Author's note: Ah, back together. At least, for this chapter. And... We find out how old one of them actually is.
I'm gonna leave you anyway
I'm gonna leave you anyway
I'm gonna leave you anyway
You're gonna walk right out that door
You're gonna walk right out that door
I'm gonna watch you walk away
7.30am by Slothrust
Cedric stuffed a wadded up pile of shirts into his backpack, glad that he never bothered to own more than he could carry. He needed to get out of this stupid town. To put as much distance between himself and Sofia as he possibly could, for the girl's own sake.
After the incident at the creek, he decided that he would never see her again, and putting hundreds of miles between himself and Sofia was the only way to be certain he could make good on that. His phone buzzed in his pocket, had been buzzing for days, but he paid it no mind.
Zipping the packed bag, he slung it over his shoulder and marched across the small room. When he threw open the door, she was standing there, her hand poised and ready to knock. The other one was hidden suspiciously behind her back.
"Hi!" She chirped, waving to him happily.
"Why are you here?" He quizzed as soon as he recovered from the shock of seeing her, dropping the bag to the floor between the door and the wall.
"My dad sent me." She explained. "Oh, he thought maybe you were sick or something, so I brought you this."
She produced a can of chicken soup and held it out to him with an eager grin, and it was all he could do not to laugh at the gift. An actual can... She really is a child.
"Your father sent you?" He parroted, and she replied with a single word that sounded like a cross between 'yeah' and 'uh-huh'.
Cedric accepted the can awkwardly, wondering at what Roland could possibly be thinking, sending his underaged daughter to a twenty-six year old man's cheap motel room by herself. Her eyes left him to scan the drab interior and though what he really wanted to do was close the door and lock her out, of both his room and his life, he kicked the door further open and left it like that while he went back inside and shoved the soup in one of the drawers of the provided dresser.
She sat on the bed, of course, because the cruel joke that was his life wouldn't allow for her to simply leave, or at the very least sit in the chair.
"I finished the engine I was working on, so your dad shouldn't need me for anything." He informed her, disappearing into the bathroom to take one of his nearly abandoned beers out of the toilet tank, the only way to keep the drinks cold since the room didn't come with any sort of mini-fridge. "He'll manage just fine without me. I haven't even been working for him all that long."
"Don't you want to keep working for him?" Her voice carried from the next room, and he popped the metal tab up, taking a swig before he returned to the main room.
"I only did it because I needed the money." He shrugged, leaning against the dresser because he was definitely not going to sit on the bed next to her and the chair was fairly uncomfortable. He watched her over the rim of his beer, trying not to put too much thought into her disappointed expression.
It wasn't exactly true. Even though they didn't always see eye-to-eye, he'd tolerated much worse jobs, and working with his hands all day felt pretty satisfying. If it weren't for Sofia, he would probably be willing to stay with King's Auto Repair for a while longer. Even the town had grown on him somewhat, and he was just beginning to remember his way around, a novelty for a man who never stayed put.
"Oh... And you don't anymore?" She asked quietly, becoming overly interested in the fringe that hung from her cutoff shorts.
"I have enough to get me out of town, so-" Even in the barely existent lighting, her eyes flashed as she gaped up at him in shock.
"You're leaving?" She demanded, and somehow he managed to nod. He took another lazy slurp of beer, finding something that could pass for a decent response.
"This was never permanent. I just needed some time to myself, you know." He hadn't meant to upset Sofia, obviously. If anything this was exactly the sort of situation he was trying to avoid by getting away from her. "I've never been the type to settle down, Princess."
"But my birthday's coming up..." She leaned back, tugging a mangled card envelope, the same bright blue as her eyes, from her front pocket and staring down at it dejectedly. "I was going to invite you."
"Save it. Find some boy your own age and ask him to go." Cedric waved a dismissive hand in her direction, then rattled the can in an attempt to gauge how much liquid was left inside. "Who knows, maybe you'll get yourself a boyfriend."
"But I wanted you there." She mumbled so quietly that he could hardly make out the words.
"Why would I want to go to a kiddie party?" He kept his features neutral, but inside he cringed at the question. "Do you know how boring that would be for me?"
He didn't want to hurt this girl. If anything, he possessed a rather unsettling desire to make her insanely happy, to keep that adorable grin on her face until her cheeks ached from it. If she were older... No, that wasn't true. Her age aside, he had no idea how to make someone else happy. He spread nothing but misery and resentment wherever he went, always had. His father, his sister, the long string of ex-girlfriends who'd been unfortunate enough to give him a shot over the years. Everything he touched eventually fell to ruin, and even if she was old enough for him, he would still do everything within his power to shield her from that fate.
Before he had a chance to say anything else, she threw the envelope on his bed and fled the room. Good. Run back home to your daddy, little girl. Go swim in your creek and play your guitar. Just... stay the hell away from me before I destroy you, too.
