Revenge Is Sweet

21 - Filipendulous

✶𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚢✶

I'm close to passing out from the lack of sleep, I think. It definitely feels like it and no matter how much I want to, I can't sleep.

My heart is pumping so quickly that even if I let myself close my eyes, I wouldn't be able to sleep. I'm too nervous.

What if I fall asleep and she calls me? Or I sleep for too long and I'm not up for when she gets home?

Nope. I can't let myself fall asleep yet. I can sleep all I want when she gets home.

I keep myself busy in the meantime. The sun has gone down, but I'm still outside working unnecessarily on my car.

I've cleaned it, inside and out. All I'm doing now is poking around it. Under the hood and under the car itself. Whatever I want, really.

There's no point. It's in great condition. But it's something to do. Something I can't fall asleep doing and I won't get angry about.

I think it's the sleep deprivation that's given me such a short fuse today.

She should be back anytime now though. She falls asleep remarkably quick in the car, so she'll probably be sleepy when she gets here. Which means, I can sleep the moment she comes back.

I scoff at the sound of those damn coyotes yipping in the not so far distance. I was teasing her when I told her they could smell her, but they've never been so close before. This is very new. Pretty much the day she got here, new.

My spirits are lifted at the next sound I hear followed by the headlights of a familiar truck.

I toss the hood of my car closed and watch the Toby drive up. He parks the truck and starts climbing out.

"Hey," I greet, my eyes moving to the empty passenger side. My eyebrows furrow. "Where's Sophia?" I question, coming closer.

My heart pumps a little faster when I see his arm, wrapped up in a bandage.

"What did you do?" I mutter, watching him cautiously.

It's been too long since I've interacted with people like this. My mind jumps to the least rational scenario.

"She's sleeping." Toby keeps his voice down and moves to the back of the truck. I follow him, scoffing when I see her curled up in the back, using a goddam tarp as a blanket.

"You asshole." I scowl at him as I grab his arm to tug him away from her so we can let her sleep for a little longer. "The fuck is she doing back there?"

"She insisted." Toby sighs heavily and pinches his nose bridge. "Thanks for telling me she gets night terrors, by the way." He scoffs and drops his hand. "That was nice to learn about." He lifts his arm again to show me his bandage.

I falter. "She scratched you?"

Toby reaches into his pocket to take my pocketknife out. "Not exactly." He grumbles tossing it to me.

I frown. "Oh," I whisper, unsure of what to say as I look down at my knife.

I can't bring myself to decide I shouldn't have given it to her.

"Yeah." Toby sighs. "Look, I'm not mad, okay? It's not something she could've controlled." He reasons. "It just would've been nice to know."

"Yeah." I quietly agree. "Sorry. I should've said something." I apologize, giving my head a little shake. "Are you all right?" I ask on a sigh, nodding to his arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

I nod back and let my eyes drift to the truck. "Everything else go good?"

"Yeah." He reaches into his pocket and hands me her new ID. "Didn't change her name or nothin', just her birthday." He offers a little shrug.