Penguin

My eyes widen. "You're-you're outside?"

"Coincidentally, I am." He chuckles. "So can you?"

"There's a key under the mat." I say and stand up from my bed.

"Okay, found it."

I hear the front door opening so I walk out of my room to head downstairs.

I stop at the foot of the stairs and just watch him.

He enters, closes the door and just stands there staring at me back.

"Summer." He breaths out.

I rushed to him and hugged him. He staggered a little but when he had his footing, he hugged me back.

The tears was threatening to fall again but I held back.

"You can cry if you want to." He says.

"You said you hate it when I cry."

"That shouldn't stop you." He slowly uses his hand to stroke my hair. "Although I may hate it, if crying makes you feel a little better, then you should cry your heart out."

I managed to chuckle. "I should cry my heart out?"

"I give you my permission." He says and I laugh.

But that laughter slowly turned into short sobs.

"There there." He doesn't stop stroking my hair.

We stand by the door for god knows how long before I finally managed to stop crying and pull away.

"I think I ruined your shirt." I mutter as I try to clean the tear stained shirt with my hands.

He holds my hand. "I have hundreds." He states without taking his eyes off me.

His eyes didn't waver, neither did mine. We stood there staring at each other. He slowly brought up his hand to my eye and wipes a tear away.

"Go out with me." He says.

"Huh?"

He smiles. "Go get dressed and let me take you out."

"Why?" I ask.

Why would he want to take me out after I just brawled in front of him.

I must've looked hideous!

He takes a strand of my hair and tucks it behind my ear. "You're upset. I hate seeing you upset." He takes my hand in his and stares at it for a moment before looking at me. "It makes me upset."

Oh my.

I swear I could hear the thumping of my heart right now.

"So," He continues. "In order for you not to feel upset anymore, I have to take you out." He pause. "No. I need to take you out." He gives me a small smile. "Can I?"

.....

"Oh my god!" I squeal in excitement.

I turn to him and he smiles at me.

"I can't believe this!" I squeal again.

He laughs. "But we are here aren't we?"

I turn back to the large view in front of me.

After persuading me to go out with him, I got dressed in a one shoulder down white top, tucked into a high waist jean short skirt, and white sneakers.

I decided to let my hair down.

"I can't believe you brought me to a friggin amusement park!"

"You like it?"

I turn to him again. "Like it? Are you kidding me? I freaking love it!" I shout and he laughs again.

"I'm glad."

I run to his side and grab his hand.

"The day isn't getting any younger!" I shout as I lead us into the park.

At first, I didn't know which ride to get on first so I decided to go on all!

First, I decided we should start slow and easy, so we went on the carousel, then after, the bumper cars, and the fun slide. I decided to heat things up a little, so we went on the flying chair, pirate ship, and of course what's a trip to the park without going on a roller coaster?

Through out the rides, Jaxon kept getting sick which made it more hilarious.

After, we played some games like whack a mole, balloon and dart, basketball and much more.

We then decided to cool off and have something to eat.

On our way to get some snacks, I came across a little stuffed baby penguin sitting on a table of the ring toss shed.

I stop in my tracks. "What's your favorite animal?" I suddenly ask Jaxon.

He also stops. "Um, I'd say cats?" He scratches his head.

I scoff. "You're not even sure."

"Can't blame me. What's your favorite animal?"

"Penguins."

"Penguins?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Why?" He asks and I smile.

"One thing I love about penguins is that they spend their whole lives looking for their soulmate and when they do find them, they never let go. They stick to them no matter what. Till the very end."

"That's cool." Jaxon nods.

I sighed and looked at my hands. "I guess Nathan wasn't my penguin. I let go of him the moment he died."

"Summer-"

"My mom said not remembering him was more painful for me than remembering and grieving."

"I didn't understand at first, but I do now." I looked at Jaxon and gave him a weak smile. "I liked Nathan a lot. He died, and although it's not my fault, I forgot about him. Living through these past years without knowing about a guy I'm sure I liked a lot was truly painful.

I had nightmares. Bad ones." Jaxon knits his brows together. "I would have nightmares, then I would wake up and wonder why I had those nightmares. I did nothing wrong, so why should I have nightmares that torture me every night? I always asked myself that."

I sigh. "If I hadn't forgotten, I wouldn't say it would have been better, but at least slightly less painful. I would know why I had the nightmares, and how I can reduce them, but I didn't even know where to start from. How can I cure a disease if I don't know what it is?" I look at him and smile weakly.

"You see why I don't deserve a penguin?" I ask Jaxon but he just tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear and strokes my hair.

He gives me a small smile. "You know, when I first met you, I was captivated by your eyes. Those eyes of yours kept drawing me to them. Then you smiled." He stops stroking my hair and puts his hand in his pockets. "I was hooked on your smile." He pauses. "Then you laughed." He smiles. "That's the best sound I could have ever heard."

"I don't know if you've noticed this, but whenever you smile, you smile with your eyes. And whenever you laugh, your eyes look like they are about to close and it makes you look cute. You make this cute little sounds from the back of your throat that makes your laughter a little high pitched. I always wanted to see you smile and laugh so that I could see your eyes shine."

"But then you cried. You cried and my heart ached." I don't know where he sees it, but he tucks another strand behind my ear. "I never want to see you cry. But what can we do if life decides to be a bitch to us?" He pauses and doesn't say anything for a moment.

"You might think Nathan wasn't your penguin, but I'm pretty sure he thought of you as his penguin." He states. "I'm sure he would have wanted to spend the rest of his life with you, I'm sure he didn't think of you anything less than his light, his sun, his reason for his smile, his reason for his laughter, just like I do."

There it goes again.

Everywhere was silent, and the only thing I could hear was the soft thumping of my heart.

"I'm pretty sure he felt life before you was very much boring like I do." He takes my hand in his and gently strokes it. "I'm pretty sure after he met you, he pretty much sulked about why he couldn't have met you sooner like I do."

"You really are pretty sure about many things." I say softly.

He shrugs. "What can I say? It's because it's you. You make me go crazy Hathaway. And I'm pretty sure you made him go crazy too." He smiles but I couldn't do nothing but just stare at him without saying a word.

Here is someone who's pretty sure about some things I couldn't think of imagining. I don't know how hundred percent true it is, but his words went straight to my heart.

And that made the thumping to ring louder in my ears.

"So how about you let me win you a penguin?"