The boy I met on a highway.

Part 5. Stranded.

We drove for a long decent time, stopped at some fast-food restaurants and gas stations. The usual for a road trip. He asked me a couple questions here and there, I asked him a couple questions. I had figured out that he was 17, his dad abused him and was a heavy drinker, his mom left when he was 11 and that's where his dad's drinking and abuse started. He lived in Nashville, and all his older siblings had already moved out. I told him how my family was really rich, how I had 4 siblings who were all treated better than me, my plan to run away, that I was 16, and that I came from Union City. We talked about some more things but nothing much. It had become rather silent after that. We were now driving on a really long, busy road. It was dark now and we were 3/4 of the way through Tennessee.

My car all the sudden started sputtering and lights on the dash started dinging.
"Oh shit." I said.
"What's going on?" Jake asked.
"My car's breaking down."
"What? Why? Isn't this a brand-new car?" he asked.
"Yeah. I don't know why it's doing this." My car slowed down and I pulled off to the side of the road before it made its final stop.
I paused and set my head on the steering wheel. I sighed. This is not what I needed. Stranded, on the side of a busy road, not even in South Carolina yet. And more, I had some random boy I picked up on the side of the road with me. What was I going to do?
"Hey," he said. "It's going to be ok. We'll just call your best friend. What's her name?"
"Abby." I said.
"Ok. Then we'll just call Abby to come pick us up." He looked at me and set his hand on my shoulder assuringly. I must have blushed because immediately he took his hand off my shoulder and looked down. I looked away too.
"We should get out of the car and call Abby." He quickly said. Why did he seem nervous? I looked at my phone and searched up the nearest gas stations.
"There's a gas station 3 miles from here. We can walk there and sit outside there while we wait. It's going to take her at least 3 hours to get here." I said to him.
"Ok. Let's walk." he replied back. I grabbed my bag and stepped out of the car.
I called Abby and told her I needed her to pick me up.
"I'll lock my car and when she picks us up I'll have her drive back here and we can get my stuff out of the back and get a tow-truck."
"Sounds good." he nodded.

I locked my car and started walking down the road with him following me. A couple moments passes before he finally broke the silence and spoke.
"Do I make you... uncomfortable?" he asked. I was silent for a few moments.
"What?" I said.
"Well it's just sometimes when I'm near you... you look uncomfortable" "Because I know you have to be careful since you're a girl and you're by yourself and I'm a guy and I'm, you know, running away with you, and if you need me to go a separate way that's fine I can just-" he rambled.
"Stop." I said. He looked at me puzzled.
"You're not making me uncomfortable." I said. He just looked at me silent for a couple moments as we kept walking.
"I trust you." I said. We stopped and gazed at each other for a few moments, but then we quickly looked away and kept walking.
"Why do you think you're making me uncomfortable?" I asked.
"I don't know, sometimes you just seem like it."
"Well I'm not," I assured him. "If you wanted to harm me, you could have done it a long time ago."
"Yeah, that's true." He thought for a moment. "But why do you look uncomfortable sometimes?" he said.
Dang it. I hope he isn't catching on to me. I blushed and looked down at my feet as we walked.
"I don't know" I said quietly.
I saw from the corner of my eye as I think he realized. Shit shit shit! He knows. He knows I like him, he knows my secret.

And then he asked me the question I feared he would ask me ever since that morning in the hotel.