“Take me the long way around your town. Were you the queen with the silver crown? I want the secrets you keep, the shine underneath of the diamond I think I just found…”


In the days since Charlotte’s freak out with Darcy, she tried to work out why she’d responded the way she had. What exactly had been the thing to freak her out? Was it really the drawer? Did the idea of leaving some of her things at someone else’s house really terrify her? Or was it the fact that she was really beginning to like this guy? And the thought of making a move that would shatter the illusion of perfection would ruin everything. Was he going to become like all the other boys she’d been with? Or was she afraid that he wouldn’t, and this time, she’d be the one to mess things up?

They both tried to act like her freak out hadn’t happened, and that their decision to get to know each other better was coming from a random place. Mostly Charlotte didn’t want to believe this was happening because she had scared him to the point of feeling like he had to do these things. When Darcy asked her to take him to her hometown a couple days after the incident, she feared she had set herself up for failure. Never had a boy been taken back to her hometown; not that it was too far from where she lived now. But her hometown was… small, boring, suffocating. And her mom was there, and she’d never taken a boy home to meet her mom before. And she wasn’t sure she wanted to start that trend now.

But because he had asked so soon, Charlotte felt like she had no other option but to take him to her hometown. Maybe she just wouldn’t tell her mom she was going to be in town. And maybe Darcy wouldn’t ask to meet her. This trip was riding on a lot of ‘what ifs’, but it didn't keep her from driving home. They’d decided on that Sunday, mostly because it would be the lightest traffic on the freeways. Although any time you were leaving the beach communities and coming inland was always traffic-y. Come to think of it, going anywhere in LA was traffic-y.

When they got into town, memories came flooding back to Charlotte. She hadn’t been home in awhile, and every reason she left in the first place came running back into her mind. In trying to explain her hometown to people, she never really knew what to say. It was some sort of enigma. It was a small town in the middle of a big city. A suburb with a downtown. A population of a hundred thousand, but you still couldn’t go out without running into someone you knew. Nothing about this town made sense. And yet, most people found it hard to leave. It was a running gag at the high school; the bubble. Once you’re in the bubble, you can’t get out of it. Charlotte had had friends whose grandparents had gone to the same high school as she did; generations and generations within the bubble.

And not that it was a bad place to live. Safe, quiet, with two main types of residents: young families or old couples. People began their lives here and people retired here. Everyone ate breakfast at the same diner on Sunday mornings, everyone attended the same church, and everyone grew up playing rec league baseball at the same park.

Darcy’s eyes were glued out the passenger side window as Charlotte drove into town. He had asked her to show him around; to the places that had made up her life. Their first stop that day was her high school. She wanted to get that out of the way. They couldn't get into the campus, but they could get onto the football field. As they walked together hand in hand, Darcy admired the school buildings from the field. Everything about this felt like small town America. Charlotte led him up the metal bleachers and took a seat. She looked up until Darcy sat down beside her, watching the football team take part in summer practices.

“You come to a lot of football games when you were here?” Darcy looked over at her and smiled as she linked her arm around his to cuddle into him. He liked when Charlotte was affectionate with him in public, regardless of how many or how few people were around. Like she just needed to be closer to him.

She shook her head and watched as the boys on the field started a new drill. “Only one. Homecoming of freshman year when I was still pretending like I cared. Coming into high school, I thought I’d go to all the baseball and football games, and all the dances with my friends…” she trailed off, partially losing her train of thought, and she looked back up at Darcy, “high school was kind of like my hell. I didn’t care to be popular, didn’t care to join clubs… the people who liked high school thought they were running the place because of how many signatures they got in their yearbooks. High school was too much like small town America; everyone knew everyone else’s business, unnecessary drama, a lot of people going nowhere.” Charlotte looked back out at the field and thought, “I had a friend whose life goal was to teach here. Her parents and grandparents had gone here and ended up teaching here too. And she wanted to carry that on. I just wanted to get out and start my life.”

