𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐓 𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐓⁰²ʰᵉᵐᵐⁱⁿᵍˢ

ㅤㅤㅤ xvi ──to be buried by your serpent tongue

"No?" Luke sounded.

"No, I left it when I moved here,"

Mom had gotten it for me on my 16th birthday, which was also a half persuasion gift to make me shut up that Riel and I had seen her being dropped off by some guy with a rather sultry kiss we'd never seen her share with dad.

I, having admired guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison for their talent on the instrument, tried my best with it. Unfortunately, my attempts fell short and the most I could do was a ukulele Elaine had in her bedroom.

"Ah. Couldn't bring it along?" Luke proposed, his tone telling me that he understood what I meant. Though I frowned a bit, knowing he didn't. "Did you move here for university?"

I managed to swerve the question by asking how long it had been since he started driving. I continued by asking if he'd been asleep before I texted. He denied it as he had the previous time I asked, but I pressed on and he confessed that he was half way falling asleep. Emphasis on half way because he was persistent on staying awake for some work he had to finish up.

I didn't raise my question as to what it was about. Perhaps it was for RDC, he was a therapist after all.

"How long have you been working for RDC?" I asked.

Even without a sound, I could feel him pause, as though hesitating to bring out an answer. "Uh. A year, I think." There was something about the way he said that that made it sound like he was unsure; that it could've been two years, five, or only a few months. But I couldn't find a reason as to why he wouldn't be truthful about his answer.

"Your mom works there too, right?"

He paused again. "Hm, yeah, kinda,"

I took a second to hear his voice, sensing his discomfort in the questions I'd posed. It was odd to me that he was uncomfortable with them since I hadn't thought up any reason as to why he'd be so, but I stopped anyway. "Sorry, again, for waking you up,"

This was the fourth or fifth time I'd apologised, and I couldn't feel any more sorry every time something reminded me that he was driving out in the dark, at 2AM, ready to fetch a girl he barely knew. I almost wished he hadn't woken up and only read my text in the morning, or that I hadn't texted in the first place.

He dismissed it again, replying that he needed to be woken up anyway. Still, I felt bad for it.

As he drove nearer to where I was, I could spot him even from afar. There, we stayed silent, watching, letting the night be gentle around us as he approached.

Even in the dark, his cherry red vehicle was still easy to spot.

When he pulled up, he gave me a sleepy smile, one hand on the wheel and the other on the stick shift. His hair was still a mess, curls all about the place, darker in tone beneath the car's interior light.

He looked so meek at the ripe hour, eyes drooping lazily despite being awake. It made me want to apologise once again for disturbing the gentle image of him slowly slipping to sleep.

"I -"

"Don't say you're sorry," He interrupted, cocking a brow as he unlocked the passenger door.

I concealed a small laugh at my predictability, opening the door and door and sliding in.

Immediately, I felt how much warmer the insides were, making me suddenly grateful that I did disturb him.

He closed the windows and started out into the road, still empty and free. I felt as though we were ghosts in his car, unreal and barely conscious as we sped past the bus station, leaving it as a silhouette behind us.