The Treehouse
The next day, I found myself oddly thinking about this boy. so much that I started going through his facebook. Pictures after pictures detailed his personailty and life right before me. I was presented with a dilemma. My old roomate Kristen did photoshoots every Thursday, and well, Cory was always present at them. And while he seemed to be nice, there's always tension, and I come away feeling angry after every shoot. I had half made a decision not to go anymore if certain people were present, namely 2 other people in the squad, just from the lack of friendliness they gave out. I also wanted to find a way to hang out with this boy that I had met the previous night. Leaving that decision till later, I texted him with a *poke* and recieved a *squirm* back, and a how are you? What's up? Through out a little bit of a text conversation, he had invited me to the food fest at BYU. I was a little nervous, and
declined after a bit, and instead planned on creating a game night.
Me: SOCORRO! Go look up [boys name].
Socorro: who is he?
Me: A nik look alike, amazingly smart
Socorro: How do you find these people? do you look for randomly hot guys who look like nik on facebook?
After securing a time for playing games that night, I confirmed with Nathaniel that he was coming, and made a solid decision that unless things changed, I was leaving that portion of my life (photoshoot/squad) behind. Which was a big step. For me.
I showed up at SoKarls, and described what little I knew of Nathaniel to them, not hiding this weird excitement I was feeling. I mean, come on, the guy hadn't shown an inkling of interest in me the night before that I knew of, and I still knew practically nothing about this guy, and my subconscious was jumping for joy.
He showed up and we played forbidden island. Its a you against the game type, and the 4 of us worked together to get the relics and get off the island, except, Nathaniel strategized in such a way I'd never considered that we almost beat the game on legendary on our first try in that mode, which... is hard. I backed off and just watched... who WAS this person. He was doing things that I would do. I mean, he was still pretty quiet, and on the outside, but that was expected, he didn't know anyone, and he was coming cause I invited him. We also played Wackee 6 and I found he had considerable aptitude for that. He didn't talk much, but again, I found everything shutting down when he spoke, and found myself listening to the musicality of it. (I sound like bella)
The night went quickly, and we talked about certain video games, and at 11:30 we called it quits. He had expressed wanting an early bedtime via his text conversation with me, and oh pregnant one was happy to oblige. As I left, I mentioned out loud to Socorro that yes, I had neglected to wear shoes to an event, cause I wanted to go barefoot.
And as we walked out of the house, Nathaniel spoke up quietly to me, saying. "Do you know how happy it makes me to hear that you came barefoot?" I almost dropped my games, he was speaking to me, and something I did without trying had made him happy. I spun around to see him grinning at me. And I shrugged nonchalantly. "Eh, its not that bad out here, its actually a nice temperature. Its the kind of temperature that makes me really want to grab a blanket and just sit and watch the sky." To which he smiled even bigger and said "me too." in his pleasantly deep voice. (Look at me, I'm writing like I'm in twilight.) We walked to my car and I put stuff in the car on the passenger side, and he leaned against the hood indicating that he wanted to talk. He discussed with me my friendship with Socorro, and how we met, and somehow conversation led him to ask about me, as he handed me his jacket. (A JACKET MARTYR!) and I said, well, I've had several friends describe me as: "Even though she's been through Hell all year, she's still smiling" and he chuckled, and mentioned that I seemed pretty bouncy, and inquired about my year of Hell. I gave him the briefest explaination I could, not wanting to suck myself into what I had worked so hard to let go of, and to also, not seem dramatic. I ended with my victory in choosing other people over my problems that night by choosing against something that continually caused me pain, and he smiled even bigger and said, "Are you a huggy person?" and automatically I found myself nodding, and he pulled me into a hug. And my subconsious practically screamed at me: "YOU'VE BEEN WAITING 4 FREAKING YEARS FOR THIS HUG ENJOY IT PUNK!" and he hugged me the right way. One arm around my waist/back, and his other hand cupping the back of my head mixed in my hair, pulling me closer, and I found myself relaxing right away, and reminded of a certain dream I had once. As I stepped away, i found myself staring at him as he suggested that we go somewhere to talk, with the words "you have stories, and I want to hear them" and I found myself trusting him, oddly. I started to say: "where?" and couldn't even manage to get that much out and he answered, my place, I have a treehouse.
