the night we met | h.s

six

She had a really good voice. Every time I turned on the radio she would start singing when she heard a song she knew. Her voice started so quite I almost didn't hear her but it progressively grew louder to the point where I could hear. I constantly had a smile on my face every time she sang and made sure to not interrupt her. When she realized she had started to sing and that I was listening she would shrink into her seat with a shy blush tinting her cheeks.

She told me to just drive. She didn't give me directions or a place to go, she just told me to drive and I was fine with that.

She asked me questions and I'm sure she was trying to figure me out, since I was doing the same. I don't think either of us had gotten very far though.

"Do you through party's for your birthday?" I questioned. It had to be about one of the weirdest question we had asked but it had a purpose. She asked me what my favorite age was and I told her eight. She asked me why and I told her because it was the best birthday party I had ever had.

"I've only had one birthday party, I was turning six. I invited one of my friends who liked all of the attention to be on her and let's just say she succeeded. There was one point where they locked me out of our guest bedroom and I just sat in the hallway and cried. I was being quite dramatic looking back at it now, but I was only six."

I couldn't help but imagine a little Scarlett sitting alone in a hallway with tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes. The thought made me sad and I didn't want to think about it for much longer.

"Well that's quite depressing." I confessed, feeling bad for her six year old self. When I looked over at her in my passenger seat she someone had a smile on her face though.

"Yeah, but it was great other than that. It was the only time my dad had actually been there on my birthday, he made prime rib which was my favorite." The smile on her lips made me want to believe she was happy, but I could hear the sorrow in her voice.

I knew her parents were divorced, she mentioned it briefly, but somehow her eyes hinted that there was something else going on.

"Scarlett, why do you live here in Seattle?" It always intrigued me as to why people lived in certain places and the background stories always fascinated me. However I had a feeling the girl beside me had a story that I would want to listen to forever.

"My mom has a lot of family who lives around the Seattle area and she grew up here for a small part of her childhood. She always loved it here, she told me it was her favorite out of all the places she's lived. When my mom married my dad we moved to Boston for his work, but when they split up my mom and I moved back here." The story seemed simple to tell and almost as if she had recited it, her eyes were trained on the road in front of us and it felt like she didn't blink.

"Why didn't you stay in Boston with your dad?"

"They never gave me the choice. Besides my dad was so wrapped up in his work he didn't even have time to raise his own daughter. He wouldn't even know where to begin if he had to." Her voice was sad and I didn't blame her considering the story she was telling. I decided I had had enough of making her tell me sad stories because it only seemed to depress the both of us and all I could figure out from them was that she was about the strongest person I knew.

"So why are you hear in Seattle Harry?" Her voice was quiet as if she was scared to ask the question and she didn't know how I would react.

"I'm here for reasons I don't want to think about right now." My answer could have possibly scared her considering I said it as if it was some huge secret but I just didn't want to ruin the night with my reasoning for coming to America.