up the hill.
Matilda groans and churns the earth as she protests, slowly chugging her way up.
"Oh, come on, you old broad," Will groans, thrumming his hands against his window.
Matilda growls and moves even slower, kicking dirt back with her wheels as she makes just enough progress to not be considered stuck.
Slowly, ever so slowly, we creep up the hill. When we reach the peak, Will claps his hand against the wheel, congratulating Matilda.
"That's it, girl. I knew you had it in you."
Matilda hums appreciatively at the compliment and then chugs happily through the campgrounds.
I settle back into my seat. I know I'm going to fall asleep on the ride back home. I barely slept last night, and this morning, I was up early. I smile, thinking about the reason for both of those things.
I wish I had more energy. I don't want to miss out on any of this time with Will. But I'm already yawning, and my eyes are getting heavy.
"You going to sleep on me, Corren?" Will asks. He turns the radio off as I tuck the quilt in around me.
I watch out my window as we drive through the small town. All of the cute shops and small houses. I don't think I could ever live in a small town, but I admire the people who can and the way that life seems easier, slower out here.
"Someone wanted me to be up to see the sunrise," I shoot back, bunching up the quilt around my head.
"You know you loved it," he smiles, trailing his eyes over me.
My cheeks heat as I know exactly what he's talking about. "I did."
I can feel Will looking at me as I make myself comfy and start to fall asleep. Will's gentle driving along with the quiet and the cool breeze coming in through the cracked windows all make for perfect sleeping conditions.
"Night, baby," Will whispers, rubbing my shoulder softly.
Though I'm half asleep, I smile. I let Will's gentle rubbing be the thing that lulls me to the sleeping finish line.
13
I wake up when we go over a large pothole. My head smacks against the door. Even though I bunched up the blankets, it still hurts. I rub my head and sit up, arranging the blankets around me. Matilda jolts and clanks. Will curses under his breath.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," Will says cheerily.
"Good morning," I smile, yawning and stretching my arms above my head.
I can feel my hair sticking out in all directions as I stretch. I cringe, knowing how crazy I probably look. I reach into my bag, pull out a hair tie, and begin slicking my hair back into a loose bun.
"Aw, but I like the bed head. It's so cute," Will pouts as I twist my hair up.
"My hair looks terrifying. The exact opposite of cute."
"No, it looks adorable," he demands.
I blush, even though I know he's just saying it to be kind.
As I wake up more, I realize we are closer to home. Judging by what we're passing, we'll probably be back in twenty minutes.
Will notices me staring out the window. "You mind if we make a pit stop?" he asks.
"What kind of pit stop?"
"I want to show you my favorite place in the world," he says, a big smile on his face. "It'll be a little bit more of a drive, but I don't want to take you home yet. And I want to show you this place; I think you'll like it."
I smile at his sweet words. "Okay, then," I say.
He smiles, turns up the radio, and we listen to some upbeat pop music. I take some sips from his water bottle, which he definitely notices and seems to like, and he reaches to hold my hand when we're at a stoplight.
"I can't wait to kiss you again," he says when the station cuts to a commercial.
He laughs when I seem too flustered to respond, and I feel my cheeks get even redder. Will Keely is much too good at sweet-talking, being flirty and cute for his own good.
Will gets on the freeway again, and we zoom through Milwaukee. We go over a tall bridge, and I look to the left, enjoying the amazing view of the lake.
"Have you ever been to Summerfest?" Will asks, breaking the silence.
I nod. "Only once. I went with a group of friends when I was a senior in high school. It was…interesting."
Will laughs, "Yea, that's one way to describe it. We should go sometime. We would have a great time."
We.
"Deal," I say.
"Have you explored the city much?" he asks.
"What do you mean?"
"Like, do you go to the city a lot?"
"I've been to the main stuff," I say. "Like the art museum, and I've been to the beach."
"So just the main touristy stuff?"
"Yea, I guess," I shrug.
Will nods and purses his lips. "Yea, that's gotta change," he laughs. "Since we're together now, we're going to get out and do more stuff. It's my duty to show you around now."
He says it lightly, but the second part of his sentence heats my stomach.
"We're together now?" I ask nervously, ex
citedly.
