His Blue ✓

29| Forget

      "Anson, where are we?"

    My question rings out in the still night air around me. My hand is clasped with Anson's hand as he leads me through the darkness. Our hands are a perfect fit. Something I vow never to take for granted.

     "Don't you recognize it?" Anson calls.

     I look around. It's pitch black. Anson's car is parked a few yards behind us. Besides the light it gives off, there's nothing out here to illuminate the surroundings .  I hear the unmistakable crunch of gravel beneath my feet.

   "I'm taking you to your favorite boulder." He finally explains.

     I bite my lip. We're at the bluff. Of course.

     "It looks so different at night."

      Why are we here of all places?

      Anson's hand grips mine as we continue walking. I know he won't let go after what happened earlier. I'm grateful for it.

     "I realized something earlier," he says, glancing over at me.

     "You saw this place at sunrise." He explains. "But you've never seen it at night. You haven't seen the stars from here." We walk for a moment longer, before arriving at a clearing.

    I recognize the bluff now. The boulder. The drop off.

     The moon is nearly full and gives off enough light to make out the valley. There's something quite intimate about the stillness of the air and the dark, quiet nature on all sides of us.

     "It's gorgeous." I breathe. Moonlight blankets the treetops along the valley. I see the faint glow of city lights below.

   Anson chuckles as I observe, and he tilts my chin up towards the sky with a fingertip. My eyes suddenly take in the beautiful paint-splattered Milky Way.

      "A sky like this could make me forget anything." He reveals while shoving a free hand in his pocket.

     "Anything?" I raise a brow.

    "Like losing a championship game." He suggests. "Or like being stood up on a date. Or fighting with Bryce. Or losing my mom." He sighs. "Or my dad."

     He thinks he is losing his dad now?

     My heart sinks. "You've come here after all those things?"

    He's known about the bluff for a lifetime compared to me.

    Anson sighs. "I know it's lame that I'm so sentimental." His mouth moves slowly. "I know. Sometimes I ask myself why don't I just suck it up?"

    No one should suck up their feelings and push them to the side.

     My body moves closer to him instinctively. "I don't think it's lame." My eyelashes flutter up at him honestly.

    "You don't?"

    I shake my head, and he nods. He silently pulls me over to the boulder. He climbs up onto it, hoists me up after him, and we sit with our legs now dangling over.

    "I hope it's okay that we're here tonight. After all that's happened. I just wanted to be here under the stars." Anson sighs and looks over at me. His thumb traces absentminded circles over my hand.

     I glance up at the sky. "I'm glad we came. I've got some things I need to forget, out here."

    "speaking of things, I'm sorry for getting upset at you and Bryce earlier." he apologizes.