Thomgelica One-shots because not enough people write about them.

Hitchhiker

A year ago it'd have to be a cold day in hell before Angelica ever gave a hitchhiker a ride. But something had changed in her and so maybe that was the reason a strange man was sitting in the passenger seat next to her.

She had learned his name was Thomas when she first opened up her car to him. He looked well kept with his hair braided into cornrows that stopped right at the base of his neck. His clothes weren't raggedy and he didn't look to be malnourished. What Angelica saw was a kid who had been taken care of. Nothing like what she imagined a hitchhiker would look like. She supposed she should be even more worried that he didn't fit the profile of your traditional hitchhiker, it could all be some sort of ruse where in the end she'd wind up dead. But it didn't worry her.

Angelica was making more and more of these very questionable decisions this past year. So much so she was surprised she hadn't ended up injured. Her friends had even stopped daring her to do wildly stupid things when they found that this time around she would actually do them. 

She understood her actions had consequences. She knew that much. The problem wasn't her not knowing, it was more so she didn't care. She didn't care about much these days, not after losing her mom, dad, and sister. What exactly was there for her to care about? So if a random hitchhiker killed her it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Not at all.

Angelica glanced at Thomas from the corner of her eye, making sure that most of her focus was on the road. The man sitting beside her, she decided was not bad looking. He was actually extremely handsome. 

He looked to be seventeen so her age. He had these warm honey brown eyes and his mouth seemed to be permanently twisted into a frown. He had bags under his eyes but they weren't dark dark, it just seemed to be how he was.

Angelica briefly wondered what someone like him was doing on the streets begging for a ride, but then chalked it up to his car breaking down or something in that area and decided she would think no further on it.

She refocused her attention on the highway ahead of her. They had been in the car for an hour or so sitting in complete silence. She then realized she had no idea where she was supposed to be taking him.

"Where do you want me to take you?" She asked. Thomas jumped a little and it appeared that she had interrupted him thinking very deeply about something. If the way he had startled wasn't any indication, the worry that painted his face was.

"Uh," he started and he looked ahead of him where his eyes landed on a McDonald's sign. "This McDonald's is fine." He said pointing to the sign. Angelica sighed. Did this kid not know where he was going? He's probably a runaway, she thought. That's why he looks like he's been taken care of because he has. Probably not enough considering he's running away, but the bare minimum. 

"Look, kid-"

"I'm not a kid." He interrupted.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Anyway. I'll help you, but first I need to know if you're running away." She didn't really need to know but she wanted to know. Actually, she supposed she did need to know if she was going to ask what she planned on asking.

Thomas looked at her up and down and then sighed. "Yeah, I did run away." Angelica stayed silent and the kid scoffed. "So I guess this is the part where you turn me into the nearest police station? But let me tell you I will hop out of this moving vehicle if you even think about turning me in. Okay? I went through hell sneaking away and there is no way I'm going to let some random girl mess that up. Uh-uh not gonna happen." He ranted at an abnormal speed.

Angelica saw that his hand was already on the door handle and she rolled her eyes."Look kid," he glared at her, she ignored it. "I'm not gonna turn you in okay. So you can remove your hand from my door handle." He slowly took his hand off the handle and looked at her, his forehead was crinkled up in confusion.

"If you're not going to turn me in what are you gonna do?"  

"Do you wanna come with me to my grandparent's house?" He cocked his head to the side he looked even more confused than he did just a second ago. She didn't blame him; here she was a complete stranger offering to take him to her grandma's house. It surpassed strange and if he was smart he would politely decline and get out of the car as soon as the chance presented itself. But it seemed they were both feeling a little dumb today because he agreed.

"Okay." He said.

"Really?" She was stunned, she hadn't actually believed he would accept her offer.

"Yeah really."

"You don't even know where my grandparent's house is." She said incredulously.

Thomas raised his eyebrows. "You're the one who invited me not the other way around."

"Yeah but you're the one who accepted the offer." Angelica shot back. "For all you know I could be a serial killer team with my grandparents who prey on runaway kids."

Thomas looked at her as if she had grown two heads. "That was oddly specific." He then rolled his eyes. "Well, are you a serial killer?"

"No, I am not a serial killer."

"Well, then we'll do just fine." 

This kid is wild and he's going to get killed one day if he keeps acting like this. Then she thought it was ironic she was scolding him in her head when she was being just as reckless. She was the one who had offered him the ride and she was the one to invite him to her grandparent's house. A complete stranger. 

This was going to be fun.