I looked at Isaac's hand for a moment before reaching out to grab it, taking my belongings in one hand and Isaac's hand in my other, I stepped over Mac's legs, who had crossed his arms over his chest and was scowling in his seat, his cheeks turning red, and hopped down from the booth, laughing at I waved back at Andie, who I actually liked, who was giggling and shaking her as she sat back down, her boyfriend reaching behind her to drape his arm around her and nudge Mac with the back of his hand to move over.
I tried to ignore the furious and envious look on Izzy's face as she turned her head to watch us, Isaac still tightly gripping my hand as we fled the diner, not letting go until we had reached his jeep and had to part to climb into the front seats. I glanced at Isaac as I settled onto the seat, sitting forward slightly to keep the bare skin of my legs off of the burning leather seat, noting that his shoulders were tense and he looked annoyed as he pulled his own door shut and shifted in his seat. He pulled his hat from his head and ran his hand back through the curls of his hair, looking frustrated as he readjusted the hat backwards on his head.
"I'm sorry for pulling you out of there," Isaac finally said, cautiously, as if he was trying to gauge whether or not I was upset with him, as he slipped his keys into the ignition but didn't turn them, his fingers lingering on them. I glanced between his hand and his face, curious. "They're not a bad group, as far as friends go, they just a lot to deal with sometimes. They can be," he paused, "overwhelming."
"I think I handled them just fine," I replied confidently, glancing behind us as the diner through the back window, thinking specifically of Mac.
"You did," Isaac laughed, his shoulders relaxing visibly as his expression softened. "I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about me." I glanced over at him. "Mac's not really a bad guy, but he definitely has his moments where he's just plain stupid. His dad's the assistant coach, though, so we sort of have to put up with him, but the guy gets under my skin. He's been long overdue for someone to put him in his place. Highlight of my summer." He cocked his head at me, his eyes shining.
"Well if that was your highlight, it sounds like you'll be in for a boring summer," I said dryly, raising an eyebrow at him. Isaac shook his head and laughed, relaxing back into the drivers' seat as he finally twisted the keys, the Jeep coming to life around us as he navigated back out of the space, turning onto Rayston Point.
"With you around, I doubt that." I watched him laugh again and then pull his lower lip through his teeth, unable to resist the small smile that inadvertently formed on my own lips at the carefree way he chuckled, and the dimple in his cheek that was infectious, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it. I forced myself to look away, glancing through the windshield as we started down the main road, as another thought popped into my mind.
"And Izzy?" I mentioned, with some hesitancy, anticipating the impact it would have, but too curious to keep my mouth shut. I watched through the corner of my eye as Isaac's expression shifted, becoming more solemn and serious once again.
"Izzy's been under the impression that once she graduates from high school we'll get back together." He sighed, fiddling with the baseball hat on his head again, and I started to wonder how much he used that hat as a crutch when he was feeling on edge.
"But that's not what you want?" The genuine curiosity I felt, the interest in knowing more about why she followed him around like a lost puppy even when he tried to brush her off, surprised me.
"No," Isaac sighed. "I haven't felt that way about her in a long time. And I really don't think she'll get the most out of college if she's just there for me. I tried to talk her out of going to the same school, but she wouldn't listen. This was the only school she applied too, and she's a legacy so she knew she was guaranteed to get in." I watched Isaac as he spoke, surprised at how relaxed and open he seemed. A small part of me wondered if it was because he was trying to make it clear to me that he was single, or if he was just genuinely trying to make honest conversation, the same way I was. I suddenly realized how much I wanted the latter to be true.
"What? No snappy comeback? No sage words of wisdom you can quote to me from one of your novels?" Isaac glanced at me as we pulled past the baseball field, one of the last blocks before Leighton's street that charming, teasing grin back on his face when I didn't respond to his latest revelation. "Am I not impressing you still?" His condescending reference to the other night made me roll my eyes, but I couldn't help the urge to laugh that I felt.
"No comebacks this time," I said, and then smiled. "I think I exhausted myself trying to scare you away last night."
"Well, you were clearly very unsuccessful, Harvard." Isaac rested his arm on the console between us, one hand resting relaxed on the steering wheel as he continued to drive, his body leaning towards me slightly as his position shifted. I creased my eyebrows as I looked at him, tiling my head slightly to the side.
"Are you going to keep calling me Harvard even after I just told you I go to Columbia?" I reached up as I spoke, untying my hair that had been piled at the back of my head all day, and was starting to pull at my scalp painfully. I shook my head to loosen the strands from the bun ran my hands through the messy brown waves a few times, adjusting them around my shoulder, thankful that Isaac had the air conditioning on and the strands didn't instantly start sticking to my skin. When I looked back at Isaac, he was watching me intently, despite the Jeep still propelling us forward, and didn't try to play off the fact that he had been staring at me when I caught his gaze, letting his eyes linger for a moment longer before I reached over and pushed on his cheek lightly, turning his head back to the road. His skin melded around my touch as he grinned, letting his head move with my touch.
"No, ma'am," he responded, straightening up in his seat, sounding the most southern I had heard since I met him, and I wanted to laugh, if it weren't for the annoyance that the title stirred in me. I frowned, my nose wrinkling in disgust.
"Don't call me ma'am. I've had a lifetime of-" I stopped myself, not wanting Isaac to know that part of me, praying he wouldn't push the sentence I had just abruptly stopped. Isaac eyebrow raised curiously at my sudden stop. "Never mind. I just hate when people say that. I'm only nineteen. It makes me sound ancient."
