We headed back onto the path and toward the bridge. I didn't know what happened to me but I became chatty as we walked, even after he entwined his long fingers with mine. I suspected that I was either acting out of excitement from being in the park I loved as a kid or wanted to distract him from the poor-quality clothes I chose to wear on a date. Every tree we saw sparked a memory for me and it was like I had no handle on my mouth as the story came flooding out. He walked beside me, silently, and I could only assume he was enjoying himself from his light smile.
I wondered whether he was surprised at how much I was talking to him, but I became too distracted to hang on to the subject. Before we reached the bridge, I ran to pick up some rocks so I could relive the memory of tossing them into the water. Levy refused to let go of my hand and I dragged him with me with every impulse. He didn't seem to mind and soon we were standing on the bridge that was so much smaller than I remembered. I threw the first rock into the water and it gave a mild splash. I experienced a wave of nostalgia but suddenly feared that Levy would see this as weird.
Before I could think of something more interesting to do, Levy picked a rock from the pile in my free hand and threw it into the water. The splash was bigger than the one I threw and he turned to smile at me. "I win." I gasped. "That's not fair! Yours was bigger than mine!" Levy rolled his eyes, playfully. "That sounds like something a loser would say," he laughed. Soon we were on a tangent, throwing rocks into the water and looking like a couple of psychos who were comparing splashes. After there were no more rocks nearby, we moved on and the trail began to loop around to the pond in the back of the park.
As we walked, I told him about how I would jump into the pond any chance I got and infuriated my mother who had either just done my hair or bought me a new shirt that was now ruined with algae and fish water. Levy's eyes were lit as he listened to me, and his amount of interest only fueled my chattiness. Ducks of all colors were waddling around the grass and gliding in the water, it reminded me of when I wanted more than anything to catch one. "I also used to try my absolute hardest to catch a duck. I just wanted to pet them. They looked so soft. Alas, they are untouchable," I sighed.
Levy hesitated, and then without saying a word, let go of my hand and walked off of the path toward the ducks. Was he going to catch a duck for me? I was frozen, speechless as I saw him walk right up to a black duck and pick it up with no struggle from it at all. He calmly returned to the trail where I was standing and held it out to me. "Here," he said. My mouth dropped but I raised my hand to pet the duck anyway. "W-why didn't it run from you?" I asked with horror. He shrugged one shoulder with a smile. "The bond between goth brothers is not limited to species." I laughed at his reply and he set the duck back down to scurry into the folds of the pond.
We continued walking until we found a clear place of grass in the sun to sit down. I pulled out the large bag that held the sandwiches I made earlier from my inside coat pocket; a hole that I had never bothered to sew up because the inside of my coat was spacious enough to hold a watermelon in between the fabrics. Levy looked at me as if I was performing a magic trick as I pulled the big bag seemingly out of nowhere. "I made us some lunch! Judging by how much you ate on our last date, I assume this is more of a snack for you, but I hope you like it anyway," I said, nervously.
I pulled out a sandwich from the bag and handed it to him. He looked at it and the color of his face tinged with pink. His eyes went to me and the shock in them confused me. "Is something wrong?" I asked. He looked as if he was having trouble trying to answer me. "You made this? For me?" I shrugged and felt a little awkward. "Yeah. I mean, it's just a sandwich and it didn't take any real effort. There's no need to be so flattered. It was no trouble on my end." I didn't expect this kind of reaction from him at all and wondered why he seemed so honored that I had made him something as simple as a PB and J.
The pink in his face deepened into red as he turned his head to avoid looking at me. "You don't understand. You didn't know. This is- oh, how could you have possibly known?" It sounded more like he was talking to himself than to me. "I'm sorry, I just come from a place where making food for someone is very intimate. Even if it's just a sandwich, I appreciate it." His blush was contagious and spread onto my face before I could stop it. Learning something about him like this reminded me of how much I still didn't know. "Where are you from?" I asked with my curiosity peaked.
He hesitated. "From here. I meant, I meant to say my family. They were a very appreciative people." His words didn't roll off his tongue as smoothly as they normally did. He seemed uncomfortable as if he didn't believe the words he was telling me. This began to annoy me. "I want to get to know you, Levy. I wish you would give me some more details when answering a question." He looked at me, more shocked than he was before. The surprise on his face faded shortly after. "No one has ever wanted to get to know me." This caught me off guard and I felt guilty for how stern I sounded before.
He must've learned from a young age that no one cared what he had to say so he had been conditioned to shut up when it came to talking about himself. I knew a thing or two about being told to shut up. But still, it surprised me that no one wanted to know more about this mystery of a man. I understood why other men would be too threatened or frightened to want to get to know a guy like Levy, but I had expected women to be the opposite. Knowing that I was the only woman in his life who cared about more than his body made me a bit more confident in myself.
I then quickly shut down the thought before my brain began to dwell on how we weren't exclusive. "Well, I do. I want to know everything about you." I realized that I had let my emotions control my mouth again and what I said sounded way more romantic than I intended. Levy's face became unreadable, but before I could correct myself, he grabbed me by the back of my head and pulled me in to kiss him.