"It's over here," Oliver said as he tapped a button on his keys that made his black Silverado crank up. I walked behind him and we parted on both sides of the car to climb in. "Where do you want to eat for…" he said pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the time. "..lunch?" He finished turning to me as I buckled my seatbelt.
"Doesn't matter," I answered. He nodded his head and made a straight line with his mouth. "Okay," he said buckling his seatbelt and pulling the car out of the parking lot.
While driving Oliver asked me to change the station on the radio. I changed it a few times before he told me to stop on the 3rd one. I had slumped back into my seat and started looking out the window again when Firework by Katy Perry started playing.
I rolled my eyes at what he was trying to do. It wasn't gonna work, so he might as well quit it. When I was 7, and I would be upset with him for whatever reason, he would play the corniest song ever and start singing and dancing to it. It didn't matter where we were at the time whether it was in a grocery store, church, dropping me off at school, or the park in front of ALL my friends. He would do the most embarrassing things.
But it didn't matter because I was always right there with him doing it. I'm not gonna lie, 9 times outta 10 I would forget why I was mad in the first place because of his embarrassingly funny dance moves and singing. But not this time, I had to be strong. I decided to be mad at him and that was what I was gonna do.
"Do you ever feelll like a plastic baaaag. Drifting through the wind, wanting to start againnnnn?" He sang horribly, dragging out certain works with his tongue. I eyed him as he occasionally looked over at me in between lyrics and the road. "Stop" I said turning back towards my window.
"….You just gotta igniteee, the lightttt- stop what?- and lettttt it shineeee" he continued, stopping in the middle to hurriedly ask a question he already knew the answer to. "I will jump out of this car right now I swear I will," I said through gritted teeth as we approached a red light. "And lettttt it shinee…just OWNNNNN the NIGHTTTTTT, like the Fourthh offf July," he sang stopping the car and looking at me with a stupid grin on his face.
"Oliver DONT! There are people beside us and they are already staring because of the song," I begged. He looked at me with that stupid smirk he has when he's about to do something you JUST asked him NOT to do and sung as loudly as he possibly could, "CAUSE BABY YOUR'RE A FIIIREWORK. COME ON SHOW EM WHATTT YOUR WORTH!"
I instantly sunk down in my seat and covered my face with my jacket. The lady in the car on my side rolled her windows down and was hyping Oliver up. They sang some of the song together before the light turned green and I cut the radio off. "Why did you do that?" I growled. "I thought you were gonna join in," he smiled. "No, no I wasn't," I said eyeing the side of his head, wishing to slap it as hard as I possibly could.
I sat and replayed what had happened in my mind a few times and couldn't help but laugh a little. "Damn it," I cursed out loud realizing I wasn't mad at him anymore. "Huh?" Oliver laughed. "Don't think I'm not still mad at you," I huffed. "Ahh you can't stay mad at me," he smiled, poking my thigh with his strong index finger. "Mmh hmm," I dismissed rolling my eyes.
"Grace?" Oliver called after we had a few minutes of silence. I looked over at him, his face now serious and his body tense. "Oliver," I answered. "You're gonna have to move in with me, which I'm sure you know by now. But I don't live here in Georgia, I live in California," he explained. He looked really sad as if he was dreading telling me I would have to move. I honestly would prefer to move, I don't wanna be here in Georgia with my mom stuck in that depressing hospital. I would hate it here knowing that she was in there unconscious and beat up looking.
I mean imma know that I'm California too, but it's not like it's going to be something I'm constantly thinking about because I won't be in the same state as her. "Okay, is that all?" I responded looking at the side of his head as he drove. "Yeah, I wanted to tell you now, since we have time to go get your things if you want," he explained. "If that's what you want to do then we could. But I really don't want to go back to that house right now if we have time. Her things are there and I don't want to see them and break down. Ya know," I clarified.
"Yeah I understand, we could go tomorrow. Our flight isn't until Sunday at 5:30 am and it's only Thursday," he said with a smile as he kept his eyes on the road. "Why are you smiling so much?" I asked furrowing my eyes at him. I don't know why but him smiling like that was getting aggravating.
"I can't be happy?" He asked still smiling. "I don't know. I guess so," I said eyeing him then turning back towards my window. "Could we just go to your hotel or where ever you're sleeping? I'm tiered," I asked fighting a yawn through that sentence. "Umm sure," he said looking around as if he was trying to figure out where to turn. I closed my eyes and dozed off to the faint sound of the outside world moving around me. This day is far from over but it's already been too much for me to handle. I feel like I need to sleep for the rest of my life.