"Oh! There's a G!" I yelled as I pointed it out. "The gynecologist's office!"
"Shit!" Ryan said with a smile on his face. "I just saw a church sign that said something about God."
"Well now I have six points," I grinned, "and you have one. You suck at this game."
We were in the car, on our way to somewhere. Ryan wouldn't tell me. We were playing the alphabet game, you know the one in which you and whoever is in the car with you find the letters of the alphabet in anything and everything you drive past. We were now on the letter H.
"The Hilton!" I screamed as we drove past a large hotel.
"Damn! How do you find these?" He scratched his head.
"Um, I actually look."
"Well, I'm driving, so I have an excuse to why I'm losing by six."
"Ryan, the first five were street signs."
"So." He put his blinker on and got on the exit ramp.
"It's about time," I said, tired. "We've been driving for, like, ever."
"It's only been forty-five minutes, calm down. We still have about fifteen minutes to go."
"Where are you taking me? It's past eleven!"
He turned again. We were suddenly in the middle of nowhere, and it was pitch black. I hate the dark, and I got scared. I grabbed Ryan's free hand and squeezed it.
"What's wrong? Are you afraid of the dark?" He looked at me. My heart was beating insanely fast and I couldn't catch my breath. "Don't worry, we're almost there." He drove past an old gas station that held only one pump. There were cornstalks on each side. There were actually cornstalks everywhere. Ryan turned again. Soon, wooden streetlights appeared every mile or so. "See? It's alright. We're really almost there."
He pulled into the driveway of a house that looked abandoned. The house was placed in a very random place and position. In between two different corn fields, the large gray house sat diagonally to the street. The driveway was also placed at an awkward angle. It made a Y with the road and curved behind the house. There were no lights on, no car in the driveway, no sign of existence.
"What is this place?" Goosebumps covered my body.
Ryan didn't answer. He turned the car off and got out. I followed him. He was walking fast and I had to run to catch up to him. When I was finally next to him, he held my hand and walked up the stairs to the front porch.
"Ryan, this is scary, where are we?" I whispered.
"You'll see," he answered in a voice that was louder than mine. He took a key out of his pocket and stuck it into the lock. The door creaked open. Ryan reached for a light switch and when he found it, he flicked it up. Nothing happened.
"Shit," he said under his breath. "Follow me." He pulled me into the next room. He tried the light switch. It worked. The light flooded the old kitchen, which contained numerous appliances that looked like they were from the eighties. Everything was covered in dust.
"Ryan. Look at me. Where are we?"
"My grandma's old house," he replied with a smile.
"Why?" I was confused. "Why are we at your grandma's old house?" I paused. "Wait. This is her old house. Which means it doesn't belong to her anymore. Whose house is it?"
He didn't answer for a moment. He was looking around the old kitchen, smiling. "It's mine," he said finally.
I was stunned. "Yours? Why is it yours?"
He looked at me. "You ask a lot of questions."
My face got serious. "Answer."
"She gave it to me in her will."
My face dropped. I was speechless.
"So now I'm a senior in high school and I already own a house! " He giggled. "It's crazy, isn't it?"
I didn't laugh. "Why are we here?"
"I wanted to be alone with you," he said. His face looked so innocent.
"We could have been alone somewhere else!"
"Why are you so mad?"
"Because you scared me when you were driving. You were driving through nowhere, and it was dark, and I was scared and you didn't stop or explain or anything." My heart was still racing, and I could feel my face getting hot.
He stared at me for a few minutes. I stared back.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. "I just always want to be with you. And I know this is new, and I know I've seen you a bunch of times today, but I was never really alone with you. Being with you makes me happy and I already feel so comfortable with you…" he trailed off. I was still upset. I wasn't as scared as I was earlier, but my breath was still coming in short huffs. Ryan wrapped his strong arms around my short body. "I really am sorry, Caroline."
I looked up at him. His eyes were still that amazing green, and his freckles, I noticed, were not only on his nose, but were randomly poured across his whole face. His reddish brown curls fell over his forehead. He was so good-looking and so sincere that I couldn't stay mad at him. I stood as tall as I could on my toes and didn't yet reach his face, but he leaned down and met my lips in a slow, deep kiss. Several minutes later, Ryan stopped kissing me and said, "I want to show you the rest of the house." He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the next room.