Grinning... "a treehouse?" yeah. He offered to drive me over, leaving my car at SoKarls. (Wow, looking back at this, I can totally see rapist behavior... holy. But, going back again, I wouldn't have changed a single decision.) Using their wifi, I messaged socorro telling her that I was off to sit in a treehouse with a boy.
He drove me over to his house, which was like.. a victorian house, and again, I found myself smiling, intrigued by this house. We walked inside, cause he had to get blankets, and I walked into a dream. This house was OLD. There was smells of dust, and oldness. The layout of the house was old. The telephone was old. And he told me that they were situated in the attic. I followed him up 2 flights of stairs, into another dream. The room was red, and was an ice cream parlor. There was an old air piano, and several old framed photos all over the wall. I found myself staring dumbly in the door way that he put his arms on my shoulders and walked me into the room so he could get in. I turned around and next to the door to get in, there was a ladder and firemans pole leading up to a platform above the room with a couch on it. He pulled out an old Better Homes magazine which had a picture of this house in it, and the way it used to look. He mentioned that the owners were like 90 years old and had rennovated this place for their kids. He had a Cello. He wanted to learn, which is what I currently want to do. Learn the Cello.
I found a little nook, and made mention that if I was going on a date here, I'd want to put a blanket up and play house right there. And he laughed and told me I was cute. We grabbed some blankets and he took me back downstairs, and out the door to go to the back. And there in front of me was the Tree.... well, platform. Wasn't really much of a house. But there was a ladder up to it, and I climbed it, and it was covered in leaves and made delightful crunching noises. After tossing the blankets up, he said "hang on, let me get the lights." (Lights????) and then the tree-platform lit up. There were ropelights all over the place and I looked around in wonder as these lights and leaves, and treehouse, and cute boy, and ice cream parlor house, and oh, boy coming back up the ladder. I laughed and stated that this was the kind of place that I wanted to be proposed to. The easiest way to situate us both was to lay one of the blankets down, and then put the other blanket around our shoulders. So, separate but under the same blanket. And I said: "Tell me your story. Tell me who you are." and he ran me through his life. It took an hour and a half, and I was listening intently, as he told stories of his life that paralleled mine. Not many friends growing up, boredom with the homework, smarter than average, medication at a young age, ADHD, skipping grades, rebelling against parents. Accellerated college. He had come out to utah at 16 to go to college, and at the age of 26 was finishing up his masters. He had served a mission in Cambodia, and that taught him that he liked humble people, and liked giving. He was generous, and good at problem solving, and he had particular fascination with science and learning. he loved nature, and canyoneering was a big hobby for him. I stared in wonder at this boy.
At one point in his story, a lacewing had flown on to the rope lights, and I mentioned that's what it was, from my bug collection in high school. He had never seen one before, and I found myself getting up and collecting it and bringing it back to the blanket, and he had such a look of wonder on his face as I showed him the bug in my hands. Then it promptly flew into our faces making both of us gasp, leaving us to look at each other lit only by ropelights in a tree house. He finished up his story, and I related my story. Start to finish. and felt oddly comfortable telling it to him. My dreams, my fears, my hopes, my troubles. I told him about Cory, and how I missed him, and regretted with great sadness what had happened, and my inability to fix it. I told him about feeling betrayed by my current group of friends, and feeling like I'd been ostracized. I told him about my familial problems. I told him about having my stuff stolen, I told him about my relationships with Cory, and with Chris, and with Rick and Xander. I told him about elementary school and high school wishing I could be accepted and belong. I told him about all my friends in great detail, who they were, and what they meant to me. I told him how lost I was. He saw my pain, my heart, my fear. He heard me cry. and whisper. He recognized my tension. He listened, he asked questions, he remembered. He put his arm around me, and hugged me, and I didn't leave his arms for the rest of the night.
(Side note: I have a curfew. Living at my parents. blech. But I have a curfew in that my parents don't want to wait up for me to get in, and want to make sure the house gets locked. If I stay elsewhere, its not a big deal anymore, cause they can sleep. I was scheduled to get my sister at 7:15 and take her to the high school.)
