As we walked closer to the botanical gardens, the smell of nature permeated the air. The woody scent of pine mingled with the sharp flowery aroma of flowers. The weather was pretty good, with enough sunlight to make the day seem at least a little bright without being too glaring. Being a weekend, it was no surprise that many residents of Seattle had the same idea to check out the new botanical garden. Just then a small boy, no older than six ran past me, turning and shouting to his parents behind me. I looked down at him and gave him a small smile, to which he returned a beaming grin.
The sound of a camera shutter diverted my attention to the right. I looked as Nick lowered his DSLR smirking at the photo. "Hey, we're here to take pictures of plants, not human specimens. Besides, that's my bad side." I teased, turning to show him my 'good' side.
"Hmm seems the same to me. Cocky and big headed." He said, which I had to give a light punch to his arm. He rubbed his arm playfully before picking his camera up and snapping a couple photos ahead.
I turned to the direction of his shots and saw the first of three domes they had at the garden. I call them domes but they more like huge waves frozen in place. Supposedly, each dome has a specific climate to cater to the different plant species that happen to grow in conditions where Seattle weather didn't permit.
"Whoa, didn't think they were that big." I said, looking up at the towering structure.
"Yeah. C'mon, it's this way." I followed Nick to the ticket counters to get our tickets. Most parts of the park was open to the public, but the domes required tickets to enter, and seeing that our topic was deserts and Seattle was anything but, we had to get them. Plus, what's the point in visiting the place if we weren't going check out the most significant features of the garden.
I stood by Nick as we purchased our tickets, or should I say argued about paying for my ticket. You see I expected to pay for myself, seeing that this was a school project and it won't be fair to have him pay, but he insisted. We kept arguing till the lady at the counter had to step in.
"Um guys...if we can get this going? There is kind of a line." She said, as politely as possible. I looked behind me and met the glare of an angry lady behind me who probably thought we were taking too long.
"Yeah tickets for two." Nick said, putting down the money.
"Thank you." She said, printing the slips before handing them back to Nick. "You should be glad your boyfriends wants to pay for you." She smirked at me. I stared at her dumbfounded but Nick pushed me out of the line before I could defend myself.
"Just let it go." Nick said.
"But I'm still paying for my ticket." I said.
"Yeah...No." I rolled my eyes and followed him. "So what do you want to do first? Research or check out this place."
"Research. I'd hate to overestimate our time and end up not being able to get enough material." I said, steering him to the direction of the desert dome.
"Can't argue with that." I led the way, following the signs that pointed to where I wanted to go. I had to stop a couple times when Nick lagged behind because he stopped to take a few shots. Just our luck that the desert dome had to be the furthest from the entrance and after what felt like half an hour of walking we finally arrived at the entrance to the dome. Made of glass held together by metal struts and wires, the domes looked like huge terrariums. The smallest of the three, the desert dome still towered over us.
The dome entrance consisted of two sets of doors, probably to contain the climate. Stepping foot into the dome for the first time felt like I got transported into another country. In contrast to the cold and humid air of outside, the inside was dry and warm. Not terribly hot, but definitely not temperatures you would experience during October in Seattle.
"This is cool." I said.
"It's quite warm actually." Nick pointed out.
"You know what I mean." I glared.
"So how do you want to do this?"
"Okay um...I guess you focus on the photos and I'll take down any notes about the plant species. We'll go for, two, three species maybe?" I asked Nick for his opinion about the project.
"Yeah three sounds good. I'll just follow you so lead away. After picking the specimens, just give me a shout and I'll focus the shots on those." I nodded and walked down the path, looking at the various plants species and reading the little info on each plant. Nick stayed behind me, snapping away at anything and everything.
We fell into a rhythm as we went along and time passed. I took down notes while Nick took pictures. We were making good progress and an hour later, we had everything we needed. "I guess that's it. We got all we need." I said.
"Awesome, so what do you want to do now? We still have time here. Wanna check out the rest of this place?" Nick asked.
"Yeah but first, can we grab something to eat, I'm starving." Just then, the sun came out from behind a cloud, illuminating the surroundings. Sunlight reflected off the sand and it really looked like a desert at that moment.
