Chapter Twenty Six
As we drive down the empty highway, the sun slowly sets making an end to another day. For most people at least, but not us. The sun setting means nothing as we continue driving into the darkness.
"Turn left onto eighty five north." I tell him, following the directions my GPS gave us.
We've cut ten hours out of our trip today, leaving only six more until I can see my poor daddy.
I called mom about an hour ago and she said he was still doing good, just tired and sore. I told her we'd be there by morning and she was happy, promising to tell dad as soon as he wakes up.
Trace and I decided to just keep going tonight and sleeping at my dads house instead of getting another hotel room and slowing us down. We'd just drive in sections so the other could sleep. Right now it's his turn, but I'm not sleeping.
I don't know why but every time I close my eyes they just won't sleep.
The truck suddenly jerks forward once and I tense, grabbing the dashboard for support. It continues jerking forward, gradually dying down.
"Trace?" I ask nervously. He sighs and pulls over.
He doesn't answer me, instead he hits the steering wheel, "Damn it!"
The engine cuts off and he tries turning the key. It makes a muffling sound before dying completely. He takes off his seat belt, "I'm so sorry. I'll see if I can fix it."
He opens the truck door and gets out onto the empty highway. I guess not many people prefer driving down highways at twelve in the morning.
I follow him and take off my seat belt, sliding out of the truck as well and meeting him at the hood.
"What is it?" I ask him and he concentrates on a few parts of a big box for a moment before groaning and shaking his head.
"It's a bad alternator. It killed my battery." He closes the hood and looks towards me, but doesn't meet my eyes, "I can't fix it. I'm sorry."
So, the truck died? Big deal.
Big deal.
Big deal! We're stranded on the side of a highway. I haven't seen so much as a gas station in at least an hour. The closest thing to civilization I've seen for a while is the rare car that passes by us. Normally highways and interstates are never just deserted like this but we're in the middle of nowhere.
Most people don't even travel through here.
We could sleep in the truck and wait for someone to come by and find us in the morning. What if nobody comes and finds us though, how long will chips and toast really last us?
Winter is coming in a few months and soon the clothes I'm wearing won't be enough. I don't want to freeze on the side of the road. What if a truck driver mistakes me for a prostitute and picks me up. I'll be stuck in a new business and I don't want a job! Becoming a stripper was something I always just talked about as a joke, I never actually considered it! A prostitute would have a harder job though, an awful job. Could I outrun a truck driver? He'd be in a truck so I'd have to outrun a truck.
I rub my head and my breathing suddenly becomes rapid. Am I hyperventilating? Is that what's happening to me or is this a panic attack? I don't think I've ever done either. Why can't I stop breathing?
Why do I want to stop breathing?
"Emma," I turn to see a grey eyed boy looking at me with careful eyes, "just breathe. You'll be okay, I won't let anything happen to you."
My chest continues rising and falling quickly.
"Focus on me," he says, squeezing my shoulders and my breathing slows down a little bit, "listen to my voice when I say it'll all be okay."
My breaths become steady as I watch him handle me with such delicacy and care.
I let out a deep breath and when I open my eyes, I'm better.
He straightens up and removes his hands from their previous spot on my shoulder, "We'll be okay, I promise."
He takes my hand and we walk to get inside the truck where he tries his cell phone. He keeps a calm demeanor and I can't help but feel like I'm the reason he feels the need to pretend not to be worried. Unless he really does mean what he says, 'everything will be okay'.
"I can't get a signal up here but there's a gas station about five miles north. If we get going now we can reach it about one o'clock and we'll see where we go from there."
I nod and he gives me a soft smile, "I'm so sorry about all of this."
He doesn't need to be sorry for anything. It's not his fault his truck died, that's not something he can control. It's just an accident that happened to occur at a really bad time.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for," I tell him honestly before teasing, "maybe if you bought a truck that wasn't from the eighteen hundreds." he laughs and reaches across me to pat the dashboard.
"Ah, I can't just get rid of Missy."
We get out of the truck and he puts a few bottles of water in my bag since I have the most room left in mine. We grab the nutella, bread, M&Ms and board game, tossing them into his bag before closing the truck doors and making our way down the dark, quiet highway.
He had his bag slung over his left shoulder and I've got mine. He tried carrying them both but I wouldn't let him so he took the heavier one.
"How do you know there's a gas station down here?" I ask him and he shrugs but I don't miss the way he doesn't look at me. He keeps his eyes trained on the concrete in front of him.
"My dad and I were around here one night." he tells me casually but there's no truth to his tone of voice. It isn't a 'casual' topic at all, he's just playing pretend.
I want him to know he can talk to me about his family if he wants to. That I'll listen and only talk if he wants me to. Learning more about him is intriguing to me. I want to know about his childhood but it seems every time that topic is brought up he shoots it down.