I glanced ahead of us as we neared Leighton's street, about to turn left when I suddenly found myself reaching for his hand and shouting, "Wait!" The sudden, loud outburst Isaac to press harder on the break he had already been leaning into lightly, causing us both to jerk slightly, his eyes darting back and forth between Magnolia Lane.
"What?" His eyes flew around as he tried to find the source of my exclamation.
"Don't turn." I wasn't ready to go back still, not wanting to have to confront my inevitable talk with Leighton just yet about last night, and my prolonged disappearance today. I knew staying out longer would likely only worsen the inevitable, but I was willing to take that risk.
"Let's go somewhere else. I'm not in the mood to go home yet." I tried to keep my voice calm and steady, swallowing down the urgency I felt as I tried to redirect Isaac, relaxing slightly when he let the Jeep roll past Magnolia Lane, even though his eyes kept glancing at me, concern and confusion etched into the frown on his face and his squinting eyes.
"Where is it that you'd like to go?" He kept casting his eyes sideways, watching me as much as he was watching the road, and I could see a dozen other questions behind his dark eyes as we kept driving straight per my request.
"Surprise me." I settled back into my seat, not having realized that in my urgency to keep Isaac from bringing me home, I had sat forward in my seat and angled my body towards him. I looked out the window to my left, resting my elbow on the edge of the door and bringing my fingers to my lips to bite at the nubs of one of my nails, another habit of mine that my mother hated, because nail polish never lasted long before I peeled it off or found some other way to remove it.
Isaac settled back into his seat beside me, staying silent as we kept driving, although I knew he was periodically glancing in my direction. When I started to fidget in my seat, growing uncomfortable with the silence growing between us and the thoughts it let creep into my mind, I dropped my hand into my lap and sighed as I looked at him.
"Where are we going?" Isaac huffed out a laugh at my question, shaking his head slightly.
"You just said to surprise you."
"But now I want to know."
"You're incredibly impatient," Isaac asserted, still not answering my question as his eyes darted through his mirrors and over his shoulder before he turned left onto a side street. "And demanding." His lip twitched as he teased, resting his elbow on the door and leaning into it so he could resting his chin on his thumb, his fingers curling as his index finger ran over his lips.
"So I demand to know where you're taking me," I insisted, my eyes on his mouth as he grinned even wider.
"Nah." His nose wrinkled when he said that, the corner of his mouth lifting with the shrug of one of his shoulders. I turned my body towards him, pulling at the seatbelt when it dug into my torso, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Nah?" I repeated, looking at him in disbelief.
"I'm surprising you, remember?" He titled his head and turned it towards me, looking pleased with himself. I only scowled even more at his refusal to tell me, trying to ignore the way his head against the headrest shifted his hat, pushing it around on his head so the curls peeking out in the front dropped over his eyes, and he stared at me between his lashes and the strands.
"Kidnapping me, is more like it."
"Hey, you ordered me not to bring you home. I am but your humble servant, simply obeying your demand." I rolled my eyes at his theatrics, trying to ignore the pleased and gleeful expression on his face as he turned his eyes back towards the new road we had turned onto.
"I did not order you," I stressed, crossing my arms over my chest defensively, my chin sticking out stubbornly as I looked at him, having spent my life with people who had to do everything I asked, or sometimes didn't ask, them do to, and hating the insinuation.
"You definitely did," he laughed, turning the car again, down a dirt road that made the Jeep rock underneath us, even when he slowed down. I glanced around as we continued down the path, driving further into a forest-covered area, the leaves above casting moving shadows over the car.
"You could have said no."
"And face the wrath of Loren Lancaster again? No thank you." He pulled the car off road slightly, putting it in park and pulling the key from the ignition. He leaned forward so he had space to remove the blue button down work shirt he was still wearing, tossing it in the backseat, left in a white t-shirt and jeans. "C'mon." He jerked his head towards his door as he pushed it open, hopping down from the car. I watched him for a moment, my jaw set from his comment, before I reluctantly followed, the hot and humid air hitting me hard, the shade from the forested area around us providing only minimal relief.
"Seriously. What are we doing? It's hot." I walked around the front of his car, reluctantly pulling my hair back up into a knot at the top of my head as it nearly instantly started to stick to the back of my neck in the stifling heat, before crossing my arms over my chest and planting my feet, staring at him.
"It's Georgia, get used to it. Now let's go." Isaac locked the car and dropped his keys into the pocket of his jean shorts. He started walking forwards up the dirt road, which narrowed and eventually stopped, a metal gate blocking any vehicles from passing through it peeking out from the growth that had spread around it, the path narrow enough beyond it for only two people to walk side-by-side. I eyed it hesitantly, having partaken in numerous dubious and illegal activities in my lifetime, but within the confines of the city I knew well, not the backwoods of a town I had barely spent a few days in.
"Come on, Loren!" Isaac called, turning and walked backwards when he realized I hadn't joined him. "Trust me."
"Famous last words," I muttered under my breath. I glanced around us, the only sound coming from his feet crushing the dirt and rocks underneath him and the various wildlife hidden by the trees around us before I uncrossed my arms and grudgingly started after him.
******
A/N: This was a chapter I just recently added, despite having written all the way through chapter eighteen so far. I decided we needed more Isaac and Loren scenes before we arrived at the events I was getting to around chapter twenty, if that makes any sense? Not sure how I feel about this one though. Let me know what you think!