Tale 1: War of the Protector

Chapter 7

Hours passed in silence.

Houses turned into trees. Trees turned into farmland. And the farmland stayed.

I guess that's what comes from living in Ohio.

The sun slowly sunk in the sky. Then the moon came out. Then the stars followed.

The silence ensued.

Around nine 'o'clock I decided to turn on the radio to maybe lighten the tension.

I reached out and hit the button. Music started playing for one second, and then Cody shut it off.

Wordlessly, he returned his hand to the wheel, still staring forward.

I stared at him. Then I turned it on.

Again, he reached out and turned it off.

I glared at him and crossed my arms. He wouldn't even look at me.

I scoffed and turned back to the window. "Asshole."

He said nothing.

That bothered me... That really bothered me.

I turned on the music. Cody, again, wordlessly shut it off.

I looked over at him, wondering what happened to the Cody Alice that I knew. The Cody I knew would have sworn back at me, or at least told me to stop. That is, if I hadn't died from his constant bragging... which he should have been doing earlier.

But no. The Cody in the car with me sat composed at the wheel. His face revealed nothing. His body, though, did.

He was trembling. Cody Alice was trembling. I could see it most in his wrists, because his hands gripped the wheel so tightly. But by looking closely I could see that his whole body was shaking.

I didn't really want to give in and show concern. In a way it felt like he would be winning something if I showed concern, and I didn't want to give him that.

But... he was driving. And I was in the same car as him... Yeah... that's acceptable.

"Are you okay?" I asked, with boredom laced through my voice. "You know if you crash, you'd be killing me too, right?"

At first Cody didn't respond. Concern filled me until he said, "Shut up. I'm concentrating."

Just like that, all my concern disappeared.

"Asshole," I said before turning back to the window.

Two minutes later, to take the edge off my boredom and to annoy him, I asked, "Where are we?"

Nothing from him.

I turned completely towards him, arms still crossed. "Cody. Where are we?"

He blinked. "Shh."

"But - "

"Sh."

"But I was just asking - "

"Sh."

"You didn't even - "

"Shhh."

I sighed, exasperated. "Cody, I was just asking - "

"Shhhhhhhh." He even went to the liberty of throwing his hand out and covering my mouth.

I was irritated before, but now... this was just ridiculous!

I shoved his hand away from my face, furious. "What the hell?I was just asking where we were! Can't you even answer that?"

Cody snapped his head to look at me, his voice completely drowning out mine as he yelled, "Will you just fucking shut up?"