Red Ink || WLW

"Is she nice?"

The car ride with Skyler... Unfathomably awkward and less smooth as the one  in the room which I think was hers. The pillow had traces of golden hair and smelled like apples. She had given me some light blue jeans and a black top that was way too small for me. It's straps basically begged for mercy. I looked in the mirror of her room and surveyed my face. Two bandages held the wound on side of my forehead together, bruised around the side. I pull up my top and see a large bruise on the side of my torso. I couldn't believe my stupid airbag didn't work.

She drove like she did back then too. Careful and calculated. Unlike me; seemingly I had taken my driving instructions from the Need For Speed video game series.

"So where are you going?" She asks suddenly, a tone of dead curiosity in her voice, like she desperately needed to find out my destination. I anticipated this question and reply back with no tone of uncertainly whatsoever.

"Uh- I actually- I need to meet someone," I answer and she turns her attention from the road to me, scanning my face for any lies.

"Oh," The awkwardness in her voice kills me from the inside. I want to tell her but I know she won't stop asking questions. Suddenly, I wanted Annie to disappear into the ground.

"My girlfriend. I'm meeting my girlfriend," I give in. She won this passive aggressive competition but doesn't look like a winner. She seems taken aback more than I thought she would. She doesn't say anything for a while.

"Is she nice?" After almost 8 minutes of no conversation, she asks the strangest question. I don't know what to say, or think for that matter. Annie is... nice.. as a person but as a partner for me... nice would be an overstatement.

"Uh yeah she is, I met her in Uni at my first year. She dropped out in semester 2," This last detail was incredibly unnecessary but I felt like I had to say something to balance the two competitors here. Skyler: my high school crush and "lover" who I had some deep repressed history with, and Annie, uni dropout, who lives on Mommy's money and doesn't care for anyone's opinion.

Repressed wouldn't be a correct term, more like, nightmare, waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-in-cold-sweat type of history. Who knew following a lead on our friend who disappeared all of a sudden would leave us with two secret agent badges and fire arms licenses and a whole lotta people to chase down.

Reminiscent of those times, I wished I'd told Skyler we should leave the when we were getting recruited, if I knew we what it would entail us on.

After a moment of silence, I initiate the conversation.

"So how's Eva?" I ask about her girlfriend after that whole ordeal lasting all of high school and more ended, almost half of our lives. It hurts to bring up Eva. Like an old wound being ripped open again and poured salt and lemon juice on; it stings. I never saw her, only heard of her from close friends, a peculiar figure they said she was, intelligent, crazy beautiful and charismatic, I hated her without even seeing her. I hated the thought of her being with Skyler.

Skyler looks at me with her sky blue eyes. They start to fill up with tears but she wipes them away with one hand, while the other grips the steering wheel aggressively.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" I begin but I'm cut off.

"No, it's okay. It's not what you think"

"What is it then?"

"She's been a missing person for 3 years,"

I feel my head ache and my jaw drop to the floor. What? Eva is missing? I thought this happened to other people not Skyler. Thousands of obscure scenarios run through my head. From kidnapping to murder to runaway situations. All crazier than the one before. On what off chance is it what Skyler and I put that life behind us and the life comes running back to us?

"W- what happened to her, if you don't mind me asking?" My voice has dropped its volume and lost any tonal quality to it. Pure shock exits my mouth in the form of words.

"We don't know. One night, she went out for a party, and her friends who I trusted her with didn't keep an eye out for her. She wasn't seen again that night until now,"

I felt like I had priceless information in my presence. How come I hadn't heard of this? Could it be that I'm so engrossed in my study and career that I completely missed this? Or could it be that I chose to ignore it, just like I completely snapped and decided to hand in my badge and my gun.

"I- I'm not sure what to say, I'm really sorry Skyler. I know she's out there somewhere," I give her hope. That's all I've ever done for her since meeting her. Hope in the form of the least possible situation occurring. A chance. A possibility. I wonder if she's looked for her, tapped into those old contacts whom she sworn she'd never speak to again and forget, begged them to let her investigate this. I wonder what they said.

"Me too, Manely. Me too," She spots the destination and turns a corner a bit sharper than others. 'Gianna's Place' comes into view; the place Annie and I went on our first date and today, will be on one of our many dates.

She pulls up near the place but not directly in front. I pick up my bag and turn to face her.

"Thank you for everything Skyler," I tell her. A half smile escapes her lips. She nods in return.

"Even though you did total my car last night," I add jokingly. She punches me on the arm where I'm not injured and beckons towards my phone.

"I'll call you when your car is ready to be picked up,"

"Call me? You dont have my nu-,"

"Shhh. Yes I do. Now shoo. Your significant other can't wait much longer."  She mocks me in a british accent.

I open her car door and shut it. She rolls down her window and adds,

"You look great in that top,"

And speeds out of the street, leaving me with a bandage on my forehead, aching ribs and a mouth in awe.