“Is it okay if we walk with you?” he rises back up and I nod to confirm. “Are you on your period or is it your usual Grinch mode?”
I shake my head sideways.
“First, what is wrong with you, we’ve just met?” my facial expressions take my face hostage, “Second, stop calling me that.”
“Or what?” He cocks his head to the side, “You will make this summer my worst nightmare?”
I bite my tongue this time, exhaling hot air from my nose like a trained dragon. “We’ll see.” If I need to guess, there’s a tiny smile hiding under that helmet and I want to scrape it off. “Are you unusually this antagonizing?”
He contemplates for a moment before he answers playfully, “It really depends on the day. But I was asking because I can buy you some chocolate to turn that hostility down a notch.”
“I will never turn down something sweet,” I reply with an innocent grin.
“Good to know,” he pets the dogs one last time, “That there’s a way to get to you.”
“Fuck around and find out.” Those are not the words I should’ve used.
“With pleasure.”
The dogs back away from him and jump on me, asking to be petted and I can’t refuse them so I rub their smooth fur and watch the joy cover their faces.
Opening his backpack, he extracts a key resembling the one I have.
Great!
He’s staying at the motel as well—I use my sarcastic voice inwardly.
“So if I were an animal you would have been nicer?” he questions.
I sigh, “Probably,” and nod to fortify that statement.
“They seem to like you,” he remarks like I haven’t noticed.
“What’s not to like?”
“Hmm, so far, I’m charmed.” The way he responds so dismissively but with intent causes me to clench my jaw in annoyance. Tearing his gaze away from mine, he strides to the foreground of the motel and I follow along with the dogs that trail between us.
The atmosphere is loaded although not tense, simply disconnected. We remain quiet. We’re both here, but at the same time, it feels like we are a million miles away—lost in our thoughts.
Opening the lock of my door, I say in a low tone, “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” He twirls the key in his hand a few times. “Saygoodnight, girls.”
The dogs bark once and follow him as he climbs the stairs to the second floor and gets inside his room. Instead of entering my room, I scurry to my Dad’s pickup truck that I borrowed for the summer where I have my bike.
I curse at the wind as I try to unload it. I almost fell, broke my bike, and possibly injured my knee in the process, and it is still, up there.
“Can I give you a hand?” A guy approaches me, clearing his voice and scratching his forehead. “It’s kind of painful to watch, really.” He says with a bright smile.
“Oh, excuse me,” I tighten my hair tie, “Refunds for the show will be accepted after it’s over.”
His rich laughter echoes as he offers his hand for me to shake. “I’m Brook.”
“Blakely.”
It takes us a few tries before we manage to unload my persistent bike. Luckily there are still bikers out here and everyone is used to the sound and doesn’t seem to be bothered either.
“Nice work,” Brook says as we high-five, and breathe heavily like we ran a marathon.
