Crashing into Dane.

29

Dane's words repeat themselves over and over again in my mind, and I'm completely oblivious to the beautiful cloud display outside my window. Did he mean them? Does he feel that way already, or it's been building upie in the past few weeks? Do I feel the same way? The pressure unleashed upon me by those simple words is unbearable, I don't think he knows what he just did.
I care about him, obviously, a lot...but love? I don't know, probably because I've never been...has he? If not, how does he know? I just wanted to see how things would go, you know, ride the wave, be myself, have him be himself without any societal or stereotypical pressures. Now, I'm thinking about how careful I have to be with him, his emotion... I don't want to let him down...but maybe I already have. I didn't say anything back. Maybe I do love him, maybe I will...but right now, all I'm sure of is I like him. I'm attracted to him, immensely and he is the sweetest soul I've met, I wouldn't mind falling for him in the long run, I just have too much going on, right now.

As the taxi pulls into the lodge I'll be staying in for the next few days, I snap out of my thoughts and take in the scenery, the beautiful palm trees, the little huts spread neatly all over the space of deep greens and stone. It's an incredibly pretty sight. I roll my bags in to check in whilst my mind wanders to the delicately hung lights on the ceiling. The lady at reception has a thick Portuguese accent and a beautiful smile, my nerves seem to be relaxed a bit by the little conversation I have with her.

As I unpack my bags, I can't bring myself to turn my data on to see the messages from Dane I know are waiting for me on the other side of the network. He probably just wants to clear things up...or know if I feel the same way. But Dane's never been one to force his way into anything, he never imposes and never puts any pressure on any me. I should probably just talk to him.

I decide to call Tipey instead.

"I'm all checked in and landed and everything!" I exclaim when I hear her voice on the other end of the call.

"awesome! I still feel pretty bad for not seeing you off, I just had to attend the dumb family meeting..." she says, her voice flattening towards the end of her sentence.

"it's alright, Dane took me."
"oh yeah...the boyfriend," she teases. I roll my eyes and feel a knot in my stomach. I have to tell her everything.

"well...remember I told you Dane and I kissed and stuff?'

"oh, yeah. I remember. You and Dane becoming a thing," I can feel her smirk and turn red all the way from here.

"well... yeah... so, that happened...and it was wonderful, and then we were going to tell Dad because, you know...I couldn't keep it from him even if I wanted to."

"but?"

"but now... he said he loved me at the airport, and it all kinda just made things super weird, well, I did, because I didn't say it back ...but that's only-"

"hold on, wait. What?!! Oh myyy gooshh CHER!!! He what?"

"hold your fire, Tee. It's all so weird now."

"what do you mean?"

"I mean..." I squint my eyes anticipating scolding from her, "I didn't say it back, I just left and I haven't opened any of his messages."

"that's it?"

"what do you mean?"

"I mean, Dane decided to tell you how he felt... you don't need to say anything back, its not word tennis,"

"word tennis? Really"

"you know what I mean. If that's how he feels, then awesome, it has always been pretty evident with the way he treats you and looks at you...Tanaka and I bet on it a long time ago. Text the boy, he probably thinks he did something wrong."