It had been about four or five hours since we left the motel just outside of Azarath. Richard rather forcibly dragged me out of there. Now I found myself in the back of an old farm pick-up. Richard had hitched us a ride from a semi-friendly farmer who was headed out of Azarath to go join his family in safer parts, well that's what he told us…
It wasn't exactly easy to keep a calm composer when we were being bounced around and little specs of mud and hay were threatening to fly into our eyes. I was especially irritable because I was trying with all my will power to not think about a specific moment that occurred in the motel room; when I had bled through my bandages and Richard had kindly changed them and gave me his shirt to wear because my other one was sopping with blood…not comfortable to wear. But that wasn't what was really bugging me. It was the image of him…without his shirt on…I was so ashamed of myself and my hormones. I never really hated the hormonally-unstable state the I was in, being I was a teenage girl I sat near the cabin of the truck with my back up against it and my knees drawn up. I tried not to think of how uncomfortable I was physically and with the situation in general. Richard sat across from me. His back was up against the tail gate. He had one leg extended and the other drawn up in front of him with his right arm leisurely slung over his knee. Despite the obvious uneasiness of the situation, he looked fairly comfortable. He reached down and picked up a long strand of dried wheat or grass of some sort and placed it loosely between his lips. When he saw me looking at him he made a side smirk and I thought I even saw him wink.
"Why do you have to do that?" I complained.
"Do what?" He pretended to be offended.
I rolled my eyes. He was such a child.
"Why do you insist on acting like a jerk?" I tried again.
"All I did was smile and wink!" He defended himself trying to mask his smirk.
"Exactly!" You know that pisses me off!"
"Why does it piss you off?" He asked relaxed and spinning the grass between his fingers and chewing on the tip in his mouth.
To be honest, I did expect that. It took me by surprise. I mean the answer was so obvious…it was annoying…he was annoying. He must have seen my puzzled look because he waved his hand in front of my face trying to bring me back to reality and get my attention. I brought my eyes up to his face, looking annoyed.
"You know what I think it is?" He said getting all haughty.
I didn't answer. I didn't care what he thought and I was too tired to try and make that clear.
"I think you like being miss-long-face-and-furrowed-brow. Not once since I met you have- "
"You mean not once since you rudely barged into my life! I was much better off when I didn't know you. And another thing, you are in no position to tell me you judgments about me. You haven't known me long enough to do that." I raised my voice.
I felt a little hypocritical retorting that at him when I had indeed made a few of my own judgments about him. However, my judgments were not nearly has bold as his.
He didn't answer me. He kept staring at me and smiling, like he felt victorious. I looked passed him, trying to ignore his gaze. The dialogue between us ceased and all I could hear was the wind passing us and the rustic truck getting jostled by the brutal dirt road blemished with pot holes. The scenery was floating by; the barren ground cracked with uprooting trees, sparse grass, and the few ancient trees lining the road that spread their lengthy fingers across the road, providing shade.
I looked back at Richard in a moment of weakness. He was still looking at me, but a bit more thoughtfully this time and there was no trace of a grin on his face. I tilted my head back until I made contact with the back of the truck's cabin. I didn't break the stare. Now it was my turn. I wanted to show how it felt to be judged and watched like he did to me. I watched him as he shifted his position. Now he had his arms crossed and his legs both down and one over the other.
I wanted so badly to get into his head and invade his privacy by prying at him. The longer I watched him, the more a certain query began to materialize in my brain. It became more apparent to me why I was so irritable.
"Why did you grab me? You had a crap load of people to drag off into that alley…why me?" I asked calmly like this was a casual conversation.
He looked at me for the first time like I had actually taken the lead. For the first time I had taken him by surprise. If I had known this question would have this affect on him, I would have asked it way earlier. But then all emotion was swept clean of his face and his resumed with his passive ways.
"Long story." He said simply.
"Obviously, I have time." I hissed.
"I don't wanna tell." He sighed.
Now he was just trying to piss me off.
"I wish that damn tail gate would unlatch…" I cursed under my breath, imagining him rolling out of the back of the truck.
"You know you really do have a temper…" He mused.
"God damn it, Richard!" I yelled getting to my feet. I held on to the roof of the truck for support.
I was so angry that I was at loss for words. He had pushed one to many of my buttons and I was putting my foot down…I wanted to put my foot down right on his face.
But in all my rage and my being blinded by anger…the only reaction I could think of to do was unfortunately not very bold. I reached down yanked that piece of dried grass out of his mouth and through it over the truck's edge.
"Ouch." He said sarcastically, looking up at me innocently.
Just as I began to spin around, the truck hit a deep hole and I lost my footing completely, falling into an oh-so graceful heap on the truck bed's floor. I felt my head whack against something hard. It took me a moment to come back to my senses and realize the vehicle was slowing down, probably because the sound of my fall alarmed the driver.
"It's fine. She just tripped over herself." Richard called to the driver who immediately resumed normal speed.
"I hope you didn't re-open that wound of yours." Richard said scooting closer towards me.
"Like you care," I spat viciously. My head was ringing and I could feel a major head ache coming on. I squeezed my eyes.
"I do. That's would be why I said 'I hope you didn't re-open your wound'."
I pushed myself up onto my elbows. When the dizziness faded, I pushed myself onto my palms and opened my eyes, and soon becoming aware how I had just pushed myself up, thus closing in the distance between Richard and me. Our faces were mere centimeters apart. For a moment I was to mortified to moved or even breathe. All I could see was his face in front of mine and his breath on my face. My reaction came too late as I pushed his face away from me with my hand palming his face.
He was smiling when I took my hand away.
"Ugh. Don't you ever stop smiling?" I groaned.
"Heh, nope," He smiled.
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I am so sorry for the wait. Seriously, I hope you guys haven't lost interest. To make it up to you I have actually not only updated one chapter…but a couple
I hope everyone had a great holiday vacation and that the only flaw was that it was too short.
Thanks for reading!