road trip of a lifetime

chapter three

After finishing our pizzas we headed back to car and got back on the road. It was getting late. It had been 6 hours since we left the airport and clock was seven in the evening.

"So what are we gonna do when the night comes" I thought out loud.

"Well I thought we could stay on the motel couple hours ahead of us. I wondered you might wanna take a shower and change your clothes. I know I do," Owen answered to my thought.

Of course, a motel. I didn't even think about that. All I could come up with was like sleeping in the car or buying a tent, but motel does make more sense I guess.

"Yeah sounds good" I agreed.

"So I'm guessing you're not from here, eh?" Owen asked trying to do a Canadian accent.

We hadn't really had a change to talk about the real stuff or get to know each other that much , I realized. I had slept first half of the drive and in the pizza place all we did was eat, sing and talked about our singing.

"You're right, I'm not from here" I told him. "What gave me away?" I smiled.

"Your English... even tho it's really good for someone whose not from around here." he admitted. "So where are you from?"

"Finland."

"Wait what? That's like really far away..." he shouted and the expression on his face was priceless. He looked like he had seen a ghost. "I thought you'd be like from the States but like from some kinda immigrant family or something" he said with straight face.

I laughed out loud for his silly thought.

"You thought what now?" I couldn't help but laugh. I got the laughing stop and continued "No but seriously I'm from Finland this small city called Rauma. I'm here just visiting my friends and well I'm gonna move here next fall for school, but I'm a Finn for life."

"You're gonna move here? From Finland? At this age? You're like super brave or totally crazy," he let out a little laugh and looked at me from the driver's seat.

I thought about what he said and he was completely right. I was crazy not brave, just crazy. Canada was like 6000km from Finland and I was only 19-years-old. I was going to leave my family and friends and everything behind and move to a new country on the other side of the world. What was I doing?!? On the other hand I did have some friends here too and it had been my dream to move here since, well long time ago. I could do this!

"Aino?" I heard Owen calling me. "You OK?"

"Yeah, sorry, I just started thinking what you said." I answered still in deep thought. "I think I'm just crazy and well scared as hell. I just haven't really thought about it that much, I guess."

"You're gonna be fine. And you know what?" he asked me with a huge smile on his face.

"What?"

"Now you have one more friend on this side of the ocean" he kept smiling.

I felt a smile crept on my face.

"I guess you right," I smiled back at him.

Then we sat in silence for like ten minutes and just enjoyed each other's company. I kept thinking what Owen had said and it make me so happy. I had made a new friend. And not just any friend, a friend with who I could just be me and nothing else.

"Your turn," I broke the silence and got confused look from Owen. "I mean, it's your turn to tell me about yourself." I clarified.

"Oh okay, what do you wanna know?" he grinned.