Running On Empty

Chapter 11~Silya~

I buried my head in my knees and listened to the sound of Garrett and Madeline chatting softly in the driver's seat. They did like me? What would they do after Jaylin had moved on with that girl? I could feel tears swelling up in my eyes. Damn it!

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When I woke up, there had been a blanket thrown over me. I heard the sound of sizzling coming from the stove and it smelled like grilled cheese. I held the blanket tightly as I smelled Jaylin's scent on it. He must have put it on me when he woke up. Jaylin wheeled over with one hand, holding his plate in the other. He saw me and smiled a little. He sat the plate down on the table and wheeled over to me.

"I made Grilled Cheese for you. Hopefully you like Swiss." I saw the corner of his mouth slide up into his crooked smile. He put on the breaks of his chair and slid down next to me.

"Thanks. Swiss my favorite." I said, avoiding his grey eyes that only kept on staring at me.

"Is something wrong? Your eyes seem sort of puffy and red." He nudged me with his elbow a little.

"Nothing, it's nothing that matters." My hands started squeezing the blanket even tighter.

"I'm sorry for acting odd all this time. I know there isn't a single thing you have done to ever hurt me. I've made you feel uneasy." He scooted closer to me, leaving about half a foot of distance between us.

I couldn't find the words to tell him the truth about the whole deal. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to him. How could I hurt him? I knew that he liked me a lot. I had come to like him in the short amount of time we had spent together.

"Want to see some fireworks?" I looked at him, both our eyes meeting at the same time.

"Are they like the sparkle of light that shoot up brightly in the sky as they go boom, boom, boom?" His eyes went up in the air, leaving me once again, speechless.

I nodded and then looked again at the ground. "The 4th of July is coming up soon. I thought you might enjoy seeing that for the first time."

"So, is there something going on with you?" He said changing the topic to the previous one.

"The hotdogs there are fantastic! I really think they're better than the ones we had at the campfire!" I said as enthusiastically as I could.

"You're avoiding my question... there is something wrong." Jaylin mumbled, still looking at me as if he were trying to peer into my soul. "I'm not stupid. I've been around you long enough to know when you're acting differently than you normally do."

"I-" The door opened and Garrett stepped inside, fully dressed in summery clothes.

"Young Master...your father is on the other line. He wants to speak to you." He said, looking at me and then at Jaylin awkwardly.

I got up and took the phone from Garrett and handed it Jaylin. Then I excused myself to kitchen to eat my Grilled Cheese sandwich. It was a little burnt on the crust, but perfectly crisp in the middle. The cheese was quite stretchy. The sandwich had been cut into two triangles. That girl would be able to eat what he cooked for her every day. They would go to different places, allowing him to experience many more wonderful things and I would be a blur in the distance to Jaylin. I was sure his father was going to tell him about her. This was probably the reason for him calling.

Garrett walked over to me, pulling a chair up and sitting down in a polite way.

"Good afternoon, Miss Emerson." He smiled at me for the second time on thee trip.