She pulled up to my house at exactly 5:00 o'clock. I was sitting on the edge of my bed facing the window and waiting like an anxious little girl. She called me to tell she was out there. I grabbed my bag and headed out towards her silver car.

I got in the front seat, said hello with a smile on my face and i was a bit surprised how natural it seemed...as if i had just seen her yesterday and not 2 or 3 years ago. We always had that with each other. No matter how long of a time we spent apart, we could always pick up.

We went straight to IHOP. I was starving and she was fresh off work. I couldn't have imagined a better place to meet. The IHOP in our town was charming and quiet. I remember going with my mother there not too long ago and i loved how much it felt like a diner and the fact that we could smell the coffee and hear our own voices and not have to yell to hear the other talk was amazing.

I think i did most of the talking. I wasn't sure that i would have infinite amounts to say but once i got going, i kept remembering people, things i had done and said and before i knew it, i had hogged almost the entire conversation. I hardly touched my burger for the first hour.

She was (i think) shocked at how much i had changed in the last couple of years.

"Oh, my God. Who are you and what have you done with shy Kenet?!" It was then as we burst out into laughter that it really did hit me how much i had changed. I'm sure there's still an ounce of shyness somewhere in me, but i had really learned to come out of my shell, and the fact that my honesty about saying things as i see them really tripled. She kept pausing and laughing and she couldn't believe how different i was inside and out.

We finally started talking about our trip but i kept going back and forth and i'd run my hand through my hair trying to think of better options, better possibilities. We needed to get in touch with our third person only they weren't picking up. I'd sit in the booth and then look at my phone and then i'd say: "What if it doesn't happen?"
Then i'd stop moving my leg in nervousness and continue to have things and anecdotes to amuse her with.

I'm not even sure that i enjoyed my burger. I was just so happy to see her again. We left IHOP and sat in the parking lot for awhile longer and talked before leaving our town and taking another drive towards Dallas. I could see the buildings from where we were.

I was starting to develop a headache around my eyes and i hated it. i wanted to enjoy this as much as possible but my head was killing me after awhile. We stopped by to see her friend for about 30-40 minutes and then went to Wal-Mart to get me some aspirin. It was slightly chilly by then but it felt great. As we were walking in, this Hispanic Guy walks by us and as we were walking, he looks at me, then does a double take and stares at me with intensity. I continued to walk then started to laugh.

"Did you see that?"

Ashley laughed and said "YES!!! I was about to ask him if he wanted your number!"

-"This is hilarious. It's never happened to me before".

I think she didn't really believe me much.

"I know you must think this happens to me a lot, but it really doesn't!", i said laughing.

"Well, you DO have the look", she said.

I wasn't sure what she meant by that exactly, but it was still funny to watch. We got a little lost trying to find the aspirin but finally found it. Ash needed some anyway, so she was awsome enough to give me a couple as soon as we paid. I was feeling a bit dizzy and sick, probably from the burger or maybe because i was nervous about this whole thing.

After about six hours of being together, we called it a night, i hugged her and i came home.

I was still anxious, but i think she was more than me because every time i got an incoming text, her heart just about jumped out of her chest because she thought it might be our third person. "No, it's just Tyler, or Josh, or My Mom"

We are still unsure about how this will unfold. I admit it, it's hard and i almost wish that for once things wouldn't be this complicated and i wish that i had way more money so that we didn't have to worry so much about how much we'd be able to spend. We agreed that no matter what, we'd still take a trip. We'd probably take the time to save and that would take a little more time. We've been talking about a road trip since we were 14 years old anyway and i'm always talking about going to new places and seeing new people.

I don't want to worry about this. I don't do good with that. I've been able to remain calm with only slight jitters but i keep reassuring her that no matter what happens, we're taking [a trip] doesn't matter where... We at least owe ourselves that much.

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