asylum [kai parker] editing/rewriting

Thirty-Two

Maybe that will improve once I kill Kai Parker.

S I M O N E
Kai Parker is whipped. He's so whipped.

"How do we get to Cali, again?" He grabs the map once we're seated in the truck that's now filled up with gasoline.

"Probably just take the highway south, it's not to far from here. That should take us into Oregon." I glance around at the small Washington town I've gotten used to.

"Makes sense, but we need to avoid Salem, Portland, and the police. Wouldn't it just be easier to go around?" Kai asks innocently as he starts up the car, pulling out into the open road.

"No." I say before he can even end his short question. "We can make it through the small towns to get to California." I assure. But my conscience has other ideas.

We continue on like this, in the long silence, until finally Kai pulls into a sketchy looking parking lot to fill up on gas again. He figured we better top of the rest of the tank so we could make it further. He wishes to go past Portland, and south down across the California border. Of corse, there's a few stops where they require ID and money to pass through, but we've made a habit of taking the back roads.

Kai taps the top of the red pick-up truck obnoxiously as he fills the tank with gas. Once that's finished, he takes me inside to pick out a few things to eat on the road. I'm silently thanking Kai for the fact that he had the decency to put on a hat. His once golden locks of hair are fully brown now.

Pushing the items across the counter, the cashier takes them. He seems to be a middle-aged man, and not like the last cashier we came across.

Kai stands beside me, a little too close for comfort. He takes out his wallet and looks at the guy, whom is looking at me. Of corse, I'm not paying much attention and just decide to pick at the hem of my sweatshirt. That is, until Kai snaps his fingers obnoxiously in front of the man's face. That's when my eyes shoot up.

"Hey," Kai waves in front of his face. "Eyes up here." He snaps at the older man, who was looking at me.

Somehow that makes me feel a bit less confident, and more weary. The man stops looking at my chest to focus on the very upset sociopath beside me.

Kai sighs, paying the guy and snatching the bag from his grasps. The two of us are oddly silent as we get into the car and continue our journey.

"Kai?" I make a sad attempt and catching his attention. His nails have dug into the steering wheel, causing me to cringe. Angry Kai, isn't a good Kai to have in a small enclosed area such as a car.

"Yes, Simone?" He lets go of the wheel completely, looking as it he's one hundred percent calm.

"Before you took me...y-you robbed a store." It makes sense now, all of it. "That's the money you've been using on this trip," I assume as I pull all the information together.

He nods.

"You knew?" I turn, away from the window so I can focus on him. "You knew you were going to take me, and made sure you had the money?"

Kai doesn't look at me, in fact he avoids it. "I knew since I saw the article." He clearly had to think through his answer, and most likely purposely wanted to piss me off.

"The article? You knew before-" I shake my head in disbelief, both sad and angry.

"I knew after the day I met you at my house. I knew then that I wanted-" he stops himself, shutting his mouth tightly.

"Wanted what?"

"Wanted you." The words are pure, and loud, but it still takes me a second to understand them.