Page 84 of Fate Fiction

I propped myself up on my elbows. “I’m going to freshen up, meet you in Sue’s kitchen?”

Evan begrudgingly grumbled out something that sounded a little bit like “yes” as I got up.

The chill lingered as I walked over to Sue and Randy’s house. I had thrown a sweater on over my tank top and shorts to protect me from the icy breeze that blew down from the patches of snow that had yet to melt on top of Mt. Katahdin.

The day went by too fast. We had spent hours together. Doing nothing. Talking about nothing. Somehow through the nothingness it whizzed by, despite my begging the universe for it not to.

When the sun had peaked in the sky midday I realized its slow descent would match mine and Evan’s. Everything would be punctuated by “lasts.” Our last swim in the icy lake. Our last afternoon nap on the dock. Our last dinner here together.

Unless.

Unless we’d find a way to make things work past tomorrow.

“What are you thinking about?” Evan asked from the adirondack chair beside mine. We were watching the flickering orange coals fade into nothing. Both holding onto the small sparks.

“A lot,” I said earnestly. “Us. What tomorrow might look like. What every day after tomorrow might look like.”

He combed his fingers through his hair, chewing at his bottom lip. His face was so expressive, each line indented in his skin seemed to have a story behind it. “Tomorrow is going to be weird and awkward, I won’t lie. We’ve finally figured out how to be together, and now we have to part ways.”

I nodded, not looking at him directly. I watched his fingers rap on the arm of the chair. Nails tapping on wood breaking the quiet. “I know,” I replied. “I don’t want us to go back to our weird separate bubbles. You and I live in different universes on the same planet.”

“We do, but there’s also not a single other person I’ve ever tried to chase a flying squirrel with,” he laughed. I did too. “We’ll make a plan,” he continued. “At a minimum we’ll exchange numbers before we leave, then you’ll come down to New York. We’ll take it day by day.”

Day by day. I’d have time to pry myself away from the Thorndown fandom.

“I’d like that,” I answered.

A few more beats of silence passed. Not awkward, just…silence. No loon calls howled through the quiet tonight.

“Come with me to the dock,” Evan said softly. “Please.”

He stood and offered his hand, covered in the calluses and birthmarks I’d grown familiar with. I reached for it and he pulled me from the wooden seat.

In the twenty two or so conscious years that I could remember camp, the dock had served many purposes. It was a desk for my drawings, it was a shelf for the various rocks I’d gather from the bottom of the lake, and it was a semi comfortable place to nap.

In those twenty two years, it had never, ever served as a dance floor. Until now.

Evan pulled out his phone. He hadn’t touched it the entire week save for a few quick snapshots not worth taking his camera out for. I was honestly surprised he had it with him, mine was sitting on a window ledge in my cabin, my battery struggling to stay alive for one more day.

“It’s a perfect night,” he said wistfully. “This is corny as hell but…may I be so bold as to offer you a dance?”

My throat clenched.

His tone sounded identical to Sir Erwyn. It had happened only a few times since we’d met. Small flashes of the character slipped through, untraceable to him, but caught by me.

Evan backed up and bowed exaggeratedly, his crop of sandy hair falling in front of his face. The stance. The straightness of his shoulders. The tight positioning of his hips. He was doing it in a joking manner, yet fiction had become real for a millisecond. Sir Erwyn had become real.

Butterflies were doing backflips in my stomach. He had no idea what all this was doing to me.

I was transported to the Court of Doves in Andoriaan. He stood before me in his shining silver armor, his hair more tousled, his beard longer. I was in an emerald gown, hair twisted in intricate braids with a golden crown atop my head. He was my knight, I was his lady. The subtleties in his body language were plucked straight from the fanfiction archives.

I fell back to Earth to an expectant Evan awaiting a reply. I offered an awkward curtsy.

“I’d be happy to oblige,” I laughed.

He pressed play on his phone and precariously propped it on the edge of the dock, the tinny speakers working overtime to be heard over the trees rustling as a breeze traveled down the lake.

“Is this the song from Twilight?” I asked as the song began.