We found ourselves curled up against a tree under a blanket, with his arms around me studying the cloud patterns, and talking about the amazingness of shoulders. He had mentioned several things about his life, including that he had just gotten out of a relationship with someone else. And that it hadn't felt right and he wasn't planning on dating anyone....... until now. He told me I seemed pretty cool. (even after I just told my story, and stuffs.?!) and he wanted to date me, and he started on a freak out of how he was conflicted and a relationship was to far from, and I shushed him, and told him to take it slow, and to ask me on a date. *A* date. He was silent for a couple moments, and then said, "Laura Wilkinson, would you like to go on a date with me?" and I said yes. He started trying to think of cool date ideas and I mentioned that I had telescopes that needed to be made. He laughed with glee hugging me tightly, proclaiming that I was the coolest ever.
We had a baseline, and were caught up in each others lives. now it was time to get to know each other. Through the rest of the night, we sat in a treehouse. And asked questions about each other. Love languages, memories. I asked him to sing for me. We both kept getting stuck on how similar we both were, and how unique this night had been for both of us.
At one point my hand found his and as I touched it he stopped talking, and when I stopped talking he found himself able to speak, and I delighted myself with experimenting with his hand, to watch him stammer, or trip over his words, and he took delight in my delight. We found ourselves watching the sunrise, and I didn't want to go. I didn't want to leave his arms, or lose the connection that we had formed. We were finishing each others sentences.
I presented an idea to him. He came home with me and helped me take my sister to school and then we resumed our conversation in my backyard on my trampoline. This idea was acceptable to him, and we did just that. A quick call ahead of time to my mother had her gathering sleeping bags and blankets for us, and having a different sister make us some hot chocolate. We curled back up on the trampoline and my 2 youngest sisters came out and chatted with us for a while. Then, my mom having some tact, recalled them back into the house, and we spoke for a while, and then.. well, fell asleep... for 4 hours. In my backyard, on a trampoline. He didn't leave till 2 pm, which by that time, had been over 12 hours of interaction with him, 8 of which were almost pure talking. My mom made some chicken nuggets and brought out cookies and stuff. And we ate with my little sisters again, until he left.
At this point, I'm like bouncing with joy to have found someone like me. I couldn't believe how awesome a connection I had made with someone. I found myself wanting to look at his face for long periods of time, or memorize his smell. We had fallen asleep, and when I had awoken, he had taken my hand.
Before he left, he put it bluntly. "I like you, and i think its fair to say that you like me. Due to the nature of my circumstances with just getting out of a relationship, I think its best if we take this slowly. I'd like to separate processes from both you and her." (there's a long story about her, that I won't put up here...) and I agreed.
While its not completely sure or set in stone things will happen, I at least have a new friend. :)
declined after a bit, and instead planned on creating a game night.
Me: SOCORRO! Go look up [boys name].
Socorro: who is he?
Me: A nik look alike, amazingly smart
Socorro: How do you find these people? do you look for randomly hot guys who look like nik on facebook?
After securing a time for playing games that night, I confirmed with Nathaniel that he was coming, and made a solid decision that unless things changed, I was leaving that portion of my life (photoshoot/squad) behind. Which was a big step. For me.
I showed up at SoKarls, and described what little I knew of Nathaniel to them, not hiding this weird excitement I was feeling. I mean, come on, the guy hadn't shown an inkling of interest in me the night before that I knew of, and I still knew practically nothing about this guy, and my subconscious was jumping for joy.
He showed up and we played forbidden island. Its a you against the game type, and the 4 of us worked together to get the relics and get off the island, except, Nathaniel strategized in such a way I'd never considered that we almost beat the game on legendary on our first try in that mode, which... is hard. I backed off and just watched... who WAS this person. He was doing things that I would do. I mean, he was still pretty quiet, and on the outside, but that was expected, he didn't know anyone, and he was coming cause I invited him. We also played Wackee 6 and I found he had considerable aptitude for that. He didn't talk much, but again, I found everything shutting down when he spoke, and found myself listening to the musicality of it. (I sound like bella)
The night went quickly, and we talked about certain video games, and at 11:30 we called it quits. He had expressed wanting an early bedtime via his text conversation with me, and oh pregnant one was happy to oblige. As I left, I mentioned out loud to Socorro that yes, I had neglected to wear shoes to an event, cause I wanted to go barefoot.
