Alek

Chapter 40: Mae Kazimi

Chapter 40: Mae Kazimi

"How much longer?" I ask, for the hundredth time.

Alek sits behind the wheel and I think I can hear his teeth grinding as he tries to remain patient, "five minutes till the gas station."

We sit in Matteo's car, just the two of us. In front of us is Diego's car as he leads the way to his Aunt Drey's house, Kai in the front beside him and Rashid and Avery in the back seat.

Avery has still not said a single word to me.

The ride has given me time to think. But I hate thinking. But I overthink anyway.

The highway has been full of traffic as we drive to Pittsburgh, already cooped in the car for the past four hours. My legs have begun to cramp and I can only wonder how Alek is feeling from where he sits in the driver's seat, hands tight against the wheel and mouth set.

I finally open my mouth and ask the question that has been in the back of my mind this entire trip, "Why didn't we just take a plane?"

"The point of this trip," he says slowly as he switches lanes. "Is to think."

"We can't think on the plane?"

"Mae, just shut up," he says, jaw clenched.

I sigh loudly through my nose and lean back in the chair. I have to pee and my bladder feels as if it is about to explode.

"Okay but, why couldn't you get a driver to drive us there?" I ask again.

Alek's throat bobs, "Because I wouldn't let them touch Matteo's fucking car."

He says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, but we wouldn't take his car, we would take another car-"

He shoots me a look through the rearview mirror and I purse my lips, making a dramatic movement of zipping my lips shut and locking it before throwing away the key. I can see him rolling his eyes as we pass a long truck, and I turn back to the window.

And just as he'd said, in five minutes we are rolling down to a gas station, a car behind Diego's. I watch Avery from the mirror, her head on the side of the window, a blanket around her body. Rashid sits beside her, glasses on top of his head as he stares at her from the corner of his eye.

I want to be there, sitting beside her. But she doesn't want me to be.

"Want anything?" Alek asks, surprising me. I look up in his direction and find two black eyes staring at me, waiting for my reply.

I shrug, "I need to pee."

He says nothing as he opens his door and gets out of the car and I quickly follow after him. Diego and Kai are getting out in front of us, and I wave in their direction before stepping inside the store, the small bell jingling as it signals our entry. The store is set up like any other store beside a gas station, the fridges on the sides lined up with cold drinks and the racks full of chips and chocolate and all sorts of junk food that I eat way too often.

Alek motions towards the washroom, "Don't take too long."

Keep your eyes open, is what he means. The gas station is on a deserted side of the road and God knows what kinds of people come here in their free time. God knows who even owns this place.

I finish up in the washroom quickly and when I come out I see Alek at the counter as Diego paces through one of the small aisles.

"Want anything?" Alek asks again, eyebrows rising. He wears a black button-up shirt and black jeans, an expensive watch around his left wrist. He gives off such obvious 'I'm-the-Italian-mafia-heir-and-I'm-going-to-fuck-you-up-if-you-mess-with-me' vibes and I can't help but stare at his messy soft black hair and tired eyes. I think he realizes I'm openly staring because he brings his two fingers to point to his eyes as if to say 'my eyes are up here', almost lazily.