The Leap Of Faith

Chapter 11

"Riley?" Noah called from beside me, waving a hand in front of my eyes, making me focus on the present.

Great, now you look like an idiot.

"Y-yeah, sorry." I said and then fell silent. He gave me a look as if waiting for an answer, the only problem was, I didn't even know what he asked me.

He must have seen the desperation in my eyes, because he laughed a little and repeated his question. "I was just asking what do you wanna do now?"

"Oh! Right, um..." I looked everywhere, trying to come up with something to do that didn't involve us having to be close together or left alone. And I finally had the perfect idea. "Maybe we can sneak into the party..." Crap! After I said that out loud, I realized just how stupid that 'perfect idea' actually was. I tried to hide my grimace and stared at the marble floors of the hotel lobby.

"The party. You mean the fancy, dressed-to-impress party?" He gave me a smirk and I blushed bright red. "Well, I don't know if you noticed, but we aren't exactly dressed for the occasion." He pointed at his tan shorts and t-shirt and then at my pajama shorts and hoodie. Double crap!

"I know, it was stupid. Forget I said anything." I went to hide my face behind my hands, but he quickly grabbed them before they reached my face and put them down, looking for my eyes.

"It was not stupid..." He gave me a sweet smile. "Well, maybe just a tiny bit, but still. B+ for effort." He then chuckled and I couldn't hold back a smile.

Then, he looked around too, trying to see what we could do, when his eyes lit up with an idea. He got up and turned to me, still sitting on the couch, and offered me his hand to take.

"Do you trust me?" Noah said, and I got lost in his eyes.

I know I shouldn't let this go too far, but I also couldn't stop myself from taking his hand and letting him pull me to my feet, dragging me behind him towards the parking lot.

What...?

"Um, where are we going?" I asked a little alarmed, secretly hoping he wasn't a psychopath or a serial killer.

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out." He simply said and stopped in front of a huge pick-up truck.

He unlocked the car and opened the passenger door, helping me climb in. Then, he got in the driver's side and started the car, looking at me with excitement.

"What are we doing? And please, tell me you're not gonna kill me." I looked at him while he put on his seat belt. He laughed and turned to me.

"I'm not going to kill you Riley. Relax." He said and signaled for me to put on my seatbelt. I fastened it quickly.

"Look, we haven't known each other that long, but you don't look old enough to have a rental-" I started but he interrupted me.

"That's because it's not a rental. This is my car, from back home. Isaac and I decided that we wanted to do a little road trip, so I've been driving." He explained.

Well, I guess that makes sense...

"But-" I tried to reason with him. Where the hell are we going at 9:00 pm?!

"I promise it's not too far. And we'll be back before eleven. Just trust me!" He said, taking the car out of the parking lot and towards the main street.

***

"You sure you didn't take a wrong turn?" I asked for the millionth time.

We had taken a sharp right and the road was no longer pavimented. It was a narrow path made out of dirt and sand, and we have been on this road for the past five minutes.