Griffin’s phone buzzed at the edge of the bed, waking him from a half-sleep nap he hadn’t intended. It was a new message from Charlie. 

Up for a ride? I’m outside.

His room was dark. It was a stark contrast to the flood of copper illumination he last recalled.

Griffin pocketed his phone without responding and stepped over to his door. He listened for the sounds of his mother – but quickly pulled back. He’d already told her his two secrets. There was no need to sneak around anymore.

He opened his door and stepped out into the house with a stride of confidence that he’d always refused himself before. It felt much better not to slink and plan his steps.

He made his way to the front door, but before he reached it he decided to double back to the kitchen. He grabbed a marker and left a note on the magnetic whiteboard clinging to their refrigerator: Out with Charlie. Will be safe.

Griffin made his way out the front door and down to Charlie’s black sedan. The passenger window was up and Charlie was staring straight ahead with both hands on the wheel. Griffin approached cautiously.

He opened the passenger door just enough to stick his head in. “Hey, Charlie. Are you alright?”

Charlie laughed – a short, nervous cough of a laugh. “Yeah, sorry, hi.”

He took one hand off the steering wheel and motioned for Griffin to come in. Griffin slid into the passenger seat and buckled the seatbelt.

“Listen,” Griffin started. “I want to apologize–”

Charlie shook his free hand. “Uh, sorry, mind holding that thought? I’ve got something I want to show you first. And… I’m a little nervous.”

Griffin reached for his belt buckle. “Should I drive? You’re making me nervous.”

Charlie considered that for a moment. 

“No, no, it’s a short ride,” he said. “Good to go?”

Griffin nodded, and Charlie shifted into drive and pulled away from the curb.

“It’s good to see you,” Charlie said. “Really… good.”

A grin inched its way out of the corner of Griffin’s mouth. “You too.”

It seemed like Charlie needed all the concentration he could muster to calm his nerves. Griffin didn’t want to cause an accident, so he stayed quiet. He intended to make good on his refrigerator-promise to be safe.

At the end of the street, Charlie made a familiar turn. And not much later they were entering the church parking lot again. The grin in the corner of Griffin’s mouth grew wider.

Charlie made way for the back of the church, just like he had when they’d watched Paradise Highway. For all his nerves, the ride was smooth. Griffin was lucky to have him as his driving instructor.

When they turned the corner at the back of the church, Griffin's eyes went immediately to the bare wall Charlie had used as a projection screen last time. The projector was back again, and this time it was displaying the title slide of their English presentation on the wall.

Romance: Griffin Gago & Charlie Hess

The scene was otherwise bare. There were no string lights hanging above the wall.

Charlie pulled the car up until they were inline with the wall and the projector. Charlie didn’t swing into a parking space, he just switched the gear and turned the car off in the middle of the aisle.

“I changed a few things in the final project,” Charlie said, turning to Griffin. “So I just want to get your thoughts.”

Griffin furrowed his brow. “You’re nervous about… the presentation?”

“It’s half our grade.”

“And we came all the way out here for you to show it to me… because?”

Charlie flashed a smile at Griffin. A bit more of his usual confidence was reemerging. “I just thought it’d be more fun.”

Charlie opened his door and stepped out. He waited for Griffin to do the same, then tapped the the front of the car, indicating that Griffin should come lean on the edge and face the screen.

Charlie walked backwards from the car until he was standing on the narrow sidewalk that laid between the parking spaces and the grass where the projector sat. With a wide, goofy flourish of his arms, he pulled a small clicker from his pocket.

Griffin took his designated spot on the edge of the car’s hood and crossed his arms. He was bewildered at the entire situation.

Charlie noticed the look of scepticism on Griffin’s face, and smiled as widely as he could. Griffin only narrowed his eyes. Charlie drew his smile in and cleared his throat.

“My name is Charlie Hess, and I’ve learned a lot about romance with Griffin this semester.”

“You know,” Griffin interrupted. “We’re both supposed to give this presentation.”

Charlie pointed the clicker at him dramatically. “We can work on that next!” He clicked the button.

The title card slid off screen revealing the next slide. It was an aerial image of the ocean, choppy waters under a mid-day sun. The cover of Dip was overlaid in the center. There was otherwise no text. Griffin hadn’t seen this slide before.

 “I’ve, um–” Charlie cleared his throat again. He looked off into the distance and took a few steps to the left. Then the right. He turned to face Griffin again and took a deep breath.

“I’ve learned that love is big, like the ocean.” Charlie spread his arms wide again. It was less goofy this time. More anxious.

“It’s powerful,” he started. There was a tremble to his voice. 

“Like the tides, it draws you in. It’s like rip currents too – if you aren’t careful, it can sweep you away out of your depth”

Griffin uncrossed his arms. This wasn’t at all like the presentation they’d worked on before. This wasn’t even about literary romance, really.

Charlie clicked again, and the slide slid away. The next one it revealed was new to Griffin too. It was a high-definition close-up of the illuminated moon, with the cover of Moonsword in the center. Again, it was otherwise blank.

Charlie spoke again, his voice more certain now. “I’ve learned that love is like the moon. It can be distant and mysterious. But it offers you gifts – in the form of a sword, or that of a community. It teaches you about yourself, even when you want to hide from learning.”

