Through my Eyes: Eyes on you

A/N: Originally I had planned that this part would include the first part of their plans but just now when I was going to modify some J memory it felt rigth to leave it where it stops, even if it makes it a short post

The place where they´re going... ha! it´s important, not bc of the story but it´s in both of my current stories now so yay! 

I wonder how this one will feel after the one before, this is the start of the 'woods trip' that I´ve been wanting to get to. I´m very nervous about it, so nervous but as always it hasnt been edited, who needs that? -right-

Some italian there... 

*Ti voglio bene troppo: I love you

*Ti prego perdonami: please, forgive me

******

“Tesoro, I want to take you somewhere, are you free this weekend?” Mari and I were eating out just talking about our day

“Where do you want to go?” I inquired as she sipped her red wine

“It´s kind of a surprise…” Marissa smiled and looked at me through her long lashes

“Darling… -I started- you know I don’t like surprises”

“I know, I know but I promise you´ll like this one” she leaned in closer

“I´m sure I´ll like it better if I know what we´re doing” I insisted

“Trust me, tesoro, you´ll like it” she took my hand. Trust… I trusted her but I just couldn’t trust myself to be ok if we went to certain places “But if you must know –she sighed heavily as if defeated but laughed afterwards- we´ll just go sightseeing. You like that, don’t you?”

“Yeah… What are we going to see?”

“Josh!” she pouted

“I´m just curious and impatient” I winked

“I know, but I want to surprise you even if a little, a good surprise like the kind you always give me” she said in a soft voice with a shy smile on her face. The kind I gave her would be a concert, a song played for her, walking through a park, sightseeing, a nice dinner like tonight. I could do it I thought

“Ok –I smiled- what time do you want me at your place?”

“Eight in the morning on Saturday” she beamed

At eight o´clock the next Saturday I parked on the vacant space next to the jeep in which Marissa was loading a picnic basket.

“Good morning” I went over to Marissa

“Buongiorno, tesoro” we greeted with a small kiss, when I opened my eyes a second later I saw Nichole standing a few feet away from us; she was standing very still. I stared perhaps standing as still as her. Mari looked up at me and then turned around

“Sorpresa! Surprise!” Marissa smiled from Nic to me

“Did you know about this?” Nic asked me with a raised eyebrow

“Nope” I shook my head as Mari giggled

“Ah! I thought you´d suspect, especially you –she motioned to Nic- you guys are not upset about the three of us going together, are you?” Marissa asked a little hesitant looking from me to Nic

“I don´t mind” Nich said at once throwing her backpack on the trunk of the jeep. That was a surprise to me

“It´s ok –I smiled, it was unexpected and who knew how it´d be to hang out outside their apartment with no TV to pretend being deaf to the rest- so, we´re going in this one?” I nodded toward the jeep

“Yeah, it´ll be better, I think” Marissa told me and went with me to get my things, a backpack and a guitar

“I´ll drive” Marissa extended her hand to Nichole to get the keys

“In your dreams” Nic snorted and got in the driver´s side of the car

“Then Josh and I will leave you all alone there” she poked her tongue out and we got in the back of the car

“See if I care” Nichole said with a straight face but with humor in her voice.

We stopped on a coffee shop on the way. I hadn’t had breakfast and neither had Marissa, she´d insisted in going alone so that I didn’t insist in paying since according to her this trip was her idea so it was her treat to us for making her feel welcome and cared for. Whenever she said stuff like that it hit me that she didn’t know many people, she was very far from home and had been away from family and friends for a long time. I couldn’t imagine what it´d be like to be isolated like that.

“Do you know where we´re going?” I reclined my back against my seat and looked at Nic through the rear view mirror, she looked back at me in the same fashion

“Vukasin Natural Reserve” she replied pulling a map out of the side pocket of Marissa´s backpack on the floor

“She told you!” it made me a little resentful, she hadn’t wanted to tell me

“I made her, she was unwilling to tell me” Nic unfolded the map

“You made her?” I wondered exactly what that meant, Nic shrugged

“I wouldn’t come unless she told me –she explained examining the map. I guessed it was like her to make such a bargain and to not retreat from it until she got what she wanted- she´s chosen two places, one, I think, for you and one for me” Nic passed me the map. It had a marked path that led to two circles, one was a sightseeing deck of sorts and the other was a waterfall. I groaned closing my eyes.

