There was a silence

After the overwhelming conversation that I mistook

There was a car door, there were bright red tail lights

Set into motion by your foot

It was a hot night,

It was a moonlit Sunday,

We were driving on the 13th of June

He sat with a quiet state, contemplating her words and his next action. Hands gripped the steering wheel firmly, turning it first right, then left, headed in the direction of their special spot in the woods. What was there that he could do to change her mind? He'd told her that he loved her, yet she responded with her usual retort: "Baby, love is nothing but a trick your brain plays on you. It's totally chemical. Now stop being silly."

John O'Callaghan felt the diamond ring in his pocket sticking through the miniscule spaces between the threads of his jeans pocket, poking into the side of his bare thigh. It was a reminder of how futile this entire relationship was. True, he wanted to live his life as in the moment as he could, without missing a beat in this glorious life he was given, but he wanted to share all that wonder and adventure with someone who cared as much as he did; cared about him. Sage was just one step away from being what he needed. One step away from being his entire life.

She reached over to the wheel with her bare foot, tweaking the wheel with her toes just enough to weave them between the empty, midnight lanes. They were far outside of town, nearing a clearing in the woods where they had first met two years ago.

He wanted to growl angrily at her to stop, but she was so fucking adorable that he couldn't bring his anger to the surface, much less throw it at her. Which only frustrated him more. He glanced up in the rear view mirror, not for any particular reason, and caught the shadowy appearance of the red tail lights of his Jeep on the moving pavement behind the vehicle.

"Ugh, it's so. Hot!" she complained, peeling away her tank top from her body. She flung her arms into the air above her, letting out a long, carefree shout of pure happiness and contentment. Her tank top fluttered in the air behind the fist that held it, threatening to let it slip from her fingers at any time.

He agreed with the notion; he was totally content in moments like this. They were nothing short of his idea of perfection. John had never liked the thought of things being perfect; to him, there was no neat and tidy definition for the word, because it wasn't something set in stone, it was the idea of the individual. What he saw as perfect wasn't necessarily perfect to Kennedy or to Garrett. What was perfect to them didn't have to be the same things that were perfect to Pat and to Jared.

These moments, however, late night moments without any chance of the time being ruined, no distractions, interruptions or reasons to turn around, created an atmosphere around John that he couldn't perceive as anything but utter perfection.

"Midnight, Sunday, baby. I'm 22 today!" she shouted to the sky.

"Yeah. June 13th."

I know I know I know she said, you are still angry

And I know I know I know she said, this really isn't the time,

But how about..

Sage glanced over at John, the thin satin straps of her bra slipping off her shoulders in a sexy way that made him want her despite all his annoyance and frustration. "I know, baby, you want more than what we have right now, but why? Why ruin the fun? The excitement? The adventure and the freedom? Don't you get it, John? No pressure, no commitment, nothing serious, means no problems!"

He understood. Of course he understood. She knew that, and that's why she'd said it. It was the way John lived his life, but still. Still, he wanted more. Was that so wrong? Was it really such a problem that his heart had let him fall in love with her? It couldn't possibly be his fault and anyway, people fell in love all the time. Got married, engaged, all that. Why couldn't he have that, too? If he wanted it, that was.

She continued to stare at him, her long, wavy blonde hair whipping around her head like a halo of dark gold against the dark blue, almost black night sky. A contrast too beautiful for him to find words for. "Why don't you just pull over, and we can climb in back where it's more comfortable..." she began to suggest.

His face heated up. Not because he was embarrassed by how forward she was and how suddenly she'd said it, but because they both knew that he wouldn't need to be asked twice.

You me, forget it in the backseat,

Clothes off, down around our feet

I say we give it a try...

Cuz we could just pull off the side of this back road

No one would ever really have to know,

Tonight it's just you and I

"You and me. Backseat. We forget everything for just a little while. I say we give it a try. Look, there's a back road up ahead of here. You can pull off the main road there and pull over. No one would ever really have to know, right?" she said, pointing ahead of them as she spoke.

"Tonight," she said, getting onto her knees in her seat and leaning over the console to get closer to John, trailing her finger down his bare chest where he'd left his button down hanging open to reveal his most famous tattoo. She'd seen them all. "It's just you and me, baby."

He reached that back road and he pulled over, because they both knew that he couldn't deny her. He wouldn't.

Silver quarters in a photo booth

It printed little pictures of you

Colors of midnight

Florescent waves in sight.

As we were leaving Pier 13,

It was open door and turn the key

And we just drove away

Silently, quietly..

