automatic stop, bradley bradshaw

forty-six.

SKYE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK ABOUT GETTING TAKEN TO THE CEMETERY WITH ROOSTER. a part of her felt like she should be honored that he both trusted her enough and cared about her enough to bring her to see his parents. she knew just how special they were to him. but the other part of her was, as seemed custom at this point, incredibly confused. 

rooster didn't love her. that much had been made certain by the man himself. but, he still wanted to be friends with her. that she could understand. skye, despite being incredibly embarrassed about putting her feelings out into the open, wanted nothing more than to continue being friends with him. 

but despite wanting to remain close to him, it hurt almost just as much being right there and yet knowing that nothing would ever happen between them. 

and there he was, showing up to her house after not conversing with her at all. showing up at her house and asking her to go to the one place that was probably the most personal, the most sacred, to him. and it was so annoying of him, skye thought. 

how could he sit there and just invite her into his truck? he hadn't even waited a full day. the part of skye that was honored by this was also the part of her that was thankful. their friendship was too valuable to the both of them to just throw away, and she was glad that he had wanted to make amends as soon as possible. and then there was the other part of her. the part that was so confused. 

she felt so stupid. that was her main issue with the whole thing. had she misread every single sign? had his touches on her back, her knee, the moments they'd been so close to kissing, all been for show? part of skye wondered if she had simply lost her chance. 

perhaps rooster had, at some point, had feelings for her. and perhaps she had been too late to admitting her feelings, and that his had decimated. she truthfully wouldn't blame him if he'd found someone else at some point that he was waiting for. if he was hoping to go back to the golden warriors and be with some woman in his squadron that skye didn't even know about. 

this was all running through skye's head as rooster drove her back to her shared house with katia. she had her elbow on the window, her chin perched in her hand in thought. the vehicle was completely silent, save for the extremely soft hum of stevie nicks' addictive voice. 

skye reached a hand out, watching as rooster tensed as if he thought she was about to grab his free hand. she pretended not to notice, instead adjusting the fan so that it would blow more her direction. 

the entire drive was so uncomfortable that she almost wanted to scream to break the awkward silence. skye had never once felt so out of place when sitting next to rooster. most of the time when she was with the man, she couldn't run out of things to say. that, or she was perfectly content in the quiet. this was aggravating silence that she wanted to escape.

when he pulled into her driveway, skye almost immediately opened the door. "thank you." she mumbled, though she didn't really know what she was thanking him for. for inviting her to the cemetery, for taking her back home, for just being there? she couldn't decide. 

he didn't seem like he understood either, so she unbuckled her seatbelt and hopped down from the lifted truck's frame. she would've hated to ever admit it, but climbing out of the bronco was significantly harder when he wasn't giving her a helping hand. 

she closed the door and walked inside without another word to him. skye ran a hand over her face before dropping her head into her hands, angrily hitting at her temples with the heels of both hands. she was so frustrated with both herself and with him. 

rooster she was upset with for being so confusing, so aggravating. for making her fall in love with him only to not feel the same. for taking her to see his dead parents' graves, for making jokes half of the time. for being completely silent in the truck, and for listening to that goddamn playlist she'd made him.