Fruits Forbidden

Chapter 3: Food is a Serious Business here

“I can’t wait to stuff myself until I can’t breathe!” I gushed excitedly, jumping behind Daniel once again. I clutched him too tightly for the sake of his windpipe, still excited about the chicken wings that I was daydreaming about.

“You’re ch-choking me.” He let out, making me loosen my grip immediately.

Oops.

“You are such a drama queen, gosh.” I muttered snidely, earning myself a huff of disbelief.

“Says the queen of drama queens.”

I adopted a fake accent. “Are you jealous, little boy?”

“I should have pushed you off that swing when I had the chance to.” He muttered under his breath, revving his bike up to a loud roar.

I gasped again.

“You did not just say that.” I put a hand on my heart, feigning hurt.

“I can’t see you but I know you’re the worst actress, so drop it.” He teased, riling me up like always. “And yet I’m the drama queen between us both.”

“So… where are we going?” I asked as I realized we were not going home.

“Take a wild guess.” He said.

I tightened my hold on his waist as I felt the temperature dropping considerably. We were driving to the outskirts, maybe?

“Definitely not home?” I tried. I didn’t like surprises all that much. Besides, it was already too late and my stomach missed the feeling of having food inside it. Poor little thing.

He rolled his eyes, and I caught it in the rear view mirror.

“I’m planning that murder I had told you of, after all.” He said gruffly, trying to sound scary, but all I did was laugh.

“You know your pathetic little self wouldn’t be able to handle killing me all alone, right?” I chuckled. “Besides, who would take care of you if you killed your girlfriend?”

I saw him almost grin and roll his eyes at my confidence.

“Don’t worry, I'll find my way.” He raised his brows in challenge.

I really should have eaten more when I had the chance to. My stomach grumbled. “At this rate I will die before you can kill me. Can we get some takeout?”

Daniel groaned once again. He took a swift turn and we were now moving towards McDonalds. After taking a big bag full of takeout, we were once again on our way to this mysteriously new place.

I almost opened my bag of French fries and munched on a couple of them before we finally reached the place. It wasn’t really, I don’t know, a place? We were in the middle of the woods.

Nice place for murder.

Though forests are very beautiful to me, they were easily overpowered in the moment by my grumbling stomach that only churned louder at the smell of all the junk food. I would happily sit on the motorbike, emptying the contents of the packet into my stomach, but with the threat of terrible tickling looming, I decided to do whatever Daniel said. So much for a peaceful snack.

“What if someone stole it?” I asked when Daniel tried to keep the takeaway on the pillion, unprotected and vulnerable. He wanted to leave it here? In the middle of a forest? Is he, I don’t know, stupid?

“Do you even see anyone here?” he asked, laughing as if whatever I thought and said was barbaric.

“Anyone can show up, it’s a goddamn road.” He waited, as if expecting me to say something meaningful next. “Okay, but what about the animals?” I questioned, scratching my knuckles. “What if they get curious and eat it? And worse, what if they decide they like McDonalds and then finally barge into it? We’ll be doing the Earth a favour by taking this with us.” I hinted, reaching for the bag, hoping to save my precious food.

Daniel just deadpanned and slapped my hand away. Ugh.

“You’re unbelievable.” I scowled. “Fine. Let’s just leave it here, but if it goes missing…”

“I’ll buy you takeout for one whole week.” Sounded like a good deal to me.

Now I really hoped that somebody took it.

Finally done with my dancing and prancing about, Daniel took a grab of my hand and began leading us down the leafy pathway towards the denser part of the forest. I hoped this thing he was showing me was good enough because I already had two ants biting me.

Finally the trees started to thin and we reached an empty clearing.

And the funny thing was, the clearing wasn’t empty at all.

There, shining in the evening sun that slowly hid behind the horizon, were hundreds and hundreds of fireflies. They buzzed around aimlessly, the sound of the horde both exciting and calming to my ears as my eyes followed their movements lazily. It was so beautiful, even the sun delayed its setting to awe at this beautiful scenery. I was baffled, awestruck, and speechless all at once.

A little firefly seemed lost as it wandered away from the clan, buzzing close to my ear, roaming around me. I could do nothing but stretch my forefinger as the sudden desire to touch it crossed my mind. But before I could reach it, the little bug slipped away.

I sighed. It was so beautiful, I wanted to cry.

“Do you like it?” a voice asked from beside me, bringing me out of my reverie and in this beautiful place with Daniel. My heart almost melted at the thought of spending an evening here with him, all alone, with nothing but us, food, board games and our love.

I shook my head as I let go of the stupid thought that had bugged its way into my head like a termite into wood and now was slowly rotting my mind again, making it hollow. Hollow with nothing but the emptiness of my love for him filled inside my mind.

“No, stupid,” I turned to look at him and noticed how weirdly he looked at me. “I love it! It is so beautiful!”

“Yeah, just…” Daniel murmured so softly; I didn’t even hear what he said. But at that moment, I didn’t care. That moment was as amazing as it always felt when I was with Daniel, but it was something more. It sent shivers down my whole being to imagine Daniel experiencing even half of the feelings that I held for him. This moment was special, and I didn’t want to let it go. I wanted to stay here as long as I could, even if it meant being with him like this, as best friends forever.

We decided to settle down and enjoy the chilly atmosphere that was now engulfing us. I revelled in it as Daniel sat down beside me, my head resting on his shoulder. We just sat beside each other: not talking, not laughing, not moving; just enjoying each other’s presence. It was enough, enough for the both of us.

The night finally came, and the moon was rising up, basking us in its silver light. The flies were still buzzing restlessly, as if they didn’t know where to go, but now we could also hear the chirping of crickets accompanying their song.

It was time to go, his silent request came as his hand came up to my knee and slightly gripped it.

I pulled my head off his shoulder and unlatched my hand from his, which were surprisingly intertwined. He smiled at me, and we both got up speechlessly, brushing off the dust and grass from our clothes. Taking my hand in his once again, he led the way back to his vehicle as my eyes kept straying towards the image that was impossible to get out of my head. The fireflies, the night, Daniel.

I smiled wide at his back as my heart beat faster, because as much as I tried; I couldn’t stop falling in love with this boy. Every time that I tried to lose my feelings, he would bring them back to me tenfold, like a harsh slap to my face. This was reality, I couldn’t get away from loving him, and I couldn’t confess either. It was unbearable to think, but it was the truth. I loved him too much to let him know.

Soon we were back on the empty road; his motorbike stood shining in the moonlight.

But something was definitely wrong in the frame. It took me a few seconds to process, but when I heard Daniel laughing softly at the expression on my face, I knew what was wrong.

My food was gone.