Darcy stared at her. He was smiling almost as if he thought she was playing a trick on him. “That is not at all how I imagined your time in high school to be.”

“Because I strike you as someone with so much pep and school pride?” Charlotte stuck her tongue out at Darcy playfully.

“Because you’re charming as all hell,” he grinned and pecked her lips quickly. His smile got even wider when she set her head down against his shoulder. “Would’ve put my money on you running the place; being a cheerleader or something.”

“I couldn’t stand the cheerleaders,” she confessed. “They’re small town America,”

“Is that a trend?”

Charlotte shrugged, “I don’t really have a small town mentality. Everything about the life I’ve chosen to go into is big; flashy. It’s the same as you being a professional athlete.” When he nodded in mild agreement, Charlotte stood and grabbed onto his hand, “to the next place? You might want to stretch before this one,”

“Public sex?” Darcy questioned, following her down the bleachers.

“You wish,” she winked. “Although I would focus on stretching out your groin area if you do plan on having sex tonight,”

For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out where she was taking him next. He thought he’d be able to get a clue based on the street signs they passed, but there was nothing. Not even a mile from the school, Charlotte turned down a dirt path and followed it. Out the windshield, Darcy looked up at the arch they were passing under. He shouldn’t have been surprised that the not so small, small town had their own equestrian center.

What was more surprising to Darcy though was that Charlotte had never mentioned horses to him before. And yet upon asking her to take him to the places in her town that had been big parts of her life, they were not showing up to a line of stables. After Charlotte parked, Darcy followed her up to the small office. Despite having the doors and windows shut, nothing could keep out the barn smell. Still unphased, Darcy stood next to Charlotte as she rang the bell on the counter, waiting to be helped.

Out from the doorway behind the counter, came a man in faded blue jeans and a yellow flannel top. He wiped the dust from his hands on his pants and beamed when he locked onto Charlotte. “Miss Mickelson, I haven’t seen you in a long, long time.”

Charlotte grinned as the man came around the counter. He opened up his arms and she went into him for a hug. “Yeah, it’s been a few years,”

“A few years,” he laughed heartily. “I think you were heading to college the last time I saw you.”

“Alright, so six years.” She smiled and backed up, looking over at Darcy, “Rick, this is Darcy. Darcy, this is Rick… he manages the stables,”

Darcy leaned forward and shook Rick’s hand, “it’s nice to meet you.”

Rick eyed Darcy, “you her boy?”

“Rick,” Charlotte nudged his arm.

“Well, what? I would’ve asked if you were his girl, but we both know you’d have a coronary if you belonged to anybody.”

Charlotte’s cheeks turned bright red and she buried her face in her hands. Darcy chuckled and licked his lips quickly, “I’m her boy. Pretty new to it, but I’m hoping she’ll keep me around.”

“According to her mother, she’s dated some real shitheads, so…”

“Rick,” Charlotte said again, hoping this would end.

“Those were your mother’s words,” he defended.

Darcy smiled and watched Charlotte work through her embarrassment. Finally she asked, “the boys still around?”

Rick nodded, walking back around the counter and flicking two switches on the wall beside him. “Eight and nine. We’ll get ‘em saddled up for you.”

Charlotte smiled appreciatively. Darcy mentioned one more time that it was nice to meet him before he followed Charlotte back outside. She led him down the line of stalls until they reached the two with their red lights shining at the doors. Inside, a man was standing next to each horse, tightening saddles around their bellies. As beautiful as the horses were, Darcy couldn't tear his eyes away from Charlotte. Her face lit up as soon as she saw them.

“This one’s Lakota,” she pointed at the taller horse in stall eight. “And that one’s…” she pointed to the horse in the stall next door, “Hondo.”

“Never took you for a horse girl,” he mentioned matter-of-factly. The men inside the stalls had moved on to putting the bridles on the horses.

Charlotte smiled and looked up at Darcy, “when I quit caring about high school, I focused on these guys.” She looked back at the horses, “they seemed more worth my time.” She looked back at the horses and grinned. It truly had been a long time since she’d seen them. And now she was not only getting to see them, but show them to someone she was really starting to care about. When Travis was around, Charlotte had had no desire to bring him around the horses, let alone anywhere near her hometown. That was far too personal for their relationship… or fling… or whatever that had been.

