“I’m honestly not worried about it. Go nuts.” I could almostfeelJulian stiffen beside me at my words, but kept my eyes trained on Mitch. I was nervous about being in the back seat with my current company, not Mitch’sdriving.
“Really?” He turned around and looked at me. “Oh, I can’t wait to feel her out on the desert roads.” He looked over at Julian and tilted his head to the side, obviously aware of the tension coming from him. “Dude. Please don’t tell me you’reworried.”
“I’m fine,” came his shortreply.
Mitch looked back over at me and let out a long,“Okay,” before turning around and facing forward in his seat. “Let’s see what this babycando.”
We spent half an hour cruising around. Mitch would park at the start of a long stretch and see how quickly he could get the car to 60 miles per hour. Then he would see how fast he could go without the ride getting bumpy. Or Gwenfreakingout.
“Mitch, slow down!” she cried from passenger seat when he finally hit around one hundred for the third orfourthtime.
“Seriously?” he sounded confused by her sudden outburst. She had been completely quiet the entire drive, but I had noticed her knuckles were white from balling her hands into tight fists. It was something he would have missed with his attention being ontheroad.
“Yes, seriously. I hate to be the one voice of reason here. But we aren’t invincible.” Mitch laughed her off, but she kept going. “We aren’t. Bad things happen to people all the time. And you know what? I bet every one of them thoughtit’ll never happentome.”
Her voice had taken on a tone of sadness. Frustration, maybe? But whatever it was, it changed the mood of theentirecar.
“Okay,” Mitch said softly, and slowed down the car significantly. His hand reached over the console. I pretended not tonotice.
He was the model driver from thatpointon.
It was an awkward drive back to the diner and when we got back, everyone shuffled out quickly. Mitch thanked me with all politeness, the teasing completely gone, and walked with Gwen over to their ownvehicles.
I watched as they had another one of their conversations. I don’t know why I thought of Gwen as mine, but I found myself possessive of her. I wanted to know what they said to each other when I wasn’t around. It always looked intense between the two of them but Gwen never shared thedetails.
I got in the front seat of the car and got ready to drive home when I saw Julian walking away from the parking lot toward his house. I scanned the parking lot looking for his familiar vehicle. It must have been a walking day. With the sun starting to set, the idea of him walking home made meuncomfortable.
Pulling up beside him, I rolled down the passenger window and called out to him. “Julian, why are you walking? We live on the same street, for goodness sake. I’lldriveyou.”
He didn’t stop. He didn’t even look at me. Was the world going crazy? How did a fun afternoon end uplikethis?
“Julian,” I said with more force. “Don’t be ridiculous. Get inthecar.”
He took a few more steps before eventually stopping and lookingatme.
“Okay.” He got in and added his thanks with so little conviction it was obvious it wasn’t actualgratitude.
“Noproblem.”
We spent the rest of the drive in silence. Not even the radio kept us company. It felt heavy in the car and no amount of adjusting the temperature made it easier to breath in such close quarters to oneanother.
I pulled up to his house, expecting him to protest that I drove down the street instead of just parking at my house. But when he looked up in confusion at the car being parked, it confirmed he hadn’t been paying attention on thedrive.
“Okay, so I guess I’ll see youaround.”
“Yeah,” he answered, but his voice still soundeddistant.
I watched him walk up to his house and thendroveaway.
ChapterFourteen
Julian
Imust have been pretty damn lostin my thoughts the night before to not have noticed the extra vehicle in the driveway when Katie dropped me off. The fact my mom wasn’t sitting on the couch waiting for me when I got home, waiting to get on my back about something, also escaped mynotice.
Maybe a secret part of me thought I was given a small mercyyesterday.
Unfortunately, when I woke up I knew there was no compassion for me. If I thought I was deserving of a gift, I’d had been reaching too far beyond my current placeinhell.
