Robert’s POV:

“Reynold where have you been?!” Roy’s mom, Carmen, yells as she opens the front door for Roy.

He had tried to climb into his room with the tree in his backyard but his mom locked the window so he wouldn’t be able to sneak back in. So he had no choice but to come through the front door.

“Sorry mom.” Is all Roy says as he walks through the door. 

“Now I’m adding on to your punishment. How dare you sneak out while you're grounded!” Carmen says sternly before turning around to glare at me and Ross. “You boys get going now. I have nothing to say to you.” And with that she slams the door shut. 

Carmen used to despise us because she thought we were influencing Roy badly and because we were ‘plebeians’. And me and Ross used to hate her too. But ever since we confronted her about Roy’s uncle I’d say she’s opened up to us a bit. She lets Roy hang out with us more and she doesn’t bad mouth us when we’re in her presence. Though she still calls us ‘plebeians’. She’s nice when she wants to be. But we realized that she's actually like any other mom, she wants her son to do well and succeed in life. She's only so stern because Roy gives everyone a hard time. 

“So, got any ideas for a place?” Ross asks as we make our way off of Roy’s porch.

“Not really. But to get a good look at the sky, maybe a tall building or hill?” I answer.

“Well maybe not a tall building because someone could easily pop up on us accidentally. But a hill sounds nice!” Ross says.

“There’s lots of hills in town though, how are we-” A place immediately pops into my head. Though from Roy's house it'll be quite the walk.

“I’ve got a place! It’s a hill inside the forest! Nobody would ever find it." I beam out.

"Alright, you lead the way." Ross responds with a smile.

I smile back and we finally leave Roy's porch, making our way towards the forest. We chatted along the way about how excited we were and just random stuff that came to mind. But I couldn't stop romanticizing about what we'd talk about and do at that spot. I know that's getting ahead of myself, I don't even know if Ross likes guys, but I can't help it for some reason. What if he does like guys and we confess at the spot? What if we hold hands?! What if we kiss?! 

I mentally slap myself in the head, I need to stop, I'm going WAY too ahead of myself.

About ten minutes later we arrived at the forest. It's only three o clock but it looks freakishly dark in there.

"I don't remember it being so dark," I say with a frown. "We might get lost."

Ross thinks to himself for a second then pulls out his phone.

"We could use our flashlights." he suggests as he turns his on.

I nod in agreement and also pull my phone out from my pocket and turn the flashlight on. We look at each other in anticipation then start making our way inside the dark forest.

"You should walk in front." Ross suggests.

"What, why?" I ask.

"So it’s easier to follow you.” he answers.

"No, what if you trip on something and I leave you behind?" I lecture.

"I'll just ask you to wait."

"No no. Just stay next to me and-"

Suddenly we both hear a loud 'caw' noise which makes us both scream and jump. We looked around and figured out the noise had come from a crow sitting on top of a tree. Another crow soon flew to the one on the tree and they flew off together crowing. Sheesh they almost gave me a heart attack. I noticed Ross had dropped his phone in the process and looked a bit off. His hands were raised as if he was going to cover his ears.

"You okay?" I ask worriedly, moving my flashlight around to look for Ross' phone.

"Yeah, they’re just kinda loud." Ross answers, hesitantly bringing his hands back down to his sides.

I instantly got reminded of how he was uncomfortable with the loud noise from the blow dryer. That 'caw' noise probably bothered him the same way. I quickly search through my bag and pull out my headphones, they're the cheap kind from a dollar store but it'll do. I hand them to Ross and he looks up at me with a small smile.

"Thanks.." he says as he takes his beanie off to put the headphones on then place his beanie back on top.

"No problem. I never realized you were sensitive to loud noises, have you always been?" I ask, finally finding Ross's phone on the ground and picking it up to hand to Ross.

"Yeah, uh- when I was ten I got diagnosed with autism, which I guess explains a lot." he explains as we continue our walk.

"Oh, you're autistic? How come you didn't tell me and Roy?" I ask with a sort of shocked tone.

He stays in silence for a bit while looking at the ground, not sure of what to say. 

"I don't know.." he mumbles.

I frown but give him a playful nudge to try and cheer him up. He nudges me back which puts a smile back on my face.

Our walk continues for another ten minutes until I see light further down the forest. 

"We're almost there, I could see it getting bright down there!" I excitedly say, pointing to the light.

"Thank god, this forest is kinda spooky." he responds.