I want him to know he can tell me anything. I want him to know he can trust me with anything.
"My parents got divorced when I was twelve years old," I start, "my parents were in love but things just got complicated. Dad started working too much and it became an obsession instead of a job. Mom didn't like him spending so much time not around his family so that led to a bunch of disagreements that eventually escalated into arguments that soon turned into verbal fights. Mom said he needed to change, he didn't. She filed for a divorce and before I knew it, I was moving to Tennessee."
Even though I'm not looking at him, I can feel him watching me. He's taking in my every word, concentrating on the meaning behind all of them.
If he doesn't want to tell me anything that's okay. I just want him to understand that he can. The best way I know to help him understand that is by doing it myself. I'm not telling him about myself in hopes he'll do the same. I'm telling him this so he'll know I feel comfortable enough too and that if he were to want to share, I'll be as great a listener as he is.
"My parents switched me out every two years and I'd move back and forth. My dad is amazing and I love being in California with him. The constant working does get irritating but that's just how he is, he loves his job."
I let out a soft, bitter laugh, "Ironic his job is the reason he's in the hospital right now."
Trace runs a hand through his hair, something I've come to see as a sign of nervousness.
"Dale, Dylan, Olivia and I lived in a small house about an hour from here." he says with a hard stare on the ground.
"Who's Dale?" I ask and his jaw tenses before answering, "The man who got my mom pregnant."
Dale is his dad. There's thick tension between the two of them, that much is obvious. The way the mere thought of him is enough to make Trace angry and how he doesn't call him 'dad' but simply the man who impregnated his mother.
"Where is he now?" I ask quietly, scared that if I push he'll stop talking to me about it.
Trace doesn't answer but continues staring at the ground. He's watching his feet take every step. There's a coldness behind his eyes that I don't recognize as he thinks about his father and I'm suddenly regretting ever bringing up the topic.
I decide to change the subject and hope he'll become the goofy, happy guy that I'm used to again.
"Wouldn't it suck if the gas station was closed?" I laugh dryly and he blinks hard as if my words just interrupted him from his own world.
He turns to me, "Yea, it would."
The gas station slowly comes into view and I sigh out, happy that my legs can have a break soon. I get out of breath walking up the stairs. This is a new form of exercise I'm not accustomed to.
"You alright?" Trace asks with a hint of humor in his voice as he takes in my panting and unsteady steps.
I nod and give him a look that I'm hoping will warn him away but he doesn't seem to be fazed.
"Want some water?" He asks, this time allowing a little chuckle to escape and I glare at him.
"Not everyone can have as perfect a body as you. It's harder to walk when you're out of shape."
He smirks, "You think I have a perfect body?"
Had I admitted that out loud? How sloppy of me.
I shrug, "I've seen better." I lie and he rolls his eyes.
"Doubtful," he says confidently, I laugh.
We get closer to the gas station and I decide I'll take a bottle of water to help me make it the rest of the way. I don't talk to him, I just stop walking and he stops too, standing in front of me.
"What?" he asks, wondering why I've stopped.
I just pull my bag from his shoulder and lift one knee in the air to serve as a table for my bag to rest on while I go through it and find water.
"Do you need help?" he asks but I shake my head.
There's not really a reason I'm not talking to him. Maybe my mouth is just so dry I'm trying to conserve saliva by keeping it closed.
My hand brushes the cool water and I wrap my fingers around it. I lose my grip on my bag as I pull the water out and in the blink of an eye, all of my belongings are lying in the wet grass. Stupid dew!
I drop the bottle and quickly grab at my things, trying to get my clothes up before they get too wet and grassy.
"Damn it!" I yell when I see my pair of pajamas has grass stains on it from being rubbed into the ground by a water bottle.
Trace grabs it and looks at the green smear going across my shirt and the waistband of my pants. Of all the clothes in my bag, my pair of pajamas had to be the outfit on the top for everything else to fall on!
"Yep, that's gross." he says and puts it back in my bag, filling it up quickly with all of my stuff.
He see's the pair of yellow panties that I didn't wear this morning and he chuckles as he puts them in the bag. I roll my eyes, boys.
When we have everything picked up, I zip my bag back and throw it over my shoulder before picking my water off the concrete and holding it tightly in my hand.
We start walking and within minutes arrive at the gas station. He gets to the door first and pulls at the door handle before looking back at me with wide eyes, "We're locked out!"
I cross my arms over my chest and give him a look of disbelief, "Trace," I start and he smiles, "the gas station is surrounded by window. The lights are on inside the gas station. It's dark outside the gas station. I can literally see straight through the windows perfectly, I can see the cashier standing right there giving us a look of disapproval."
