On Wednesday I got home and my Mom was packing up the last of our things in California. On Thursday we drove up early to Oregon and I talked with Kayla and Logan about the people and schools in our area. On Friday we drove home for the last three nights in California.
When I woke up on Saturday, Shiloh and Payton were standing outside of my door at 8 AM. By 8:15 we were in Shiloh's mom car and dropped Payton off at Dylan's house.
"What are we doing?" I asked Shiloh as we were driving.
Shiloh didn't take her eyes off the road. She didn't answer me. She just kept on driving. Slowly 10 minutes melted into 30 minutes. 30 minutes melted into an hour. Shiloh had yet to speak a word but it was obvious something was on her mind.
"Shiloh are you kidnapping me?" I asked her.
She didn't answer but she cast an amused look at me. I had gotten used to her silence. It was actually very pleasant. There had been a lot of noise and thoughts in my head and this put everything at ease.
My head was filled to the brink with nothingness and it was very refreshing. After all the worrying I had done this week I knew this was a memory I would hang onto for other weeks like this, even if it ended up that Shiloh was kidnapping me.
Soon the silence lulled me to sleep and when I woke up again the sun was in my eyes. Shiloh was still staring at the road ahead of us. She pulled off the highway into a little town marked Etna.
"What are we doing here?" I asked her as I rubbed my eyes and allowed them to adjust to the light again.
We drove through the small town and I looked at Shiloh's GPS on her phone. Etna was a small town on the border of Oregon and California. Her phone also revealed that we had been driving for 5 hours.
Etna was very different from our little town. We were on the outskirts of San Francisco but not close enough to be a pretty place. However we were close enough that we didn't have too many trees around.
I looked back out the window shield and grey mountains loomed in the distance. I eagerly watched the horizon and the mini town in the distance grew.
The town was quaint and quiet. There were hardly any cars on the road as we drove past buildings that looked like they had some years on them. Shiloh parked in front of a restaurant named Dotty's. It was a small restaurant with a colorful sign that spelled out DOTTY'S. Shiloh got out of the car and began walking towards the door. I opened the car door and ran towards her. In hindsight it wasn't a great idea because I had been sitting down for 5 hours.
"This is one of the hidden gems of Etna." Shiloh gestured to the sign.
"Have you been here before?" I asked her.
"No, Tripadvisor." She responded and opened the door.
I laughed and walked into the restaurant. There were only five people in the restaurant. There was a young girl working the cash register and a slightly older woman working the fryer. In the corner there sat an older couple enjoying their meal.
It was a picturesque little scene and it felt peaceful. It also put a weird feeling of dread like we didn't belong here. The dinner looked like a picture and it felt like Shiloh and I were disturbing it.
We walked up to the counter and looked at the menu.
"I'm paying," Shiloh whispered to me.
"You don't need to pay for me Shiloh, I won't ask to take your money."
"I'm offering to pay for your food. Don't be so stubborn and be selfish for once." Shiloh rolled her eyes.
"Excuse me?" A voice from behind us asked.
YOU ARE READING
The Grace in the Fall
Romance"Shiloh." I held her chin in my hand so she would have to look at me. Shiloh flinched and it reminded me of the first time I had talked to her. Slowly rain began to fall but I could hardly feel their cold bites. She was looking up at me and I was f...