And as we walked out of the house, Nathaniel spoke up quietly to me, saying. "Do you know how happy it makes me to hear that you came barefoot?" I almost dropped my games, he was speaking to me, and something I did without trying had made him happy. I spun around to see him grinning at me. And I shrugged nonchalantly. "Eh, its not that bad out here, its actually a nice temperature. Its the kind of temperature that makes me really want to grab a blanket and just sit and watch the sky." To which he smiled even bigger and said "me too." in his pleasantly deep voice. (Look at me, I'm writing like I'm in twilight.) We walked to my car and I put stuff in the car on the passenger side, and he leaned against the hood indicating that he wanted to talk. He discussed with me my friendship with Socorro, and how we met, and somehow conversation led him to ask about me, as he handed me his jacket. (A JACKET MARTYR!) and I said, well, I've had several friends describe me as: "Even though she's been through Hell all year, she's still smiling" and he chuckled, and mentioned that I seemed pretty bouncy, and inquired about my year of Hell. I gave him the briefest explaination I could, not wanting to suck myself into what I had worked so hard to let go of, and to also, not seem dramatic. I ended with my victory in choosing other people over my problems that night by choosing against something that continually caused me pain, and he smiled even bigger and said, "Are you a huggy person?" and automatically I found myself nodding, and he pulled me into a hug. And my subconsious practically screamed at me: "YOU'VE BEEN WAITING 4 FREAKING YEARS FOR THIS HUG ENJOY IT PUNK!" and he hugged me the right way. One arm around my waist/back, and his other hand cupping the back of my head mixed in my hair, pulling me closer, and I found myself relaxing right away, and reminded of a certain dream I had once. As I stepped away, i found myself staring at him as he suggested that we go somewhere to talk, with the words "you have stories, and I want to hear them" and I found myself trusting him, oddly. I started to say: "where?" and couldn't even manage to get that much out and he answered, my place, I have a treehouse.
Grinning... "a treehouse?" yeah. He offered to drive me over, leaving my car at SoKarls. (Wow, looking back at this, I can totally see rapist behavior... holy. But, going back again, I wouldn't have changed a single decision.) Using their wifi, I messaged socorro telling her that I was off to sit in a treehouse with a boy.
He drove me over to his house, which was like.. a victorian house, and again, I found myself smiling, intrigued by this house. We walked inside, cause he had to get blankets, and I walked into a dream. This house was OLD. There was smells of dust, and oldness. The layout of the house was old. The telephone was old. And he told me that they were situated in the attic. I followed him up 2 flights of stairs, into another dream. The room was red, and was an ice cream parlor. There was an old air piano, and several old framed photos all over the wall. I found myself staring dumbly in the door way that he put his arms on my shoulders and walked me into the room so he could get in. I turned around and next to the door to get in, there was a ladder and firemans pole leading up to a platform above the room with a couch on it. He pulled out an old Better Homes magazine which had a picture of this house in it, and the way it used to look. He mentioned that the owners were like 90 years old and had rennovated this place for their kids. He had a Cello. He wanted to learn, which is what I currently want to do. Learn the Cello.
I found a little nook, and made mention that if I was going on a date here, I'd want to put a blanket up and play house right there. And he laughed and told me I was cute. We grabbed some blankets and he took me back downstairs, and out the door to go to the back. And there in front of me was the Tree.... well, platform. Wasn't really much of a house. But there was a ladder up to it, and I climbed it, and it was covered in leaves and made delightful crunching noises. After tossing the blankets up, he said "hang on, let me get the lights." (Lights????) and then the tree-platform lit up. There were ropelights all over the place and I looked around in wonder as these lights and leaves, and treehouse, and cute boy, and ice cream parlor house, and oh, boy coming back up the ladder. I laughed and stated that this was the kind of place that I wanted to be proposed to. The easiest way to situate us both was to lay one of the blankets down, and then put the other blanket around our shoulders. So, separate but under the same blanket. And I said: "Tell me your story. Tell me who you are." and he ran me through his life. It took an hour and a half, and I was listening intently, as he told stories of his life that paralleled mine. Not many friends growing up, boredom with the homework, smarter than average, medication at a young age, ADHD, skipping grades, rebelling against parents. Accellerated college. He had come out to utah at 16 to go to college, and at the age of 26 was finishing up his masters. He had served a mission in Cambodia, and that taught him that he liked humble people, and liked giving. He was generous, and good at problem solving, and he had particular fascination with science and learning. he loved nature, and canyoneering was a big hobby for him. I stared in wonder at this boy.
