Tis The Damn Season

Chapter 3

After twenty minutes, the meeting is finally done and I'm free to go see what this morning holds with Nathan. I clock out and call him to let him know to head back. He tells me he never left and he is waiting in the parking lot. I walk outside and notice Mark and the girl standing to the side of the parking lot. They smirk at me as I walk out.

"Have fun," Mark calls out as he laughs, watching me walk over to the jeep. I flip him off.

"Hey," I say to Nathan as I walk up to the jeep, "Want me to get in here or do you want me to drive to marathon? That way you don't have to drive me all the way back here."

"Yeah, we can do that if you want to." I nod, thinking that's the best idea, especially so people don't see me get in his jeep and leave. I don't really want a lot of people to know, or to talk about it.

I turn my car on and my music and drive toward my end of town. He just lives across the bridge from this gas station anyway, so it was closer to his house too. We will only be out for an hour or so, I promised myself I wouldn't stay out long. The longer I was out, the worse it would be. I notice him pumping gas as I pull into the parking lot. I park behind the building, off to the side, so hopefully no one would notice my car sitting here if they drove past. My car wasn't anything impressive, but if my dad came this way for lunch of Michael came this way to take anyone home, they would notice the car if it was sitting in the front of the gas station. I glance down at my hand, as Nathan pulls the jeep up beside me, at some point I'd slipped my ring back on. I sigh as I slide it into my bag pocket. I get out, my bag on my shoulder, and open my trunk. I place my bag in there, shutting it and making sure my car is locked. I think I would cry if something happened to the ring.

"You ready?" Nathan asks me as he opens the door for me.

I just respond with a nod. I can feel my hands shaking, I'm definitely anxious now. I nod as I grab the bar above his door and lift myself into the jeep. It's a challenge to get in, I'm short and this jeep is not short people friendly, which is ironic since he isn't much taller than me. Once I'm in and my seatbelt is on, we're pulling out of the parking lot and hitting the interstate. I notice the flag that covers the inside of the room and the red trim inside matches well. It's fitting for him. He takes the first exit and makes his way down a back road, I recognize where we're at. I ran here in high school, but that was over eight years ago. I have not been up in forever. The pavement turns to gravel and then to dirt as we go up the hill. We approach what used to be the area everyone partied in. The place is more run down than I remembered it being, there had also been a couple fires up here the past few years too. He continues to drive, and I notice a rocky slop for which he is heading. I take a relaxing breath, I trust him. I assume he knows what he is doing. My suspicions prove correct as we approach the bottom of the hill. He parks the jeep and gets out; I follow his lead. He just looks in some of the holes that have filled with mud and water. He makes small talk about how people party further down now and then we get back in the jeep. I notice that the rocks we came down are also the only way to go up.

"You're wondering how we're getting back up aren't you?" I nod my head. "Well, we're going to crawl."

I sit back as I watch him steer and shift gears. We get to the top with no problems and start back down the road we came up on. I look out the windows, unsure of what conversation to make with him. I know there is obviously an elephant in the room, Michael. Neither of us want to bring him up, but I know he has to come up at some point. I decide to ignore it, until he says something anyway. I watch his focus as he drives, he furrows his brow and bites his lip as he concentrates on shifting at just the right time as he steers around the deeper holes. We are off the ridge soon enough and back on pavement.

"That was not where I wanted to take you, I just wanted to see how it looked after the fire. Do you have the time to go somewhere else?" I nod. I have as much time as I want to have.