"Is it me or was this one the longest week we've had yet?"
"It's just you," she said smiling. "We're almost at the finish line, so the wait feels longer."
"Just one more week," I said wistfully. I knew she was right. It didn't change anything, though. I was looking forward to the semester ending, but I wasn't really that hyped about summer this year.
"Excited to go home?" she asked, as if she knew what was on my mind.
I would be if that was where I was going. I shrugged non-commitally. Both our families lived in Aberdeen. Early this year, we had talked about going on vacation together, just me and Ron. I wanted to take her to Glacier National Park to spend our days alone together in the woods while I had time before summer training started.
That really wasn't in the cards anymore. I had told Ron it was because I wanted to spend that time at home, instead. It wasn’t that much of a lie, but it wasn’t really the truth. I didn't like lying to her, but I had been doing it a lot this past month.
Just because you had a good reason for doing something shitty didn't stop it from still being a dick move. It was all for nothing in the end, anyway. We weren't going on vacation together, and I wasn't even going to end up going home.
"Wanna head out?" I asked suddenly.
"What? Now?" she asked. I nodded. "Are you asking me to ditch class?" She sounded like she thought I was kidding, but she had a smile pulling the corners of her mouth.
"Yeah. Let's go."
"Where? We have class."
"It's the last one before finals, we've covered the entire outline already. Beckett isn't going to come in here with new material," I said. A few other people had filtered into the classroom, but it was still mostly empty.
"What do you want to do?" she asked.
"Go to my place?" I suggested. It didn't really matter what we did when we got there. I mostly just didn't want to be in class anymore. I wanted to spend some time with her. We had the class together, but that was her, me, fifteen other students, and Professor Beckett. School was letting out and in a perfect world it would be her and me in a cabin in the woods, but shit was a little different this year. Because of finals, times like this were the only ones we had when we weren't in class or studying. It was not enough. Nowhere near enough.
She shrugged her shoulders and closed her textbook.
"I'm never doing this with you again," she said with a glint in her eye. She packed up and grabbed her coffee. I took her hand, and we were ba
ck out the door before Professor Beckett and the rest of the class showed up.
Instead of my place, we went to hers. Her roommate ended up being home, but it didn't matter. We weren't staying long. I had an idea where we could go.
The park wasn't that big and was edged on one side by some woods. When it was winter and the trees were bare, the little clearing was easy to make out. There were stumps along the tree line that I had watched get covered in moss and lichen in the years that I'd been coming here. I hadn't known how Veronica would react the first time I brought her. It was back when we were still pretty casual, before I had asked her to be my girlfriend.
Her best friend and my sister happened to be the same person, so I had her to thank for letting me know that picnics were one of Ron's favorite things to do. She kept a blanket and basket in her car for that reason. We grabbed those before we left and after buying some sandwiches and pastries at her regular coffee shop, we were walking through the trees to our spot.
We had never been interrupted and since neither of us had ever brought anyone else there, it felt like it was ours. It was about as private as we could get while being outside in a public park. The only thing I sort of wished it had was a stream or something; we weren’t near the river. Water always made places look better. Ron and I had talked about it a lot. She wanted to swim in each one of the five oceans, and I wanted to do it with her.
She gave me half her sandwich since she wasn't that hungry. As we ate, she started asking me about summer classes and football training, but I changed the subject. I wasn't going this year and I didn't want to tell her why...not just yet. She tried to pull her textbook out again, but I took it from her, stashing it in my backpack till it was time to go. I was feeling selfish. I didn't want to share her.
Doing so reminded me that I had something for her. I told her to close her eyes.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Don't look," I said. The small rectangular box had been in my bag since last weekend when I had bought it.
"What is it?" she repeated, eyes shut like I had asked her. I popped the box open and looked inside. A light pink stone on a gold chain. I had wanted something that would remind her of me, but got something that made me think of her instead. It was pretty and feminine, like her. The lady at the store I had gotten it at said the stone stood for love, and that was enough reason to get it.
"Give me your hand," I instructed. Her fingers closed around the box as she opened her eyes.
"What's this for?" she asked.
Something that reminds you of me whenever you look at it, I thought. That would sound better than having to tell her what it really was: a going away present. I didn't want her to think she was getting it because I wanted to butter her up before I made her upset. I don't know, maybe the more I told myself that, the more it would sound like the truth.
"I just thought you'd like it," I said instead. She opened the box and I watched her face break into a smile when she saw the necklace. "Oh my God, Roman, are we celebrating something?"