Chapter 9: Autopilot
☙⚘☘
I regret not eating. Vivi sighed to herself, watching the clock. It's nearly the end of her shift, and she wished more than anything for it to end so she could sink into her bed and sulk. She had a big plan to ignore Wolfie, but because they were working in different places and the fact that he was elusive, her plan was futile.
There's no satisfaction from playing games with him. She mused to herself.
Finally, the clock ticked, she stood up and walked herself to the lockers.
"I'll be leaving now, Sean!" She called. Sean answered something, which she didn't hear completely. She began changing before she was stopped by the sound of footsteps.
Her eyes met green and her hands instantly went to cover herself. They blinked at each other before it finally clicked in his head. He inhaled sharply, apologized, and walked away covering his eyes. After a moment of silence, she frantically finished changing.
I forgot he clocked out the same time! Sean! What were you thinking!
She grabbed her bag and ran out, cheeks tinted pink.
---
Sean found Carl later staring into a wall, looking disgruntled. He shook his employee and then shooed him off to the lockers. Carl stripped off his shirt, his mind blank.
The door slammed open. "My phone!" Vivi screamed and then she stiffened.
Once again, they had to make eye contact. Vivi flinched back, staring at him up and down before steeling herself and walking over to get her phone. She began fishing for it vigorously and Carl finished changing.
"I guess we're even." She huffed, finally locating her phone.
He sighed, getting his things, straightening his items in his locker. "Yes."
"Why did you snap at me during lunch?" She blurted out randomly.
"I didn't."
She met his gaze and glared. She marched up to him. "Yes, you did."
"Vivien." He muttered under his breath, a sign that she was getting under his skin. He did it a lot.
"Carl." She shot back, standing her ground.
He closed his locker, not bothering to look at her, and ambled to the door. She fumed, he was always acting all mature but when it came to Min he sure acted like a big dog. She ran after him, determined to annoy him. If giving him the cold shoulder wasn't going to chip at his stony exterior, she was going to hammer at it by being overbearing. He was going to snap one way or another.
"Why are you in a bad mood?" She complained. "You're infecting me."
He sighed, a degree more in annoyance.
Maybe she shouldn't continue, but the anticipation of his anger fueled on her provocation.
"Something wrong? Your love life? I tried to spice that up like a week ago and you were a big asshole."
He stopped.
"Am I not enough to entertain you?" She jeered. "What a bad boy!"
He slammed her against the nearest wall, eyes narrowed in anger. "Stop it."
She was only shocked for a moment before she went right back to it. "Trying to threaten me, Mr. Wolfie?"
She watched him get angrier, and she felt almost triumphant before she realized how close he was.
A thousand memories flooded back into her head and she did the only thing her body was autopiloted to do. She kissed him.
---
She felt him stiffened, but they have done this often before, he closed in upon her and kissed her right back.
Her hands fell to his waist and she gripped at the fabric of his clothes, pulling him closer. His hands went to her hair, and he did the thing he always did. His hands ran through her hair, he touched her neck.
And then he pulled back. His eyes frantically met hers in fear.
"Forrest." She whispered quietly.
His mind was thrown back to senior year, to her bare skin, to her eyes hungry. To the quiet room, and sun filtering through a window. To her gasp, and the hand on his chest.
He wiped at his lips hastily, and ran off.
She was left at the wall, and her body felt invaded by the summer air that had turned cold. She looked up, and then realized she was blinking back tears. She thought back to the jarring fear in his eyes and she subsequently wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
He was just the same. The same feeling in her arms, the same scared boy.
And she wanted him so badly.
---
Shouldn't have done it. Shouldn't have done it.
He ran, with no sense of direction where he was running. His breath was erratic, and his mind even more. Without knowing it, he ran to the place where he had always returned to. He picked up his phone and called, standing there, forlorn.
"Carl?"
He could only breathe shallowly.
There was a bit of silence. "I'll be down in a bit."
When she finally came out of her house, he attacked her in a hug. "Whoa!" She laughed, patting him on the back. "Walk?"
He nodded in her shoulder.
She took him down the streets, pointing out the leaves, the shapes of trees, the color schemes of the houses she liked. And the orange of the night lights beginning to glow. With each step, his breathing calmed. And when they finally stopped walking, he began to talk.
"I did it again. She kissed me and then I just... I just."
"Kissed her back?" Min finished for him, she was trying to memorize the shape of a house, so she could illustrate it later. She looked back at him, offering a smile. "Who kissed you?"
"Vivien."
"Did it scare you?"
He breathed in. "A lot."
"So, you ran?"
He nodded.
Min pondered for a long minute. "What do you think you should've done?"
"I—I don't know."
"Well, then you're not ready." She replied. "You could run, think a little, and then come back."
"Really?" His voice was quiet, unsure.
She nodded.
"Everyone has their own pace. Sometimes it's a frantic run! Sometimes it's a drag." She patted his face a few times. "Sometimes it's in the opposite direction."
"Min." He complained, brushing her hand aside.
"Don't be scared about which way you're doing it." She finishes. "You big woofer."
He smiled. And then he laughed.
"Min."
☙⚘☘