“You think you’ll miss this?” I ask after a while, pulling my lips away from hers.
“I don’t know.” She pauses, rolling her forehead back and forth against mine as the crickets chirp all around us. “Yeah. Maybe a little. Will you?”
I feel a push and pull on my heart. Even with all the things I don’t love about it, I’ve never known any placebutWyatt. Yes, Nora and I can’t stay here, hiding away in this perfect patch of forest forever, pretending the rest of the town doesn’t exist. We both know that, but it doesn’t make it any less scary to leave it all behind. When most people leave town after high school, they do it knowing they’ll always be welcomed back. But the fact is that in a few months, Nora and I will be leaving our families and the only place we’ve ever called home. For good.
“Maybe a little,” I repeat back to her. We sit there for a minute, heads pressed together, but then another thought occurs to me. “You remember that first night we met? We were lying on the floor of the basketball court at my school and all the lights were off, and you reached over and took my hand, laced your fingers in mine.”
“I remember,” she says, sliding her fingertips over my palm.
“Before that, I had never had feelings for anyone. Not even a little. I thought maybe I was just broken or something. It didn’t seem like there was any other answer. And then you, this girl who I had just met, took my hand. So simple. And something just switched on inside me that I didn’t knowcouldswitch on,and everything finally made sense. But when I think about it now it almost wasn’t even about being gay or whatever, it was aboutyou.”
Nora smiles at the memory but raises an eyebrow. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I guess because I just wanted to say even if therearethings I’ll miss, I’m not scared to leave Wyatt. As long as I can leave with you. It sounds corny, but I’m realizing that Wyatt doesn’t feel like my home anymore. You do.”
“My littlecheeseball.” She smirks for just a second before her mouth falls into a straight, serious line, her growing pupils looking directly into mine. “I love you,” she says, kissing me again. “If we do miss it, babe, we’ll miss it together. Okay?” She shuffles up onto her worn boots and holds her hands out for me to take, lifting me up too.
We start walking down our path. The same path we always take out here, the only one carved out in the thickness of the brush. I follow her along the crick, over rocks, and around the areas where the dirt has eroded away. Sticks crackle under our feet, and shadows slide across them as birds swoop overhead.
“Wow. She isn’t even remotely interested in my big news,” Nora says innocently.
I let out an audible gasp and she smirks over her shoulder at me.
“I completely forgot! Spill!” I yell, jogging a couple of steps to catch up to her as she stops and turns to face me. She’s grinning from ear to ear, which has me doing the same even though I don’t know if I’m right about what she’s planning to tell me.
“We got the studio!”
Her smile widens as she watches me process.
“Wait… you mean, our first choice? The one with the green walls and tiny bathroom?” I ask, guarding my excitement until she nods. “Nuh-uh! I thought they went with someone else!”
“I guess it fell through.” She shrugs. “If we can pay first month’s rent and a security deposit by Friday, it’s all ours, babe.”
“Oh myGod, we’re gonna have an apartment!” I throw my arms around her and she lifts me off the ground like I weigh nothing, even though I have almost two inches on her. This is everything we’ve been waiting for. The last thing we had to figure out. “So when’s our move-in date?” I ask as I loosen my grip around her and my feet touch back down to the dirt.
“September tenth.”
“Yikes. That’s cutting it pretty close with the start of the semester.”
“I know, but at least it means we can keep working and saving up a little longer. Maybe we’ll even have enough to splurge on that wooden Ikea island that you’re always—”
“Ooo! Can we!? Can we get it?” I ask, grabbing pleadingly onto the front of her shirt.
“I already have it added to my cart,” she replies.
I let out an excited squeal as I wrap my arm around her waist and walk beside her along the path again.
“I love this feeling,” Nora says as we step over a tree branch together.
“What feeling?” I ask as she smiles up to the sky.
“Like… my life is finally about to start after being on pause for the last eighteen years. I never thought I could lookforward to my future so much. I guess I never really thought I’d even have one. But now, moving across the country. A new apartment. Maybe someday a house on a farm. A wedding. Having kids! I mean… it’ssocool that it’s not just possible, but beginning. And I get to do it all with…” She shakes her head and smiles. “I get to do it all withyou. I mean, are you fucking kidding me? It feels like a dream. Doesn’t it?”
I make her stop on the trail long enough to kiss her. “You’re cute. Now who’s being a cheeseball?”
“I’m serious.”
“I know. And I love hearing you talk about our future.” I walk into her, making her step back until she’s pinned up against a tree, and then I dip my lips down to hers for a longer kiss. Her hands wrap around my back as I pull away. “You really think we can have kids someday?”
