Run Away With Me
Disclaimer: Still not mine. Surprise!
AN: Surprise! I updated early. Since I'm currently on chapter eleven, and I have most of the rest planned out, I figured an update was in order…
Chapter three: In which drivers switch and payback occurs
Nothing has been said since he apologized, just a little before Toledo.
They entered Pennsylvania a while ago, and somewhere around Grove City he offered her the driver's seat and she accepted. She has been driving for a while now, seeing as they have passed Clearfield and they are headed for Lewisburg. It feels like they should be on the home stretch, because the last few hours have stretched on and on.
"Are we just not going to talk to each other ever again," Gabriel speaks up.
"Oh, you'll give in eventually," she continues to focus on the road.
The only response that she gets to that is him turning up the radio so that it's practically blaring out an old Queen hit. She knows her classics, and she is extremely tempted to end the silence and start singing along – like she wants to do, badly.
"I work hard, every day of my life," suddenly Gabriel is singing along. "I work till I ache my bones. At the end – at the end of the day – I take home my hard earned pay…"
While Freddie Mercury keeps on singing at the top of his lungs, telling the story of his pain and loneliness, Gabriel was silent again. Once again, the silly blush is on his face, and she is incredibly amused at his shyness. He is actually quite talented, and his enthusiasm makes him even better, but she will not tell him that.
"They say I'm going crazy," she just goes for it and starts singing after a relatively short silence. "They say I've got a lot of water in my brain."
Now she is the one falling silent, since he is looking at her like he has never seen her before – which was pretty much true until about two days ago. Why their apparently mutual love of singing along to classic radio has not come up until now is actually a bit surprising, since they are car buddies. Car buddies should know about mutual likes when it comes to entertainment during a road trip.
They really did go about this thing all backwards – without knowing even as much as the basics about each other, such as names, ages, and silly habits and hobbies. They were bound to argue a lot during this trip, especially if they were going to be away for a few weeks, rather than a few days. Honestly, road trips had screwed up relationships much stronger than theirs – not that something like that was particularly difficult – and they really were just asking for trouble. Still, she wanted to keep going.
"Truth or dare," he is grinning at her – and it is a real sight to behold.
"What kind of dare would you do in a moving car," she teases him, focusing on the highway ahead of them rather than her road trip buddy next to her. "I mean, unless we go truth or strip, there really are not that many safe options around."
Oh, there is simply no way that he is even going for a simple truth or truth version of the game, because the mere suggestion of it had to be a joke. She likes that he is not as tense as he had seemed before, but she thinks that she knows him well enough now to say with confidence that he is not the kind of guy for juvenile party games, and he is not the kind of guy who would dare to ask her something embarrassing and fun.
"Let's do it," Gabriel was throwing all caution to the wind.
"Are you seriously willing to strip," she asks, mentally counting how many articles of clothing she is currently wearing. "Because I am all for this plan."
Yeah, she is still a hot-blooded woman and she is not going to argue against any kind of plan that is going to lead to him taking most of his clothes off. Honestly, if he is agreeing to this deal, she would like to get some reciprocity for her shirtless period earlier.
"No full nudity," he tells her, and she has to agree with that.
"I will take a truth," she offers, giving him the time to think of something good.
She is almost sure that she will be able to answer any question that he poses to her without much hesitation or shame, since he is nowhere near wicked enough to think of anything really good. She is the wicked one in this particular equation, and some time later on this trip, when they are not in a moving vehicle, she might actually try this game again with the dare option included. Those virgin lips can't be virgin that much longer.
Daring him to kiss a stranger sounds cruel, though, for some reason. Making him lose his kissing virginity to a stranger on a dare sounds like a cruel middle school prank, and she is better than that – she just has to remember that.
It is still strange that she is already so considerate of him.
"What's your major," he asks, the boring question that she expected.
"Of all the questions you could have asked, you ask that one," she just has to tease him about this. "I'm a psychology major, with minors in sociology and English literature."
