It's Not Three Inches With You

Chapter 4

Max

It was still light outside when the three of us left the cabin carrying only small bags packed with clothes and toiletries.

My head still ached slightly from crying earlier, though I was determined not to let El see as we sat together in the back of my dad's truck.

It was surreal, all of it. I hadn't seen my father in almost two years and now here he was, with his crooked smile and red hair that was identical to mine.

El tapped her finger repetitively on the car's windowsill, obvious that she was nervous about something.

"El?" I murmured quietly.

She turned her head to look at me.

"Yes?"

I paused for a moment, unsure of what I had wanted to say. Instead of speaking I found myself staring into her soft brown eyes.

She was beautiful.

"Max." El spoke, drawing me back to reality.

"Huh?" I asked, shook.

"What did you...want?" she asked tentatively.

Exhaling I looked at her in the darkness.

"Are you...okay?" I muttered quietly, afraid to look back at her.

"Yes." She said slowly, though her eyes were glassy, as if she were trying not to cry.

"El?" I asked again, worried.

She sighed, looking away before speaking.

My father didn't glance back as he drove through the Indiana roads that seemed to last forever.

I looked at El, a swirl of anxiety and fear inside of me as she opened her mouth to speak.

"The...the car."

"What?" I asked confused.

"Bad men. Same...same car."

I didn't understand what she was telling me.

"Th-the bad men?"

El looked up, tears streaming down her face.

"Papa." She whispered.

"From the...lab?" I asked, dread filling my voice.

El nodded, crying.

"I...I don't understand. Are they...here?"

She shook her head.

"No. The car, it-it's like this one."

My head was spinning in confusion.

"What car?" I asked, sounding more exasperated than I had meant to.

El flinched slightly at the volume of my voice, my dad turning back to look at what was going on.

"Sorry," I mumbled to them both.

El glanced out the window and I sat back a little further into my seat.

"The bad men. Their car is like this one." She said finally.

"Oh," was all I could say.

She had never spoken to me about her life at the lab before and I wasn't sure what I was meant to say.

"They won't come back you know," I said, in an awkward attempt to comfort her.

El didn't reply.

"They won't. I won't let them," I spoke, aware of how defensive of her I sounded.

She turned back to look at me.

"Thank you." She whispered, her eyes brimming with tears.

There was a moment of silence between the two of us.

As she gazed into my eyes, my heart fluttered.

It was the second time that night I had felt this way.

It was as if the world had stopped for just a moment and the only thing that was left was her.

Her eyes, her shy smile, the way her gaze hung onto mine, like two hands clasped so tightly, their knuckles were turning white.

The moment was broken by my father parking the car.

We had arrived at the airport, with its myriad of voices and clamour of sound echoing from the large aircrafts.

El's eyes widened in fear as we stepped out of the truck, walking around the back of the car to meet me on the other side.

"Hey," I said, looking at her. "It's okay."

I offered my hand to her like I had all that time ago when we first met, on that cold night in November.

This time she took it.

(A/N: I'm back y'all! I hope you guys liked this chapter, sorry abt the cliffhanger hehe. I want to update again but where's the suspense in that? Lol. I forgot to post the cast at the start of the book so imma do that now as well as some lookbooks! Hope you enjoy! Don't forget to comment, vote and stay totally tubular xx)