At one point in his story, a lacewing had flown on to the rope lights, and I mentioned that's what it was, from my bug collection in high school. He had never seen one before, and I found myself getting up and collecting it and bringing it back to the blanket, and he had such a look of wonder on his face as I showed him the bug in my hands. Then it promptly flew into our faces making both of us gasp, leaving us to look at each other lit only by ropelights in a tree house. He finished up his story, and I related my story. Start to finish. and felt oddly comfortable telling it to him. My dreams, my fears, my hopes, my troubles. I told him about Cory, and how I missed him, and regretted with great sadness what had happened, and my inability to fix it. I told him about feeling betrayed by my current group of friends, and feeling like I'd been ostracized. I told him about my familial problems. I told him about having my stuff stolen, I told him about my relationships with Cory, and with Chris, and with Rick and Xander. I told him about elementary school and high school wishing I could be accepted and belong. I told him about all my friends in great detail, who they were, and what they meant to me. I told him how lost I was. He saw my pain, my heart, my fear. He heard me cry. and whisper. He recognized my tension. He listened, he asked questions, he remembered. He put his arm around me, and hugged me, and I didn't leave his arms for the rest of the night.
(Side note: I have a curfew. Living at my parents. blech. But I have a curfew in that my parents don't want to wait up for me to get in, and want to make sure the house gets locked. If I stay elsewhere, its not a big deal anymore, cause they can sleep. I was scheduled to get my sister at 7:15 and take her to the high school.)
We found ourselves curled up against a tree under a blanket, with his arms around me studying the cloud patterns, and talking about the amazingness of shoulders. He had mentioned several things about his life, including that he had just gotten out of a relationship with someone else. And that it hadn't felt right and he wasn't planning on dating anyone....... until now. He told me I seemed pretty cool. (even after I just told my story, and stuffs.?!) and he wanted to date me, and he started on a freak out of how he was conflicted and a relationship was to far from, and I shushed him, and told him to take it slow, and to ask me on a date. *A* date. He was silent for a couple moments, and then said, "Laura Wilkinson, would you like to go on a date with me?" and I said yes. He started trying to think of cool date ideas and I mentioned that I had telescopes that needed to be made. He laughed with glee hugging me tightly, proclaiming that I was the coolest ever.
We had a baseline, and were caught up in each others lives. now it was time to get to know each other. Through the rest of the night, we sat in a treehouse. And asked questions about each other. Love languages, memories. I asked him to sing for me. We both kept getting stuck on how similar we both were, and how unique this night had been for both of us.
At one point my hand found his and as I touched it he stopped talking, and when I stopped talking he found himself able to speak, and I delighted myself with experimenting with his hand, to watch him stammer, or trip over his words, and he took delight in my delight. We found ourselves watching the sunrise, and I didn't want to go. I didn't want to leave his arms, or lose the connection that we had formed. We were finishing each others sentences.
I presented an idea to him. He came home with me and helped me take my sister to school and then we resumed our conversation in my backyard on my trampoline. This idea was acceptable to him, and we did just that. A quick call ahead of time to my mother had her gathering sleeping bags and blankets for us, and having a different sister make us some hot chocolate. We curled back up on the trampoline and my 2 youngest sisters came out and chatted with us for a while. Then, my mom having some tact, recalled them back into the house, and we spoke for a while, and then.. well, fell asleep... for 4 hours. In my backyard, on a trampoline. He didn't leave till 2 pm, which by that time, had been over 12 hours of interaction with him, 8 of which were almost pure talking. My mom made some chicken nuggets and brought out cookies and stuff. And we ate with my little sisters again, until he left.
At this point, I'm like bouncing with joy to have found someone like me. I couldn't believe how awesome a connection I had made with someone. I found myself wanting to look at his face for long periods of time, or memorize his smell. We had fallen asleep, and when I had awoken, he had taken my hand.
Before he left, he put it bluntly. "I like you, and i think its fair to say that you like me. Due to the nature of my circumstances with just getting out of a relationship, I think its best if we take this slowly. I'd like to separate processes from both you and her." (there's a long story about her, that I won't put up here...) and I agreed.
While its not completely sure or set in stone things will happen, I at least have a new friend. :)
2 thoughts :
oh my. you're practically pregnant already. good luck
Oh my goodness, this story is precious. I'm sending you my best wishes!
Post a Comment