Hello August, Please Be Good To Me

Chapter 40: Downtown Shenanigans

There's cool bike path installed through downtown, and we follow it, me flying ahead while Justin keeps to the rear. "Hey, we should do this more often!" I call back. As much fun as I'm having now, I will probably feel it in my legs tomorrow. "Justin?" I ask, turning around. He has his phone off and it's pointed at me! "Show off!" I yell back. My hand-eye coordination would never allow that. "It's easy when you have something beautiful to focus on!" he shoots back, and I just about fall off the bike. "Wow, aren't we feeling nice today?" I finally say when he catches up with me. I tie up my hair, tired of it landed in my face when I'm not moving. And there's lots of walking our bikes to get to certain other parts of the bike trail.

"You know, I come down here and actually think Tallahassee is a pretty nice place to live," Justin says and I scoff in disbelief. "But then I remember I'm going to Tampa so it doesn't matter." I clap in approval then remember I won't be with him. "When do you go down again?" I ask. Justin's in some honor's program at USF, and he moves into his dorm two weeks before classes start. Which is two weeks less of the summer I have with him. "The fourteenth," he says, resting on his bike. I think about how college student-esque Justin looks in his bomber jacket Mr. Bluett got for him, and it hits me not for the last time that we're growing up. I'm growing up. "What's wrong?" he asks me, and I quickly rearrange my face in a happier expression. "Umm, just thinking," I immediately regret answering, but Justin doesn't push, and I wonder if he has our argument fresh on his mind. We bike past a Subway restaurant , and I slow down a bit.

"You wanna go inside?" he asks me, and I think for a moment. I'm hungry, but I don't know how much longer we'll be on the bikes and I don't want to think about the consequences of trying to bike and carry left overs. "No, but how about the candy shop?" Mandy's Candies is a new chocolate shop that my dad brought home white chocolate pretzels from. We locked the bikes on the rack near Subway and walk into Mandy's Candies. My eyes go big the minute we step inside. Pretzels, strawberries, yogurt bites, éclairs, peanut butter, bars, all covered in chocolate. "Oh my God, I could get into a sugar coma just from sniffing the case," I say leaning in to look through the glass where some of the treats are kept. I just look around like a love-sick puppy, while Justin buys a box of assorted chocolate covered treats.

We sit down at the benches in front of the shop. I peer inside the box; white and dark chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered hazelnuts, and peanut butter bites. "Justin are you trying to kill me?" He selects a strawberry and holds it up to my mouth. "I can feed myself," I tell him, but bite down anyway. The chocolate is smooth and not to sweet, and I feel myself swoon. "Damn, maybe I should take some lessons from the chocolate," I open my eyes just as Justin eats the rest of the berry and gives me a look before reaching into the box again. "Don't get any ideas," I say, feeling nervous all of a sudden. I look at our surroundings. For a Thursday afternoon, things are pretty quiet. I figure people must be holed up inside to stay cool. A breeze comes through just then, and I turn back to Justin, "I do not like white chocolate." I laugh at the abruptness of it as he feeds me a chocolate covered hazelnut. White chocolate of course. "I like any chocolate. It's all good to me." Justin gives me a suggestive smile, and I get up abruptly. "Okay, I want to go to where the food trucks are, how about it?" In my haste to stand up, I knock down the chair next to me and it falls over backwards. "I'm glad you feel that way," Justin snickers, and I can't tell if I should be embarrassed for the chair or the double meaning.

"We only get an hour and thirty minutes with the bikes Lyric."

"Oh."

We throw our trash away and bike back to the old capitol where the other bikes are and return our borrowed ones. The minute I secure my bike, Justin holds one of my free hands, and we head back the way we came. There's something awesome just as much as romantic as walking hand in hand with a guy who you just feel a special connection with. "Justin, I'm nervous about college," I say out of the blue. Subconsciously I'm testing the waters. "What, why?" He sounds genuinely surprised. "I just feel like I'm not ready. And I'm afraid to be excited because...well I don't believe the hype." At this moment we're at the same stop light as before, waiting for the light to change. Justin hits the button this time. I wait for him to be like Danté and tell me I'm crazy or Sierra and scoff at me, or even like my dad and try to name all the great opportunities that will come my way in the next four years. Instead he makes me think. "It makes sense. I mean, you've grown up in a city that wants to be country...you did grow up here right?" I nod and fight the smile on my face. "And now you're leaving what you know to go to something you don't know, somewhere you don't know." Justin unlocks the car doors, and I let myself in.

"And you're just trying to find a way to cope with it all." It isn't preachy. It isn't judging. It makes me wonder if he's talking to me as much as he's talking for himself. "Yeah." The music starts play as soon as Justin turns the key. "Food trucks now?" I give two thumbs up. "Yes! Let's go eat!"