I shook my head in annoyance. It was pointless to argue with him. I didn’t know what his deal was, but it wasn’t like I could force him to tell me. One way or another, it would come out. The truth always did. And I planned on helping it along. I was going to follow his every step. He’d either get over whatever his problem was, or he’d be forced to tell me out of sheer annoyance.
If he didn’t want to kiss me and kept warring with himself over it, he needed to stop. He needed to be honest with me about it. It made my stomach twist to think he regretted it.
That’s what this had to be. He’d had time to let it sink in.
Humiliation rolled through me, and my stomach twisted. I tried to push the feelings away as we ate, but they just kept coming back.
We were quiet as we finished up dinner. He ate the whole box of rice and kept it down. I started cleaning up, and he went about putting on his shoes.
“I’m going out. See if I can find us a car.”
“I’m going with you.”
He looked up at me, already annoyed. “There’s no point in two of us going.”
“I’ll be the lookout if we happen to find something.”
“I can do it by myself. I always have.”
“Yeah, but we’re in this together. Unless there’s a reason you suddenly don’t want me around?” I put my hand on my hip as I glared at him.
He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Of course there isn’t.”
“Good. Let’s go.” I pulled on my jacket, and the two of us left the motel together.
The temperature had fallen with the sun, and it was back to the typical spring weather. All day, I’d heard about how the heat of the day was an all-time high for the area for that time of year, and people were enjoying the summer-like day while complaining about the cold front moving through. All I knew was that I wanted to go south, where it was almost always warm, where I wouldn’t have to deal with the cold or the back and forth.
Oliver and I walked through town. It was one of the bigger towns we’d found ourselves in. There were plenty of businesses and homes, all brimming with vehicles to choose from. I didn’t talk to him unless he talked to me, but he didn’t talk to me unless it had something to do with the kind of car he was looking for.Something was for sure off. He was more withdrawn, as if being near me made him sick.
We eventually found a car, and he was quick to get it running. We swung by the motel where we picked up our belongings, and then we hit the highway, gaining as many miles as we could. He drove through the night while I slept. We ditched the car and found another; this time, I drove while he slept. Time didn’t seem real. The hours passed faster than I thought they could. It had been a full twenty-four hours since things got weird. He refused to tell me why, and I still couldn’t figure it out. The easy conversation between us was gone, and silence was louder than it should’ve been.
It was getting late. He was asleep, and I was driving, completely lost in thought. That’s when the car started to sputter. It jerked, and the engine died, leaving me to coast to the side of the road.
“What happened?” Oliver asked, waking up.
“I don’t know. It just died,” I said, looking at the dashboard.
He leaned over. “Did you not notice we needed gas?”
My eyes found the gas gauge. My mouth fell open when I saw that the gauge was past E. “I-I didn’t even notice.”
“I can’t fucking believe this. And of course it has to be fucking raining. God, I hate this part of the country!” He punched the dash, making me jump.
“It’s fine. We can just wait out the rain in the car.”
He looked at me like I was stupid. “You want to just sit on the side of the road in the car we stole, waiting for the police? No thanks.” He opened the door and climbed out.
I took a deep breath to cool my anger. I didn’t want to walk in the cold rain, but he was right. If nothing else, someone would stop to help, and it would only be a matter of time before someone realized the car was stolen.
I looked at him through the rain-speckled windshield, and I wondered if he was going to leave me behind. About that time, he stopped walking and turned toward me. I could see the annoyance on his face, but I exhaled in relief because he wasn’t going to leave me. Whatever was going on with us was only surface deep. It wasn’t enough to make him walk away from me for good.
I grabbed my bags and climbed out of the car. I jogged to his side in the light rain, and he started walking again. It was a cool night, and the rain only made it seem that much colder.
Luckily, we both had jackets with hoods, but they were entirely made of cotton, and it didn’t take long before we were both completely soaked. My teeth were chattering, and my body was shivering. We were walking as fast as we could, and the shivering only made my muscles ache more. After a twenty-minute walk, we stumbled upon a hotel. It was much nicer than the crappy motels we’d been staying in. Hotels were more expensive, but neither of us could afford anything cheaper.
We got a room for the night, and we practically raced to our room on the third floor.
“I’m getting a shower to warm up,” I said as I shivered on the elevator.
