Away We Go

Chapter 16

I patted the valet boy on the back after he drove my car into the entrance. I learned that his name was Trevor and he was in a band and only doing the whole valet thing as a side gig so he could buy himself a Gibson. "Come to our shows sometime" he said with a hopeful look. I smiled and nodded.

"What's the name of your band?" I asked.

"The Moist Towelettes" he said and I immediately felt apprehensive.

"Why moist though? What dispute do you have against dry ones?"

"Well, the word 'moist' just makes people feel uncomfortable and I guess that's our style, plus, it sounds more provocative than The Dry Towelettes and that's our style too" and he sneaked a glance at Riley and winked.

I shook my head as I laughed. Trevor of The Moist Towelettes has a point.

We got in the car and as we drove off, Trevor held out the rock-and-roll hand gesture at us before helping an older man park his vehicle.

Despite the fact that I was staring ahead, focusing my eyes on the road, I could still see Riley staring intently at me from the passenger's side. She was twirling her hair around her finger too before letting it go, causing a loose curl. As this was happening, I thought of a quote from one of my favourite authors, Leo Tolstoy. It goes a little something like this;

"He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking"

"Hey, have you read Anna Karenina?" I asked.

"No. Have you?"

"Yeap. You should look into that" I suggested.

She smiled. "Maybe I will."

She is the sun.

She is my sun.

~

Amidst our playful banter and occasional hogging of which song to play in the car, Riley kept trying to squeeze in a couple of questions pertaining to my illness. Now that she knew about it, her eyes burned with curiosity and there was a touch of worry, an edge, to her voice when she spoke to me. I knew it was going to happen. She was starting to look at me differently; as if I was hanging precariously on a high-wire and if she uttered a word, her breath could send me plummeting to my death.

She asked questions like "what medicine are you on?", "does Scooter know?", "does it hurt?" etcetera but I could sense that she was treading lightly. She had seen me cry earlier in the day and that had never happened before. Since she knew that I wasn't unbreakable, she's wrapped a blanket of soft words and kindness around me so she would never see me crack again. I wish I hadn't cried. I wish I could maintain her perception of me as the guy who never took things seriously; the guy who never cared enough about anything to cry. I wanted to be him so badly but I guess I'm not and I guess I should be okay with that.

~

The Beatles' I Wanna Hold Your Hand was playing in the background as we arrived at Riley's house. We were supposed to be gone for a full week but since Riley found out about my secret, I just couldn't do it anymore. The trip would change and I didn't want to see sympathy in her eyes and for her to remember me in that way; to remember our first and last road trip together in that way.

I got out of the car to open the door for her before helping her unload her stuff from the trunk. It was messy as can be and she just smiled knowingly at how I would never change. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

I slung her bags across my shoulders as I walked her to her house. She rang the bell and Patrick answered with a piece of beef jerky hanging out of his mouth. His eyes widened and the jerky fell to the floor as he hooted at his little sister. He picked her up like she weighed nothing and spun her around, just because he knew how much Riley hated it when he did that.