The Tortoise and His Sunrise | ✓

2. Absence

With a great sigh of contentment, I inhaled the delicious scent of the black hoodie my nose was buried in. I was currently enjoying a piggyback ride, courtesy of Nolan and his tireless legs.

It was the best ride ever, and that included every amusement park ride I'd ever been on. Or maybe I felt this way because he was the one carrying me.

"Your nose is tickling me," he commented, strolling as if he weren't currently carrying someone on his back.

"Sorry," I said, before taking in another deep sniff.

He shook his head slightly. "Yeah, right. As if you're sorry."

"Hey, I can hear you rolling your eyes from here," I complained.

"And I can hear the insincerity in your apology, but I forgive you anyway."

"I can't help it," I said. "You smell so nice. And I'm feeling sleepy."

"What does being sleepy have to do with anything?"

"It makes me want to smell nice things even more!"

"Does it really?"

"Shh!" I removed one hand from his upper chest to wag a finger in front of his face. "Just let me have this one moment!"

"You have this 'one' moment every day..." But he didn't say anything else as he continued walking down the trail we were on.

I'd already expected it, but once the sun had set, the park was too dark for me to really take a good look around. Of course, this wasn't a problem for Nolan, but he had gone silent after my commentary on our darkened surroundings.

After multiple reassurances on my part that I didn't mind at all, and that I cared more about spending time with him than where we were, he finally admitted that he wished we could've come here during the day.

"But I really don't mind," I had said, squeezing his hand again. "Besides, if we'd come here in the afternoon, the sun would've been unbearably hot. Just feel how cool the air is now!"

"I guess," he'd said.

"And since you can see in the dark, I don't have to worry about stumbling over some branch or tree root or anything!"

Slowly, almost hesitantly, he had squeezed my hand back.

"Although I am kind of tired now," I had added, "and if you wanted to give me a piggyback ride, I wouldn't turn you down!"

Despite his snort, Nolan had stepped in front of me and lowered his back so that I could climb on. "Yeah, yeah. I'll carry you for as long as you want."

"Oh, is that an offer to be my noble steed for the rest of the day?"

"You're so weird—"

"Hey! That's rude—"

"—but yeah, if that's what you want."

In that split-second that I'd caught a tiny, reluctant smile tugging at his lips, relief had washed over me.

Now, I managed to extract my nose from his hoodie long enough to say, "By the way, Ash wants to meet up with us next week. When will you be free?"

After a few seconds, he replied, "I can make it on Tuesday night. What's the occasion?"

"She just misses hanging out with everyone," I said. "Cody's coming, too."

"Okay. What are we going to be doing?"

Somewhere above us in the trees, a bird called out a shrill, sharp cry.

"We were thinking of, I don't know, just playing board games or card games in her dorm room. Just chilling, you know."