Young Guns: Fire and Steel

Chapter 28: Agua Blanco

The ride in the dark was quiet. It was painstakingly tense and it felt like they were riding for ages, even though it had only been minutes. Billy hated that there was no moon in the midnight sky for him to be able to see any glimpse of Kristal's features. Something was wrong though, he could tell. There were a couple times that he noticed Kristal glancing in his direction, to look at him, but she would then shake her head and continue staring ahead. It was causing his mind to reel wondering what she was thinking.

Two hours of that continuous silence went by before the duo finally decided to stop. Kristal found a half circle of large boulders to give them some semblance of a shelter and they hunkered down for the night.

It was well past midnight once they got their bedrolls out, a fire started, and eaten a meal of jerky and some berries Kristal had found nearby. The fire was kept low to keep anyone from seeing it so late in the night.

As Billy popped another of the blackberries into his mouth, he noticed Kristal was eyeing him again. What was going on? Why the hell did she keep looking at him? Was something wrong? Maybe there was something on his face? Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his face with it.

At first he thought that did the trick, until she looked his way again. That was it! He had enough of wondering why she was looking at him the way that she was.

"Alright, what is it?" Billy asked his brows furrowing as he stared at her with concern on his face. "Ya keep starin' and it's startin' to give me a complex, Kris." He then grinned and waggled his eyebrows, "I know I'm quite a looker, so if that's why, feel free to continue."

"I dunno what yer talkin' about." Kristal quickly turned to stare into the darkness ready to ignore him again. "An' why would I need to stare at ya fer yer looks, ya already think so damn highly of yerself, I don't need to say nothin' more."

Billy's smile died away and a frown took over his face. There was no way he was going to allow her to push this aside, especially when it was clearly about him. "Oh hell no! Ya ain't gonna play me! You keep lookin' over at me, Kris! An' I wanna know why?" It was really bothering him. He cared about what she thought of him and she was surely thinking something about him now. Maybe she wasn't doing it because she thought he was handsome, but there was something going on in her mind.

"Am I? I hadn't noticed?" Still Kristal feigned innocence, keeping her eyes off of him now.

"Don't give me none of that! Ya did it during the ride here, an' ya been doing it again since we've stopped for the night!" He jerked his hand towards the ground to add to his frustrated point. The blond man watched as her expression shifted in the dark. First her brows furrowed, an anger and fire lit her eyes before she finally sighed. That was a whole hell of a lot of emotion in the matter of seconds. What the hell was she thinking?

"I dunno.... I shouldn't even care... Maybe I don't really..." Kristal began stumbling over her spoken thoughts.

Her words were cryptic and confusing to Billy. "Okay?" He said, his tone full of confused questioning. "I don't think I understand. Ya care... Or don't care... about what?"

"You!" Kristal snapped which caused Billy's brows to raise up high. "Or at least... men in general? I don't know " Her confusion and frustration was causing her to not make any sense to him.

Damn! Billy was just as confused as Kristal but he figured probably for different reasons. He had no idea what she was talking about. It was baffling to him. "What are you talkin' about Kris? Why have I... or men confused ya so? What the hell caused ya to think about this?"

The woman sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "I don't get you!" She was continuing now, like she didn't hear his questions, just going on with her thoughts. "Why the hell do ya do that? Is it jus' somethin' all men do? Or is it jus' the ones who like to be assholes?"