Into The Wild

Boy Meets Girl

“Where exactly are we going?” Mattie placed her right hand on her hip under the glaring Texas morning sun her chipped red fingernail polish shined like rubies.

According to the Spiderman watch on Greg’s wrist it was eight minutes past ten and had been nearly two hours since the two had left the hotel in haste. Mattie wrinkled her nose at the watch but turned her head when Greg caught her expression and looked away as if she’d spotted something more interesting.

He shrugged and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his baggy cargo’s, he’d been hoping that by morning she’d be more friendlier to him but he could see that wasn’t going to happen at all.

Maybe I should just give up then.

It would have been so simple, after all  she hadn’t ran to him because she’d felt anything anyway. She’d ran to him to make the other guy jealous, she’d rode with him, hopped in the front seat of his vintage Cadillac and made a show of flirting with him to make that beef head mad.

She didn’t want him at all.

Greg had just been too enamored to see that. At the time all he’d seen was a blonde guy who didn’t deserve a second of Mattie’s attention. The way he had brushed her off for the girl leaning against the ancient lamp post  infuriated Greg. He’d seen girls like Mattie before, precious things thrown away so easily for a shiny new toy.

“I don’t rightly know,” he dug the toe of his brown loafers into the sand, Mattie folded her arms against her flat chest and sighed.

If she’d just been a good girl like her Daddy had instructed her to be then she would have been at home in her well-conditioned room snuggled under her pastel comforter. But no, she couldn’t now could she? She had to be with her friends, a group of good for nothing kids, one of which had broken her heart.

A long curly strand of red hair wrapped around her gaunt face at the swaying of the hot wind. Unlike her nails her hair glittered, a strange occurrence that her friends and strangers had always taken note of. The girl with the glittery hair. It was the only thing she had going for her really.

She was pretty, but more in a plain way, in a  passive way. Hadn’t she seen that when Brett had shooed her off for Tiffany?

And to think that she’d went all the way with him a few nights before.

Stupid.

Greg fiddled with his worn beige basketball cap as he cast a few furtive glances between Mattie and the small establishment behind her, “You want sumthin’ ta eat? Drink maybe?”

It unnerved her how twitchy he was, but she couldn’t get over how sweet he’d been to her though she’d been a complete jerk. For one she had blew him off at first glance, he reminded her of a loner freak out of one of those real time scarey movies. She imagined that one day he’d wake up and go off, starting with her first and then the others around him. Then she’d scoffed at him right after he’d made an advance at her once they were alone in his ride. To be honest she was scared, she was out alone with a stranger and for what reason?

She wanted to roam Texas for a day or more. Hell she had nothing to do, so far she’d spent her summer days sunbathing in her back yard or hanging out with her friends at the beach and the parties, how many parties had she attended only to wake up with a world class hangover and a bitter taste in her mouth.

But still, she hadn’t thought that she would actually take the ride with him. Not him, not the guy who’d given her that apprehensive smile before stealing a picture of her as she leaned against the counter of the old corner store. She’d turned her head away from the view across the street, Brett and her old friend Elizabeth as they flirted away to scowl at the stranger who’d forced his name upon her.

“My names Greg, I uh, I’m just passing through what’s your name?”

“Can you go away?” Mattie hissed tapping her short bitten fingernails against the worn brown center of the red counter top, to the clerk she gave a half smile as she set her Cherry flavored ICEE and Ranch Doritos in front of her, “That’s it.”

Greg opened his mouth, closed it and then opened it again as his eyes caught sight of her glittery red hair falling over her face, “Nice hair, my Dad uh used to have a horse that color. Crazy right? A red horse,man I told him ‘Daddy, we oughta not sell that horse cuz she’s gonna be a keeper with that red hair’ and you know what my Daddy said?”

Did he say shut up? Mattie thought sliding two dollars and change to the clerk; a tall lady with raven hair, a butch haircut and a septum.

He almost looked normal for a minute as he smiled boyishly and lifted his camera into the air for a moment as if he were taking a picture of that horse, “He uh, he said uh that horses like that were meant to be sold at a hefty price and that she wasn’t normal anyway. Well then I told my Daddy that he would re-“

“Greg is it?” Mattie collected her change and stuffed it into the pocket of her make shift jean shorts. The boy/man nodded and grinned much to Mattie’s irritation, for a second time he’d almost seemed normal…cute even, but then he’d continued on in his weird way reminding her of the kids that her Dad had warned her to call ‘special’ instead of ‘retarded’ because ‘It just aint right to call them ‘retarded’ Matilda.’

“Well I gots to be head—“ she stopped short.

From her place at the counter she could see the stocky and tall frame of Brett across the ways near the old lamp and Metro bus stop. She caught his grin as he pretended to stumble backwards all the while waving at the blond haired girl dressed in a mini skirt. Mattie turned her head and faced Greg just in time to hear the ding of Brett’s entrance.

Greg’s eyes widened in realization, he was the guy he’d seen the girl with nearly ten minutes before.

“Can I get a pack of cigarettes? Marlboro lights?” the husky voice of Brett assaulted Mattie’s back, though she kept her eyes focused on Greg, who had his focus on the boy behind him.

Mattie nearly shivered; she could smell his sharp cologne and his aftershave. He was so close.

Greg’s almond eyes slit into two thin lines, he caught Brett eyeing the back of Mattie’s head as he rested his fists against the countertop and leaned back in almost a stretch like position. The boy turned his head back to the clerk and smirked, then he turned his head again and allowed his eyes to trail Mattie’s thin form, “Hey Mat,” he drawled.

Greg for a brief moment caught the look of dismay on Mattie’s face before she concealed it and gave the boy a cool look over her shoulder, “Sup.”

There was only one way to make Brett regret what he’d done. Envy.

Her eyes sparked up, she’d seen Greg’s car earlier and it was much nicer than Brett’s. Maybe it would make him jealous? With her ICEE in one hand and chips in the other she batted her eyelashes at Greg and leaned forward all the while biting her lips, “You wanna go for a ride or somethin?”

It didn’t take the boy too long to give her an answer. He caught the flirty tilt of her head and pictured her fiery red strands sliding between his fingers.

“Y-yeah, let’s go,” he was shocked at first, maybe a little jilted that a girl as pretty as her wanted to ride alongside with him in his car.

He was so excited he’d failed to catch Brett’s cool glare and Mattie’s smirk as she took the lead, “Well let’s go then.”

And now she’d been with him for three days. A total stranger.

Three days.

Her belly rumbled, “Food would be great.”