Gem in the Rough

Chapter 22

I groan and settle into the passenger's seat of Kieran's car, my bag in the back seat. He had texted me last night telling me that I was going to have to be up early but that he'd bring the coffee.

"Why in God's name did you have me wake up so early? I thought taking the day off would allow me to sleep in for once."

Kieran rubs his hands together and then offers me the hot coffee that is in his cup holder.

"I'd apologize, but I'm not sorry. It will be worth it, I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," I grumble in response. I take a sip of my coffee and sigh, content now that I have the warm liquid in my body.

Kieran gets quiet and I look at him. He's staring at the steering wheel. I begin to apologize, not knowing what I said but having a feeling I said the wrong thing.

"I'll try not to." He turns to me, his eyes glistening, but a small smile on his face.

I bring my hand to his cheek, touching it softly. "I know." I return his smile and then tell him to start driving. "Let's go! I'm itching to see what you have planned for me."

Kieran responds with a salute, "Ay-ay, captain!" Then he starts to drive.

As we exit the small college town, I realize that we're going the opposite direction of the way I go when I head home to see my dad. We're going east, not west. There are a few towns this way that I've never been to before but have heard they're small.

"So, you're not going to tell me where we're going?"

"I guess I can tell you now. We're going a few towns over, the place I grew up. It's only about an hour away. I wanted to bring you somewhere."

I smile, knowing that it's a big step for Kieran to bring me to his home. I take a sip of my coffee and then set it back in the cup holder. My hand makes its way to Kieran's leg and I gently squeeze.

"Thank you."

He responds by taking my hand in his, squeezing back. There are no words spoken for a few minutes until he asked me to plug in my phone for music. I squeal, yes squeal, in excitement because I know that we have the same taste in music. I laugh at myself and apologize to Kieran for the noise but he just chuckles.

I plug in my phone and scroll through my music, deciding on a playlist that includes the bands we both listened to growing up. The first song to play is Dear Maria, Count Me In by All Time Low. This band is apparently going to be our thing now.

"Wow, I haven't listened to this in so long!"

I smile at Kieran's reaction, and we start singing along.

"When the lights go up, I wanna watch the way you take the stage by storm."

"The way you wrap those boys around your finger, go on and play the leader."

I turn to Kieran, singing to him and waving my hands, being dramatic. He looks at me briefly, singing back to me in the same theatrical way. Then we start singing the chorus together, terribly.

The song ends after a couple of minutes of us screaming our lungs out and I sigh, feeling completely happy in this moment. I decide to tell Kieran just that.

"I'm happy. You make me happy."

Kieran's smile widens and he takes my hand to his mouth, kissing it gently. He's slightly out of breath from our sing-along.

"You make me happy, too."

--

The rest of the car ride goes by quickly, the music entertaining us the whole way. We enter a town that says the population is 3,000 people and I squint, making sure I'm seeing that right.