Lead Me Out of the Dark

The Weirdo in My Truck

My phone rang for the third time and I pressed ignore, yet again. I rubbed my temples angrily. Why couldn’t Sophie just leave me alone? I hadn’t realized that by giving her my number so that I could get the notes from history class would result in her thinking she had befriended me. I would have to carefully craft a lie so that she would leave me the Hell alone. Friends were just something I had never needed, something I could never afford. I threw my phone into the cab of my truck. I could already hear it ringing again. I groaned. I tied my blonde and pink hair in a bun and leaned back into the cold metal of my truck. It was steady, reliable, and small enough that I never got asked to carpool with anyone. Then again, that might just be because I didn’t have any friends.

The metal of the truck was freezing against my heated skin, and I relaxed against it. It provided so much more comfort than any “friend” could ever provide. I kicked back and watched the clouds roll slowly across the sky, my headphones firmly in my ears. The music was so loud it tickled my ears. I was in paradise at that moment. It couldn’t get better than this. Absolutely nothing could bring me down. I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t even remember what being happy even felt like. I was just numb, a feeling I didn’t get very often. It was a blissful neutral. I let my eyes flutter shut, my lips moving soundlessly to the lyrics of the song. Will somebody believe in this suicide? Am I the only one that thinks that you should stay alive? Was that a loud banging noise? I shook my head. I hoped I hadn’t started imagining things. I didn’t need to be anymore psychotic than I already was. Oh, I became the train as you backed up on the ropes to arm yourself and lie. And so I scream, "Mayday, I'm in trouble, send somebody on the double." I tapped rhythmically against the metal of my truck.

Hands trapped my wrists, and a dark shadow cast itself over my vision. I gasped, my eyes snapping open. A boy with midnight black hair was leaning over me. It needed to be cut, as it was hanging low in his eyes. His eyes were a gray-purple color. They were sharp, piercing directly into mine. He reached up and yanked her headphones out of my ears.

“Will you please stop singing? You’re absolutely killing my eardrums,” he seethed. I could only stare up at him in shock for a moment. That’s when I realized he was straddling my hips. Here he was, a complete stranger at my cliff, thinking he could just barge in and sit on me! I shoved him backwards. Damn, I cussed mentally. It had taken more force than I thought necessary to shove him backwards. He had to have a lot of muscle mass.

“I wasn’t even singing!” Were the first words to escape my lips. I was too shocked to say anything else. He smirked, setting himself comfortably against the back rim of my truck. I couldn’t help but admire his brawny arms. How many hours did one have to work out to obtain that kind of muscle mass? That was ridiculous. I shook these thoughts out of my head.

“Sure you weren’t. I mean, the small animals are dying because it’s been perfectly quiet around here,” he scoffed. My jaw dropped at his harsh words. I was more surprised than I was angry. A blush flooded my cheeks when I realized I probably had been singing. I did that sometimes without even realizing it. It was so easy to get lost in the music. He noticed the blush on my cheeks, and his face contorted into a vicious smirk. His face practically said, One point for me. I had to resist the urge to smack the smirk straight off of his face.

“Who the Hell are you, anyway!?” I huffed. The boy flipped his hair out of his face, reaching forward to do something on my iPod. Again, I was so surprised that I couldn’t bring myself to move. What was he doing? He moved away before I could react, seeming satisfied with what he saw.

“So you were singing a Pierce the Veil song. Does it make you feel rebellious to listen to them? Do you feel less mainstream?” He snapped. My face contorted angrily and I sat up quickly, putting as much distance between us as possible. I couldn’t get far enough from this stranger.