Quiet, part 10 and 11

Part 10

We woke up in Albuquerque after two very long days of driving. Admittedly the trip wasn't what I had expected; we were driving a lot and not really seeing very much, but we were learning about each other as she was constantly talking in those days. Even if there was nothing to say, Daisy could find something to mention, sort of like as long as she was awake she was going to tell a story or ask a question; something to keep it from being too quiet. But that was only during the days, at night she fell hard. She would just lie there and not say anything at all. Quiet and still, she would find my hand and just hold on until she finally fell asleep.

I really enjoyed talking with her during the day or singing with her loudly when a familiar song would come on the radio, but it was those few nights that I had the opportunity to just lie next to her, hand in hand, completely dark room, and just listen to the cadence of her breathing, calm and steady. Eventually during the night her hand would leave mine and she would find my heart and leave her hand covering the beating muscle for the rest of the night.

Secretly I was not just falling for her, but falling in love with her and at nineteen I wasn't sure how much my young heart, the same that she kept hold of during the night, was going to be able to handle of her and the emotion she was pumping into me.

"How'd you sleep," she asked rolling out of the bed, wearing a large flannel shirt that was probably her father's and a pair of scrubs that just like the shirt were entirely too big, "for some reason, the past two nights have been amazing sleep for me."

Honestly I hadn't slept very much. Those two nights she had spoke of, I spent watching her and listening to her and thinking that at that moment it was possible that there wasn't anyone else as lucky as me; holding onto my heart was the most beautiful girl I had ever met.

"Yeah, I slept great," I lied as she brushed her teeth and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, "I'm just going to get a quick shower and then Flagstaff?"

"I can't wait," she smiled between brushes.

Flagstaff was my favorite stop on the trip; sitting an hour from the Grand Canyon National Park, we spent the day discovering the Arizona town and enjoying for the first time on the trip a full day without much driving. She found a new energy with the town's people selling her jewelry and fabric and beads and such; I just found an energy from watching her dance and smile her way through the day.

"We can make it to Los Angeles by lunch tomorrow," she spoke to me as I stepped out of the shower, her head was stuck in the road map, plotting our next stop.

"What about the Grand Canyon," I asked, as we had earlier decided to make it our first stop in the morning.

"I figure we can stop through on the way back?"

"Yeah," I answered, excited about Los Angeles, "you want to get something for dinner?"

Every night of the trip we spent at a Crackerbarrel for dinner, concluding that we needed at least one meal that didn't involve peanut butter and jelly. That night we sat at a table in the very back corner of the restaurant and had this very nice waitress named Janice -- she had red hair and wore a necklace very similar to the one Daisy was wearing: silver with two children hand in hand dangling from the silver strand.

"What brings you two from Texas," she asked, then explained that she knew we were from Texas because she had seen us park my car and noted the Texas license plate.

"We're running away to get married," Daisy answered quietly, as if it were a secret, and then winked to me and took my hand across the table.

"Well how old are the two of you," she asked just as quietly as Daisy had spoken, "he doesn't look any older than fifteen."

"I'm nineteen," I responded, smiling, but definitely not flattered.

"Well," she sighed, "I suppose all I can say is sometimes it's better to be crazy in love than sane and miserable," she then took our orders and left us alone to eat our dinner.

That night as we laid down to sleep I thought to ask her where she came up with the idea of lying to the waitress. But she found my hand first and placed her's inside of it and then reached up and kissed my cheek before falling quietly asleep.

...

Part 11

Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Malibu, Palm Springs, and the Grand Canyon and back are all like a blurred photo, bleeding into one another. There were more conversations, more quiet nights, lots more driving, but in the end when we pulled into my parent's drive way ending our road trip and having spent seven nights and eight days with each other I was completely in love and that night when I went to bed, alone in my room at my parent's house, I couldn't fall to sleep.

"Will," she whispered into the phone, "are you awake?" It was 11:11 that night.

"No," I answered, "you?"

"Do you want me to let you go," she whispered even lower than the first time she spoke.

"No," I answered back, "actually I'm wide awake," and then before giving her the opportunity to speak, I did, "Daisy, I miss you."

"Will," she laughed quietly, still whispering, "are you not tired of me? We did just spend the last 8 days together."

"No. Are you tired of me?"

"No. I can't sleep," she answered.

"Me either."

"I'm outside of your house," she spoke, "can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Yeah."

Sneaking quietly through the house we slid into my bed, in the dark of the night, and just like the previous seven nights she took my hand and shut her eyes.

"Daisy," I whispered into her ear.

"Yes Will?"

"Before you fall to sleep, I did miss you tonight, but when I said I missed you, I really meant from the time we last saw each other," she stopped me.

"My birthday," she asked.

"Yes. Until now, I missed you horribly."

"I missed you too Will," she answered, eyes closed, breathing relaxed and steady.

I'm sure that morning my parents found her asleep in my bed with me, but they didn't say anything -- when we woke the house was empty. We ate breakfast quietly before she left to emet another one of her friends. Throughout the next week she and I spent only about an hour together each day, eating lunch and catching up on the previous day -- we had to ween ourselves off to each other. But I couldn't take my mind off of her, and seeing her for lunch each day just reminded me of what I was missing. It was sometime about a week after our first night back home that my mother confessed to finding us that morning. She asked me if Daisy and I were now more than friends and while I would have loved to say yes, I couldn't because I didn't know.

My mother had heard my excitement from my stories of visiting Daisy and she had watched us sit on the porch before the road trip and she had witnessed our daily lunch dates and deep down she knew her boy had fallen in love.

Nine days after the roadtrip and two days after the conversation with my mother Daisy and I went out to the movies. We got there twenty minutes before the start time just to sit in the dark theatre and talk; it was what we did everytime I went to Austin during the semester.

"So my mother asked me if you and I had become more than just friends," I spoke quietly as there was another couple in the theatre.

"What'd you tell her," she asked between bites of popcorn.

"Well, first it was embarrassing and awkward because she said she saw us that morning in the bed asleep," I laughed, somewhat nervous of the conversation, "but I told her we were just friends."

"Really," she asked, not really too involved.

"Yeah."

"Do you think you could date me Will," she asked, this time looking directly into my eyes.

"Yes," I answered, "I guess so."

"Well I could definitely date you," she smiled.

"Have you thought about this," I asked, suddenly wishing the movie would never begin.

"Yeah, I guess," she answered, not looking at me, "but I'm leaving next week, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"Where are you going?"

"Indiana for a month to visit my cousin," she replied quickly as the movie began.