A Silent Love

Mind If I Stick Around?

I sat in the passenger seat of Rachel's black Getz breathing in the sweet smell of her car as I tried to get out of her where she was taking me.

"Just tell me. I'm going to find out anyway," I begged of her.

"It's a surprise and you'll find out when we get there," she was keeping her cards close to her chest. She wasn't giving off any hints, but she looked excited. She has always been a tough nut to crack. And the best secret keeper, well, most of the time.

In high school, all the secret business of the glee club and its members were kept from Rachel because everyone thought that she had a big mouth and would spread it around. But people underestimated her. There were so many things that she knew and never said a word about. As the years passed though, people became more comfortable and trusting of her, so she was allowed in on our secrets. Hell, I even told her some of my secrets that I hadn't told anyone else.

"Just be quiet and enjoy the drive. We're almost there," she laughed then extended her arm and rubbed my knee. "Trust me, you'll love it!"

My leg burned in a sensational way and I could still feel the weight of her hand on me. I sat smelling in the scent of her car. I had to find out what kind of freshener this was. When I get my car back, I'm going to have an unlimited supply of it so I'll never have to be without it. She's had the same one since we were in high school. And I remember walking behind her just so I could catch the draft that carried her sweet smell without being suspicious. The scent has embedded itself in the fibres of all her clothes and she has her own signature smell that filled the space that she was in.

I remember in junior year, I searched in shopping centres for the same perfume or deodorant that she wore. I would walk down the aisle and pull every one off the shelf, spray and smelling, trying to match the scent. I even went through all the men's products. I tried to hide what I was doing, because I didn't want to seem weird and people expected me to hate Rachel. But as we got closer, we hung our more and that lead me to learn that it was her car freshener, not her deodorant or perfume.

When I found that out, I searched the aisles. I had captured a mental image of the one she had. But I couldn't match it in the supermarkets. I then came to the conclusion that it was from a car store, as it was. But I wasn't yet sixteen, as she was and I waited until I had a car to get it. It would be rather strange for someone to go into a car store and buy freshener meant for their car that they didn't own. And I couldn't even imagine if anyone I knew or from school had seen me.

I was brought back to reality by the feeling of the car coming to a stop. We had pulled into a street car park and Rachel unclicked her seatbelt. "Here we are," she said with a big smile spreading across her face. She was almost bursting with excitement.

I got out of the car as well and looked around. It was mostly old brick façades that had been transformed into small variety stores, some selling souvenirs. She led me down an alley next to a dodgy souvenir store. "Are you sure this area's safe Rachel?" I asked her, getting worried where she was going to be taking me. It didn't look like a very thriving area or welcoming for that matter. There are worse areas, definitely. But this didn't seem like somewhere that Rachel would come. She's always been very wary of where she goes and like any sane person, likes to avoid high crime rate areas to avoid damage and possibility of being robbed or injured.

The pavement beneath them was icy but not too slippery and the snow still hadn't begun to fall. She treaded carefully and looked slightly ahead at Rachel to see if she was going to fall. Looking down at her feet, she saw Rachel pivot and looked up to see where she was turning to. To the left was a door that radiated a warm glow and seemed very inviting from the cold out here.