Manic

Chapter 13.

Rivers took me to a semi fancy restaurant called Sauce. He ordered the turkey feta salad and I got a thin crusted pizza. We ate our food with minimal conversation, and it was absolutely driving me mad.

We finished and Rivers suggested we go to a park that was nearby the restaurant. We decided to walk there, and once we arrived at the park we sat ourselves down on the swings, going back and forth as we talked about school and other unimportant things.

"So," I say as it's starting to get late. A few stars could already be seen in the cloudless sky as we swung on the kids equipment. "You wanna see who can jump the furthest after swinging?" I suggested, rather childishly.

Rivers looks over at me with a large grin, "Oh it is so on." He says.

The two of us kick off the ground and try to swing as high as the childrens swings will allow us. "One!" I shout as I reach the peak of my swinging.

"Two!" Rivers says.

"Three!" I shout and thrust myself from the swings, flying in the air until gravity brings me back down to the ground. I skid in the sand, and look to my right to see Rivers skidding as well. We stand up, unable to suppress our laughter.

"I totally beat you!" Rivers says.

"No way!" I shout."Look how much further I went than you!"

"Yeah but look at the start of my foot prints are further than yours!"

"Yeah but mine went further!"

The two of us jokingly argue until some kids come to the park and we decide we should leave the playground. We start circling the park, walking along the trail in the small amount of moonlight that is provided.

It was dark, and the lights from the poles barely illuminated Rivers' smile. But I knew he was smiling when he held out his hand and said, "Dance with  me."

I looked around as if to make sure no one was around. I don't know why, but I wanted this to be a moment Rivers and I could share entirely as our own.

"Pretend the world doesn't exist." He adds.

I took his hand, and fell into step with him. And after that, there was no going back.