Chapter 4

They had been driving around in Marissa's car for a while; she had showed around Newport, like the school and the pier, along with some of her personal favourite places. After about 2 hours of driving around she had finally showed him all the things there was to see, literally. "Okay, so I think I've showed you all there is to see in Newport" Marissa told Ryan.

"Yeah… so if I want to stop by your school, or maybe go to church I wouldn't be in any trouble finding it, right?" He joked.

"What? I just showed you everything I could think of" She said, defensively. "And I just wanted to spend more time with you" She added silently. "But speaking of school, will you be going to Harbor?" She asked him, hoping for a positive answer.

"No… I don't live here. I'm just visiting my grandmother" He told her.

"Oh yeah… Anna Atwood, right?"

He gave her a confused look, "How did you know that?" He asked her.

"Last night, at the diner," She said, but he still didn't get it. "she came in with money for you…" And with that realization formed in his mind and he blushed slightly. "She's friends of my grandmother's. I've seen her around a couple of times when I visit her"

"Right" He said. "If she knows my grandmother then how come didn't my grandmother know her yesterday?" He asked himself silently.

"So, how long will you be staying here?" She asked

"I, uh… don't actually know" He said. He hadn't really thought about how long he would be staying, he had hoped it would only be couple of weeks at the most but maybe staying here wouldn't be that bad.

She shot him a smile and decided to change the topic. "So… what do you say about some music?" She asked him

"If you want to"

"Okay" She turned on the radio and on came Aqualung's '7 keys'. "Oh, I love that song." She turned the volume up a bit and began singing along "Darling believe… You're closer than anyone has even been. Oh baby don't leave me alone, I'm yours for eternity… You hold the seven keys to my soul"

He slightly laughed at the dark-haired girl beside him.

Marissa caught him laughing at her and stopped singing. "What, am I that bad?" She asked him.

"No. You just remind me of someone I used to know" He said, with a slight more sad expression on his face.

She caught onto his expression. "Your friend that died?" She guessed.

"Yeah… she always used to sing along with the songs like you were doing, and she talks a lot too…"

"What? I don't talk a lot" She said, defensively

"Yeah… whatever you say" He said as she just smiled at him. "And she also had dark hair like you do" He added

"Well, I don't really have dark hair… Well I do but it's not my normal colour…" She said. "It is actually kind of funny how it happened."

"What, were you eating chocolate and did you get some on your hair?" He joked

"Funny… hehe" She said, and giving him a fake laugh. "No. Me and my friend had been drinking and well one thing led to another and when I woke up the next morning I just went into the kitchen and my mom basically screamed at me. Something like 'How could you do that? You had so beautiful hair' and of course I didn't understand what she was screaming about until I finally looked into a mirror." She said, laughing slightly. "She ordered me to go and colour it back to like how it was… but that just made me want to keep it like it is much more"

He laughed slightly. "Well, that's quite the story"

"Oh, that's nothing. I basically do everything that my mom doesn't want me doing… like the job at the diner. She hates that I'm actually working"

"So that explains it" He thought out loud. She gave him a confused look. "Oh sorry… I thought I was only thinking it… but I found it weird that you had such expensive car and were working at that diner"

"Yeah well I didn't really want such expensive car but I needed one and my mom would only buy one that was at least that expensive… She's gotta look good, you know" She said, rolling her eyes.

"I'm definitely not in Chino anymore"

"Well, I've never been in Chino before, but I guess not" She said. "Do you have somewhere to be?" She asked.

"No… why?" He asked

"Oh, you know… the free food you promised me. And I heard they were showing old Jim Carrey movies in the movie theatre… you interested?" She said, giving him a warm smile.

"Definitely"