Change Your Mind (n.h)

Chapter 22

     "Where do you want to go?" Ryan asked.

     "I don't know. Surprise me." I said.

     "We could go catch a movie, go somewhere to eat and then when it gets dark, we could go see the lights at the race track." He suggested.

     "Yeah that'd be good. But we've got like forever until it gets dark enough for the track to open." I pointed out.

     "Maybe we can get him to be a little lenient with your curfew. He trusts us not to do... Anything bad, right? 'Cuz neither one of us would." 

     "Maybe if I call and am nice about it he will. He's just worrying about me." 

     "Okay. Do you want to eat first or go see a movie?" 

     "It doesn't matter, I'm getting kind of hungry though. Do you even have enough money for all of this? I could help, I could pay for all of my stuff. I have money."

     "No, it's okay. I'll get it. Is Olive Garden okay?"

     "Yep, whatever you want." I said back.

     After that-awkward silence. He drove, I looked out the window. I didn't know what to say. It was weird. After a while, I broke the silence.

     "You know, you don't have to do this. If it's just that you feel sorry for me, it's okay. I'm okay. I don't want you doing all of this for me if you don't really like me." I said quietly.

     "What? Why would you think that? Renee, I told you that I liked you since forever! Loved you even! If you don't want to go out with me, Renee, that's okay. I just thought that maybe you felt the same way as I do. I thought you might need someone, especially after what he did to you." He was pissed off to some extinct. Mostly he sounded hurt.

     "I didn't mean it that way. I just didn't want you to be unhappy, I just didn't want you doing this 'cuz you felt sorry for me. That's all. I really do like you-a lot." I whispered.

     He pulled over to the side of the road. He turned to look at me. We sat there and stared at each other for a few seconds. "I don't want you to feel that way. I have told you that I do truly love and care about you. Everyone's told me it's obvious how much I do. I thought you knew that."

     "I do now."

     "Okay, good. Now, let's forget about all of this, it never happened. Let's just go get some food." He pulled out and got back on the road. This time, instead of him taking my hand, I took is. I scooted over to the middle seat to sit next to him. He squeezed my hand as he pulled into the parking lot. We went in and got a table.

     He scanned over the menu and asked me what I wanted. I told him I didn't really know and asked what he wanted. We both decided on just the soup, salad, and bread sticks. Yep.

     "So, you leave in a month." He said.

     "Yep. I guess so." I said.

     "I'll miss you. A lot."

     "I'll miss you, too. We'll call, and face time, and Skype, and you know. Keep in touch." 

     "Yeah, I guess." 

     That ended that conversation. Our food arrived and we just talked about school after that. He asked how I was doing in Algebra 2. I don't even know what kind of math he was doing. I don't know what's after Algebra 2. Calculus? I don't know. He tried to explain it all, but I just didn't get it. He said he'd tutor me next year if I needed it.