Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

81 - ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ

SUMMER. ONE of Athena's favourite seasons, though she did love them all quite similarly, turned the corner and thus the big surprise that she had planned for Jasper came into action. She arrived at the Cullen house fifteen minutes before she was supposed to, having taken the car instead of the usual dawdle in the forest. And after a little persuasion to get into the car without a destination in mind, Jasper got into the car with a smile on his face. She, on a whim or a stress-based shopping spree as Jasper called it, had bought a new car. It was still yellow, only the top came down at the press of a button. It was similar to Alice's car yet so different. She had plants tacked to the dashboard and little photos pinned in random places, printed from a polaroid camera that he had had all the fun with. And about eight different books lay around the car, each with various genres so she had something if stuck in traffic. There was music too, CDs and CDs of music she loved and music that other people loved that would only be played when they were in the car.

One of the playlists she had picked for him flowed from the radio. A warm breeze flowed all around them, so intensely that she had to constantly move her hair away from her face while driving. She tapped on the wheel in excitement, matching her taps to the song playing without thinking too much about it. Though the tapping stopped when he took her hand from the steering wheel, holding it in his after placing a kiss onto it. She smiled softly and turned her head from the road just for a second, to admire who sat next to her. "Where are we even going?"

"Not telling," she smirked, greatly enjoying the look on his face.

He sighed, "Come on please?"

"Nope," she grinned, looking away then so she did not give anything else away. "I like surprising people with things. And I rarely get ideas to do so."

"I'll stop pestering you now," he half grumbled, looking bought onto the road instead.

"No no don't, it's ever so entertaining," she grinned once more, feeling such excitement over what was to happen in the near future.

He smiled subtly but hid it away, "You're going old English again."

"Complaints?" she asked softly, not quite knowing whether it was getting annoying or not. Sometimes Luna said it got a little annoying, due to the frequency of it recently and how it just popped into random conversations. She was trying to stop it, her brain just revered back to it when either stressed or incredibly happy. It came out a lot around Billy nowadays, a lot more than it usually did.

"Not a single one," he responded quickly then cleared his throat, putting on an English accent. "I like it very much, much more than I probably ought to."

"That was awful!" she exclaimed, laughing so hard that clutching her stomach would relieve the phantom pain that laid there, only both her hands were occupied.

He laughed at her laughter, deep laughs that only made her laugh more. "Oh come on! I'm Texan."

"Oh yes, a cowboy," she laughed, putting on a near-perfect Texan accent that directly mirrored the one hidden in his voice. The one that she loved to hear ever so much. It sent a little twinge through her stomach when it was really heavy and he knew it too.

"That is not fair," he fakely grumbled, annoyance furrowing his brow.

"I'm just good at accents, always have been," she laughed briefly, trialling off as she fell into memory. "Billy used to ask me to do funnier ones when he got too bored."

"Another of the many wonders of Athena land," he responded with a smile, squeezing her hand tightly.

The drive continued with various conversations, some of which included him trying and failing to guess where they were heading to. Once they arrived, Athena purposely parked far away from the actual place so he couldn't catch on. It was rather obvious upon seeing one thing. "Trust me?" she grinned as she climbed out of the car, not bothering to open the door to the side.