Once the men were done readying the horses, they led them out of their stalls. Charlotte hopped up onto Hondo and situated herself in the saddle. When she looked up, Darcy already had one foot in the stirrup and was swinging his other leg over Lakota’s body. She liked how easily he was going into this experience, and without complaint. Travis would’ve bitched and moaned the whole way through.

As they began the ride, the horses walked side by side, obviously familiar with the path. At first, neither Charlotte or Darcy spoke, preferring to get into the swing of things before they took their focus off of the horses. But before long, they were making their way up the windy dirt path on the hill, and the silence almost became too deafening… too awkward.

Darcy flicked his eyes over to Charlotte quickly to examine her. She was still focused on the path ahead. Darcy looked back down at his horse and leaned forward, patting Lakota’s neck. “Your mom still lives in town?” He couldn’t even summon the courage to look back at her. Last time he said something similar to a personal question, she had flipped out. But he could sense her eyes on him. “Rick said she had mentioned some of your ex-boyfriends to him,”

Damnit, Rick. Even within their fairly short conversation, Darcy had managed to grab onto pieces of information that she would've liked to remain private; at least for now. It’s not that Charlotte didn’t like her mom. She did. But they didn't always, or usually, see eye to eye.

“Yeah,” she cleared her throat, “she lives here.”

Darcy nodded and now looked over at her. “Am I gonna get to meet her today?”

Charlotte shrugged, “I didn't check to see if she was around…”

Darcy pulled on the reins and led Lakota in closer to Hondo, “do you like me, Charlotte?”

“That’s a silly question,” she rolled her eyes.

“Is it?”

Charlotte looked over at Darcy and furrowed her eyebrows. Was he being serious right now?

“Do you actually want to date me, or are you just doing me a solid because I’m new around here?”

Despite asking a serious question, his tone was gentle and honest. Charlotte looked down at her hands. Of course she liked Darcy. He was here, wasn’t he? Why couldn’t he see that? “Despite what’s going through your head right now, I do like you. Maybe it even scares me how much I like you. Maybe I'm trying to figure out if this is all actually real, because two months ago, I couldn’t even get you to call me. And now you’re offering me a drawer, and I’m showing you around my hometown, and a little part of me is wondering how long this is going to last. So when I don't share things so openly with you, please don’t ever assume it’s because I don’t like you. I've never liked anyone more. But I’m trying to preserve myself incase this ends.”

Darcy had his eyes locked on her mostly because it had been the most honest and open she’d been with him since the drawer incident, and maybe ever. Already close to her, he leaned over in his saddle to kiss her. Charlotte reciprocated, smiling softly against his lips. When he pulled away, he guided Lakota just a bit further away. “I know you have every reason to be guarded with me, but I’m not like your other boyfriends. I want to see you happy. I want to see you successful. I wanna be right there next to you at the next festival. I want to see you up there getting an award for your kick ass film,”

“You’ve never seen the film,” Charlotte smiled, absently petting Hondo’s mane.

“But you made it, so I’m positive it’s amazing.” He grinned, being completely honest.

They rode until the sun started going down, at which point they figured it was best to turn back before night fell completely. After spending a good chunk of the afternoon on the side of a dusty hill, both Charlotte and Darcy were in desperate need of a shower. But she still had one more thing to show him before they headed back for the South Bay. A perk of the not-so-small little town was that every Sunday night on one of their main streets, food trucks parked along the curbs, and businesses opened up their doors for the neighborhood to come together in what felt like a huge farmer’s market.

Charlotte and her friends spent most of their Sunday nights here. It was the one time their parents let them walk around unattended. More times than not, teachers from the high school frequented the event as well… they couldn't ever really get into too much trouble. So now Charlotte parked her car on one of the bordering residential streets, and she and Darcy made their way to the festivities on Magnolia Street.

