My Hired Boyfriend (Completed)

11. Rainfall Releases The Crazies

*only partially edited, fixing soon*

            The car dips low with the hill as we zoom past thickets of evergreens and curvy rivers.

            The scenic view was gorgeous- no doubt, but what had me worrying were the thick thunderclouds ahead of us.

            The car lurches abruptly with a pothole in the road and I grip my seat belt tight.

            Coda glances over at me from my sudden movement and I look forward, trying not to show just how much of a baby I was.

            We weren’t going to die. Coda was an experienced driver. We would be okay.

            The car is silent, the radio having gone into absolute static rubbish hours ago from the mountain reception.

            The last sign we had passed had been four hours ago. The intersection leading to Point Fortuna had to be ahead of us.

            Well, at least we hoped that the interstate we are supposed to get on is ahead of us.

            There’s a crack of thunder and my heart leaps into my throat.

            Flashes of lightening and thunder fill my mind and I am thrown back into past memories- memories that I wasn’t ready to venture into.

            In my memories, I could see the glass shattering again, the dark engulphing a five-year-old me-

            “Hazel,” Coda says, his voice pulling me out of the depth of my memories.

            My eyes snap open and I suck in a shuddering breath, my body ridged.

            Coda watches me briefly, his eyebrows furrowed.

            There must have been something in my expression because moments later, he pulls over to the side of the deserted road, close to the thick forest of trees.

            I don’t look at him, embarrassed but nonetheless still terrified of dying in a car crash from a storm.

            I feel his gaze boring into my face and my heart takes off racing.

            I pry my hands away from the seatbelt and settle them on my lap.

            It isn’t until I clasp my hands together that I realize just how bad they were shaking.

            I force a nervous laugh trying to think about anything but the lightening flash ahead of us.

            “My stupid hands won’t stop shaking,” I mutter, trying my hardest to laugh off the stupidity.

            Coda doesn’t say anything for the longest time and I fear that I’ve scared him off.

            I sit in my seat, ridged and prepared to shrug off my fears but as soon as a roaring clap of thunder rips through the air, all that goes down the drain.

            I jump, my head nearly punching a hole through the roof of the car.

            Crap. I don’t have this under control-not at all, I think to myself.

            Coda unclasps my shaky hands and slides his warm palms against mine, entwining our fingers.

            I look at him, surprised.