Janet smiled at Axel in thanks, staying close to his side. She always hated ordering anywhere, it always made her super nervous and she routinely messed up her orders.
"One medium shake… butterscotch…" Whispered the lady to herself. "That'll be $0.50, sir!" She said looking up at the man. The lady yelled to the back to start the shake.
He pulled a dollar up, and rested it on the counter. "Thank you ma'am, have a good day." He nodded, and began to lead Janet away and over to a table. "Keep the change, see you later miss." He smiled at the nice lady before turning back to Janet.
"Do you have a pen?" He asked her, rather randomly as he pulled up a napkin. He smoothed out the napkin, and lifted his gaze to meet Janet's. His smile had faded, but quickly was back up.
The lady smiled and took the cash, putting it in the register before taking the next costumer's order. Janet was quiet for a few seconds thinking if the had a pen. "No.. I don't think so, sorry." She said softly. Glancing around the room, she saw a pen that someone must have left on a table. A waitress was heading to clean the table. Janet quickly went over to the table and grabbed the pen, quickly so she wouldn't have to interact with the waitress. She smiled up at Axel and handed him the pen.
Axel watched her get up, and dash over to the empty table. He was rather confused, as the girl grabbed something. As she came back, the pen was held out to him, and he hesitated before realizing what she had done.
"Oh! Thank you!" He smiled, taking the pen from her hand and knocking the lid off. He set it aside, and begin to write on the brown paper napkin. The ink wasn't coming, so he sat there struggling to write out something she could read.
"You're welcome!" She said happily. Janet watched Axel write on the napkin, giggling a little to herself as he struggled with the ink. She was curious as to what he was writing, but she decided not to ask since she would probably see it.
Her order was called out, making Janet jump ever so slightly. She glanced at Axel then got up. This was easy enough for her to do, no need to talk. She walked over to the counter and grabbed the milkshake, a smile on her face to hopefully not appear rude because of not thanking or anything. Standing where she was, she took a sip of the milkshake, a little breath escaping her mouth. She absolutely loved the milkshakes at the diner. A moment later, she made her way back to where Axel was.
Scribbling a little bit near the end, he lifted his gaze to give Janet a smile. But she wasn't sitting there anymore. Blinking a few times, he turned his head this way and that trying to find her. With that, he found her coming up to him.
Something about the way she was walking, made his face warm. She was just… walking, and he couldn't help himself from blushing. Which was odd for him, as he didn't blush. Almost ever that is. So he tipped his head back down to the writing on the napkin, biting his lower lip. The napkin had scrawled writing, with his name and phone number on it. He felt embarrassed to give it to her, but he didn't have any other paper to write on. So he sucked in a deep breath, calming himself down.
Janet happily sat down, taking another sip of her milkshake. Reacting almost the same way as before, it was just so good. She set it down in the table and looked at Axel. "Are you ready to go?" She asked with a soft smile. Her favorite thing to do was get a milkshake or snack here then go almost anywhere else, eat and hang out. It was always more peaceful and she usually felt more confident when she wasn't around a lot of people.
Nodding softly, he slid out of his seat. "As long as you are." He told her, smiling. His lip slipped through his teeth as he smiled at her. Reaching a hand out to her, he pocketed both the pen and the napkin. He'd give it to her later, but for now he would keep it as long as he could. He wasn't sure why it bothered him so much, but the simpleness of it, really did. She was too… perfect for a simple napkin. He felt rather foolish, though again, wasn't sure why.
Almost out of habit already, Janet grabbed his hand with one and her milkshake with another. "I definitely am. I have a place in mind if you don't already." She said, looking up at Axel, smiling. This man was so kind and sweet, somehow he didn't make her nervous like she normally was around people she didn't know well.
His gaze immediately went down to their hands. His face grew slightly warmer, and he shook his head.
"I have nowhere in mind." He practically whispered, trying to avoid looking at her eyes. He was feeling an odd feeling grow in the pit of his stomach, and it wouldn't just go away. "So you can lead, I'll follow." He smiled softly at her.
Something had over taken him, and it was growing quicker the longer he stood there. 'Pull yourself together.' Axel scolded himself.
Janet nodded as she started to the door. She didn't want to really lead Axel, she wanted to walk next to him and walk there like they both knew where they were going. A feeling of… admiration? It wasn't quite that, but something had been steadily rising inside her since she ran into him. Not that it had been that long, but it was already at a pretty high level.
She took a sip of her milkshake as they got to the door. She backed up to it, pushing it open and letting Axel through. Her smile reappeared once they got outside. It was already a lot better outside. It was a perfect day in spring, not too hot ant not too cold.
Axel nodded, a polite smile was resting on his lips. "I could've gotten that for you, missy." He teased, taking her hand in his.
"How's the shake?" Asking, he really didn't pay attention to the answer. Not because he didn't care, quite the opposite actually, he was just distracted by her. Almost nothing could break his focus on her, taking in her dark hair, and dark-ish skin tone.
His father would not be a fan, that much was certain. She just wasn't the type of girl his father would like. Even if she was the sweetest, nicest, prettiest. It didn't matter to his father.