“Ever done rock climbing?” Nichole turned to see me. I frowned, she pulled the map down a little to be able to see it too “There´s this rock climbing site opposite the waterfall…” she explained making an invisible line with her finger from the first location away from the waterfall to the climbing place. I cleared my throat.

“Don’t you want to see the waterfall?” I should´ve just said yes to the rock climbing

“I´ve seen it before”

“Have you seen the rocks before?” I asked, she shrugged

“You can see them from the sightseeing deck”

“I meant…”

“The waterfall´s beautiful –she interrupted me- the river´s wide. There is sort of flat land on the sides, several feet of it but there is a slope before that, there isn’t a way to slip in by accident though” she looked outside the window towards the coffee shop door as it opened and some woman came out with a child

“Have you ever been inside the river?”

“Yeah, the water´s pretty cold, I´ve never crossed it though, it´s deep but the current´s not that strong unless you get closer to the waterfall” she explained and I closed my eyes, I was sure Marissa would want to get inside and close to said waterfall “Rock climbing´s kinda hard but I don’t think you´ll have any trouble at it…”

“Mari won’t let you change her plans…” I interrupted this time. Marissa seemed to get away with things even with Nichole

“This is for me. I wanna go rock climbing” she shrugged as if it was really because she wanted it and not because of me. The knowledge both made me grateful and angry

“If I hadn’t come you´d go to the waterfall” I said dryly

“You´re here”

“And you´ll do this for me? Out of kindness or pity?”

“You don’t have to go to places you dislike” she said softly as if comforting, I narrowed my gaze

“I´ll be fine” I rolled my eyes. I was insane.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah”

“100% sure?” she asked again and I snapped

“I said it´s fine –I scoffed- you don’t have to take care of me now. I don’t need it. You were away for two years; don’t you think I had to deal with things like this while you were gone? You´re not my babysitter” I practically growled and quickly, roughly folded the map and threw it on the passenger seat to my left. Nichole tugged some invisible hair behind her ear

“It´s just one less…to deal with –soft almost placating tone- just remember there´s an alternative” she adjusted herself on the seat and opened the map that she´d taken from my side. I was being stupid and stubborn; she was right, I didn’t have to deal with it, in any other time I would’ve done whatever necessary to get out of going there

“Hey –Marissa came back before I could think about what to do next, she gave me the bags she was carrying- is everything ok?” she looked between Nic and me. I must´ve been frowning, Nichole looked back at her; she was the picture of calmness

“What took you so long?” Nic asked and I composed myself

“Sorry but the place was full! Here” she gave Nic a coffee cup

“Thanks, Carina” Nic threw the map, perfectly folded on the passenger seat

“Nichole Cristales, don’t tell me you saw that map!” Marissa pointed a finger to Nichole

“I didn’t see the map, carina” a smirk on her face

“Liar! –Mari accused- it was supposed to be a surprise, Nichole, why…?” Marissa sighed with exasperation

“I´ll act surprised once we get there, I promise” her smirk grew. We were on our way now

“Did you see it too?” Marissa looked at me with upturned lips like it really made her sad that her surprise was no longer a surprise

“I´m sorry”

“It was my fault –Nic snickered- I showed it to him”

“Of course you did, you jerk” Marissa narrowed her eyes and glared at Nichole who grinned

“Ti voglio bene troppo, carina” Nichole said with humor in her voice

“No points on that, it sucked, I´m mad at you” Mari crossed her arms over her chest

“Ti prego perdonami, tesoro” Nic said making puppy eyes, something I had never seen before

“No! You spoiled the surprise”

“What if I surprise you?” Nic grinned, Mari snorted “There is a rock climbing spot, the distance´s the same from the sightseeing deck. Didn’t you want to try that?”

“But that´s opposite the waterfall, you love waterfalls”

“The water will be cold” Nichole said looking back at us through the rear view mirror for a second. Mari snorted

“You made me go to a frozen lake and now you have a problem with cold water? No, stop, don’t try to do this for me –Mari shook her head. I furrowed my eyebrows, Marissa thought the change of plans was because of her and I thought it was for me- this is about you, doing something that you like, not something I want to do. We´re going to the waterfall thing”

“Ha! As if I ever do anything for you. This is for my own entertainment” Nichole said in her monotone. I don’t think neither Marissa nor I believed it

“We´re going as planned” Marissa rolled her eyes; Nichole caught my eyes for a second on the rear view mirror and then shrugged.