GREY [on hold]

Secluded

"I love the sound of the air breaking against the car," Chase yelled over the music.

I didn't respond, instead I focused on the sound he spoke of.

He started rolling up the windows as he continued to speak, "it's odd to me how something so delicate seeming, something we can't even see, can be so strong and powerful." He was talking about air.

I listened to his words as I also listened the wind blasting across the front of the car and scraping its way up its body, crawling and swarming the car head to toe.

I could feel Chase's head turn to me, he examined me as I tilted my head at the sounds around me. He looked at me head to toe like he constantly did.

I looked down at my skin exposed through the rips and holes of my jeans. His eyes landing on the bare skin too. I looked up at him as he looked back and forth from the road to my legs. I could feel goose bumps raise up everywhere. He bit his lip and I fluttered my eyes in embarrassment.

I layed my hands in my legs, attempting to cover my skin as much as possible, which barely worked.

Chase broke the heated moment as he reached up to the stereo, turning the music up louder.

I hummed along with "somebody's watching me" by the neighborhood.

And as I listened to the lyrics, I looked up at Chase, finding myself relating him to the song. Everyone is always watch him, aren't they? He has expectations. From everyone. To be this bad boy delinquent. Stressful it must be. To always have to keep in character. And maybe he isn't so bad. And maybe he can realize he doesn't have to keep in character for me.

Assuming he felt my burning stare, he twitched his jaw again like he commonly did, and flickered his eyes a bit, barely looking over at me in his perennial vision.

As the song continued I found his lips moving to the lyrics. Word after word. His hand tapping to the beat on the steering wheel. I smiled at the joy I saw in him. It was minimal, but I could see it. I could feel it.

I looked back at the road, and found us now on a secluded dirt road.

"YOU ARE TAKING ME OUT HERE TO MURDER ME!" I yelled.

He jumped a bit in surprise, "wait what? WHAT HAHA. no honey bunches, I'm not." His voice flickered up and down with laughter.

"Well you're taking me on some damn dirt road with no one in sight, now if that doesn't sound like a horror movie I don't know what does." I rebutted.

"Haha, you're cute." He chuckled.

Did he just call me cute?

I assumed he was joking, but my cheeks still bursted up into a heated blush and I found myself unable to respond.

I sat quietly. Facing the window now, and watched the empty feilds and trees pass by.

We lived in a small town in California. It wasn't very known. Just about two hours from San Diego. It surprisingly had many open pastures, and many hills and trees. Beach Barden was its name, but zero beaches in sight. A pretty well populated little town.

I didn't know everyone here, maybe about half. And only about half knew ME.

But everyone seemed to know the name Zable.

Although I thought I had been all over this town, this road did indeed look unfamiliar to me. Which raised my suspicions even more so.

"Komorebi," Chase randomly spoke.

"What?" I looked at him. He was looking directly past me and out my window where we passed many trees.

"It's Japanese. Komorebi," he repeated.