Far From Here

Chapter 3

I awoke early the next morning only to find that Kelly was still fast asleep in her room. I made coffee and had a bowl of cereal for breakfast before going back into my room. That was when I saw the slip of paper I had left on my night stand. It was the phone number of the guy from last night. I had to call him at some point today because I really needed to have my car towed to a mechanic as soon as possible. School started soon and I needed to be able to get there.

            I decided to call him after I got dressed. After a quick shower, I put on a turquoise tank top and denim shorts. I wore my usual coat of mascara along with a heart shaped necklace, and put my shoulder length blond hair in a pony tail. I went back to my room and looked at the time. 11:00. That should be late enough. He was probably awake.

            I dialed the number from the paper into my cell. Rriiiinnnggg rrrriiinnnngggg… “Hello?” He finally answered.

            “Hi,” I said, a little unsure of what to do. I felt incredibly awkward, especially considering I couldn’t remember his name. “It’s Amelie, you drove me home last night. Anyway, you told me to call if I needed anything and you mentioned getting my car towed.”

            “Hey Amelie!” He sounded surprised but happy that I had called. “That’s no problem at all. I’ll call today and have it brought to a mechanic. I’ll even drive you there when it’s time to pick it up.” He was so nice. Why was he helping me so much?

            “Thank you, you’re a life saver. I have no idea what I would do without you.” He laughed.

            “ I don’t know,” he said in a joking, sarcastic tone, “Just stand on the side of the road all night with the bears,” I could tell from his voice that he was smiling. “No, I’m totally joking. You would have been fine.”

            I couldn’t help but laugh at his comment about the bears. “Bears?” I said.

            “Yeah,” he was still laughing, “You know what you have to do if you ever see a bear, right?”

            “What?”

            “You go up to it, and you punch it in the dick.” At this point, he sounded dead serious. I collapsed on to my bed in a fit of laughter. What the hell was he talking about? This guy had to be crazy.

            “What? Oh my god where did that even come from?” I asked when I caught my breath again.

            “Well, you know, this is Canada. You have to know what to do in the case of a bear attack.”

            “Somehow that doesn’t quite seem like the most reasonable approach,” I said skeptically.

            He brought his voice down to a low whisper, “Oh trust me, it is.” I found myself smiling yet again. Although he seemed so different from what I was used to, I was starting to like him. He had a great sense of humor and I really liked talking to him.

            “Well thank you again for helping me. I wish there was something I could do to thank you. I would take you out to lunch or something but I don’t know any of the places around here.”

            “Hmmm,” He thought, “What are you doing today?”

            “Nothing really, Why?”

            “I want to show you around Vancouver.” He said. “When can I pick you up?”

            “That sounds awesome. How about around 1?”

            “Ok, I’ll see you then.” He hung up. I walked back out of my room to find Kelly standing in the kitchen drinking a coke zero.

            “Who where you talking to?” She asked, “I heard you on the phone.” I realized that I still didn’t remember what his name was. That was going to be awkward when I saw him.

            “This guy I know. I was going to tell you about him. He drove me here yesterday because my car broke down and now he wants to show me around the city. He’s coming by to pick me up later.” Kelly looked at me, the nodded and took a sip of her coke.