36 Questions to Fall in Love...in 36 days!

Chapter 52: Pads and Bad songs

26 November 2023🥀

If summer was a feeling that could be evoked from time to time then driving would do the trick. And not just any drive but those late night drives. Where the air is cool with the moon and stars out. The drives with  the windows rolled down and music playing in a low hum.Those drives with no destination, and that makes it feel like you could go anywhere.

My father used to take me for a lot of those drives. My mother would always tag along and end up  falling asleep in the backseat, which was baffling to me because how could you sleep when the night felt so...

alive.

I've always wanted to drive. Like always, always. Always.

I've thought about it, dreamt about it and even tried it one time. Illegally.

It was a bad first try but I was twelve and I was feeling rebellious.

I took my father's car, convinced my twelve year old mind that I was running away, because of the heated argument I had with my father. Long story short, I killed a cat, made a tree turn on its side and gave my mother a heart attack she lives to remember. My father called his police friend  and I cried so hard, thinking I was about to be arrested.

I was locked up in room jail for four hours until my mother called me down for supper.

The fact is, when Leonardo came into my room telling me he drove all the way there, in his grandfather's car. Alone. I could not believe it.

"Like your hands were actually on the steering wheel?" I remember asking.

Leonardo chuckled, dimples prominent. "Yep, and my legs too."

More stuff was said but after running down the stairs, getting yelled at by my mother, all I could process was the feeling of summer at the tips of my fingers.

"You actually drove here!" I remember exclaiming, hugging Leonardo with laughter echoing out of both our mouths.

Moments later, Leonardo was actually driving,right before my very eyes. And yes, he had that proud gleam in his dark eyes, his dimples prominent in a smirk. It was weird, watching someone I  grew up with, do adult stuff like driving or falling in love and all of the above.

It's like it reminded me that I too was growing up. Even though I felt like it; I wasn't twelve years old anymore.
For the first few minutes the two of us could say or do nothing but release breathless laughter that described everything we were feeling.

I put my arm out the window and the wind rippled through it, reaching and rippling through my shirt as well. A feeling of reverie settled over me.

Leonardo drove, unsurprisingly well, like he'd been doing it for years. Cough. Cough. I knew that he'd been driving— illegally, if I may add with his grandfather.

Leonardo finally getting a driver's license was like a wake up call for me to get mine. It also felt like I sort of already did. What's mine was his and what's his was mine—even when it came to skills. Right?

So I was practically a professional driver.I could look past the murder of the cat. I was a changed man.

In addition to that, I wanted to evoke the feeling of summer anytime I wanted to. I wanted late night drives, but this time alone.

“ I can't wait to get my driver's license.”

“Why haven't you?” Leonardo, swerved the car, making me sort of jealous with how easy he was making it.

I mean how hard could it be?

"You killed a cat, Dominique Van Der Merwe!" My mother's voice flashes back to me.