I haven’t got much of an idea for tonight, but we’ll need snacks and drinks. There aren’t many foods that I know Oliver likes for sure, but I’ve heard him mention a few things, so I go off that. I do know he would drink monsters more than water, however. Scouring the isles, I pick up sweets, ice cream, energy drinks, chips, mini cakes... you name it, I have it. I don’t care about how much I spend. I want to spoil him. It’s what he deserves for his birthday, plus it’s an excuse to spend money since he won’t let me buy him something special.

The cashier looks at me like I have a problem, but I’m fairly sure that it wouldn’t be the worst that they’ve seen. The number of teenagers I know that would buy things that no one wants to see bought together is far from a number you can count. I’ve known some strange people.

I get back in the car, slamming the door accidentally, pull out and enter the road. As soon as I’m out of the city, cruising down the last strip of road before the gate, I put more and more pressure on the accelerator, breaching the speed limit. I flick the high beams on and drop the windows, watching the dry grasslands pass me by. I only begin to shave speed off once I come to the gate. As I roll through, I can see the gleaming lights of The Middle past the looming concrete walls. It’s not as spectacular as the city lights in the centre of Upper-class, but tonight, they’re even more enticing. Once they let me through, and when there’s distance between me and the gate, I step on it again.

I make sure I’m travelling at a respectable speed by the time I reach the outer streets of the Middle then take the quickest path to the station. I glance over at the display system, it’s only 7:50 PM, so I have a lot of time to waste but I may as well do that at the station.

I coast the car into the station and notice a white sweater in the crowd. I try not and let my hopes soar. I know there’s a high chance Oliver can’t come, he doesn’t get along with his mum at all, and there seems to be some other reason he doesn’t want to sneak out. But I want to hope. I glance back at the stark white in the crowd and see messy hair and golden freckles. I pull into a park quickly, resulting in the shittiest park I’ve done in years, and almost forget to put the gear in park before I jump out of the car. Oliver hides his smile behind his phone as I walk closer to him, then he drops his hands and runs at me, flinging his arms around my shoulders. I picked him up in a hug.

“Hi!” He giggles.

I put him down but leave my arms around him. “How did you get out?”

“I’...” He looks around, “I’ll tell you later.” It doesn’t look like his answer could end in disaster, so I leave it. Oliver turns back to me, “So, what have you planned?”

“I can’t say it’s very romantic, but knowing you, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

“Anything is romantic if you try hard enough.”

I raise an eyebrow at him and take my arms away, “That’s concerning because there are a LOT of things that definitely shouldn’t be romantic.” He shrugs, flashing me a proud smile. I roll my eyes. “Well,” I say, attempting to recover from the derailed conversation, “should we go see what I have in mind?” I offer my hand, and he takes it.

“Lead the way,” he says.

I guided us back to the car. I can feel his excitement like electricity, but it doesn’t feel dangerous, only contagious, travelling across our linked hands. I slide into the driver's seat and Oliver jumps in on the passenger side. I hid the snacks in the boot, so he has no clue.

We drive to a side of The Middle that I haven't been to for years. It's the quieter side, with tons of nooks and crannies. When I was younger, and by younger I mean seventeen, I used to run around here with my friends every few weekends, finding new places, experiencing new things. There's a spot I found once that I never told anyone about. I kept it quiet so I could go there undisturbed any time I wanted to, with whoever I wanted to.

Streetlights get replaced with trees and stars, and the road comes to an end. Oliver leans onto the dashboard to look up at the stars. I let the car slowly roll to a stop, careful not to let him hit his head.

“We have reached our destination...” I look out at a fence, overgrown with vines, “Almost.”

Oliver raises an eyebrow comically, “You aren't planning to murder me, are you?”

“Don't ruin the surprise!” I joke.

“I mean I was the one that said you can make anything romantic.”

That makes me laugh out of both amusement and concern. He sits tall, clearly pleased with himself. I take a moment, "I don’t know what you’re into Oliver Night, but I’m not going to murder you, I promise.”

He blushes harshly, sending me a glare. “Oh, shut up.”

I climb out and go to the boot, pulling out the duffel bag of snacks and blankets, only realising how suspicious it looks now. Oliver doesn’t seem to care though, simply following me wherever I go. He seems different than usual, like he has more energy. I don't think I've ever seen him have more than barely a slither of energy before now.

He bounces up beside me, grabbing my free hand. We came up to the fence and it, luckily enough, still has a gaping cut in it. I don't know who cut it or who didn’t bother fixing it, but I'm thankful for both at this point.

“Stay here,” I say to Oliver, before pushing the loose cut of wire up and stepping through. I hold the wire up and gesture for him to come through, “After you.”

He rolls his eyes but I can see his smile in the bright moonlight.

I grab his hand again and we wander across the short grass. There’s scatterings of wispier longer grass that catches the moonlight, dancing in silver. I keep my eyes peeled for that perfect spot that I remember.

“Where are we?” Oliver asks.

I'm not sure if he was looking for an explanation, or if he was just saying what he was thinking, but I responded anyway. “I think it was a part of Highland Park once. It must be blocked off from the other side though, I've never found an entrance within the park itself.”

“How did you even find this place?”

“I used to wander around and find these places when my friends ditched me in the middle. Once they had their fun, they were gone.”

I caught a glimpse of the area I'm looking for. There's nothing special about this spot but it’s a little more secluded without being scary. It’s a flatter area, separated from the higher ground with a gentle hill, shaded by a tall, thick evergreen. The area extends, eventually coming even with the rest of the ground but I specifically like the small dip that hides beneath the canopy of the great tree.

Oliver seems to notice the secluded spot as well. “So, what are we going to do?” he asks with a sly smile, nudging my side.

