Chapter 5

Nate's POV

The night felt gloomy to me, lying in my bed waiting for tomorrow seems like a bad habit if you think about it but what gets me worried is Erin. She hasn't been very "active" lately and it's not just about her being absent on her workshop the other day.

I feel like she's really deep into something. In some days she's ecstatic and agile but other times she gets uncomfortably quiet and indistinct. I'm really starting to worry about her well-being and throughly concerned for her health but she doesn't wanna talk to me about it. Like she's keeping secrets or something.

I grab my phone from my pocket and texted Erin to meet me, her reply was a simple,"Why?" I told her to just meet me at Vermilion Boulevard and she agreed.

I hurriedly went to Vermilion Blvd. beside Erin's workshop building, she appeared in a black hoodie jacket with short jeans that revealed her pale legs, approaching me with a curious expression.

"Why did you call me here in the middle of the night?" she asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Why are you wearing short jeans in the middle of the night? Aren't you cold? And what if a creepy guy comes up behind you, what would you do?" I ask her, tempting her to get angry at me.

"Why do you care?! Just tell me why you brought me here or I'll leave." she threatened.

I burst out laughing from her,"Relax, Erin. I'm here to make you forget about all your problems." I stated to her.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

I pulled her closer beside me to face the workshop building,"I know that you've been working in the workshop for 6 years now, when I heard that it was getting threatened on shutting down, I felt horrible because I know that it's been your long-time dream to teach people your skills." I stated.

She looked down at the ground, avoiding to look at the end of her happiness in life,"I don't know what I'm gonna do." she said in a low voice.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and made her face me,"That's why I'm here, we're bestfriends and I'll always be here to make you happy in your darkest hours." I declared to her.

Her eyebrows furrowed at me, thinking weirdly of me and my actions,"And what are you gonna do to make me happy?" she asked.

I scratched my head to think, I already know where to bring her. By this time of night, I bet the local amusement park is still open to all. I grabbed Erin's hand, running down the street on our way.

She yelled at me to slow down but I ignored her and continued to run. Being 6'0 feet tall, I am totally dragging her by now. We made it to the amusement park, Erin was panting heavily due to the run.

"Tada! Here we are to the happiest place in Aeredale." I Introduced.

The colorful lights of the rides and attractions beamed through the whole street. When she finally caught her breath, she looked up and saw where we are.

"The amusement park? You've gotta be kidding?" she jeered.

"What? I thought you liked the amusement park?" I said.

She scoffed,"Do you think this is just going to make me forget that easily?" she asked me.

"Yes." I simply answered with a smirk.

At the end of the night, Erin was on top of the world. Shouting, screaming, yelling on the top of her lungs when the rides ended. It felt like I was with a different person as the night went on. Earlier, she completely doubted that I could make her happy but now it seems like she doesn't need me to.

The moon was full and the park finally closed around 1AM, Erin got so disappointed that the fun would end but I assured her that it was only getting started.

For this one, I had to pull some tricks up my sleeve. At the end of town was the local swimming pool that's the size of an olympic pool. It was a favorite place in Aeredale especially during the summer but is only open during the day.

We hopped over a long metal fence, sneaking inside and entering the indoor pool so we wouldn't get caught outside. It was obviously quiet and empty, no one would think of breaking in a swimming pool during the night.

I went to the power room to switch on the pool lights, the blue light underneath the pool shines the entire place. I started taking off my clothes and cannonballed in the water, it was very cold. I don't why I didn't turn on the heater.

"Are you just gonna stand there?" I asked her.

Her face was in total shock,"What if we get caught in here?" she asked me.

"No, we won't. Trust me." I assured.

She shrugged her shoulders at me and took off her hoodie, leaving only her tank top and short jeans on before jumping in the pool with me.

The waves splashed when she jumped in, she rose from the water with a grinning face. Between the two of us, Erin is a better swimmer than me. She has mentioned to me that she used to visit the beach with her family back when they were still together, picking up seashells from the shore and playing in the sand with her parents.

Despite her mother's death, Erin became stronger than ever thanks to her grandma, Joan Gardner who took her from her abusive father to live in Aeredale a peaceful and wonderful life.

That's why Erin is very precious to me, she has lost so much in life. I can't let her lose the only thing that can make her smile. She deserves better, even if I can't change the fact that the workshop will be closing down, I know that I can stay by her side when it does. I'll be with her until she gets herself together.

"So how do you feel so far?" I asked, brushing my hair back.

"I don't know." she said in a low voice.

I sighed deeply,"Well, did you have fun?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did. Thank you by the way." she admitted, her smile made me feel satisfied with a job well done.

"I had fun too, you kept dragging me all over different rides I barely had time to breath." I whined.

"Well, you dragged me earlier." she returned.

We both laughed and found each other sitting on the edge of the pool. The atmosphere fell distant, I looked around the room only to find a dark void, the pool lights were the only source of light we had.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't say this to you." she spoke.

I looked at her,"It's fine, it's not an easy thing to confess. But you know that you can trust me, I will do my best to keep you up." I stated.

"Thank you, Nate." she said and pulled me into a hug. We were both cold but I managed to feel otherwise from her warmth, I returned the favor with mine.

An hour has passed and the sun was about to rise, we decided to leave the pool and go back home.

I noticed the already blue sky and morning haze,"Hey!" a gruff voice yelled at us.

We looked beyond the fence and saw an old cop with his flashlight shining at us on the other side. I looked at Erin with a grin, her face was completely still and couldn't look away from the cop.

We're not getting caught, I won't let that happen. I grab Erin's hand and we both run away from the fence,"Stop right there!" the cop shouted.

We went to the other end of the fence to hop over and ended up in a back alley, I assisted Erin when she jumped down from the fence as she almost landed on her back,"Come on, Erin." I told her.

I grabbed her hand and we both ran towards the end of the alley, it was still early and there weren't much people in the street so we avoided anyone noticing that we're running away from a cop.