It Was All In The Eyes

Chapter 1: The Time

"It'll only be a minute!" she teased. Her beautiful black hair clashed against her white, wool sweater. The cool Autumn wind blew her hair back into her soft brown eyes. "It's cold out here, let's get back into the car!" I complained. "I don't want you to catch a cold out here, besides we have to get back into town!" "Michael, I'm old enough to take care of myself." she said. I huffed in defeat and sat down next to her.

Her brown skin bristled in the cold as a hard gust chilled the both of us. I moved closer to shelter her from the wind, my dark brown hoodie was just big enough to keep the wind off of her back. I reached for her hands and pulled them into my pockets. "Steph, you know that your dad is gonna kill me right?" I chuckled. "I just want to watch the river for a little while longer, then we can walk back up the trail to the car." Steph whispered. Her eyelids were heavy with sleepiness. "Besides Michael, you know you like the mountains as much as I do." she said.

She rested her head on my shoulder as I leaned over and placed my hand on the cold, loose dirt below me. We sat like that for awhile before I decided to walk down to the shore and throw a few rocks into the water. She soon followed suit and joined me in the rock throwing. After a few minutes I eventually broke the silence.

"Let's head back, I don't want your dad to worry about you any more than he already is." "Besides it's getting cold and a storm is brewing." The sound of thunder in the distance rumbled forth as the nipping wind picked up as if to emphasize my point. "You know my dad doesn't care and won't be home until well into the night Michael, don't pretend like you don't know." she fussed. Her words bit into me as harshly as the wind. I only wanted to do right by her and make her forget her pain.

Her father was a 'street pharmacist' of sorts. A dealer. A killer. She knew that I had saw him that night. The night of the fire. The night that she lost her house. And the very same night she had lost her mother.

The dark clouds blocked out the sun for the most part, but the Autumn sunset burned through them like a candle in the dark, signaling the need for our departure."Come on, get in the car. If you don't want to go home, then we can go to my place." "By the time we get there everyone should be asleep." I said. "So now you're trying to sneak girls into your house at night Micheal?" "And here I thought you were a good boy!" she joked. "Just get in!" I laughed.

By the time we had gotten to a main road it was raining heavily and she was asleep in the passenger seat, lightly snoring. It was a struggle to keep my eyes open as I drove past countless orange street lights on the side of the road. I prayed that I wouldn't fall asleep behind the wheel, and decided to turn on the radio to try and stay awake. I knew that coming back into town would be rough since the slick, winding roads would almost certainly be difficult to navigate. I also knew that the town would be crawling with the usual thugs who roamed around at night, threatening everyone's safety with their presence and intentions. Her dad was likely among them.

"What am I gonna do with you." I mumbled as I looked over at her. She was drooling. I chuckled a low chuckle and kept my eyes on the road. She was almost certainly gonna be the death of me.