“You always assume the worst of me Oliver,” I say, returning his smile.

“Should I not?”

He stares at me making direct eye-contact. I flush a little. “I wish I could say that I hate you.”

Oliver goes to cling onto me, in an attempt to be annoying, but I smoothly evade his approach, pushing him away. Things used to be a lot more awkward between us, especially on our little dates, but now being with him is natural. He makes me hate everything that knew before. Oliver is so much better than my friends, my home, my past relationships,.. just everything. He is my everything.

I put the bag down and start to unpack its contents. I lay down the picnic blanket, scattering the other blankets across it. Oliver takes a seat, wrapping his legs in a deep purple blanket. I continue to reveal the bag’s contents, firstly removing the lengthy wooden chopping board I stole from the kitchen. I then take out the drinks, sweets, snacks and fruit making sure to arrange it all neatly along the board. Lastly, I pull out two candles, adding them to the board, lighting them quickly.

When I turn to face Oliver, his face is glowing. I have no idea how often he gets treated like this, but his reaction tells me it’s not a lot. I settle down on the blanket next to him and take a small cupcake to eat knowing that Oliver won’t eat before me, even if this is all for him. “I hope you didn’t have a big dinner.”

He stuffs a strawberry into his mouth and talks from behind his hand, “Actually I barely ate anything.” I give him a stern glare, and he tries to redeem himself, “but I have my reasons! I was nervous.”

“About getting out?”

Oliver nods, looking away from me, “yeah... about that.”

Naturally, my nerves immediately take hold of this situation: my stomach turns, my face drops and all sense of joy deflates from my body. I quickly recover while he still isn’t looking at me. I mean it can’t be too bad if he’s actually here, right?

He continues, “Well, the only way I thought I could get away with sneaking out, was if I didn’t actually sneak out... so I may have had to tell my dad.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “So he knows about us?”

“I never said he knew about us specifically, but he knows that it’s a date with a guy,” he smiles.

“Just any guy?”

“He suggested that it be a nice, rich guy. So, tick and tick,” he laughs to himself and I roll my eyes.

Oliver stretches his arms out and leans forward, grabbing the nearing Monster he can find. He relaxes back and cracks it open. I find myself plucking more food from the abundance. The amount of food here is more than enough to satisfy probably around four people, but I don’t expect us to eat it all, I was mainly going for variety. I seriously could’ve just brought caffeine and he would be happy but I went all out. It’s all he deserves.

“Sorry, I would’ve bought you alcohol, you know, since it’s your 18th but I wasn’t sure if I should.” I say.

I know a fair bit about his mum now. Each time she comes up in conversation he seems to say more and more. From what I know, she’s nothing like him. She’s got a mean tongue and won’t look at him unless she’s drunk. And she’s the reason I don’t know how Oliver reacts to alcohol, but knowing the arguments that he can get into with his mum, it wouldn't be good.

His dad seems chill at least.

“Energy drinks are my alcohol, it’s an addiction,” he whispers to me, topping it off with a wink.

No wonder he doesn’t go to bed until 2am, he’s got so much more energy at night.

I shrug, “caffeine is probably better than alcohol.”

“Seems that way...” he trails off.

I lean back and lay down, looking up at the night sky. It’s cooler out, so there’s a perfect view of the stars. There’s definitely more stars here than in Upper-class. Oliver lays down next to me carefully, holding his Monster close to him.

We talk for a while, eating anything we can get our hands on. Oliver leaves his drink for a while, taking a particular liking to the small platter of fruits. It turns out to be almost 11 PM the next time either of us see the time.

The conversation dies down and I try to pick it back up again. “So how have you and your mum been?” I usually don’t try and push for conversation around his mum, but I can’t get the topic out of my head.

“I mean, she’s alive, apparently. Although I would beg to differ,” his expression turns sour, “she has no light behind her eyes, that woman, especially not when she looks at me.”

We stayed silent for a while. I’m always curious if he’s actually safe. There’s obviously a two-way hate, and things can get messy quickly when it’s like that. I’ve always wanted to know...

“Does she ever hurt you... like physically?” I look over at him, he continues staring at the sky.

“She’s had her moments, nothing bad, just scary,” Oliver lets his breath out, “I’ve learnt to duck and weave, literally and figuratively.”

It looks like it hurts him to say that. I mean, it hurts me to hear that. Verbal or physical, he doesn’t deserve either. I don’t know how to respond to that. It’s a hard thing to process, especially since I wanted him to say she doesn’t hurt him. Oliver catches my eye. He sends me a gentle smile.

“Well, if you ever need someone to rock up and be your knight in shining armour, you know who to call,” I joke, trying to lighten the mood again.

Oliver’s smile morphs into something more mischievous, “Yeah, emergency services.”

We laugh. I sit up, making it easier to grab snacks. I collect a handful of lollies and even cut a piece of that fancy, small cake I found. Oliver sits up too, and I cut him a slice. He wraps himself in the blanket and takes it.

He flips the interrogation, “So what about your parents? Are they suspicious yet?”

“Of course they are,” I nod, “Why wouldn’t they be suspicious when their amazing son, who just managed to escape toxic friends and bad habits, starts disappearing every afternoon again?”

“Bad habits huh?” he raises an eyebrow at me.

Right, he doesn’t know about me before I was saved from ruin. I feel bad that he doesn’t know this already. He’s my boyfriend, I should trust him with all of this. I guess it just slipped my mind. It’s not all that great of a memory.

“Uh, yeah. I guess I haven’t mentioned that. I got caught up in the wrong groups... a few times. It’s not that, um, telling of me…”

Oliver readjusts himself so his whole body is facing mine. “Try me.”