Ink Stains

Chapter 4

Surely enough, we ended up in the middle of nowhere with no GPS or sense of direction. “Lock the doors, LOCK THE DOORS!” I yelped upon seeing a shadow shift just so slightly enough to make my heart race.

Asher chucked, clearly much less afraid than I was. “They are locked,” he iterated, jiggling the handle slightly to demonstrate the fact that it wasn’t going to swing open randomly.

“Are your windows bullet-proof?” I retorted, nicking the glass with my fingernail.

He gave me estranged look, and then returned back to driving. “Have you always been this anxious?”

Asher was only an acquaintance in my mind, but that didn’t prevent me from delivering a solid punch into his arm. He whined indignantly, rubbing his bicep with one hand and barely steering with the other.

“Crap,” he murmured. “I’m going to run low on gas soon.”

I huffed, crossing my arms on my chest. “This is really turning into a cliché, isn’t it?”

“If we start making out in the backseat it’ll be a real cliché,” he snorted at the preposterous notion.

I took a sharp intake of breath, not wanting to imagine such a thing. “Have you ever even kissed a girl?”

We both broke into laughter, clutching our stomachs. Somehow, we knew the truth about each other. There was trial and error in his end of relationships, and also on mine. Nothing has seemed to work out for either of us.

“Do we really want to get involved with somebody like that?” Asher asked suddenly, his eyes locked onto the road.

I pondered for a moment, allowing the thought to enter my mind and whisk around within all of my ambitions. Of course, I already had decided what I wanted in a guy. Nobody ever really fit my requirements, especially not Derrick; a boy who had previously fell in love with me. “No,” I responded, my voice heavy. “You?”

“Nope,” Asher grunted. “I tried it once, not going to try again. You know Lisa Simmons?”

I nodded eagerly, recognizing the name almost instantly. Everybody knew who she was. Lisa was one of the most intelligent students at Larchmont High School, a varsity volley ball member, and extremely beautiful. “You didn’t have a thing with her, did you?”

Asher sighed. “Yeah. It was only a couple months ago when she started texting me out of the blue. Eventually, we started liking each other more and more. It all fell apart when I explained I couldn’t be with her because of my religion.”

“What’s your religion?”

He cocked his head to one side, making his hair fall in front of his eyes. Asher flicked it away graciously, and dare I say, attractively. “Roman Catholic. She’s a southern Baptist and wasn’t willing to convert for me.”

“What’s with Catholics, always wanting people to change for them?” I grumbled under my breath, praying he wouldn’t hear me. I’ve heard the sermons at my family’s church say so before; I was considered the antichrist. If my mother knew the truth about me, she probably would flick holy water at me while recanting an old Latin exorcism chant. “That’s too bad it didn’t work out for you,” I told him. If I was a sentimental person, I suppose I would’ve placed a hand on his arm to remind him that I’m there. Instead, my hands remained buried under my thighs as they practically trembled in fear.

He stopped driving, finally reaching a gas station. A few people milled around, cigarettes in one hand and a magazine propped in the other. Most of them were truck driver.  It was practically empty despite the fact it was only about nine-thirty at night. “You’re a Catholic, right?”