Griffin leaned forward so that he came up off of the edge of the car hood. He raised a hand meekly, unsurely. “I didn’t think we were including Moonsword. It’s not really a romance–”

Charlie clicked again, and a new slide appeared on the wall. It was the photo of Griffin from their first night of lessons together, here in the church parking lot. The one with the nervous smile and cheesy thumbs up. In the background, hidden behind the circular reflection of the flash flare in the driver’s window, was a hazy outline of Charlie smiling ear to ear.

Griffin’s hand fell to his side.

“I’ve learned,” Charlie said – his voice was steadfast now, “that sometimes love comes in the form of a random partner assignment in English class. When you’re thrown in with the kid that hasn’t yet learned to drive, and you offer him a simple thing: lessons, at night, in your dad’s sedan.”

Charlie took slow steps down from the sidewalk and towards Griffin as he spoke. Griffin’s heart was pounding in his ears.

“Not realizing you’d be getting more in return. Friendship, and great books, and life lessons, and love.” 

He stopped a few inches away from Griffin, looking him straight in the eyes as he continued.

“Romantic love. Big, powerful, cheesy, mysterious love.” He smiled wide. “And you couldn’t be happier to face it.”

Charlie got down on one knee, and Griffin let out an anxious uhhh, but he didn’t have any words to follow. Charlie waved a hand dismissively, as if to say please don’t freak out.

“Griffin Gago, I like you – a lot. May I please take you on a date?”

Charlie looked up at Griffin, his hands clasped on his raised knee, waiting patiently for his response.

Griffin made another nonverbal uhhh sound. It reminded him of the low, distant chirping of the crickets from their night on the backroad.

Griffin couldn’t get any words out, but he nodded enthusiastically and Charlie leapt up to his feat. He pulled Griffin into a tight, warm hug. Their chests pressed together, and they could both feel the excited fluttering of each other’s hearts.

Charlie whispered, “Can I kiss you? I was going to wait but – I don’t want to.”

Griffin pulled back slightly from the hug so he could look at Charlie’s face, and see his goofy, wide grin, and look into his eyes – which were starting to mist. He still had no words, but offered another eager nod and leaned in to bring their lips together.

It was a slow kiss. The kind that lingers. 

There was a scene in Paradise Highway where the protagonists are racing down an unfinished highway during a chase. They reach the end of the structure, but don’t slow down. Instead, they race up and off of a ramp into the air. And for the next several moments they’re soaring. The camera slows down, extending their hang time. You can see the elation on their faces. They feel like they’re never coming down.

The kiss felt like that. Like hang time, in slow motion.

When Griffin and Charlie finally pulled apart, they touched their foreheads together and laughed short, quiet laughter into the night air. 

“Have you got time for a date right now?” Charlie asked. 

Griffin, finally finding his voice again, replied. “Absolutely.”

Charlie broke from their embrace. “Then hold on a second,” he said and jogged over to the trunk of the car. He lifted it and started pulling things out onto the ground.

He peeked his head around the side of the trunk to look at Griffin. “Actually, mind closing your eyes for a minute?”

Griffin did as he was asked, and leaned back on the hood of the car again. He heard the flapping of a fabric and shuffle of what sounded like boxes. He heard Charlie’s feet race across the grass, and the creak of a panel opening in the distance.

Charlie raced back over, and Griffin could hear him approaching. “Don’t open yet,” Charlie said softly.

He took Griffin’s hands and led him a couple feet away to his left. Griffin felt a change in texture beneath his feet. He was standing on something soft now. Charlie kept one hand in Griffin’s palm and placed the other on his waist. “I’m going to help you sit down now – slowly.”

Griffin lowered himself and let Charlie correct his trajectory a smidge until he felt a puffy cushion beneath him. There was another behind his back, too.

Charlie squeezed his hand gently, like a reminder that he was happy to be holding it.

“Okay, you can open them now.”

Griffin gasped when he did. Charlie had laid out a comforter beneath them, a mountain of pillows, a crate of snacks, and a cooler of drinks. String lights were strewn all around them, connected to a long extension cord that ran across the grass and up to the wall. Charlie sat down next to him, and they both leaned back on the wall of pillows that sat between them and the side of the car. A black rectangle had replaced the presentation on the wall projection.

Charlie wrapped his arm around Griffin’s shoulder, and Griffin leaned into the crook of his neck. 

“I’m sorry,” Griffin said quietly. “For pushing you when you weren’t ready. And… for avoiding you after.”

Griffin chuckled. “I forgive you. It helped, I think. We wouldn’t be here, like this, otherwise.”

They were both quiet for a time. 

“I wanted to do it right this time,” Charlie whispered. “No subtext. A date-date.”

Griffin nuzzled into his neck. “You did it right,” Griffin whispered back.

They enjoyed the silence and the comfort of their bodies aligned for a few minutes.

Griffin spoke first. “You know we’re not presenting those slides in class, right?”

Charlie grinned. “We’ll go over the real one tomorrow.”

“Tonight is for this,” Charlie said, and hugged Griffin against his side warmly. He rubbed his thumb along Griffin’s shoulder, and used his other hand to tap his phone screen. The black rectangle projected on the wall exploded into color. Words formed in the prismatic haze: Paradise Highway II: Neon Glory.

When Griffin thought back on the film later, he found that he didn’t remember much of it. All he could recall was the weight and warmth of Charlie’s embrace, and the comfort of knowing with certainty that it was for him.