"Don't move!" Nick shouted. I froze where I was; the urgency in his voice had this commanding tone that just made me obey what he said.
"Why? Is something on me?" I said, looking around while moving only my eyes.
The camera shutter diverted my attention once again. "Perfect." Nick said, lowering his camera. My body relaxed and I moved.
"Dude, I thought you saw something on me."
"Sorry, the lighting was just too good. See?" He showed me the picture and for a moment I was stunned. The photo was stunning, the sun behind me casted an almost halo effect and the light reflecting off the sand lit up my face nicely. If I didn't know he just took that, I would have expected some photo editing was done.
"Ok fine, I'm impressed but seriously stop with the pictures. I don't like my photo taken." I said.
"Oh really." Nick said, raising the camera up to his face once more.
"Stop it." I said, half laughing, putting my hand up to block the camera but still he snapped a shot.
"Wow, for someone who doesn't like to take photos, you sure are photogenic." Nick said.
"Shut up. Can we go now? I said I was starving." I didn't wait for a reply, instead just walking to the dome exit. Nick ran up behind me and pulled the cap I was wearing off my head, putting it on himself. "Wow thanks man, I totally wanted everyone to see my horrible hat hair." I said, snatching back my cap.
"You care about your hair too much." Nick said.
"And you are annoying as hell so I guess that's fair." I walked out the dome and realized I had no idea where to go, or if they even served food here.
"This way numb nuts, I saw a stall on the way here." Nick said leading the way down the path. I followed Nick until we came to this open area with a small hill. Families lay on mats on the hill, having little picnics with the basket of food they brought along. At the base of the hill was one of those pushcarts selling sandwiches and some drinks. I bee lined for the cart, telling Nick to find a spot on the hill. Since Nick paid for my ticket, the least I could do was buy him lunch, if only lunch wasn't just a sandwich and soda.
After paying for the food, I scanned the area for Nick seeing him near the top of the hill, snapping more shots for his camera. I approached the meathead, throwing his sandwich in is lap, handing him his soda.
"Thanks. Like the spot I picked?" He said, unwrapping his sandwich. I looked over the heads of the people down below us and smiled. The hill wasn't very big but it had a nice view of the whole garden.
"Good choice." I said, digging into my sandwich.
"Maybe one day we can have a picnic here too. Seems like a nice place to do so."
"A picnic? Really? Sounds more like a date to me." I played, sipping my soda.
"What if it was?" I immediately choked on the soda, the carbonated drink burning my windpipe. I coughed violently, trying to rid the liquid in my airway. "Whoa whoa I was joking."
"Not funny." I croaked out, my voice coarse.
"Wow you must not like the idea of dating me." He joked and I just glared at him. Here I was suffering and he still had the nerve to joke. Quite the contrary actually, I wouldn't mind dating Nick, if he wasn't straight I mean. He just caught me off guard.
"Don't joke like that again." I scolded. Okay so maybe it was more than just catching me off guard. I was lonely enough as it was and Nick teasing me like that wasn't helping. We just talked about it in the car ride here and already he is back making me feel lonelier.
"C'mon man, I was joking." He defended himself.
"And I'm telling you to stop it. I thought I made myself clear back in the car that I don't like to be reminded about my sad love life." I snapped back, a little hostility in my tone. The smile on Nick's face fell when he realized how much I was upset by his statement. He opened his mouth to, I assume, apologize again, but then shut it. Smart boy. I started chewing on my sandwich again looking out to the garden. We settle into a silence after that, I stared out and kind of got lost in my thoughts.
Nick knocked me out of my trance when he patted me on the elbow. "Shall we continue or do you wanna stay here." He asked, a little quietly, like he was afraid he was going to make me angrier.
"Continue." I said, getting up and collecting our trash and throwing them in the bin before heading on. I led the way again, Nick trailing behind like a sad dog. Once again he had to make me feel guilty. Yeah he kind of made me angry but I really shouldn't have snapped like that. I did realize I was being kind of bipolar. I slowed down enough so that he could catch up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap like that."
