Possibility

Chapter 8 - Road trip

“Hey there.” Niall greeted me as I got into the passenger seat. I gave him a smile in return as I closed the car door behind me. Niall reached over towards me, and at first I wasn’t sure what he was doing. But then he lifted the bag off of my lap and placed it in the back seat. After that, he turned back to me.

“So, are you ready for four hours in a car with me?” Niall asked, causing a laugh to escape my lips. I had asked myself questions along those lines several times since he offered me a ride. Most of the times I had come to the same conclusion, and I had eventually made my choice. There was no turning back now, and quite frankly, I didn’t want to turn back either.

“I think I should be asking you that.” I replied and got a slight nod along with a chuckle in return.

“Well, strap down and get comfortable. We have a long way ahead of us.”

I did as I was told and fastened my seatbelt. He then started the engine and we were on our way. The first few minutes were filled with an awkward kind of silence, but once we got started on a bit of conversation it diminished. It was more like small talk, nothing too personal really.

I learned that his friend, Louis, couldn’t join him for the trip back to London, because he was accompanying his girlfriend on the train. Turned out she was going home to visit her parents in London as well.   

Niall asked me why I decided to join him, because he didn’t think I would. I had after all been very uncertain, and he seemed to have noticed that. So I told him I had consorted with Kira, another friend (David, who just happened to come by) and my parents. Mainly Kira, but I didn’t go into detail about what came up in the discussion, just roughly.

The main concern whilst considering it was the fact that I didn’t know him very well. We had met four times, kind of, and we had talked a bit over texts as well. But other than that, I didn’t really know him. Niall seemed harmless though, but I didn’t mention that. He was glad I made up my mind and decided to join him though, something he mentioned a few times. Just in case I thought that his assumption about me not going to accept his offer meant that he only asked to be nice.

After a while we fell quiet again. Niall turned on the radio, and for about 30 minutes I sat looking out the window; just enjoying the music as I watched trees and buildings pass by.

It didn’t take long before I discovered that the music he played was from his phone. Not because the phone was very visible where it laid with a wire connecting it to the stereo, but because of the music. It was a variety of different music genres, and not the typical kind of variety the radio usually played. 

After those 30 minutes though, I shifted a bit in my seat and angled my body so my back was against both the seat and the car door and I could see him clearly.

For a second a thought, or rather a realisation, grazed my mind.  I could be sitting on the train right in that moment, studying. That was my original plan for the journey home. This way was far more relaxing though.

Even with a stranger as my driver. Sure, the train was filled with strangers, but it wasn’t the same. Not at all. I didn’t feel particularly uncomfortable with Niall though. I guess that was what I had feared most about the journey; that it would turn out to be an extremely unpleasant road trip.

Naturally, I told my parents about it, and they didn’t seem very fond of the idea of their daughter spending four hours in a car with a boy she barely knew. But they trusted my judgement, as long as I sent them hourly updates on how the trip was going.

They could simply just have said no and I wouldn’t have accepted Niall’s offer. A simple no was all it took. Yet, here I was; in a car with him. But I was definitely not in any danger; so far, anyway. I doubted I’d get in any.