The One

4-Louise's

     Carley's car turns on and Bruno Mars blasts through her speakers. A pink blush spreads across her cheeks. "Sorry about that." She laughs softly, quickly turning down the music.

"No, I love this song!" I exclaim quickly, turning the old Bruno Mars song back up. Carley bits her lip softly before smiling widely. She backs out of her parking spot while I wiggle in my seat as an attempt to dance. Carley looks over at the right side mirror but sees me dancing and bursts out laughing.

"Oh my gosh, you are amazing." She says, switching from look at me to looking at the road. My heart swells instantly. I know she was probably joking but to be myself around her and not get a weird look, it makes me so happy.

"Why thank you." I tease, laughing lightly. "So where is this bookshop you say is 'absolutely adorable'?" I ask her, putting up air quotes when I directly quote her.

Carley snorts out a laugh. "It's kinda far from here, like 45 minutes. It's in Newark. I grew up in Newark so I know where all the cool places are there." She explains, shrugging shyly.

"Wait you're from here? Like you've lived in New Jersey your whole life?" I lean in closer to her, putting my elbow on the center console and using my hand to support my head.

She glances over at me briefly. "Yeah, why?" Her eyebrows furrow and her fingers start to tap on the steering wheel.

"I just-I don't know. Don't you want to get out, see something new?" I ponder. I moved 14 hours away because I was sick of the midwest. I wanted to branch out and find new places with new people. And while meeting new people is difficult for me, I thought moving somewhere entirely new would help. And it has so far at least I think so.

"Oh, not really. Princeton is new enough for me. I don't really like being away from my family for too long. But my parents really wanted me to be independent so we comprised. They said I have to live in the dorms at Princeton but it's so close to home that I could visit really whenever." She explains, eyes darting back and forth on the road.

See, I thought Carley was the type of girl to be independent, do her own thing, be wild and free. I guess don't judge a book by it's cover is a real thing. "That's nice." I don't know what to say to that, but I wish I did.

"Yeah. Is it hard being so far away from home for you?" Carley asks me, turning down the music again so she can hear me.

"Kind of. I love my parents to death but I've always been independent. I was just so sick of the Midwest. I felt like I've seen everything and everyone there is to see and I wanted something different, new. I'm just ready to start living my life according to how I want to live it, you know?" I try to explain in words that sinking feeling I got every time I thought of going to college in the Midwest.

"I kind of understand that. I like meeting new people too but I figured an Ivy League would have lots of new people." Carley shrugs again, looking at me while she's stopped at a red light.

"Exactly. But they don't have any ivy leagues in the Midwest." Carley laughs at that, nodding along.

We spend the rest of the 45 minutes singing horribly and talking about whatever comes to mind.

We finally pull up to a small bookstore. The sign on the front reads Louise's Coffee & Books. There's a couple chairs outside and lots of plants and flowers. I peer into the inside and see warm lighting and bookshelves lining the walls.

"Carley..." I mutter her name, not even knowing what to say. Bookstores and coffee are my most favorite things in the world and Carley's brought to a place that has both, at the same time.