fallin' out of love (stemxstud)

23

Valentine

"Wants me...why?" my eyes narrowed, taking in Anaela's still uneasy nature.

"That I don't know, but before you and Teece arrived she explained that I couldn't kill you."

"Kill me...?" I tilted my head, a sick smile coming to my face. "Is that what all this drama is around?"

"Don't feel self centered, Valentine," she snapped, moving me aside and taking the driver's seat. "I'll take the fastest car, you take the other. I'll find my mother and handle her. Your job is to be nearby and not get kidnapped."

I laid my hand on the hood of the car, her eyes narrowing at the action. "So I'm taking orders from you now? Trusting someone who wanted me dead. Who obviously isn't right in the hea-

"Don't you go there, Valentine!" she shouted.

Turning the car on, she said, "You have no idea what I've been through."

"Then tell me," I pleaded, stepping up to her window.

She stared straight ahead, hands gripping the wheel. "Press the button over there in that far corner. It'll let us out the building. I need some time to decide what we're gonna do."

"Obviously if your mother wants me in exchange for Teece, I'd-

"You'd still lay your life down for her?" Anaela scoffed, "You know- what's up with you attracting traitors? Keris? Dom? Teece?"

"You," I added, my fists clenched. I couldn't go there with her but she could with me? "You're not a saint."

"Hm." She revved her engine, and I moved out the way, pressing the button as the walls gave way to an open driveway trailing out of the building. It was truly some high tech Iron Man type shit. "Follow behind!" she ordered, tearing out of the building. I quickly got myself into a vehicle and made my way behind her.

I might not have had the answers to what was going on between the two of us...but I still needed Anaela to give me the answers to AS.

It felt like we drove for miles.

No way for us to communicate between cars.

Just open road and a burning building behind us.

And our pasts ahead of us.

"I'm glad you finally stopped."

I leaned against the gas pump, watching Anaela tap her foot as the gasoline poured into the car. "I needed fuel."

"We needed space...and look at where we are now," I said quietly. "Stop pushin' me away, Anaela."

"You didn't feel that way when you chose Teece," she said. "When you chose normalcy."

"Can you blame me?" I scoffed. "Growing up, living in an environment where I didn't think I'd ever have a chance of normalcy? That I wouldn't try it out?"

"It's a lot of blame being thrown around when really my mother is at the front of all this trouble," she stated. "Still...it's some problems that I've caused and I can't put the blame on everyone else." Anaela slowly looked up at me. "Something was wrong...I don't know what, really. But I wasn't myself...that's the best explanation I can give you right now."

"Nah, that's a bullshit excuse that you feel like giving cause you don't wanna dig deep into yourself," I said.

"Because you don't have Teece anymore you get to come back and judge me? I don't think so," she jiggled the pump in her tank, then placed it back. She screwed her cap back on and slammed the small compartment shut. "Keep your eyes on the road- We still have a lot of ground to cover before we get there."

"Get where?" I prodded, following after her as she walked across the desolate gas station in the middle of nowhere, the pavement cracked and wet underneath our feet.

"To my mother."

"Where? You're not giving me the full details and it's me that she wants," I stated.

"I have a hunch on where she might be," is all Anaela told me. "Sit back and enjoy the ride."

"Fuck this," I mumbled under my breath, getting into my respective vehicle. If Anaela was leading me into a trap after all of this...even though I had always assumed that her mother could be trusted...I don't know what I'd do.