Polaroids and Postcards | ✔️

Chapter 6: Trouble in Tennessee

I cocked my head in astonishment. "You're glad my car went to pot and left me without a way to California?"

"Ahh, but you aren't without a way to California, are you?" Della returned, smiling smugly, "Because of all the places you could've broken down, it was where I was. And if that hadn't have happened, we'd have never met."

I paused. "Y-yeah, I guess so."

"So," she sighed, popping a random Skittle into her mouth, "at the end of the day, it all worked out for good! We got to meet. And I'm glad we did."

It took my brain a moment to process the last thing she said. It didn't seem to compute with me. Probably because I couldn't actually remember ever hearing it before. I mean, let's face it, I wasn't exactly the most sociable guy on the block. I just don't like people; they confuse the heck out of me. And when I get confused, I panic. Then I have to cover it up with sarcasm. That's just how I operated. Always had and probably always would...

Yet she was glad to meet me?

"You're so confusing, it's insane," I blurted out before I could catch myself.

Della looked over her sunglasses at me. Was she amused? "Uh-huh... Explain."

I ignored the fact that she had just recycled my incredulous words from earlier. "That's just the thing—I can't."

It's like you're living in an entirely different universe of thought, but somehow still manage to make me understand. How do you do that? How do you make me curious? How do you force me to think differently? It's incredibly annoying and distracting and I both hate and...don't quite hate it.

"You can't explain how I confuse you?"

I shook my head. "Not really."

"Interesting."

"Why do you do that?" I leapt at the chance to change the subject.

"Do what?"

"You say that all the time. 'Interesting'... What is so interesting?"

"You are."

I blinked. "You think I'm interesting."

"Yep. People usually are if you see them."

"See them?"

She cocked her head to one side, letting the stray strands of her hair curl over her shoulder. There was no laughter on her lips just then. "If you see past the exterior and look a little further in, it's interesting to see the person that hides underneath. Every once and a while, if you pay close attention, you'll see the real person shining through."

I wanted to ask what she saw in me. What person did she see slipping through my outward appearance? Could she, with her strange point of view, see something that I didn't? But then again, after mulling over her words and how she said them, I wasn't entirely sure she was actually referring to me.

Della Rae...

"Well, would you look at that?" she chuckled, changing lanes and subjects. "What is that I see in the distance?"

I rolled my eyes at her sarcastic tone. "Are we really going to do this? I have a brother, remember. I'm not falling for that."

"Jason, I wasn't trying to prank you. I was just pointing out the gas station. Gosh, show at least a little faith in me."

My head hit the ceiling as I sat up straighter to look through the windshield. I stifled a curse that rose to my lips and rubbed the knot that was coming up as my eyes grazed our salvation. Some salvation... It had a ragged homeless guy out front.