Chapter One
Nessie
"Are you really this self-centered?"
I don't know how to respond. My first instinct is to say yes, because I really am. But it would make me a better person if I could say no and give a decent reason for my behavior.
So instead of giving that answer, I go with something that allows for the possibility that I'm not a total cow.
"Probably," I say.
Jasper pushes his hands into his pocket, not meeting my gaze in any way. Being here, asking me these sorts of questions when he never had been a disciplinarian before, was clearly making him uncomfortable.
If I wasn't so against what he was trying to get me to do, I most likely would have found the whole ordeal rather amusing.
"I really don't understand your motivations for things most of the time. I understand good and bad, selflessness and spite, pleasure-chasing and pain avoidance, but I don't know why you do the things you do."
My eyes lower to the floor as he speaks. That was something I couldn't figure out either. Even when I chose to do something, I rarely knew why.
"I don't know why either," I disclose.
He regards me silently for a minute. It's probably solely due to me not looking back that makes him capable of looking at me now. At some point in the last twelve months everything had gotten a little bit awkward between Jasper and I for no apparent reason.
"So what are you going to do?" he asks, breaking my train of thought.
I shrug. "Run away from you again, I guess."
Jasper chuckles once quietly. "Honest."
"What about you?" I ask.
"Follow you," he replies.
I laugh in a way that mirrors his. "Honest."
When I look to his face he doesn't look away for five or so seconds and an almost amused smirk flashes across his features.
"Head start?"
He folds his arms across his chest and turns around slowly. I don't move though, despite the flight instinct telling me to take the advantage.
"Five . . ." Jasper begins to count.
That's all it takes. I turn and run as fast as I can in the opposite direction.
I finally hit the road again and continued at a full sprint along it towards the pink cloud of smog that hung above Houston.
A few minutes later I reached the outskirts of the city and caught sight of a used car dealership.
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