This is the most practical profession she could attempt on a scholarship, while still being able to do something that she deems to be important. She has not seen Gavin's face in too long and she's more than a little bit broken inside because of not only this, but because of the many things she has done for her family. Her parents would be so proud of the many things that she has accomplished.
Only not really, because her parents are shitty people who did not really love them after all, and she is quite happy to blame them for most of the things that have gone wrong in her life. If she had had decent parents, she might not have had to use her body to get money. Honestly, even her short-lived stripping career would not have happened.
She was a sixteen-year-old with a really crappy fake ID, but she had to try.
"You want to help unfortunate children, ones like you," he astutely grasps.
"Shut up," she hopes that she sounds as friendly as she means to be, because while this is not meant to be hurtful, she still does not want to talk about it anymore. "Now it is my turn to ask you a question. What is your family like?"
There is a hint of awkwardness in him at that question, and apparently she has struck gold without even really meaning to. If he gets to attempt to deduce her motives for getting this particular kind of education, her competitive side comes out just enough to let her go a bit bananas in choosing the questions that she will ask. Also, she is genuinely curious about what kind of family would spawn someone like him.
"I almost want to take my shirt off instead," Gabriel starts talking, and she is totally not crossing her fingers for this. "However, I have a feeling that this is in no way the hardest question that you can think of, so if I give in now, I'll be in trouble later."
This and her excellent poker face is why nobody in high school wanted to play strip poker with her. Honestly, she was a very good hustler and her classmates were often too stupid and/or drunk to figure it out. She never said that she was all that honest, but she never went into the illegal territories either – being underestimated was not a crime.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she attempts to look innocent.
"Honestly, Marcus is an idiot for falling for that face," his attempted tease is only a little bit painful. "I mean, I'm seeing right through that innocent look."
Of course he mentions Marcus, because he is an idiot who does not talk to woman and does not understand how unrequited love can hurt like a bitch. She knows that trying to get him to understand this would be an almost impossible feat, and definitely something that is beyond her time limit on this trip. It is not beyond her skill set though, and if she does not completely hate him after their journey, she might actually attempt to be somewhat of a friend to him during their time at college.
Also, she can teach him to be a more sensitive human being – it is necessary.
"Don't try to get out of this by mentioning the reason I'm on this trip with you," she huffs.
"My parents are rich," he starts, flinching in sympathy for something that he actually does understand about her. "My father is a very conservative senator, and my mother comes from money. Of course, when the contract was signed, nobody told my father about her episodes and her mental instability. She has gotten good at hiding it, because it would end my father's career in politics. I am the radical oldest son, one who should have been a triumph. My sister is their little darling at the moment, even though she is secretly doing drugs and stealing my mother's pills."
What the fuck? Is he serious about this? This life sounds terrible, and it sounds like his family gatherings might be even worse than hers – the idea to stuff both families into the same house and watch them go crazy and/or kill each other comes into her head and makes her want to hide her silly giggles. Still, shit, she has misjudged him greatly.
"Fuck," she breathes, still not knowing what to say to that.
"There is not much of that happening there," he is suddenly making a joke. "Unless my mom is on the upswing, they don't interact very much at all. Just like your family, there is not all that much contact there, but there is a lot of embarrassment on our side."
First there is the surprise that he actually dares to make a stupid joke about it – once again she is faced with the facts, that she does not know him at all. Secondly, there is the recognition of the shame they must both feel about their family. He seems more embarrassed of his father – just like she is – than of his mother, because who can help something like that? Brain chemistry is a very complicated thing.
"I have two younger siblings," she tells him with pain in her heart. "They live with a foster family. I haven't seen them in years, really. I am not the right role model for them, so I am not allowed to visit. Zelda will be eighteen soon, so she can make her own decisions, but Gavin's years away from maturity and I miss his stupid face."
Those are not tears in the corner of her eyes – her eyes are just irritated from the dry air in the car. She is still very much focused on driving, and that is why she cannot look Gabriel in the eyes after her stupid little speech. Also, New York is coming closer and she has to think about that, rather than her heart, which is still in Ohio. It has been for years, even though she really has attempted to make Illinois her home – Chicago has always been one of her favorite cities. Still, she left her heart with her siblings.
