On his top 20 acoustic jams.

Here's a list of the top twenty acoustic songs I listen to in no particular order.

20. Sunsets and Car Crashes - The Spill Canvas

19. Stumbliene - The Smashing Pumpkins

18. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - Fleet Foxes

17. Ahead By A Century - The Tragically Hip

16. Hello, I'm in Delaware - City and Colour

15. Gimmie Sympathy - Metric

14. Best of You - Foo Fighters

13. The '59 Sound - Gaslight Anthem

12. A Lack of Color - Death Cab For Cutie

11. If it Means A lot to You - A Day To Remember

10. Drifting - Andy Mckee

9. Classical Gas - Eric Clapton

8. Come As You Are - Nirvana

7. Wonderwall - Oasis

6. I'll Follow the Sun - The Beatles

5. I Will Follow you Into the Dark - Death Cab For Cutie

4. Name - The Goo Goo Dolls

3. The Wolves (Act I and II) - Bon Iver

2. Rose March - The Smashing Pumpkins

1. Everlong - Foo Fighters

On an untitled story. (Chapter Three)

Chapter Three

            The sun is blinding me into a fit of confusion as I am waking up. Sitting against a tree I exhale heavily and blink several times as I see Courtney sitting beside me. She was staring with a weird look upon her face.

“Do you always pout when you sleep?” Her sarcasm rang straight through to my ears. I smiled bashfully and gave her a soft shove on her arm with my open left hand as I wipe my eyes with the other.

“And cute braces too?” She laughed as she asked. Her compliment made my smile grow wider as I reply,

“I’m feeling so out of it, how long have you been sitting here?” She laughs at me again and leans hard into my shoulder as we sit with our backs against the tree.

“Not long really, I didn’t want to startle you like my dumb dog did so I just thought I’d sit for a bit until you finally woke up.” She put a flirty emphasis on the word, finally, which was really cute.

“Yeah that was kind of scary, I’m not going to lie.” I knew that sounded nerdy in my head but it was too late to take it back.

“He’s harmless; Percy just gets so excited when he sees new people. He took it over the edge though,” she said. We didn’t look at each other when we spoke; we just kept looking at the ground and our feet. Every now and then she would gently bump her foot against mine and I would return the favour.

            She was wearing a white spaghetti string top that showed off her slim tan arms and had blue yoga pants. She sat with her arms wrapped around her thighs. Her chin rested on her knees. Her hair was tied into a pony on the back of her head and she was wearing white runners. Every now and then I would zone out because her aroma was intoxicating. Whatever it was that she was wearing had hypnotized all of my senses.

            Courtney jumped to her feet and quickly grabbed my hands. Before I knew it I was standing to face-to-face with her and then as quickly as she grabbed my hands she let them go and started to run. She motioned me to follow her as she turned and ran backwards for a few feet, smiling in the process.

            Seeing as how I wasn’t one hundred percent awake I stumbled a bit on the crumbled road as I began to run after her.

            She had run towards the Mr. General’s but she didn’t go inside. She ran around the back of the store and across the rear parking lot towards the surrounding forest. I followed her down a skinny biking trail. Courtney was a good 10 yards ahead of me and she seemed to know where she was going. I had no clue. I’ve been on this path hundreds of times with Mike.

The path was mostly downhill and steep. Round stones and roots made running difficult but I was able to keep up with her for the most part.

“Come on, we’re almost there, just a little further!” Courtney yelled.

“We’re… almost… where?” I barley managed to yell it out.

“You’ll see! Just hurry up! It’s almost too late!” she yelled back. The forest became thicker with branches and brush and I kept getting pieces of sticky cobweb into my hair. The air was tight and I struggled to breathe as I continued down the tricky path. Courtney was out of my sight now but I just kept running, paying close attention to where my feet were landing so I didn’t fall. I couldn’t even see into the forest on either side of the path. The forest was dark and little rays of sun made it through the leaves.

           

            As I leaped and bounded over several larger rocks and roots I realized she was leading me towards the river. It was so humid now that I thought it’d be nice to get closer to some water. I could hear the rapids now as the forest began to open up a little more and the sunlight made things much brighter now that I had reached the riverbed.

            We came to a place where the river forked off into two directions, and I could hear Courtney now further down the trail as she had stepped on some branches. The snapping echoed into the forest. The blue sky above started to look a little dull as the sun was beginning to set. I stopped to catch my breath and looked at the scenery.

            It was like a painting. The island in the middle of the riverways has dead trees stretching out of the ground and tall grass thickly immersed together. The left side of the river is full of rapids and the right side, where I am about to follow, is calmer.

            I wipe my sweaty face with my shirt sleeve and began to run again. I couldn’t hear Courtney anymore as I trudged along the broken path. As I move further down the path the water became rough again and the rapids are loud. The path ran close to the water’s edge and I could feel the splashing rapids a they fought along the jagged rocks guarding the pathway. The path ahead turned left and the forest was so thick that I couldn’t see what was on the other side of the bend.

As I rounded the sharp turn I find Courtney sitting on a rock staring at a waterfall. It was loud and the water was fast. A foggy mist rose from the rapids at the bottom of the falls and the air was moist. Courtney turned her head around greeted me with a smile as she sat playing with her pony tail in her hands. Her face was sweaty and her cheeks are red from the run. I walked to her and just as I was about to say hello she said,

“I love it.” Her statement was true. The falls has always been a fun place to visit. Mike and I would often bring our fishing gear here and it was always deserted.

“I found this path as soon as we got here. I followed it to this point yesterday and fell in love with it.” She spoke softly and never looked away from the water as she speaks.

“I feel at peace here,” she looked away from the water finally and into my eyes, “It gets better.” She stood up from the boulder she sat on and took my sweaty hand into hers once again. Her grip was gentle but confident. As she led me towards the falls she looked back at me and smiled again with a playful look. My arm stretched out to meet hers and I walked but couldn’t feel my steps as my heart was racing. I had no idea why she was leading me closer and closer and we both became soaked.

I watched her step up onto a giant boulder and her grip tightened onto my hand as she fought for her balance. And then with one more step she vanished behind the falls and let go of my hand. The sound of the pounding water deafened my ears and water streamed over my hair and face as I followed behind her and to my amazement; a cave was behind the curtain of water.  

            It was dark and cold, and the cave flickered with sunlight as it rippled through the waterfall creating prisms of light along the walls. We couldn’t hear each other at all as we both tried to yell at each other. Courtney laughed and stepped closer to me and put her cheek against mine and yelled into my ear,

“Isn’t it wonderful?” I laughed as I stepped back slightly to look into her eyes again and nodded my head. I grabbed her hands this time and she smiled into my eyes. My stomach was turning inside, and I felt shaky. I pulled her into my body and we held each other for the first time as we looked through the falls in front of us. The moment was there and I held onto it with everything I had. I finally found some adventure in this old town. Her head nestled into my shoulder and her waist was pressed against mine. My arms wrapped around her body and we clasped hands interlocking them in front. Her wet hair didn’t bother my face at all as I rested my cheek onto her head. I wasn’t sure what exactly was happening between us at that moment. We seemed to be lost in time and everything felt right. I lowered my head down to her ear so I could say,

“Genesis.”

She looked up at me with a smile and in that moment, I kissed her.

            The feelings took control and the butterflies intensified. It was surprising and the fact I even knew how to kiss a girl mystified me. But there we were.

In a beautiful moment, the world had disappeared and only Courtney and I existed inside that dark, cold cave holding onto something we would not forget in a very long time.