He stayed in that driver's seat. His hands tightened around the steering wheel. He remembered when they were younger, just starting out as friends, and it seemed like maybe something could actually happen with her one day that would be more than just sex and a casual relationship. What they had, he could hardly consider dating. He definitely couldn't label it as serious, because that was exactly what Sage refused to have. No commitment for that girl.

They had gone to the Pier 13, just the two of them. They were 17 years old, young and free, not much different from now. The moment they set foot on the boardwalk, she was running toward the old photo booth. They only reminiscence anyone in town had of a generation before their own.

He laughed, following her to it and sliding 2 perfectly round, ridged silver quarters into the slot and stepped onto the other side of the curtain, pulling it passed them to obscure them from the view of passersby.

They posed in every silly way they could think, and with the final pose, she placed a soft, sweet, gentle kiss on his cheek, a gigantic smile ripping across his face. Then they stepped back into the world, leaving behind one of their little private paradises.

She grabbed the little strip of pictures, and they both stared into the dark, indigo colored ink that created the image of their worriless faces. John remembered how he could just make out the signs of the flash behind them. The florescent appearance. It was beautiful in the most sickening of ways.

They forgot what they'd ever gone there for in the first place, and ran back to the parking lot, laughing and happy, hopping into his Jeep and tearing out of there like their lives depended on the every second they could get their hands on.

I know I know I know I said, you are still angry

And I know I know I know I said, this really isn't the time,

But how about..

"John? How can you still be angry? Just come back here and take me for everything I am!" She laid her bare skin back against the leather seat, the soft skin of her breasts shining in the moonlight. In actuality, he supposed the light made her skin shine everywhere, but her breasts were most prominent, set on display for him because she knew no modesty and felt no shame.

He looked over the back of his seat at her.

You me, forget it in the backseat,

Clothes off, down around our feet

I say we give it a try...

Cuz we could just pull off the side of this back road

No one would ever really have to know,

Tonight it's just you and I

Her lack of clothes were pooled down at the end of the seat at her feet, disappearing underneath his seat. "Just give it a try, John. Feel the freedom we used to. Don't you remember it? No one will ever know that we disgraced the woods and bared it all out here. Me and you, remember? Just us."

Car turned off on the side of the road

Head lights pass and we duck down low

Jump in the back and we'll take it real slow,

Real slow..

Summer song on the radio

Dashboard lights make a dim halo

Two foot prints on a clouded window,

Window..

Slowly, John's fingers brushed against the keys, eventually turning them in the ignition and turning the Jeep off. He climbed into the back, sliding his shirt off as he went.

He heard tires, and ducked down, pressing his bare chest to Sage's. She took this as her chance to go for it. She kissed him, slow and soft. There didn't have to be any moving fast. He didn't have a show with the guys tonight, and she didn't have any parties to attend. They were truly free, and could get away with this. Could, and would.

"Radio, babe. You know how I love my music," Sage whispered roughly against John's lips. He sat up, pressed and turned the knob on the radio, and softly played the latest summer tune. Something Sage and he could dance to, create their own party with. Here, just the two of them.

That's how they both were; they needed that music, any music, playing when they made love. That was something he didn't get. They didn't just have crazy, wild, monkey sex. they didn't have drunken one night stands. They made love. If they made love and he was in love with her, why weren't they something more than they were?

The car he'd heard passed, the headlights, briefly casting a dim halo-shadow across the dashboard of the Jeep. But John didn't notice that because before he'd thought anymore about why they weren't what they could be, Sage had pulled him into a mind-altering kiss. A kiss that started a make out session that quickly steamed up the covered back of his Jeep.

Sage wrapped her legs around John's waist, one leg lifting up as he began to move his body against hers and pressing into the clouded window and leaving a cool, wispy print.

There was a silence, there was a silence..

So how about..

You me, forget it in the backseat

Clothes off, down around our feet

I say we give it a try...

Cuz we could just pull off the side of this back road

No one would ever really have to know

Tonight it's just you and I

How had she done it? How had Sage turned angry silence into passionate sex? She'd brought him into the backseat of his own vehicle and made him forget all his worries like none of them had ever mattered. Their clothes were now pooled together beneath their feet as their bodies moved as one. They'd pulled off onto this road, and no one would ever know. This would be their secret. Not even the passengers of the passing car from earlier would know what they'd been doing. It was too dark too even see the bare foot print shaded onto the window.

So how about

You me, jump into the backseat

Clothes off, down around our feet

I say we give it a try...

John had jumped into the backseat with Sage, wearing nothing but his heart on his sleeve. He didn't know if she would give him the chance he ached for, but he would give her every chance she presented to him. He'd give her another try.