A journey to change Autumn

40

We waited till the sun completely set to start packing up. Well for Tyler to pack up anyways. I tried to help but he insisted that he had to do it all by himself. After he finished he walked over to me and helped me slowly get to the car.

"Thank you."I say.
"Your welcome."
"No. I mean thank you for everything."
"What?" He questioned obviously confused.
"Thank you for the second chance to feel like I actually mean something to some one. You make me feel like I have a reason to stay around. If it weren't for you I don't think I would have ever woken up from my coma. So thank you."
"Oh. Well your welcome. Thank you for letting me." He answered shocked with a lack of words.

After that conversation we sit in silence. Not the awkward silence but the silence that is completely comfortable. He drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other was holding my fragile hand. He held it like if he held to hard I would break. Although I'm not the smallest girl I did lose weight while in my coma. I got down to the 90's because they had to feed me through a port in my stomach. So walking on my own two feet(well one) was a working out all by itself. I probably can't dance for a few months.

After a while I realized that we should have been at my house by now. We have been in the woods for a long while now. The clock in his car reads 8:47. We left at 7:30. We should have been there by now or at least out of the woods. So I ask Tyler.

"Hey Ty, are we going straight to my house?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Well it's already 8:45 and we aren't even out of the woods yet."
"Really?" He asked shocked at how fast time went by.
"Yeah really."
"Crap." He mutters to himself but I can still here it.
"Are we lost?" I ask
"No. Well maybe. Okay yes we are lost."
"Oh joy." I say sarcastically.
"Well the map says we are close to the bridge. Wait what way does north point?" He ask.
"Up."
He crumbles the paper a little bit moving it the other way around.
"Oh yeah there is no bridge. No we are in the middle of the woods. By the time we get out it will probably be around 1:30 in the morning. You might want to make a call home." He says realizing his mistake.
I grunt but pull out my phone and dial the house number. Turns out you don't get signal in the woods. Oh gee this is going to be fun to explain in the morning.
"No signal." I tell Tyler.
"Well ok. Our best bet is to turn around and head the way we came. Since you can't drive that means you will have to help me stay awake."
"Ok. Sounds fine to me."

I tried a few radio stations but the only thing that came on was clearly Mexican. We continued to drive in silence until Tyler scares the living daylights out of me.

"AHHHH!!!"
I react by jumping and almost hitting my head on the roof of the car. In turn popping my back brace off.
"What!? What is it?" I reply after calming my nerves.
"Oh nothing, just trying to stay awake." Tyler calmly says.
"Well I'm glad you'll stay awake because now so will I. My back brace just came off and it's not the most comfortable thing in the world but I'll live." I say with sarcasm but still telling the truth.
"Oh. Gosh. Is there anything I can do?"
"Yeah continue driving or we'll never see anything other than trees."
"Oh ok." He says focusing his beautiful blue eyes back on the road.

I unbuckle my seat belt and try and get my back brace completely off with out flashing anyone in the process. Now that it is off I throw it into the back seat of the car, but then my back starts to hurt from the lack of support. I need something hard to lean against. I decide to use the dashboard by leaning my seat back, pulling it up as far as possible, and turning to face the opposite way. Turns out the strange position actually is comfortable.

"What are you doing?" Tyler asks.
"Getting comfy. What else?" I respond looking him in the eyes and giving him an innocent look.
"Whatever floats your boat." He added while turning his head back to the narrow road.
I look over at him while his attention is somewhere else. I never realized how blue his eyes were until now. Yes I knew they where blue, but now in this dark of night the look like the ocean with the sunlight's full attention. And his hair. Oh his hair. Just the perfect color and shape. Like I could run my fingers right through it. But then again we'd probably be in the ditch.

I try to keep Tyler up but every once in a while Tyler catches me closing my eyes. I try to ask him how much longer but something else happens instead.

"Ty-" I accidentally cut myself off with a yawn just before Tyler speaks again.
"Did you just make me a nickname?"
I pause for a moment ,"well I guess I did."
"Okay I'm cool with that just lets not be one of those couples who have weird names for each other."
My heart flutters when he talks about us as a couple.
I yawn again.
"Autumn there is only 5 hours left. Go to sleep I got this."
It doesn't take me long to agree to his offer. I could have sworn I heard him say 'goodnight beautiful' but it was probably just the trees swaying in the calming wind barely audible from inside the warm car.