See You Soon

Chapter 6

Charlene’s POV

I jerked awake to the pounding on the window and my head. A scream left my throat as I looked up and saw a dark haired stranger looking through my window. His eyes went wide and he started waving his hands to quiet me down. I looked over and saw that Leslie was gone. The hell I was calming down, I jumped out of the car and started running after the stranger until I noticed that he couldn’t have been older than 18 and he was driving a tow truck. I stopped screaming and cocked my head to the side. He had his hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender. He slowly walked forward and put his hand out in front of him.

“Hi, I’m Ryder. I have Leslie-” I cut him off by a punch to his face. He crumpled to the ground holding his nose. I was just about to question him about where he had Leslie when I was cut off by the little screams of a 6 year old coming from my backseat. I looked back and saw my little Samantha in the back window eyes wide and screaming. I looked over at the young man on the ground trying to clear the stars dancing in front of his eyes and decided that he wasn’t much of a threat at the moment. I ran back to the car and got Sami out of the backseat and walked toward Ryder. He was on his feet now and looked at me.

“Leslie’s at my place, she’s sleeping and asked me to come get you. She was going to come with me but fell asleep. I didn’t hurt her and have no intentions to. I’m just here to help you get your car out of the ditch. She said you veered off the road and was going to wait until morning but was getting annoyed and decided to take matters into her own hands.” He looked at me as I stepped closer and looked like he couldn’t decide where to protect himself his face or his junk. I smiled and said,

“Yep, that sounds like Les, this is Samantha and I’m their mother Charlene but you can call me Charlie.” I put out my hand and smiled, obviously relieved that I wasn’t going to attempt to break his nose again.

“Ryder, just give me a second to hook up your car and we’ll be on our way.” Minutes later there was our hunk of shit on the back of a tow truck and Ryder gesturing for me and Sami to hop in. We did and he sped off towards town.

We pulled into a driveway and saw a trailer surrounded by the most beautiful flower garden. He pulled over and hopped out. Sami and I did likewise and saw Ryder unhooking the car. He hopped in and turned the key, it sputtered, coughed and died. Without a word he hopped out and lifted the hood. He tinkered with I don’t know what and slammed the hood. He looked at us and was about to say something when all of a sudden the door to his trailer was opened and out came Leslie. I’m not sure what shocked me most, the fact that she was wearing guys clothing or the fact that she looked genuinely happy when she looked over at Ryder. They had only known each other a few hours, unless she slept with him.

“I hope you’re not pregnant Leslie Jane Pearson.” I said without thinking. Way to go, Mom. Her head snapped toward me and I swore under my breath. Her smile vanished and she disappeared inside with Sami trailing behind. I dropped my head and when I looked up and saw Ryder looking at me. I couldn’t read the blank look on his face and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. He stood up and smiled saying that the alternator was fried. Whatever that meant, and apparently the guy who owned the only car place in town was in the hospital. I shrugged it off and we all went inside.

“I know Leslie mentioned that you were going to Boston and I am too. I have the minivan that I'm taking there. It has plenty of room for all our stuff and us if you wanted to travel together. I'm perfectly safe and would enjoy the company. I’ll leave your car here and when Jon gets out of the hospital he can sells the parts and send you the money he made off of it minus a small profit.” It all made perfect sense.

“You don't have any furniture or anything?” I asked. He shook his head,

“The people who bought this place bought it with all the furniture, plus I'm moving in with my guardian it’s not like I’ll need it there.” Made enough sense,

“Alright, sounds like a plan.” Leslie hadn’t said a word this whole time. “What do you think Leslie?” She sighed; Ryder held his breath, probably hoping she would agree with this plan.

“I'm picking out our new car in Boston.” I smiled. I saw Ryder and Leslie eyeing each other whenever they thought the other wasn’t looking. This should be quite interesting.