Stepping Towards Zero | ✓

11 > Step Towards One

"DART DATES?"

"Dart dates."

Finn picked up the roll of duct tape on his way and walked towards Eilidh. "I didn't get you."

The stack of books in her hands fell with a soft thud on the bed. "Don't tell me you don't know what that is."

"I don't." He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her.

"Finn," she said in a reprimanded tone.

He threw his hands up in a mock surrender. "I have heard of dart trips, but dart dates? I am not sure."

Eilidh picked a rolled, large paper from the table and shook it in front of him. "This will do the work for us."

Sitting beside Finn, she leaned against his chest. Finn shifted to make her comfortable and took the paper from her hand. It was a huge white color chart. He unrolled the paper, and the sight stunned him. "Wow. Did you sketch this out?"

It looked stunning. Eilidh had used color pencils and outlined the areas; a planetarium, coffee shop, beach, hike trip and many others with the names written in black. It was like a map, with fewer lines and places but nevertheless, the colors and her delicate sketches of the roads and paths left him in awe.

"When did you do this?" he ran his fingers along the paper, careful not to do anything. Eilidh smiled, shyly. "Yesterday night. I am proud of the way it came out. Took a lot of time to think of places."

"You really are a genius with drawings and sketching," Finn said.

"So," Eilidh waved her hands. "We will throw darts on this paper. Wherever it lands, we will go there to spend the rest of our day. If the dart lands somewhere where there's no name, we select the place near to it," she said in an enthusiastic voice.

Finn tapped a finger at the word abandoned music set. "Abandoned music set? Where's that?"

"Show me some appreciation and don't ask questions. I doubt this would happen, but if the dart lands on the spot more than once, we do it again."

"This is quite.. innovative," Finn asked, unsure of this. "How did you think of this?"

Eilidh hugged his waist. "You are asking too many questions," her voice was muffled by his shirt, but she continued. "I was watching a movie, and the characters did the whole dart trip thing to decide. I thought why not we do this."

"It's a cool idea." He ran his hands over her hair as he surveyed the mess in front of him. "Your room is a mess."

"Packing is never tidy, Finn."

With his hand on her back, he freed Eilidh only to pull her closer, such that now Eilidh faced Finn, with her hands around his neck. "You okay?" he murmured as he stared at her. Eilidh and Finn hadn't talked about what they would do after they go separately. They deliberately kept it out of all the conversations but sooner or later; they had to talk about it.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because I can." He leaned his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. He felt the wet slide of her lips on the side of his head. "It's nothing."

"Eilidh-"

"I don't want to think about it." Eilidh pushed herself away from him and took the paper. She attached the map to the wall with the help of a strip, moving it right and left until it was in center. With three darts in her hand, she gave one to Finn. "You go first."

Finn tilted his head towards his shoulder as he studied Eilidh. He wanted to pester her to talk more about what she was feeling but a glance at her face, and he knew she was glaring at him. Finn stood up and kissed her on her lips. "We will talk about this."