Riley's POV
"Mom, I'm home!" I shout when I walk through the front door. I drop my keys into the blue and green ceramic bowl that's next to the door and expect to hear Tank and Captain's collars jingling as they run to greet me.
I don't hear it.
In fact, I don't hear anything.
"Mom? Dad?" I call through the house, but there's no answer. "Connor? Toby?"
When they don't answer, I run up the stairs to check their rooms. I don't see anybody, so I look out the front window. Their cars are there, so I run down into the basement. They aren't there either.
"I'll check outside," I say to myself.
When I run up the stairs, I hear Tank barking outside, so I open the front door. I step out and get hit in the chest. I look down at what hit me and look in front of me. Kaitlyn's standing there with a floor hockey stick in her hands, and a lot of orange balls in front of her.
"Don't you-"
She hits me again, and it hits me in the forehead. Soon, I'm being pelted by her, and balance on one foot as I crumple up the rest of my body.
"Okay, okay!" I shout. The pelting suddenly stops, so I uncrumple myself. I hesitantly look at her, and she's smiling.
"Remember when this happened over the summer last year?" she asks.
"How could I forget? That six month anniversary gift was not fun," I pout.
"No, but the second gift was better," she says. She means the dinner that I put together.
"Yeah, that almost burst into flames," I say, slowly stepping closer. Thankfully, she doesn't notice.
"The memory is good itself," she says. I step closer and snatch the stick from her friends.
"I do remember one part of the night that was the best," I say. I tackle her to the ground, and I'm lying on top of her, the stick between us. I let go of the stick, support myself on my hands so that I'm in push up position, and I lower myself. I kiss her and lift myself up again.
"Hm, I don't think I remember that. Can you kiss me again to see if it will jog my memory?"
*******************
I don't know what happened, but Kaitlyn and I have gotten closer, and it saved our relationship. I think what it was was that she brought up old memories, and it helped a lot. Now we're ourselves around each other. I bet Toby had something to do with this. He likes to help people with relationships when he's never really been in one. Yeah, there was a "girlfriend" sometime in junior high, but all that happened was that he walked her to class. That's it.
"Hey Kaitlyn?" I mutter when she's about to fall asleep.
"Yeah?" she asks.
"Thanks for this whole week. I feel like I've gotten closer to you than I was before," I say. She looks up at me and smiles.
"I feel the same," she whispers. I kiss the top of her head, and she falls asleep in my arms, I continue to watch the television, but the time on the wall fights with my eyes. Eventually, my eyes lose, and I fall asleep as well.
******************
"Kaitlyn, are you sure you want to do this?" I ask as I look down the hill. She grabs the bars and looks at me.
"Of course I want to. It's one of my dreams," she says. She pushes off of the hill and zips down the zipline, yelling with excitement.
"Here goes," I say, and I do the same.
Flowers rush by me, making a blurred rainbow, and I get whipped in the face by giant leaves. I feel the rush of adrenaline as I forget how high I am off of the ground. I'm flying, the wind rushing through my body. My face starts to hurt from all of the smiling, and I feel free.
When I land on the other side of the line, I grin at Kaitlyn.
"That was amazing. Can we do it again?" I ask her. She smiles and nods.
After we go again, I take her to Starbucks to get our usual treat. Before I can even step in, she grabs my shirt and pulls me to her lips.
"What was that for?" I ask when she pulls away.
"For being the best boyfriend ever."
