Light of My Life

Garrett drove down the street and parked outside of one of Tempe’s local diners. “Is this okay?” He could feel his hands sweaty against the steering wheel.

Autumn smiled and said “Yeah, this is perfect,”

Autumn had passed by the diner a couple of times since she had moved into town. She had been meaning to eventually try it out. “I’ve never been here before so you’ll have to tell me what’s good here.” Autumn was trying really hard to be nice and keep up with the conversation. Garrett wasn’t exactly the most talkative person in the world. The short drive from the store to the diner consisted of just the music filling the silent void.

Garrett smiled and let out a slight chuckle. “Everything is good here, but especially the burgers.” The two walked into the diner; Garrett was trying to be more of a gentlemen after the stunt he pulled a couple days prior, so he opened the door for Autumn, saying, “After you,”

“Thank you,” Autumn said, smiling and feeling a weird feeling rush over her. She realized a few seconds later that she was blushing.

The two were quickly seated into a comfortable booth in the cozy diner. The waitress came and took their orders, Garrett getting a cheeseburger with onion rings and Autumn taking Garrett’s advice on the burgers and getting the exact same thing.

So far so good, Garrett thought. I knew I could do this! I mean we’re having lunch right now and she actually wanted to come! And Ella thought I was going to chicken out. Garrett was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t realized that Autumn and himself and been in silence for five minutes, and she was beginning to look very uncomfortable.

Is he just going to sit there like that the whole time? Autumn thought. God, this was a bad idea. I should’ve just gone home and eaten a sandwich.

Garrett finally snapped out of his thoughts and sent Autumn a tiny smile, from which she began to ease back into a conversation. She was already feeling slightly uncomfortable so she assumed if she kept the conversation going it would turn less awkward.

“So, uh, I told you a little bit about me, what about you? Are you from here?”

Garrett cleared his throat and began, “I’ve lived here in Arizona pretty much my whole life.” While Autumn wanted nothing more than to be able to be back in California, Garrett couldn’t think of any other place he would want to be. “I’m in a band, so I’ve toured a lot, especially in California. San Diego really is a beautiful city.”

Autumn smiled. “As beautiful as Arizona may be, it doesn’t beat California.”

Garrett scrunched up his nose. “Eh, I beg to differ.”

“Oh really?” Autumn tested back. “We have beautiful beaches and Disneyland!”

“We have the Grand Canyon, I don’t think anything can beat that.”

Autumn was silent for a moment. Although she had never been to the Grand Canyon, she knew from pictures that it was absolutely stunning and worth a trip to see. Still, does it beat Disneyland?

“I’ve never actually been to the Grand Canyon, so this argument is completely invalid now.”

Garrett choked on his water. “You’ve never been to the Grand Canyon?” When Autumn shook her head, he continued, “How have you never been?”

Autumn shrugged. “Hey, I’ve only been in Arizona for two weeks,” she defended, “I’ll get around to it,” she paused before continuing, “Someday.”

“Well put that on the list of things we’ll have to do,” Garrett said. At that moment, the food arrived, putting a brief halt in the conversation.

“List?” Autumn asked, shoving an onion ring in her mouth.

Garrett, also eating an onion ring, nodded, “Yeah, the list,” Taking a sip of water he continued, “The list of things to see and do in Arizona.”

“You said you would tell me things to do in Tempe,” Autumn said, “Not the whole damn state.”

“Well the Grand Canyon is only like four hours away,” Garrett said, “It’s worth the trip, trust me.”

“Yeah, someday I’ll go.” Autumn began to munch on her burger and Garrett did the same.

After a couple minutes of eating, Garrett said, “My band is doing a show in Flagstaff in a couple of weeks,” He was nervous in picking out the next couple of words, “Flagstaff is pretty close to the Grand Canyon. If you wanted to come, you could and we can go. Ella will be there. And my band. Obviously.” Ah, there it was again. The nervous word vomit.

Autumn smiled slightly. “Uh, maybe.” And that was that. She continued to eat her food and when she noticed that Garrett looked slightly distraught, she added, “It’s not you, or anything, it’s just I’m not really good in crowds or socializing or,” she paused, “I’m just really socially awkward and I wouldn’t want to be a bother.” It wasn’t that Autumn didn’t want to go. If she was a confident person she would’ve probably said yes. But that was the problem. Her whole life, Autumn was always the girl who sat in the back of the classroom and never spoke up. She hoped he didn’t feel offended that she was declining.

Garrett smiled slightly at Autumn’s own word vomit. He knew how she felt, since he himself was also socially awkward. He didn’t want to pressure her into doing anything. “Well, if you change your mind, the offer still stands.” He took another bite of his burger. “I’d love to show you around other things here in Tempe, if you want.” He swallowed his food, hoping he wasn’t going to get shut down again.

To his surprise, Autumn smiled. “Yeah, I’d love that, thank you.” The two weeks that Autumn had been living in Arizona, no one had been as nice to her as Garrett was. Although she was not known as a social butterfly, it couldn’t hurt to have a friend right? And she really did need help navigating through the city.

“There’s this really awesome bakery, it’s a family owned business,” Garrett said, “They make these cinnamon twist things, they are so good.” Garrett was using his hands when describing the cinnamon twists, and Autumn laughed for a moment thinking it was cute. “And there’s a cool comic book store, it’s run by this really old man,” He continued, “He practically gives away comics for free.”

Autumn found his enthusiasm adorable. She chuckled once more, and Garrett chuckled right back. He liked seeing her smile. The two stared at each other for a moment, and Autumn once again noticed just how baby blue his eyes were. She snapped out of her little daze and finally responded to him.

“Those are definitely places that need to be on the list.”