"Well, yea. We clearly are into each other. You could barely keep your hands off me last night," Will says, winking at me.
My mouth falls open as I let out an awkward laugh. Not quite a guffaw, though. Hot thoughts of last night race through my mind, making my cheeks even redder.
"I could barely keep my hands off of you? You were all over me!"
"Well, yes, there was that too," Will says, smiling bigger.
"And so that just means we're together?"
I've never had a boyfriend before. I'm sure Will's had a girlfriend before. I feel like this is so new to me, while it's nothing new for him.
We get off the freeway and turn off on a slower road. I know that we are in South Milwaukee, by the airport.
"Well, why wouldn't we be together?" he asks.
"Well, because we. I mean. I don't know," I say, flustered.
Will merges into the left lane. "Look, I like you, Ella. I think I've made that very clear from the beginning. I think you're funny, brilliant, kind, and I like spending time with you. I probably like spending time with you a little too much. You're probably sick of me at this point. But I really like you. I want to be your boyfriend. So."
He looks at me again, a little more nervously this time.
The place we're driving through reminds me of the smaller town we were in before I fell asleep. All of the houses are smaller, and there are as many fast-food chains as there are cemeteries.
My chest still feels tight and fuzzy from what Will said. So many things race in my mind, but it feels like I can't put a coherent thought together.
We turn right, and the houses get nicer and bigger. Large, full, green trees are on both sides of the roads, their poofy tops filtering the sun. We come to a stop sign, and Will turns left. We drive down a short road before he parks in front of a wooded area.
"Where are we?" I ask.
"Seven Bridges," he says.
He swings open his door, grabbing the quilt from behind me. I follow him, taking in all of the sights around me. A large wooden arch is a couple of yards down, surrounded by a canopy of green trees. The arch stands on a dark wood bridge that leads into the rest of the woods.
Engraved in thick, gold letters on the arch: Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature.
Will and I cross the wide span of green grass. As we cross the bridge, our footsteps echo.
Past the bridge, there are even thicker trees. A walking path is cleared off, though there are large spots of mud from the last rain. I swat away a mosquito near my arm.
To the left, there is a vast expanse where the woods drop down. In that area, there are fallen logs. And then dozens of yards down, there is another path where I bet the steps to the left of the bridge lead. In front of us, the path goes straight and then seems to branch off to two other trails that lead deeper into the woods.
"This place is so beautiful," I breathe, taking it all in.
"Just wait," Will says, as we keep walking.
After a couple of minutes, we come to a wooden stairway that leads down into the depths of the trail. When we get halfway down, I hear the gentle crashing of waves. I turn to the right and see the lake. For miles and miles, there is just the lake.
It's breathtaking.
We cross another small bridge at the bottom of the steps, and then the hard cemented ground becomes sandy.
"Might want to take your shoes off," Will says, sliding out of his own.
I shake my sandals off and hold them in my hand as I step on the warm sand. Will and I trudge to the beach's front, where we stop at the water's edge. When the wave comes back, it laps over my feet.
I play with the small rocks along the shoreline with my feet as I stand there with Will, enjoying the weather and surroundings.
"This place is amazing, Will," I say.
"Yea, surprisingly, not too many people know about this place," he murmurs.
He doesn't offer anything else. What he said in the car echoes in my head. I know he must want a response, but I don't know what to tell him. Will is so confident, and I'm so…not. He has experience, and I don't.
We stand next to each other for a bit, just watching the waves go back and forth. I breathe in deeply, trying to get the fresh air to calm my nerves. In our silence, Will reaches down and grabs my hand, threading his warm fingers through mine.
My heart races.
"Are you going to respond to what I said earlier or just keep avoiding the subject?" he asks, still looking at the water.
He doesn't sound mad or upset, just genuinely curious. He trails the back of my hand with his thumb, and the butterflies in my stomach scream to tell him how I feel. How I have felt for him since we went to the playground and talked. Will makes me feel things I've never felt before. Which terrifies me. My entire life, I have been taught that you need to do x, y, and z. And Will is the complete opposite of x, y, and z.
"Ella," he says again, softer, "I think that you like me back." He turns to look at me, and I see the heat in his eyes. "I think that you like the way that I make you feel and the way that I take you out of your comfort zone, but I also think that you're scared. And I can see why. Your entire life, you've been raised to feel that you need a plan, and if you don't, everything will crash around you. But I can help. I want to help. I want to show you that there's more to life than just having a to-do list."
