𝚁𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛

|| 16 ||

"There!" Dariush shouted pointing at a large deserted building. We came to a stop in front of it and I took a minute to read the large sign on the top of  the building, Sheriff Station. Well I guess that could be helpful.

"Man this place trashed."

"Looks empty." Alex sighed.

"Guys, I don't..." Gabriel started, "Nobody's, uh..."

I squinted at him, he seemed weirdly nervous about the idea of going into the building, cagey almost.

Gabriel swallowed before replying. "You guys go ahead. I'll just stay back and watch our bikes."

"What?" I heard Alex ask, his voice going up an octave.

"Oh, yeah, because the aliens wanna jack our mountain bikes." Dariush said rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, looters could take them." Gabriel shot back.

"Yeah, someone should stay and watch." Zhenzhen agreed.

"I'll stay too. If looters come you'll need back up." I stated.

"Whatever, man." Dariush grumbled, slumping off.

After the other three disappeared inside the building Gabriel sighed and leaned against a nearby tree. I looked around for somewhere to sit and spotted a picnic bench near the tree Gabriel was leaning against. I moved the bikes to lean against table and them sat on top of it.

"So why didn't you want to go inside?" I asked Gabriel.

He glanced over at me and quickly looked back.

"No reason. Just didn't want to."

"Mhm. Why are you being so shifty then. You afraid of getting caught or something." I joked.

He froze and tensed up. 

"I don't know what you're talking about." He ground out.

"I knew it!"

"Knew what!"

"The reason you're so nervous, duh."

"I told you I'm not nervous!" He shouted taking a step towards me.

"Then you wouldn't mind going into the building to get Zhenzhen for me." I challenged.

He paused and seemed to deflate at that. He walked the few steps over to the picnic table I was sitting on and leaned against it next to me.

"Sure, fine, I'm nervous. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Yes, I wanted you to admit it." I grinned.

"Well if you're so smart and figured out why I'm nervous, tell me why. Why am I nervous?"

"You're in trouble with the police!" I exclaimed, proud that I had figured it out, "Sorry, I sounded happy about that. I'm not! Happy that you might be in trouble with the law, that is. That's not really anything to be happy about." I rushed out, embarrassed.

"You're right." He said looking at the ground, suddenly finding the dirt very interesting.

We lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. I looked down and started picking at my nails and the skin around my nail beds.

"Soooooo...," I dragged out, making him look up at me. "What did you do?"

He glanced down again and I sighed going back to picking at my nails.

"I punched a guy." He mumbled.

I looked up quickly. He had said it so quietly that I wondered if I had made it up in my head.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I punched a guy." He mumbled again.

"Oh.."

"You're the one who went digging into my personal stuff." He grunted.

I felt my cheeks flush.

"Right. I'm sorry. Sometimes my mouth gets ahead of my brain. Can I ask you something?"

"I guess since I have a feeling you'll ask it anyways."

I felt my blush deepen and swallowed thickly.

"Why did you do it? Punch that guy I mean."

"He thought I was trying to steal from him. I used to work at a grocery store, sometimes I'd take over my mom's till to help her out, usually I just bagged the groceries. One day I was at her till and I was trying to give a man his change. I have this thing with numbers. I get them all mixed around in my head, so when I tried to give this man his change I was short a dollar or two. I was stressed and I couldn't get the numbers straight. He got mad and grabbed me by the collar, got all up in my face shouting that if I didn't give him his money he was gonna call the cops on me. I got scared so I punched him square in the nose, then I ran. My mom couldn't even look at me. Got hauled here and sent to juvie, that's why I was in the mountains."

I was silent for a moment.

"I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. I mean it's not, not really, but what can I do about it now." He shrugged.

I turned to face him and grabbed him, hugging him tight. I let go and turned back towards the sheriffs station, a small blush creeping onto my face. Suddenly we heard a commotion and Alex, Dariush, and Zhenzhen appeared out of the buildings front doors. Gabriel and I stood from our spots on top of the picnic table and stood next to the bikes as they walked to us.

"Find anyone?" I asked.

"Would we be standing here by ourselves if we had found someone!" Dariush snapped.

"Geez, who pissed in his cereal this morning." I mumbled to my self, rolling my eyes.

"Okay, ready to go then?"

Everyone nodded back and hopped onto their bikes. We left the sheriff's station and headed towards Las Angeles.