"Take a left here." Jonas' eyes were glued to his phone as he was trying to find out where the road we were currently driving on, was taking us. 

"Here?" I slowed down the car a little and glanced to my left. "That's a hiking trail to the beach."

"Fæn."

I chuckled slightly and pulled over on the side of the road. Turning off the engine, I hopped out and stretched out my legs, walking to the front of the car.
We had been driving for three hours and were now somewhere between Porsgrunn and Kristiansand. Since we had stuck to smaller roads to avoid the crowds going away over the holidays we had ended up on a windy coastal route with almost no cars on it besides us.
However, the view was beautiful. The sea was angry and stormy since it had been raining over night and it was still slightly drizzling. 
Jonas cursed again and got out of the car, moving towards me.
I smiled, seeing his scrunched up face and leaned against the side of the car.

"We're lost." He announced and furiously tapped onto his phone screen. "My phone is dead." He sighed and mirrored my position next to me.

"Then this is an adventure now." I grinned at him, crossing my arms in front of my chest and looked out onto the water.

Jonas' arm snaked around my shoulders and he pulled me closer, pressing a kiss to my temple. "I propose, we drive as far as you want to drive, making some stops here and there to enjoy the view and see how far we'll get until later today and then we find a place to park and sleep for the night. Deal?"

"Deal." I hummed, resting my head against his shoulder.

There were a few minutes of silence between us before Jonas spoke up again. "I love how quiet and peaceful it is out here." He said, his arm still around my shoulders. "The city's always so hectic."

"We used to live somewhere around here until I was around ten."

"You did?" He looked at me, an eyebrow raised in wonder.

"Ja. But then the bills for the house were too high to be payed by my Dad alone and Oslo was a better place for him to be living to work more. After all he had to support four children."

Jonas contemplated my answer for a second. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

He bit his lip and his eyes wandered out onto the sea. "Where's your Mom?"

"I don't know." I answered truthfully after a while, gazing onto the waves, crashing against the cliffs below us.

Jonas looked back at me. "So she's alive?"

"I don't know." I shook my head. "She left the family when I was five. Apparently, things between her and my Dad had been rough ever since I had been born. Then they wanted to get a divorce but decided against it in the end. She fell pregnant again with Marius this time and when he had turned two, she left without a word or a trace. Just took a car and left. My grandparents don't know where she is either."

"I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. It's not your fault, is it?" I sighed.

"Nei, but I'm still sorry. No child deserves to have to be growing up without a mother." Jonas explained, pulling me closer.

"It is what it is. As Alex likes to say." I shrugged. "We're okay. Life's good, even without her." I wrapped my arms around him, turning my body towards his.

The boy next to me shook his head slowly.
Silence engulfed us again. We were both looking out onto the sea, chasing our own thoughts and relishing in each others embrace.

"Jonas?" I whispered after a while and he hummed in response. "I might have trouble sleeping tonight. Or every other night after that."

"Why's that?" He pressed a kiss onto my hair and I smiled at the gesture.

"I have a sleeping issue." I said and he stiffened, trying to get a better look at my face. "Insomnia is the medical term. It comes in phases."

Jonas nodded, encouraging me to go on.

"I had a rough few weeks around the time that we started hanging out." I explained further, tilting my head to look up at him. "Maybe two weeks of a shit sleeping schedule and exhaustion. It's gotten a lot better now. It's just hard for me sometimes, to sleep in different or unknown beds. However, you seem to be somewhat of a familiar constant for me because I slept like a baby when you stayed over for the night."

He broke out onto a smile. "So I'm helping you?"

I mirrored his facial expression. "I guess. I've gotten better myself but I also think that you were pushing me towards it."

Jonas kissed my lips gently and then his smile widened. "That's all I could ever want."

"You sap." I chuckled and kissed him again.

His smile turned into a grin and he shrugged. "I'm dead serious." His gaze wandered back to the sea in front of us again. "I don't fully understand the Insomnia thing yet but I think that the longer and more we're together, the more I'll be able to learn. Also, I trust you to talk to me if you want me to help you."

I pressed my face into his chest and hugged him tightly.

"After all, you're strong and fierce as fuck." He chuckled and I grinned, tilting my head back up to look at him.

"Why thank you."

He winked down at me. "Any time."

I rolled my eyes and turned in his embrace so that we were both facing the road and the sea, me leaning my back against his front.

"Were that all of your deep dark secrets?" Jonas said close to my ear, his warm breath hitting my skin.

"Ja, as far as I know." I replied and smiled broadly. "Do you have anything to tell me?"

He contemplated my question for a second before answering. "Well, my Dad lives in Trondheim so that's why he's not really in the picture." He began and I nodded reassuringly. "But my sister and I visit him during the summer holidays every year and we spend every other Christmas with him and his side of the family."

"That's not a real secret though." I teased him and he snorted. "Is there nothing mysterious or interesting about you?"

"I'm Jonas. If you want mysterious, you have to date Magnusson." He scoffed. "That is if you want mysterious and asshole."

"I know William fairly well and there's nothing mysterious there anymore." I chuckled. "And I actually quite like Jonas."

"What a relief." The boy behind me said and rearranged his arms around me. "There's something I actually just thought of that I want you to know."

"Hit me."

He took a deep breath. "There will never ever be anything between Eva and me again."

I furrowed my brows in confusion. "I didn't even think of that."

"Ja, I just wanted to tell you this since that girl Emma made this comment at lunch the other day."

"About?"

"About the fact that Eva and I didn't break up because of proper reasons and how we'd still been very in love when he had broken up." Jonas explained to me. "I just wanted to let you know that even if we were still in love back then, there's nothing there anymore."

I stayed silent for a while. "Thank you for saying that."

He sighed and shrugged. "I just wanted you to know that you're the only one I have feelings for."

"So are you." I smiled and he pressed a quick kiss onto my cheek.

We stood there for another few minutes before the rain started to get more aggressive.
It felt good to get these things off my chest. I had never told anyone about what had happened with my Mom. Not even Chris. He had just assumed that she was dead and accepted it. However, I was glad that Jonas had asked since I wanted him to know. I wanted him to understand me fully and that included my mommy issue.
I also felt like the conversation had gotten us even closer, considering the fact that we had briefly talked about all the rough topics.

"Should we try and find our way wherever were going?" Jonas whispered in my ear, ripping me out of my thoughts and I nodded.

"Let's go."

——————

Hallå, you guys,
There we are, everything is out now, we're all good.
Also, were getting fairly close to the end of this story. *sigh*
I still have a few more chapters planned for you so don't worry.
For now, every possible complication is out of the way though.
I'll talk to you soon.
Ria xxx