Sparrows Song

Chapter 5

They had left town behind them now, and entered a stretch of deserted highway. The phone clutched in Jane's hands once again began ringing, and she pressed the button to silence it, looking down worriedly at the device as the name ANDY flashed across the screen.

"I have to answer him, Blake, he's just going to keep calling."

Blake glanced sidelong at her, annoyance etched on his face. Then in one swift move he snatched the phone from her hand, rolled down the window and chucked it out. Jane twisted in her seat to watch through the rear windshield as her phone bounced down the highway end over end, shrapnel spinning out in every direction.

"Stop the car! STOP!" Jane shrieked, "Why did you do that?! You have to go back. That phone had all my pictures on it."

Blake looked at her impassively and did not slow the car. "Sorry," he managed, but he didn't sound the least bit contrite.

"I said STOP THE CAR!" Jane shouted at him. She was so angry that she was about to reach over and grab the wheel from him. Anything to make him stop and listen to her.

Blake remained stone-faced and kept his eyes locked on the road, avoiding her furious stare.

"I'll buy you a new one," he told her appealingly.

"I don't want a new one! That one had all my pictures on it. My contacts," she fumed.

Blake stole a glance at her finally. "It's all backed up in the cloud. I'll buy you a better one. I'll get you the new iPhone," he said.

"The what? I don't want a new iPhone...you can't just...ugh!" Jane huffed, at a loss for what to do. Clearly turning around for her ruined phone was a lost cause.

"The cloud, it's...oh, nevermind," he waved his hand at her dismissively, "I'll fix it for you, OK? Get your pictures and stuff back."

Jane wasn't satisfied. A tense silence followed before Blake added, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." He might have meant it this time, but Jane didn't care. Blake avoided her gaze and fell silent again.

"OK." Jane said, even though she didn't really feel like it was. She folded her arms across her chest, not feeling like engaging Blake in any further conversation. Staring out the window, she was alone with her thoughts.

Without her phone Jane felt completely powerless, and it seemed to her that she might have traded one controlling jerk for another. Now she was even more completely dependent on Blake and whatever he decided to do with her, and she began to question just how willing of a participant she was in this little escapade. Yes, Blake had given her a choice about where she wanted to go, but maybe she had made the wrong one. She wondered what he would do if she told him again to turn around and take her back immediately.

But she didn't ask him to, despite the nagging little voice in the back of her mind telling her that it would be the smart thing to do. The truth was, she wasn't ready to go back home just yet. Yes, she was angry at Blake, but things back home truly weren't any better. Just the thought of facing Andy and how angry he would be at her was so unpleasant that she wanted to keep her distance for awhile. She needed more time to figure out how to handle that situation. So instead she continued to broodingly stare out the window in silence as the miles rolled by.

There was a part of Jane that implicitly trusted Blake. She felt safe with him, but she was no longer sure she could trust that feeling. After all, she had been gravely wrong about him before. Even though she reminded herself that she couldn't trust her instincts about him, she wanted to trust him. It was all so confusing.

Some time later, Blake pulled into a gas station to fill up. "Do you want anything?" Blake asked her stoically. It was the first time he had spoken to her in nearly an hour, and Jane was still stewing over her phone and irritated with Blake's lack of effort to smooth things over with her.