Deviation (bwwm) *Mature* Completed

Two

"Look, I don't know how to put this lightly so I'll just say it. You don't want to still be here when the sun goes down." The warning solidified her belief that the county was a sundown town. A sinking feeling filled the pit of her stomach at the idea of a group of racists finding her alone out here.

"Great. Just great. Of all the places to breakdown, it's a fucking sundown town." She threw her hands up before running them down her face tiredly.

"I can wait with you here or you can leave your car and I'll take you into town." He motioned with his free hand further down the road.

"I'm not going into town so it's easy pickings on the nigger with no escape." Tania realized she'd spoken without thinking as she noticed him wince at her vernacular.

"You shouldn't call yourself that." He grumbled as if she'd been calling him the slur instead of herself. 

"Sorry." The apology was halfhearted and dry. A silence settled among the two before it was replaced by the rumbling of a truck approaching. Tania noticed Flint's body tense up before he approached her and stood directly in front of the road.

"Everything okay?" She questioned at his sudden closeness. Up close, she could see the multiple shades of green that made up his eyes and the dark lashes that framed them. He smelled of dirt and some cheap cologne that would last all day.

"Yeah, I just don't want you exposed to traffic." He muttered before taking a step back once he realized how close they'd actually been.

"Do you go around saving all damsels in distress?" Tania joked in an attempt to ease some of the tension. The logical part of her brain told her it was because of their meeting circumstance while the other labeled it as sexual tension.

"I try not to make it a habit." He once again gave her the ghost of a smirk before it disappeared.

"Nigger lover!" "Coon!" "Porch monkey!" Came a string of slurs from the passing truck. Angry faced white men hung out of the windows of the beat up truck, their faces red in anger, and their middle fingers up.

Flint's jaw flexed and Tania could practically see the steaming billowing from his ears. Although the slurs angered her, she knew people like that were simply ignorant and shouldn't be allowed the power to ruin her mood.

"Hey," she lightly touched his wrist, "don't let those type of people ruffle your feathers too much."

"That doesn't bother you?" His deep voice was gravely as he clenched his jaw and his fists followed. She could see his knuckles turn white from the pressure of his grip.

"Why allow it to? They're dirt poor living in the middle of nowhere. Their ignorance won't affect my life outside of this one instance. I'd rather let it roll off my back and flourish than wallow in that pool of hate." She shrugged it off.

Tania had spent years being furious at the hatred of those kinds of people. It did nothing but make her bitter so she found ways to channel that energy instead. She spoke out at city meetings, worked with disadvantaged black youth, and donated to local organizations to better the lives of black people.

"That's a very mature outlook. I guess I just haven't reached that point yet." His dark eyebrows furrowed.

"Your anger is reassuring though. There's nothing wrong with being a nigger lover." Tania laughed but bit her lip to conceal it as Flint sent her a sharp stare.

"Sorry. No more jokes." She smiled despite his hard stare on her. There was something fun about poking the beast.

"Thank you." He grumbled. "I've got working ac if you wanted to wait in my truck."