The Mechanics of The Heart (Unedited)

27

We all do things to excuse one action for another.

We drink, smoke, surrounding ourselves with people who couldn't careless if you made it home safe that night or not and say it's because we're young, deserve to experience live. Not because we're in pain, not because we're lonely.

Amara excused running track as a means to secure a future for herself and it was something she loved, not because it was an excuse to be absent in the dysfunction of her family, not because it made it easy to avoid the unprovoked disappointment in her parents gaze.

It was easy to tell herself one had nothing to do with the other.

Bullet told himself his curiosity in the woman curled comfortably in the passenger seat of his barely used truck, was simply infatuation. Not because he liked the way her eyes twinkled and squinted as she smiled and not the way his skin pricked with heat as her skin illuminated it own sunshine.

It wasn't easy to tell himself this was simply infatuation.

He was a grown man, he had run from a lot in his life. Including his own feelings, but he had stopped running from things and starting running towards them, a long time ago.

Bullet dragged his eyes off the road to Amara. The sleeves of her sweatshirt tugged up to her elbows, her hair pulled up on top of her head now in a plop of curls that bounced with the movement of the car.

"Where are we going?" Amara yawned, using the back of her hand to cover her mouth as she glanced at Bullet. Her stomach fluttering to find hazel eyes already on her, even as he looked back to the road pulling his gaze off hers, the butterflies in her stomach didn't settle.

Bullet felt bad, it was almost three in the morning. When he called he hadn't expected an answer, usually he'd spend these hours alone in the garage cranking away at his brothers bikes until his body got tired enough for his brain to shut down for a few hours. By then the sun is pulling it's self over the horizon.

"I'm sorry, I should've let you sleep-" He stopped abrupt at the almost hallow chuckle erupting from the passenger side.

"I wasn't sleeping." Amara left it at that, not mentioning how her body still seemed locked in tension, reliving memories her mind was trying to erase.

Bullet glanced at her again from the side of his eye, that same familiar feeling he got when he came to fix her car swelling in his chest. He coughed to push it down.
"Well you can't call yourself a Nevadan without walking the Vegas strip." His body hummed with heat all over as her laughter swallowed the spaced around them, dancing over the small buzz of the radio as Amara tossed her head back, her stomach twisting as she laughed.

"You wanna walk the Vegas strip at three in the morning?" With me? She thought. Amara sunk her teeth into her bottom lip the butterflies in her stomach fluttering against the walls of her belly as he smiled to himself eyes still on the road.

There should've been caution to throw at the wind, concerns and doubts plaguing her mind. We've been through this before. She wanted to tell herself. To not trust Bullet, and keep him at a five foot diameter.

Her mind was lacking any warning bells, and that alone should've been concerning.
Amara watched the way he looked back, reaching his hand across her seat to back into a parking spot.

"You lucky your laugh is beautiful, otherwise I'd take offense to you always laughing at me." His words are filled with teasing and his shoulder shake with silent laughter. He couldn't remember when or if he had ever been around someone who was as genuinely funny as Amara. Even if her expression didn't always match the amusement in her tone.