Nightmares ; Bonkai

chapter 29

They hadn't even made it out of the state before the questions started up again. Bonnie gritted the steering wheel and turned up the music as Kai drifted between singing along and interrogating her. She glanced over at him and he looked much more comfortable than her with his boots propped up against the dashboard munching on gummy worms. He was out of his sweatpants and back in jeans sporting a basic white t-shirt under a blue sweatshirt and she could see his chain poking out of his collar. She looked down at her own jean overalls buckled on one side over her red short-sleeve and was almost starting to get used to her 90's attire.

"You know you're making me start to question if I should have left you behind and gone to get the Grimoire's myself."

"Where is the fun is that?" he asked baffled "A long car ride all by yourself, no one to talk to or keep you company; no I think you would be turning around halfway to come back for me."

"Somehow, I think I would manage."

"You know you'd miss me," she heard through his smile as he bit a gummy worm in half. "You weren't with me for one day and you were fighting to get me back."

"I was with your dad," she corrected "there is a big difference, I couldn't handle that anymore."

"Mm," he nodded "especially having to look at this charming face while talking to that prick."

"Yeah, that was definitely the worst part," she said sarcastically and couldn't help laughing.

"What'd you guys talk about?"

"You, mostly; his plan to take you out and how he had been trying to since you first started having nightmares. It was a little creepy to be honest, seeing you talking but your voice was a little different so it was like I was hearing him. And he sounds so calm and composed, I mean-"she glanced back over at him for added effect "what a difference."

"Yeah he hides it well," he said almost under his breath "he was probably trying to convince you whatever he was saying was true and making you believe you came up with it."

Bonnie looked over at him with her eyebrows down at the very specific hypothetical he threw out as he stayed looking out the windshield.

"Well that's pretty manipulative," she offered.

"Indeed, so don't feel bad for anything you had to do; I'm sure he was asking for it."

She couldn't help but let her mind wander to his different memories, getting stuck on the moments between him and his father. Her eyes closed briefly at the echoes of his angry and pained yells and remarks between the two of them; their trust and any type of bond being nonexistent from as far back as his mind would let her see.

"Was it always like that between you two?" she asked out loud and her eyes widened realizing she heard it.

"Like what?"

She hesitated before continuing "like, you know... really tense and distant and how it is now."

"Well you did catch a good look into my head," he retorted and she almost cringed at the tone in his voice, a part of him still unhappy with her for seeing all of his darkest moments... and the light.

"I did, and I saw a really beautiful girl a couple of times," she smiled with an ease in her voice that seemed to relieve some of his tension.

"Yeah, Gabby, she was a sweet girl."

"She seemed really into you, and for someone who said they never had any girlfriends you seemed pretty into her too."

He shrugged, "I was into her, she was great but it was never going to turn into anything."