He stifles a laugh, "That was my bad."
He pulls the door open and holds it open, allowing me to walk in first before following behind.
I walk up to the woman and open my mouth to speak but Trace puts a hand on my shoulder and gives me a 'let me handle this' look.
He brushes in front of me and turns on his charm.
"Hello," he looks at her name tag, "Amanda. Look, my friend and I broke down a few miles back and I was just hoping it wouldn't be too big a trouble to borrow a phone so we can call someone."
Trace gives her a dazzling smile and the woman melts under his eyes. She nods frantically and her cheeks turn a light shade of pink before she scurries into the back and comes back out holding a phone seconds later.
He takes it and tells her a quick thanks before looking back at me as if to say 'see what I can do with my hotness'.
He quickly dials for a tow truck and they tell him it'll be fifteen minutes before they can get there. We aren't with his truck so it doesn't matter to us either way but I guess the quicker they can get to it the less time people have to notice it and decide they want to mess with it.
After he gets off the phone with the tow service he calls an uber to take us to the nearest hotel.
"Okay, thanks so much." he pauses, "Bye."
Trace hands the phone back to the girl who has been staring at him for the past five minutes and gives her another smile, "Thank you Amanda."
She bites her lip at him and walks away to put the phone back.
Trace turns around and walks to me. I scowl at him and he gives me a bewildered look, "What?"
"Stop flirting with that girl to get what you want!" I whisper shout so Amanda won't hear me, but Trace will still understand my annoyance.
He waves his hands through the air, "I wasn't flirting!"
"You gave her that 'look at me' smile!"
"That was just a smile!"
"It was your sexy smile!"
"Damn, I have a perfect body and a sexy smile? You must be whipped." he smirks.
"As if," I scoff, "Just stop playing that poor girl!"
"I'm not playing her!"
We bicker quietly and dramatically but as soon as the girl walks through the threshold we both stop instantly, putting our hands behind our backs to prove our innocence.
Amanda does a little flirtatious wave to Trace and he just stands there. She furrows her eyebrows and Trace shakes his head apologetically, "I would smile back, but I wouldn't want to give you the wrong idea."
He can't be serious.
Amanda just nods confused and walks towards the back.
As soon as she's gone I slap his arm, "What was that?"
He grabs the spot I just hit and whines, "I'm fragile!"
We're whisper shouting so I'm sure Amanda can hear us talking, but we're talking with moderately hushed voices so she probably couldn't make out what we're saying.
I laugh and walk away to browse the small store. It'll be another ten minutes at least before the uber can get here so we may as well spend our time doing something productive.
"Want to go see what Amanda's up to?" I ask and he shrugs.
Poor Amanda.
We walk towards the back, completely ignoring the 'employees only' sign. When we get back there we see a small room where Amanda is sitting in there playing on her phone.
She see's us and sits up, "Sorry, do you guys need something? I thought you were just waiting for your ride."
Trace shakes his head, "Nope, we were just bored."
Amanda smirks and stands up. She strides over to him and whispers something in his ear before his eyes widen and he pulls back.
"Right here?" he asks and she nods.
She looks towards me and does a failed attempt to whisper, "We'd have to get rid of her first."
Trace looks to me and winks discretely before looking into her eager eyes, "Why don't we just go back there?" he gestures to a corner behind some boxes and she gives him an unsure look so he continues, "I can't just kick Emma out. But we could move."
Amanda bites the corner of her lip for a moment, trying to decide if that'd be a good idea or not. She finally makes the wrong decision and nods before taking his hand and dragging him to the back corner.
They get out of my sight and I'm suddenly not enjoying this idea. How could he just go back there and do stuff with a shabby gas station girl?
Why hasn't he tried to do anything with me before? Does he think I'm not likable that way?
Trace is a good friend, one of my best. There's nothing romantic between the two of us but of course, I've had those 'what if' thoughts. Even if we aren't a thing, I still feel like we're more than just getting shagged in front of each other.
He's never tried to make a move on me. Sure, he's said some things but that's always just heat of the moment. He never acts on any of his thoughts like he seems to be doing with her. Does he even mean any of it? Has he ever thought about me in the 'more' kind of way?
Trace walks back out and a few seconds later Amanda follows. He walks up to me and I keep my eyes locked on his.
"Feel better?" I ask him and he shakes his head before turning to Amanda.
"Thanks again," he says simply and we walk back to the front of the store just in time to see the uber pull up.
Authors Note:
Hey guys!! Thanks for reading and don't forget to click that little star at the bottom if you enjoyed! Have a great day and stay safe!
This chapter is one of my favorite ones in the entire story. I like all of them, of course, but this chapter has a special place in my heart! :)
How did you feel about the chapter? Did you think it's as good as I'm making it out to be lol?