They both looked pretty disheveled. Darcy’s jeans were still pretty dusty, and in the heat of summer, his t-shirt clung a little tighter to him. And Charlotte pulled her hair back into a ponytail, hoping it’d cool her off a little bit. It didn’t, and she knew her face had a mildly sweaty glow to it. But still, every time she caught Darcy looking at her, he seemed like he was staring at a piece of fine artwork. He reached for her hand as they walked up the street, stopping every once in awhile to admire something quirky in front of the many antique shops.

They shared something small at every food truck they passed, hoping to try as much as humanly possible. And as they turned away from one of the trucks, that’s when it happened. She shouldn’t have been surprised at all. The fact that it took so long for it to happen should’ve been more shocking. But still, Charlotte cringed when she heard her name called.

“Char?!”

Darcy actually looked back first. As Charlotte tried to settle herself, Darcy watched as a girl clutching a little too tightly to a smoothie came up to them. Finally Charlotte turned around too and plastered a smile on her face.

“Angie!”

Darcy’s eyes shot down to Charlotte. She seemed really excited to see Angie, which shocked him considering Charlotte had never mentioned her before. If she was such a good friend, why hadn’t he heard any stories about her? But still, he watched as Charlotte dropped his hand in order to hug her.

“I haven’t seen you in forever! How are you?” Angie beamed, backing up.

“I’m good, how are you?” Charlotte made a mental note to not be so formal. After all, Angie had been her best friend from fourth grade to senior year.

“I’m great. You still live in town?”

Charlotte shook her head and reached back for Darcy’s hand. “No, I’m in Manhattan Beach now. You still here?”

Angie nodded enthusiastically, “remember Willie? We just got married and bought a house off the bike path. I’m teaching at the high school; US History. What’ve you been up to?”

Oh, you know. Picking up someone’s dry cleaning and going on coffee runs for the past two years. Working sixty hour weeks for a forty year old woman who still hasn’t fully grasped the workings of a desktop computer. As she thought all of this, Charlotte squeezed Darcy’s hand.

He took that as her needing an out, so he cleared his throat and stepped up. “She’s too modest to say, but she just finished producing a movie. She’s got to be the smartest woman in the world. That’s an enormous undertaking; I don’t know how she did it, but I’m so proud.” Darcy smiled and looked down at Charlotte. Her cheeks had turned bright red, which just made him smile wider as he looked back at Angie.

Angie’s smile widened and she flicked her eyes back and forth between Charlotte and Darcy. Finally, she winked at Charlotte, “what a supportive guy.”

Charlotte shook her head, flustered. “He’s full of crap, it’s nothing.”

“Same old Char… downplaying everything,” she shifted her eyes to Darcy as if he’d be agreeing that that was something she did on the regular. All he could do was smile weakly. Angie opened her arms and leaned back into Charlotte, “I’ll let you two get going. It was so nice seeing you, Char.”

“You too. Tell Willie hello for me,” Charlotte hugged her back kindly.

Angie nodded and continued on past them. When Charlotte and Darcy finally looked at each other again, Darcy felt like he was seeing a whole new person. Who was this girl from this small city? And what had she done with the girl he knew? She seemed timid, like one encounter would tell him too much.

He wouldn't ask to meet her mom again tonight. Something in him said that there wasn’t a shot in hell of that happening. And for now, that was okay. Darcy knew that even bringing him here to see where she had grown up was a big step for Charlotte. And he was proud that she had done that for him. If waiting a while longer to meet her mom as what she needed in order to really feel secure about their relationship, then he would wait as patiently as possible. But he also hoped she realized that come October, their relationship was going to become very different. He’d be around less and less, and if she was already reserved with telling him things, he feared that would grow to be worse by the time he was spending more days on the road.

Notes

"The Long Way" by Brett Eldredge.

This song is literally such a cute idea. Like getting the chance to show someone around the place you grew up, with them having no prior expectation or knowledge of what it is other than that it's where you're from. Jesus take the wheel.