Reality

Chapter 4

Seven days until I know where I belong. Last night was incredible, after I invited Jeremy to my house we talked for hours about random events that have happened in our lives. He had a crazy story of how he and some of his friends went skydiving and once they landed, they graffitied Regal's territory. That wasn't the best part though, he told me the Regal guards were chasing after them for a whole hour straight, but never caught him and his friends. I told him about the time where I went ziplining with my sister and brother and it was really dangerous because it was about 600 ft up in the air and some of the wires were frayd. We both laughed at those things that happened to us, but then he asked about my parents.

I told him what happened to them and how they died protecting the city from intruders. He hugged me for a while and we didn't say anything until he wanted to show me something he found a couple of days ago.

It's about two in the morning by the time we leave my house. "It's pretty far away, if that's alright?" I groan but keep walking, "I am very excited to walk in pitch black for miles," I am trying to be sarcastic, but he took it literally. "We can stay here if you're not up for the challenge." I laugh at him, "I'm always up for a challenge."

He says we were about halfway to the spot, but I have no clue where he is actually taking me. We walk for another hour and I'm getting tired, "Are we planning to get here by the time the sun goes up?" I whined and he joked with me, "do you want me to carry you?" I did just as he said to me. I really want to get off my feet, and when an opportunity comes your way, you take it. He laughed, "wow, you really are tired aren't you? Or do you just want me to carry you because you're lazy?" I'm slurring my words to make myself seem more tired, "maybe,....maybe....not."

Jeremy carried me for another hour, "ok Harper, we here." When I look at him he looks proud of himself. I think it's either from finding this place or for carrying me for such a long time. When I look at the place he took me too, it's already sunrise. It's beautiful, we are on a small beach with lots of trees. The ocean waves were calm while the sun was starting to shine upon the water. "It's beautiful." I'm in awe right now, those were the only words I could say at the moment. "Look what I brought?" he said while holding a blanket. He laid the blanket down and I plop down on it. "You're amazing, you know that." I said to him while lying by him. "Your beautiful, you know that," I blushed when he said that. No one has ever called me beautiful.

We layed in silence for a very long time until we both fell asleep under the trees listening to the sounds of the waves crashing. By the time I woke up, Jeremy was swimming in the water. I walk up to him, "what are you doing in the water, we don't have bathing suits?" He just looked at me and smiled, "Just swim in your clothes." And I did that, I took off my shoes, socks, shirt and shorts so I don't get them wet. I took off and jumped in the water. We both laugh because it was very dramatic when I jumped. "This is incredible, how did you find this place?" "I have my resources," and then he started swimming again.

We were swimming for about 20 minutes, "we should probably get going, don't you think?" He nodded at me, "yeah we probably should, it's about 3:00 right now." I stared at him, "How long have I been asleep? He looked at his phone "About 9 hours. My eyes bugged out of my face, "9 hours! Why didn't you wake me." He started talking while getting dressed, "you were so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you." I took a deep breath, "thank you very much but I think we should start to head back because my sister and brother are probably freaking out." He looked at me nervously, "right, we should. Your sister talked to me, and I don't need her to hate me even more than she does." Oh my god. "I'm so sorry about her, she's just protective." "Let's get going though because it will take a while to get back."

By the time we got back to Harcos territory, it's close to 7:00 and my brother is probably making dinner right now. "Thank you Jer, that place was unbelievable. We should go again sometime and next time bring bathing suits." He laughed, "yeah we'll bring some next time. I didn't really know we were going to swim until the next day, I'm sorry," I felt bad when he said that. "Your fine, I'll see you at school on Monday." I smiled and walked away until he ran and kissed me. This is my first kiss ever and it's incredible. I can't even describe how it feels, and when we finished, he whispered "goodnight Harper," and walked away.

I must have been smiling because Mason, my older brother, even noticed, "why are you so happy today?" I kept smiling, "no reason" and went into the living room to finish up my homework that is due for the next week.

The rest of the weekend was very calm and relaxing which is very strange due to the fact that I live in Harcos territory. Maybe it's because people my age are getting ready for the ceremony on Friday. It's my birthday this week and I hope that it will go as planned. Which is where everyone forgets that it's my birthday. I have hated my birthday ever since my parents died because the day they died, was my birthday. I miss them too much to even consider celebrating. Who needs to celebrate anyway?