Chase You

38; the longest car journey

I smiled weakly, and allowed our hands to drop in between our seats again, but he bought my hand up once again, taking a quick glance at it and then focusing on the road.

"You're wearing the charm bracelet I got you for valentines." His tone was soft and cheerful, and for a split second, all my problems melted away as if his cheerfulness was transferred to me. Obviously, I felt like crap again straight after, but the thought of how much he affected me clouded my mind.

I looked down at my wrist, to check that indeed, the charm bracelet was there, even though I could feel the cold metal grazing against my skin, I still felt like double checking. It seemed to work well as a replacement for my Torvux bracelet which had been turned into ashes not too long ago. It just felt too weird to not have anything there before, like it was stark naked.

"Yeah." I replied.

I glanced at him and saw the moment his lips twitched upwards again. His grip tightened on my hand, and although it really didn't do much, I was gunning for the notion that maybe, just maybe, my crappy feelings will fade eventually.

He dragged both of our hands over to the radio, and flicked a few buttons and turned some dials until music surged through the speakers. He was sure to not let it get too loud because I knew he didn't like to be distracted whilst driving, and he also knew I wasn't feeling it.

What in God's name did I do to deserve someone so thoughtful?

I groaned quietly to myself, and hoped that we'd suddenly get stuck in traffic for an hour just so I didn't need to leave the warmth of the car. By that, I mean the warmth that came from the heater in the car, and the warmth that Ben provided just by sitting beside me.

"Hey, we can head back if you want. I wouldn't mind lounging around and cuddling in bed." He half teased. I thought about my answer for a few moments, constantly going back and forth between giving into the temptation and agreeing, and thinking about someone other than myself for once and doing what needed to be done.

"No, it's okay." I squeezed his hand. "Better to buy this stuff done early."

"Alright." He nodded, "we'll try and be quick in there, I sort of can't be bothered for this anyway."

"Alright." I replied back, shooting him a weak smile, but it probably looked like I was constipated given how much effort I was putting into it.

When some more moments passed by in silence, with the only sound coming from the speaker, Ben all of a sudden straightened up and looked a little frantic.

"What is it?"

"I just had an idea." He squeezed my hand. "I'm guessing you're fed up doing sports, so now that it's getting a little warmer, what would you think about camping?"

"How camp." I mumbled, ultimately failing miserably at telling a joke. I coughed, to divert the attention and then spoke again. "Yeah.. maybe. I used to go with my Dad and some of my cousins years and years ago. It was fun."

He cocked a brow. "Really? I didn't know that."

"Yep. When I was in primary school, before I changed and before he got too busy with work, we'd also try and get Zach, Liam and their dad to come along too since they were pretty good friends too and enjoyed that stuff. I don't think we'd be close friends if it weren't for those camping trips." I found myself rambling slightly.

"Huh." He mused. "Well, the more you know..."

"We can go as long as it's not in the middle of an episode."

"Sure. We could also try to get some of our friends to tag along?" He tried. "I'm not too sure about Jace, he's too neat and tidy and likes his video games too much, so he'd probably do something stupid like trip and fall while cliff diving because he was too busy thinking about Final Fantasy."