The Road Trip

Chapter 2 : The Welcome

Everything was so quiet in the car.I barely looked at this guy sitting beside me. My heart beat was picking up and I hope he won't notice it. I was just hoping to make it through the hour driver towards our house alive.

I knew that he would look at me once in a while and I knew that he smiled at me too. I pretended not to know that since if I focused on it too much then we'd both end up dead.

I was happy when we got back to the house safely. My Mom and brother were there at the door. She had this huge smile on her face that I just wanted to get rid of. My brother on the hand looked smug and I know that he knew what was going on my mind this time.

"Hello Travis! Welcome to Cebu!" my Mom greeted as we approached them. "How was your flight?"

"It wasn't so bad. Thanks for extending the invitation to me.."

I went back to the car with my brother and asked him to go with me to the car to get the bags after they exchanged pleasantries. Both Travis and Mom went inside of the house. She knew that he had a long ride home and that he was hungry, too.

"You have a lovely house. It must've cost you a lot to have an interior like this." I blushed slightly as he praised my job.

I was the interior designer of this house after all. Duh!

My Mom looked at me with pride as she ushered the both of us to the dining area for dinner. And as expected, Mom outdid herself this time and to think we were the only ones who haven't eaten yet. Or maybe Dad hasn't had dinner, too.

"Please help yourselves to the food. I'll just go and get my husband to join the two of you for dinner."

So...we were left in the dining room to fend for ourselves. Well, I had to remember manners and serve the guest first before having my share of the meal.

I first handed him the salad. He got some and then passed him the bowl of carbonara to him. He seem to look pleased with the food and got some meatloaf as well.

I remained quiet the whole time and only the sounds of the fork and knives were audible. Getting my share of the food, I started to eat and ignore his presence. He was quiet too although I had this funny feeling that he wanted to start a conversation with me.

And then I just made it easier for him when I asked him what he wanted to drink.

"I'll just have water,please. Sparkling if you have."

I got a bottle for him from the kitchen and handed it to him. I got a glass of juice for myself and continued to eat.

"I heard you are a fine arts student," he said without looking at me.

"Yes, I am. A junior at the university... How about you? Do you have any particular...major?"

"Not really, I got into business when I turned 21. I'm into construction." Cool...A man for himself.

Minutes later, Dad graced us with his presence.Mom accompaniesd him and took a seat opposite me. She looked at me with this meaningful glance and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her.

Dad engaged himself with a conversation with Travis and I figured it was my cue to leave. I excused myself and stood up bringing my plate to the kitchen and then headed upstairs to get some rest.

Closing my door, I went straight to my working table and decided to make a design for a shirt that my best friend asked me to do. Getting my hair in a bun, I decided to get changed into a more comfortable outfit: my boxers and a loose shirt.

As I eased my pencil on the sketch pad, someone knocked on the door. I sighed. Normally I'd hang the "Don't Disturb" sign on the knob but it seems that this person wasn't aware of that.

I got up and walked towards the door and prepared the most stoic expression that I could muster. And to my surprise it was no other than Mr.Norton himself.

"Can I help you?"

He had this goofy smile on his face and he was holding a parcel of some sort. He handed it to my and tried to keep his hands on his back pockets when I received it.

"I thought I might give you something as a gift for agreeing to be my tour guide."

I looked at the neatly wrapped gift and wondered if he was really the one who thought about the gift and not my godmother. As if reading the thoughts on my mind, he then swiftly said that no one tried to tell him that he should give me something.

"Before you get any idea that your godmother told me to give you this, it was all me, alright? I just asked her some details on what you would like."

"I appreciate the thought...Thanks...but really you shouldn't have gone the trouble to give me -"

"Nope. I owe you a lot. You went out of your way to show me around in the coming weeks. So just shut the reasons out, okay?"

I just nodded and offered him a small smile. We spent a minute or so standing there before we started to babble some thoughts of having a good sleep tonight. I kinda find it cute that he somehow struggled to find something to stay.

"Well, I should probably let you go now... So... I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah...see you tomorrow. Thanks for this," I said as I gestured towards his gift.

"You're very welcome...I mean you're welcome... Goodnight Jackie."

"Goodnight Travis."

He left and it was my cue to close the door but something told me to stay pit and wait for him to get to his door down the hall. He turned to look at me and said goodnight again. I did the same and the both of us got back inside of our rooms and closed our doors.

I then rushed to my bed and hastily opened the gift that he gave me .I was never excited like this. It wasn't the first time that someone gave me a gift but it thrilled me that it was his own idea to give me something as a present.

Opening the small package, I was surprised to see a blue and white sundress and some anklet that he made himself. My heart lurched at his gesture and I swore to myself that he would be getting something in return as a gift as well. I just didn't know what yet.