Janet giggled, smiling after. "Oh, it's very good, thank you so much. I owe you some time." She said in her naturally quiet voice, looking up at Axel. But she soon had to look forward to cross the road. The walking light turned on and she ran a little, lightly pulling Axel along with her. Her smile grew, as she ran.
His thoughts had run off to some distant land, and he was snapped back to reality when he felt Janet pulling on his arm.
"Wha-" And he cut himself off, figuring out where they were. They were running through the middle of the road, and that really brought hm back. He knew he needed to be paying attention if he didn't want to be run over by a car. "Janet, where are we going?" He asked, stumbling as he tried to keep up to her.
"Ah, you'll see!" Janet said a bit louder than usual so he could hear her with the car sounds and commotion. She looked back at Axel for a second, a large smile on her lips. She was taking him to her favorite place. She had a multitude of places she liked to go, but this one is definitely her favorite. Just a moment later, they got to the other side of the sidewalk. "Sorry for not warning you about that. I like to run across the street even though I know there is plenty of time to walk across." She said shyly.
Axel stumbled into his place besides her, jogging to a stop. "That's alright, I get it." He laughed, turning to face her. "I like to run too, that's why I ran into you." He chuckled now, lacing their finger closer together.
He had always had a weird thing for close contact, hand holding, hugs, things like that. He always craved it. Probably because he grew up with a little sister, making Axel softer. That's what he said at least.
Janet giggled, glancing down at their hands and smiling more. She was always one to be slightly touchy even with people she didn't know super well, but that happened more when she was younger. Although she is shy about it now, so she only is touchy and close to people she knows pretty well or she knows they're comfortable with it.
"We're almost there! Just a couple more minutes." Janet said to Axel, looking up at him. She looked out ahead again to know where to go, taking a sip of her melty shake.
Smiling at her, he looked at her fondly. "That's good to hear!" He told her, his smile began to fade the longer he looked at her.
She was gorgeous, honestly. He couldn't stop thinking that, because it was true. Every inch of her was pretty, or every inch he could see that was. He wasn't a pervert, he knew what was respectable and what was not. So he kept his distance, but held her hand tightly in his.
"Where is this place exactly?" He questioned her, after snapping out of his little trance.
"Oh it's just down the road, you can kinda see a bit of it from here," Janet said pointing ahead of them with her had with the milkshake. Sure enough, a little of it could be seen. It simply looked like a forested picnic area, but there was more than that, it's just hidden deeper in the park.
As they continued walking, Janet inched closer to Axel, eventually, their shoulders were touching. She smiled, glancing at him. There was one more road crossing, but it was a smaller one and there were no cars. This time Janet walked at their normal pace, deciding against surprising Axel with another running session.
Axel definitely noticed the lack of space between the two of them. His face kept growing pinker, and his heart started to twist into knots. His stomach turned, and his muscles tensed.
"Y-yeah, I can see it." He mumbled to her, trying to calm himself down. But he just couldn't do it.
Everything about their current situation was making him nervous. She was a beautiful girl, who seemed decently interested in him, and they were off to some secret location. Alone. His heart couldn't stop pounding.
He noticed her walking pace, and decided this was his best chance at getting these feelings out. He tugged her along, and ran across the street with her.
Janet giggled and ran along with him. The sidewalk started, but she kept running, the park getting closer by the second. It was incredibly green and lush. The closer they got, the more trees and plants came into view. It was already pretty obvious that not many people knew of the little park. It didn't help that it was down a small and not very busy street. But that made it actually better, not so crowded and polluted.
Janet came to a sudden stop at the beginning of a path. "Here we are! This is just the beginning, there's a lot more once we go further."
His face still warm, but his nerves calmed down, he skidded to a stop once more. "Woah."
The place was beautiful indeed. He couldn't believe he had never found it before. His gaze turned to her after a moment, and he stepped a little closer. "It's beautiful Janet…"'Like you…' He finished his thought, looking down to their hands.
"It's just so amazing. But let's keep going, it's even more amazing a bit down this path." Janet said quietly. She didn't like to talk loudly in this park. Most people that were here liked their peace and quiet. And it just seemed to perfect to disturb the silence of nature. She softly leaned her head on Axel's shoulder as she started walking again. Strangely enough, Janet didn't feel very shy around this man. She already was pretty comfortable and they hadn't even known each other a full hour yet.
His heart skipped a beat at her touch. He knew he shouldn't be so fidgety, but he was.
"How long have you known about this place?" He asked her, in just a small of a whisper. Axel felt the same as her, that this place was too perfect to disturb the quiet. "Have you known about it for a long time?" He questioned her, stretching his fingers out.
"Yeah, I've known about it for quite a while. My father took me and my siblings here a lot. We actually lived in that house that was on the corner where we crossed the street the second time. If we weren't at home or school, here was where we probably were." Janet explained softly, with a small smile while recalling her memories. "We then all had to move to a bigger city and I didn't really like it. There weren't any special places like this park and it wasn't as friendly. So once I graduated high school I moved back here myself."