“Ooo Ross is scared!” I tease.

“What? No I’m not, shut up you big goof!” he says with a chuckle.

I also chuckle and we walk until we arrive at the light. There were no more trees, just a big field of snow-covered grass and a beautiful view of the sky. I looked around and found the hill I was talking about before.

“There’s the hill,” I say, pointing towards it. “I don’t think it's safe to climb with all the snow though.”

“That’s fine, there’s a perfect view of the sky here. Once it’s night it’ll look even better.” he responds in awe, looking around the field.

“Well then, let’s set up! We’ll stay until dark.” I say, pulling my bag off my shoulder and pulling out the stuff Ross had packed.

There were snacks, a blanket (thankfully it’s a heavy one so the snow won’t leak through it too much), and two water bottles. Ross takes the headphones off and grabs the blanket to set it up on the ground while I put the snacks and bottles in the middle. After that we settle down on the blanket next to each other.

“This is gonna be the perfect spot.” Ross says.

“Yeah, and imagine how it’ll look in the spring.” I add.

We continue chatting until I remember that Ross had his guitar. I really wanna hear him play.

“Hey Ross?” I call.

“Yeah?” he answers.

“Think you could jam out on the guitar for a bit?” I ask.

He looks down to think about it for a sec before pulling the case off his shoulder into his lap.

“Sure, but I- I’m not that good.” he stutters, pulling the guitar out of its case.

“That’s fine! What kind of guitar is that?” I excitedly ask. 

“Acoustic,” he answers. “Got any song requests? Nothing crazy.”

“Hmm," I think of some songs and a bunch come to mind. But I can't just choose one, they're all so good. "I don't know, you pick!" I end up saying.

He also starts thinking for a bit and eventually he thinks of a song and puts his fingers in the starting position.

"Y'know the band Three Eleven?" he asks. 

"Yeah! They're songs are pretty good." I answer.

"I'm gonna do 'I'll Be Here Awhile', that okay?" 

"Of course! That's a good one."

"Alright.."

He looks down and takes a deep breath before beginning to play the starting notes. He plays the guitar amazingly, I can't believe he said he wasn't that good! The sounds coming from the guitar are so mesmerizing, and the fact it's Ross playing it makes it even more mesmerizing. It's warming and relaxing to listen to, I could probably take a nap listening to this. 

Ross notices how much I was enjoying him playing and gives me a flustered smile, which made me giggle. I find myself quietly humming to the lyrics of the song as he plays, which was actually pretty fun. Ross notices that too and also starts humming along, except there was a huge difference with how he was humming. His humming is really good, like, really really good. It almost sounded like he was actually singing but he wasn't, which makes me wonder if he could sing. I don't know much about singing but you could tell just by his humming he has so much control over his voice and if he was to sing it would be mind-blowingly good. It may be winter but his humming and the sounds from the guitar are making me feel like I'm melting. It's so heart-warming and I feel so fuzzy inside, I love this boy.

After another minute of his amazing guitar playing and humming he finishes the song and looks at me with an embarrassed expression.

"Your face is red." he points out.

"Oh! Is it?! Hah that's so weird?!" I awkwardly ramble, fanning my face in an attempt to stop myself from blushing.

Who told him to be so good at playing the guitar god dang it?!

He chuckles. "So.. was I good?" he asks.

"Good? You were amazing Ross!" I compliment excitedly, giving him a big hug after.

He laughs and hugs me back. "Thanks, that's the first time I've played in front of anyone. Well, besides my dad." he admits.

"Well you should play more, you're really freaking good. When we come here next time you have to bring your guitar again." I say, breaking our hug.

"I definitely will." 

"Also don't think I didn't notice how good you are at singing. Nobody who can't sing hums like you just did."

"What?! You could tell just by me humming?"

"Yeah! You should sing and play next time!"

Ross looks down as if trying to cover his face. He had a flustered expression and I could tell he was trying to hold in a smile, which made me laugh.

"Aww, why're you so embarrassed? You're really good!" I compliment again.

"Shut the hell up, you're such a tease!" Ross says, now covering his face with his hands from embarrassment.

That made me laugh even more and I pulled his head down into a headlock and ruffled his head.

"Seriously though, you're really good. And I bet your singing voice is awesome too."

I let him go from the head lock and he looks up at me with a smile.

"Thank you Robert."

I smile back at him and we chat while we wait for it to get dark.