Just Drive [old version]

[ chapter two ]

Chapter dedicated to TheReadingAngel for the awesome banner on the side and the other one I'm putting up in the next chapter

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Chapter Two – I’d Lie

                I spent the rest of August watching indulging in my favorite nostalgic pleasures: Pokemon and Fruit Gushers. I would like to say I was doing something productive while I was gorging myself with Fruit Gushers, but that would be lying.

                Meanwhile, Mom and Dad were busily prepping Tara for her first day of high school which meant no one would pay attention to me. I liked it that way. There was no one pestering me to go run medial errands, and there certainly weren’t any bitches with the spare time to lord my pathetic life over my head, but as lovely as living that life sounded, I soon got bored of watching the same Team Rocket schemes fail day after day. Eventually, I got into the habit of randomly starting up the car and driving out to the most random places and having a picnic there before coming back home.

                The day before school started, I took my bike and rode out to the track behind the school. This time, I didn’t have a picnic basket, but there was already enough to entertain myself with. I first made my way to the stacks of old hurdles lined up underneath the bleachers. Drawing my fingers over the smooth, plastic tops, I contentedly sighed. Despite the fact that I said good-bye to these insane contraptions three months ago, I still couldn’t help but love and hate them with everything I had.

                Moving on, I made my way around the track. Eventually, I found myself right back where I started, stroking the hurdles under the bleachers. I was so entranced by the demonic babies that I didn’t even hear the oncoming footsteps behind me. “I thought you said you hated hurdling.”

                I felt my body stiffen at the sound of his voice. “You’re still here.”

                Even though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was starting to smirk. “And so are you,” he replied with a chuckle. “I heard about the—“

                “Let’s not talk about it,” I breathily interrupted, still not turning around.

                He didn’t say anything for a few moments. Part of me hoped that he already left, but I knew him better than that. “Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m still here?”

                I dropped my head so he wouldn’t see me bite my lip. He knew me just as well as I knew him, and it was killing me not to ask him that question. Hoping to get out of this unscathed, I began to turn around, head down, and run away, except before I could get too far, I smacked my head against one of the large poles supporting the bleachers. “Ow!”

                In the background, I could hear him faintly chuckling. “That wasn’t funny!”

                “I think if you saw yourself, you’d agree that was quite funny.”

                Finally giving, I spun around and glared at him, but he was prepared with that damn sunny smile of his. It was the kind of smile that could fabricate a unicorn out of Voldemort’s shit, and I hated him for every inch of it. Unable to formulate a response, I simply made a disgruntled noise before shaking my head and trying to walk away.

                “Wait! Where are you going?”

                I lifted my head and came face to face with his mottled blue-green eyes, the same damn eyes I’ve been envisioning for three straight years. “Away,” I snapped. As an after-thought, I found myself adding the words “from you.”

                From my perspective, I could see his eyes start to frown a bit, but he was never good at frowning. “Do you need a ride?”

                I silently cursed him for being such a stubborn pig-head, but I know he can’t help it. He’s always been the sweet, little, six-foot-tall boy with the piece of crap for a brain. “I can bike home,” I replied as nicely as possible.

                I watched his eyes study my face for a moment before they finally settled down. “Bike safely. Watch out for the thunderstorm tonight,” he whispered. As suddenly as he appeared in my life again, he was gone. Letting go of my shoulders, he spun around, ducked under the bleachers, over the fence, and into his backyard, as if to remind me of his cowardice.

                “Damn you, Austin Tyler,” I muttered as I kicked up the kickstand on my bike.

                By the time I got home, my mind was a mumbled mess of thoughts and profanities concerning Austin, and by no means was I in the mood to listen to Tara’s whining.

                “But I had plans with Jackson! How are we supposed to go to the county fair if it’s going to rain tonight?” Tara whined as she followed mom into the family room.

                My mom let out an exasperated sigh, one that I could hear all the way across the room with half of my face buried in a couch pillow. “Make other plans then. I can’t control the weather. Besides, can’t you kids go to the library together or something?”

                “That’s what Sam does.”

                Hearing my name, I lifted my head just in time to see Mom raise her eyebrows with curiosity. “She does,” she mused. When she realized I was tuned into their conversation, she turned her inquisitive gaze towards me. “Sam, you haven’t gone to the library in a while, have you?” she asked.

                “No…”

                “Didn’t you used to go with that Tyler kid?”

                “His name is Austin,” I replied flatly.

                I saw her facial expression brighten a bit at the mentioning of his name; my mom’s always had a soft spot for Austin and his rainbow-inducing smile. “Yes, him. What happened to him?”

                Before I could come up with a lie, Tara and her big lip-glossed mouth butted in with the awful truth. “He’s still in town. Jackson told me he’s been assistant coaching the baseball and soccer teams because he didn’t get into college either.”

                If it was possible, my mom’s face brightened even more. “You should go talk to him,” she suggested brightly. In response, I rolled my eyes and shook my head, even though the memory of our encounter on the track was bubbling inside my mouth.

                Deciding not to push the issue any further, she shrugged and turned aside to deal with Tara. I momentarily felt bad for crushing her hopes in such a flippant fashion, but my inner bitch complained about how many times she’s tried to force the Austin-and-Sam relationship to happen. That should make me feel better, because it was awkward talking to her over and over about my whatever-it-is with Austin eighteen times a week, but it didn’t, and that scared the crap out of me.