13

I spent so much time at the West's house that week.

On Friday, we watched The Godfather twice. Elijah quoted most of it, so I could hardly hear what was going on. But it was very interesting, it made me want to be Italian.

On Saturday we baked cupcakes that nobody wanted to eat because according to Ruth, they looked like 'the poop emoji'.

On Sunday, we had a fashion show for Duke. There was music and strobe lights and everything.

On Monday, we had a picnic on the small patch of land behind our apartment building. Mr Winston asked us what was happening, but then we gave him a strawberry and he left us all to our peace. And we also finally braved the poop emoji cupcakes that had been settling in the fridge.

They were good.

Now, on Tuesday, Elijah told me he was determined to go outside with me without his family in the background. The weather report told me that it was going to rain heavily, so I packed an umbrella in my otherwise empty backpack. We stood at the bus stop diligently waiting for a bus to come, looking quite a sight, considering Elijah West was wearing his pitch black sunglasses and I was wearing my waterproof jacket and jeans.

"Where are we going, then?" I asked. He shrugged and ran his hand through his artificially curly hair. Secretly I was glad he'd stopped slicking his back because it looked much better curly. At least, that's what I thought.

"We'll go west. And if that doesn't work, then we'll go see a movie or something."

"West? What's west of here?" He shrugged again. "I don't understand."

"You're not meant to understand, Diane Young, that's the fun of it."

"But you -"

"Shut up, there's a bus coming." 

We boarded the bus, gathering a very sceptical look from the bus driver (Elijah West gave him a bright smile in return) and sat near the very back where the engine was. It was pretty warm and I was seriously wondering if the weather man had, once again, led me astray. 

"Where are we going?" I asked again. We had been on the bus for just a little bit over an hour and it had emptied out and filled up over and over again. I'd seen more people than I was comfortable with for one hour - let alone one day.

"Wherever the bus takes us, eh?"

I squinted at the little electronic sign that read the stop we were on. "From my knowledge, there's only one more stop."

"I know that, Diane Young, what do you think I'm an - "

"What do you plan on doing then?"

"Simple." 

I waited for him to explain how simple it was. 

"How's it simple?" I prodded his shoulder too.

"It's simple because we'll get off this bus and get on another one, until we find it."

"It? I thought you said you didn't know where we were going?" 

He faced me, though I couldn't tell if he were looking at me because his sunglasses were so damn dark. His lips curled into one of his brilliant grins that made my stomach plateau. 

"Diane Young, just go with it."

I went with it. And we got lost in the middle of nowhere. 

No - literally, we got off the bus at what seemed to be the end of the world and walked and walked until we reached a field of grass. Just grass. And the grass wasn't even green, it was browning and crispy and thin. 

By this point, I was hungry and really glad for the fact I had packed some crackers in my backpack. It was meant for a snack, but then it ended up being my lunch.

We walked through the field for ages and ages. My feet hurt and my stomach kept on grumbling, no matter how many crackers I ate. Elijah didn't even seem hungry; he was skipping through the grass, some of it magically stuck to his hair and jeans. I stopped in the middle of the field and he kept on going.

"Elijah West!" I yelled. He turned around and beckoned me to follow before continuing on. "No, stop Elijah!"

"That's not my name!" He yelled back and then continued down the field. "Come on, Diane Young!"

I refused to take another step and instead, I sat down in the grass and then ate my last crackers. I was feeling a little better and lay down, watching the dark clouds gather in the sky. 

It must've been about ten minutes later when Elijah West's head popped up in my way. 

"What are you doing?" He frowned at me, as I rolled out from under his crouched stance. 

"I'm resting." I snapped. His frown became deeper and I almost felt bad that I did snap at him, before I remembered the amount of exercise he made me partake in today.

"We're not there yet, though."

"Where is there?"

"I can't ruin the surprise, Diane Young." He almost whispered. I blinked at him and he took off his glasses, revealing his liquid caramel eyes which were crinkled a little bit at the edges.

I sighed and stood up, and we were on our way once more. Only this time, Elijah West stayed by me, glancing one in a while to probably check if I was going to drop and make shapes in the grass once more. 

After about ten more minutes of meaningless walking and Elijah talking about his hair (He said that it had the perfect amount of buoyancy today), we reached a little stream. 

"For every stream, there's a source." I muttered, thinking back to middle school geography.  

"Every stream of tears? Yeah, I'd say so too." He sat down in the grass and put his sunglasses back on, even though it was far from sunny. 

I sat next to him. "So what's this place, then?" 

"This is the stream of wish - washed dreams." He muttered, not too brightly. "Kidding. This is just my happy place."

I stared at him, quite surprised. The extravagant, bold, sassy, egoistical, smart and slightly off his rocker Elijah West's happy place was an empty field with a single stream running through it in the middle of nowhere.

"Is it really?"

"Yeah. And you should count yourself lucky. I've never brought another living being here."

"Not even Duke?"

"Not even Duke."

"What have I done to posses such an honour?" I said, almost grinning.

He ran his hand through his hair and tried to hide a smile that I saw straight through. A splash of rain fell from the sky and landed on my forehead, momentarily distracting me. That's when he answered.

"I've told you many a time, Diane Young. I like you."

Then the heavens opened up and it started pissing down with rain. I reached for my umbrella, seriously thinking that I didn't want to get on two buses dripping wet, but Elijah grabbed my hands and dragged me upwards.

"It's raining!" He said, dragging me along the stream.

"I could tell! Can I get my umbrella please?"

"Why the hell do you wanna do that? Don't you like the rain?" He stopped running and I ran into his arm, getting wet with every second we stood there.

"I hate the rain!" I said, rubbing my nose. It hurt viciously as it received most of the impact of me running into him.

"Why is that?"

I just shrugged, even though I knew why I hated the rain. My mom and brother hated the rain too. 

"Diane Young?" He shook my shoulder, and I blinked and peered at him through the everlasting sheet of water. "Are you okay?"

"Somewhat.. but can I get my umbrella out?"

He nodded and I turned around to get my umbrella out of my backpack. In the few moments I did to get it up and covering me, Elijah ran a little bit forward and started doing backflips, slipping and sliding in the grass. He even fell down once too. 

I watched from under my umbrella thinking at first he was crazy, but then I found myself grinning madly at him. He looked silly, absolutely mad, but then he looked so happy too. 

And I guess I missed being that happy, because I suddenly felt the need to join him and look silly and absolutely mad in the middle of nowhere. 

So I did.