His gaze is too intense; I look away.
In response, Will lets go of my hand and steps in front of me, making it so there's no other place to look than him. He crouches down so that his green eyes are directly in front of mine. I feel my bottom lip tremble.
"I just feel like you have so much more experience than I do. It scares me. The way you live scares me. It's the exact opposite of everything I've grown up being told is right. I'm jealous of you — you're so carefree, and you have your life figured out by not having a plan, which doesn't make sense to me, but you love it. You really love your life, and I feel like I'm the complete opposite of you. How can we be together if we're such different people?"
As my thoughts come tumbling out, Will nods, digesting them. Telling him everything I'm thinking helps take some of the weight off my chest.
"Oh, Ella," he laughs. "Opposites attract has been one of the biggest cliches since the beginning of time."
I laugh with him, realizing how right he is. Will wraps his arms around me, pulling me against his chest.
"You know," he whispers in my ear, "you can learn to be like that and make your life that way. Carefree and everything. You can love your life. You can do whatever you want in your life. Just because someone tells you that you have to do things a certain way doesn't mean you need to listen to them. I care about you, Ella. Eileen. I want to see you happy. Will you let me be there for you?"
His words take my breath away. He sees me so well. Though a part of me feels horribly exposed and vulnerable, another part of me feels more loved and cared for than I have in a long time. I feel safe with him. I believe him.
I lean further into Will. The part of me that I have been trying to keep quiet for so long, the true part of me, starts bubbling up. I've kept trying to shove it down and follow the path that I know is sensible and that will make my mother happy. But it is out now, and what it wants is clear. And the first thing on that list is to be with Will Keely.
I nod against Will's chest, and I feel him kiss my forehead. For some reason, I feel more comfortable being wrapped in his arms now than I did last night. It feels more than right. I don't feel like I could dry heave because of how nervous being this close to him makes me. Instead, I wrap my arms around him tighter and pull him even closer.
Will gives me one more tight squeeze before he pulls away from me. He spreads out the quilt he brought on the sand before plopping down and patting the space next to him.
"Come here. I want to make out with you on the beach," Will laughs, a cheeky grin spreading on his face.
I smirk and sink onto the blanket next to him, fe
eling desire coursing through my stomach. He looks at me hungrily, and I crawl my way over to him, stopping when I am pressed up against him.
"Baby, I want you on top of me," he whispers, laying on his back and patting his chest.
I smile back at him and do as he says until our chests are mashed together. He grabs the sides of my face and holds me there for a second, studying all of me.
"Like what you see?" I ask, trying to make light of how seriously he is studying me.
"Love what I see," he breathes, his warm breath washing over my face.
I turn my head to the side and kiss his palm, kissing all the way around his hand. Will watches me, and when I am on my sixth or seventh kiss, he leans up and captures my lips with his own. We kiss on the beach, the waves crashing lightly behind us, no one here to disturb this perfect moment.
The kiss starts off sweet and progressively gets hotter. Will thrusts himself up with his eagerness, and I roll my hips down, wanting to match his energy. He groans every time I do that, and I get so much joy out of listening to that that I keep doing it, over and over, loving how he gets hard beneath me.
"Fuck, Ella," Will grunts, holding my face tighter.
His hands trail down my body, and he grabs my hips roughly, grinding them for me.
Will growls in my ear and then breaks away from my lips to bite and suckle on my sensitive neck. I gasp as he makes me squirm, and he bites down harder.
"God, you're so fucking hot," Will moans.
His hands trail up, circling around my tailbone and going up to the small of my back.
In the back of my mind, I know that I should feel embarrassed over how heavy I am breathing. Will probably thinks I sound and look so stupid, but I can't help it. I have never felt like this before, and I want more.
I grab Will's face roughly and redirect it back to my own, devouring his lips. He moans appreciatively, and I send my hips back against his groin, circling them.
I know that we should take it back to the van. Anyone could see. If we were caught, I would be mortified. But I can't help it.
Kissing Will like this, being with Will like this, after denying myself for so long feels so right. I can't help but indulge in it.