Hard Rock and Heartache

Game on...

        After a brief moment of silence, I couldn't bite my tongue any longer. "What the hell was that?" I snapped, looking toward him while he focused entirely on the road ahead, remaining silent.

        "Steve, I'm serious." My tone harshened, my body fully facing him now and I waited. It took him another minute longer to finally look toward me, his eyes looking over my form before glancing over my eyes. "You smell like weed..."

        I was instantly hot with both embarrassment and rage. My face burned a bright red, and my eyes morphed with disbelief and anger while I stared him down. I needed to escape. I needed to cool down before I said something or did something stupid. Everything was starting to box in around me, putting me on edge and making everything so much worse. "Stop the car."  Steve gaped, scoffing before shaking his head. "Uh... that's a no."

        "Steve! Stop the fucking car!" I yelled, hitting my hand on the middle console while he flinched and looked over at me in utter shock. Never had I yelled at him like that. But I had also never been this angry at him before. So, he did what I asked, pulling the car off the road into the grass, watching me, waiting to see what I would do. And I'm sure he wasn't prepared for what I did.

        Without another word, I threw open the door and stepped out, "Charlie!" Steve yelled. But I slammed it back shut behind me as I began walking and the downpour of freezing rain instantly soaked my hair and my clothes, my shoes filling with water and my shirt clinging to my body. It actually felt nice, initially, and almost instantly the rage disappeared and was quickly replaced with a rush of frustration, maybe even a little sadness.

        "Charlie! Are you for real right now?" I heard Steve's voice trailing after me and when I turned, he was closer than I expected, clothes wet and stuck to his torso, his long dirty blonde hair sagging around his face from the weight of the rain, until he brushed it back with his fingers. There was steam floating from his lips with everything breath. But none of that stopped me from saying what I had to say. My voice was louder than I had intended but only so he could hear me over the rain drumming around us. "You had no right showing up there like that. To treat Eddie that way! You caused an entire scene, and for what?"

        "You're actually here defending Eddie "The Freak" Munson right now?" Steve asked me slowly like he was trying to rationalize what I was saying and doing.

        "Don't call him that Steve! He's not a freak. He's actually nothing like what everyone thinks, and I never thought you were the type to go off rumors and lies and stereotypes anyways," My voice broke, emotions flooding my mind that I couldn't place. Thankfully, the rain trailing down my face hid any tears that might have slipped out.

        "Charlie..." Steve said quietly, urging me to calm down. But I couldn't.

        "Why did you do that you jerk!? It was so embarrassing! Not to mention /you/ looked like a complete idiot. What?! Were you jealous!? Tell me why you did that!" I smacked him in the chest hard enough that he took a short step back, closing his eyes and grimacing for a moment before he looked back down at me. But I kept pushing, I kept yelling at him.

          What he did next was so unexpected, so downright terrifyingly surprising, I was immediately frozen in place and at a complete and total loss for words. I couldn't even breathe.

          Steve's hands shot to either side of my face, his fingers snaking their way into my drenched hair as he pulled me toward him. I didn't have time to respond before his lips crashed into mine, stealing all the air in my lungs and strangling the words that lingered in my throat.