Chapter 5: The Broken Musician

                                    

                                          
     I was really curious, actually. Maybe she could give me some insight about this place with her story. Before I could say anything else, I felt her taking my arm, turning me in the opposite direction from where Emilia was. I could see Emilia moving out of sight as Charlotte pulled me. She then started to pull me even farther, up to a nearby tree. At that point, everyone was a bit out of sight. I could still hear them and see them, but they were not as close anymore.
 "Sit," she said, leaning against the tree and sliding down. As she completely sat down, she pointed to the space next to her.
     With a long sigh, I went ahead and sat next to her. As I sat down, I began to notice even more how beautiful she was. When I sat down, I felt rather uncomfortable. I probably sat close to a rock or something. So, I scooted over a bit. Without noticing, I moved closer to Charlotte. So much so that we were shoulder to shoulder. It wasn't long before I noticed how close I was. It felt inappropriate.
 "Oh, sorry," I said, tripping over my clumsy self and bumping into her shoulder, which was already too close.
 "Hehe, it's fine, Chris," she said in the sweetest possible way, smiling at me endearingly.
     Her voice was rather nice; it had a relaxing tone to it. At least now, she seemed more relaxed. So, I believe that's why her voice changed a bit. As we looked at each other, I could feel the heat of her body coursing through the side of my body close to hers. Her breath wasn't unpleasant at all either. Who the hell has breath mints in a place like this? It suddenly reminded me that I was probably the only one in this place who didn't have a damn bag with stuff I could use here... goddamn it...
 "Chris... you okay?" Charlotte said.
     My mind had wandered off into the sunset again. It came back to Charlotte's face as close to mine as it could be.
 "Ah!.. yeah!" I said, startled.
 "Dude, get it together... sheesh" I thought to myself as I sat next to her, leaning back and staring at the waterfall. I recovered myself and finally asked her.
 "So, Charlotte, why did you have to bring me so far away from everybody?" I asked.
 "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that I'm not good with crowds, and it's kind of embarrassing to have everyone's eyes on me when talking, you know?"
     That struck me as odd. This wasn't the girl that greeted us a few hours ago. She seemed so shy and cute all of a sudden. I kinda liked this version better anyway.
 "You know, sometimes I used to do stuff like this with my closest friends. I'd find a quiet spot in a nearby forest, and I'd sit with them and just listen to some music, you know?"
 "Yeah, that's a great feeling," I could definitely relate. "I'm an advocate of peace and quiet myself, you know," I said. "Sometimes I would just go to the beach or sit at home alone with my headphones on and just write, or maybe just chill."
 "Oh! You like writing?" she asked, her eyes lighting up as she did so. I hadn't told anyone yet about this, but seeing as we were in a situation like this and alone, I thought it was as good a chance as any.
 "Yeah, I like writing a lot. I do it in my spare time. It's the best feeling. Poetry and storytelling give you a kind of unique perspective on life, you know?"
 "I bet... what do you write about?" she asked, leaning a bit towards me, resting her face on her hands as her elbows rested on my crossed legs. I was so engulfed in what I was saying I barely noticed.
 "Everything," I said. "To me, poetry is the ultimate relief gateway. It lets me vent about bad things, record the good, and express what irritates me, putting it on a canvas and immortalizing it for as long as I want. Sometimes I would just write something and then delete it. That would represent me eliminating those thoughts from my mind and putting them on a canvas only to be gone forever. Like burning a love letter."