"Where do they live," Gabriel asks, with a look that can be described as mischievous.
"In Columbus," she shrugs, hoping that the topic is done with now.
They have passed Milton and Lewisburg sometime during their argument or game – whatever they wish to call it at this point. Honestly, it is not as much fun as she had anticipated, so she is pretty hesitant to call it a game.
"What is stopping us from visiting them on the way back," the offer surprises her so much that she lets the sheer glee she feels at the thought slip past the carefully constructed wall she put up after realizing that it would not happen. "You obviously know where they live, and there should be no problem with us visiting them if we do not give the foster parents any trouble and stay in a hotel somewhere."
It sounds so simple the way he tells it, like people are actually reasonable and she is not the rightfully-claimed bad influence that she knows herself to be. She prefers for her siblings to have a proper education without ever even knowing the terrible things people occasionally have to do for money – the things that she did do for money. All of the money she made back then was used for birthday presents and anything else that her siblings needed. Then they were adopted, and nobody cared about her.
"Did you forget the part where the foster parents hate me," she asks, exasperated. "They have not let me send as much as a letter in years, because the letters I did send have been sent back to me unopened. I probably would not even recognize Gavin if I did see him, because he was just a kid the last time I saw him – four years ago!"
She is taking the nearest exit, because she can feel herself tear up and she is not in any state to operate a moving vehicle. Stroudsburg is pretty close, and she knows that Gabriel is ready to take over the wheel if she needs him to – which she kind of does.
"Then we'll use subterfuge," Gabe seems determined to help her for some reason.
"One day you'll figure out that the world is not all sunshine and puppies," she sounds almost as regretful as she feels. "I'd hate for that to happen on my account."
Finally, there is a place for her to pull over and have a decent cry. She is not aware of Gabriel or anything else happening. As soon she turns off the engine, she lets her head fall into her hands and tries to keep the loudest sobs from destroying her throat.
Her seatbelt is removed carefully, and warm arms surround her without her so much as realizing that Gabriel has moved from his seat. He smells like sweat, crappy roadside food and musty old books, with just a hint of a musky cologne smell. His arms surround her like she is breakable, until she burrows in when a particularly harsh sob hits – then, she finds herself in a cocoon of warmth and man. That is something new.
"I'll figure it out," he offers, even as she's staining his shirt with her tears.
"You can't solve everyone's problems," she hiccups through her sobs.
"I can damn well try," he makes the same solemn vow that she has heard him make at the few protests that she has attended. "You do deserve better. You should know that."
Right now, she cannot hear this sappy speech from him. For some reason he is good at being a comforting presence when girls or women are crying, something that most men find completely terrifying. It figures that he would be good at the complicated and difficult stuff, and that he would be terrible at the simplest things.
"Your shirt is all snotty," she wipes her face on it for good measure.
"Maybe I should take it off," he gets that she wants to joke about this, apparently.
Only then the bastard actually lets go of her for a few seconds to take the damn thing off, as some kind of twisted payback for her shirtless episode – because now she is the one who is blushing like a schoolgirl and completely unable to look him in the eyes.
She did not know that protesting for equality was what got men really fit. Thank heavens he didn't really have the gross bulging muscles that terrified her on some of the other Amies. Still, he was a lot less gangly and bookish underneath his clothes than she would have expected him to be – not that she had been thinking about this before.
"You shit," she shouts at him instead, still red in the face and wiping away tears.
"I learned from the best," he actually winks at her, the bastard.
Somehow she is laughing at that, and she knows that that was the intention behind this whole gag. Even though he does not put his shirt back on immediately and acts like he is completely comfortable with the whole deal, she knows that he is only doing this stupid thing for her. He is that kind of guy, and she should have remembered that – still, she gets out of the car to switch seats without as much as a thank you.
She has the feeling that he does not need one anyway.
AN: If no one reviews, chapter ten will take forever to get here. You'll like chapter ten.