The New Me

Chapter Eleven

The sound of a vehicle motor humming is what brings me to. My eyes flicker open, finding myself sitting in the dark interior of a car I found familiar. The smell of mint fills my nostrils and I turn my head slightly, finding Preston sitting beside me in the driver seat of the vehicle. His left hand lays rested on the top of the steering wheel, his right on the shifter in between the driver and passenger seat.

He watches the road carefully, unaware that I was in fact watching him. His dark hair sits at a perfect mess on the top of his head, the sides where cut with a clean buzz on the sides, the top longer and styled neatly. His cheekbones were high and sharp, making him look like he was chiseled by one of the most experienced artists.

He was beautiful, there was no doubt about it.

The inside of the car sways slightly and I wince, knowing the alcohol was still coursing the my veins with an unneeded amount. His eyes shift away from the road and are suddenly on mine, I shiver slightly at the intensity that they hold before looking away.

"I could have gotten home." I tell him, twisting in my seat to a new position.

"Well you're welcome for giving you another option. Probably the safer one seeing as how I have only had one beer and your little buddy back there had several drinks." His eyes are off of me now, allowing me to move mine back to him.

"You told me to stay away from you, so remember who approached who whenever fingers get pointed."

He doesn't say anything for a moment, just remains watching the road in silence.

"The thing is, no matter how many times you tell me to stay away from you, or how many times I tell myself to keep my distance from you, I can't." he shakes his head to himself, still not looking at me. "I can't just sit on the sidelines and watch you destroy yourself. You're not infinite, Jenifer. No matter how tough you think you are, or how many dangerous things you can live through, there's going to be something that's going to end you. Something that you won't be able to come back from."

His eyes finally meet mine, the look inside them is something I cannot decipher. I blink at him a few times, him looking from the road and then back to me.

"Why could you not contact me." I ask him simply, picking up the conversation we had before my drunken sleep took over. The conversation he was starting was one that we didn't need to have right now, not when my mind was all jumbled. Not that I should be starting the one I was about to, I probably needed to have a sober mind for what was about to be said.

He pulls the car to the side of the road, putting the vehicle in park. We still hadn't hit town limits yet, leaving us parked on the side of the dirt road in complete silence. His headlights shine brightly onto the gravel that lays out on the road ahead and behind us.

"I know you feel like I need to explain all of this to you, and I know that you do deserve some kind of explanation, but I just can't tell you this."

"This is so stupid." I mutter, unclipping my seatbelt and pushing open the car door. My feet crunch on the gravel as I slam the door behind me, beginning my journey back to the party.

"Jenifer, get back in the car." He calls after me, the sound of his car door shutting behind him filing the otherwise quiet air.

"I'm so tired of the 'I know you deserve to know, and I want to tell you, but I can't' bullshit, Preston." I turn to face him, finding that he is striding across the gravel towards me until we are face to face. "Just stop toying around with everything, grow up, and tell me."