Well Beyond Expectation

Chapter Nine.

Weston

           

I slam my foot into the gas pedal and the Jag lurches out onto the street. I grin a little when I see her grab the Oh, shit! Bar on the side to keep herself settled into the seat. I turn out onto the main highway and turn in the opposite direction of the school campus and instead I peel down the main road towards the Bay View Mall.

The ride is quiet, so quiet in fact that I keep having to glance over to make sure she hasn't like tuck and rolled out of the car or fallen asleep or something. However, every time I sneak a glance she is still there, her big eyes trained straight ahead, her bottom lip being attacked by her teeth. I wonder what she's thinking about and I almost ask, but then I shake my head at myself and focus back on the road, especially when I notice the see through state of her wet white blouse.

Whereas a girl in a wet shirt would usually pull up some other kinds of thoughts for me, in this moment all it does is remind me of all of the things she'd told me earlier. I'll admit when I drove by, casually, not looking for her or anything like that, but when I saw her...It scared the crap out of me. She was all balled up small and shaking on a damn bench on the side of the road and it only got worse when she looked up at me, her eyes and face wet with her tears and she just started pouring it all out. I've been feeling like shit for her for a while, but it only got worse then. When she hugged me, I knew.

She's a complete and total wreck.

I've got no misconceptions that she turned to me because she wanted to, I know she hates me with all of her tiny ferocity. So the fact that she was able to break down that way to me, the bane of her existence, it broke another large piece of the ice around my heart away. She needed someone. So badly that it didn't even matter that it was me. And that made me feel like crap.

In the distance the mall comes into view, a big sprawling white stoned building surrounded with light up billboards and signs boasting the top of the line stores inside.

The second I put on my blinker to turn in she whips her head towards me.

"No way." She crosses her arms over her chest.

"Yes way." I roll my eyes at her, pulling up to the front of the nearly empty lot and putting the car in park. She sets her jaw and stares back at me defiantly but I meet her glare with the same look. I shrug out of my blazer and toss it at her, chuckling at the way it drapes over her head when she was too slow to catch it. "I'm not taking you anywhere fun looking like a swamp rat."

She quickly jerks the blazer off of her head and balls her tiny fists into it. "Weston, some of us don't have disposable money to just throw away on a new outfit just because they feel like it." Her icy tone is short lived, and she sighs. "Why didn't you just take me home?"

The sadness in her voice is why. I can't let her day go this way. I don't really know why I give a shit about turning her shitty morning around, but I do, so I am going to fix it. With or without her help.

"Come on, Pencil Neck." I lightly punch her shoulder, like she one of the guys, even though she clearly isn't. "You need to learn to live a little."

She leans her head back, her neck arched, my eyes running down it and then she looks back at me, almost catching me checking her out. She sighs, looking reluctant, but then she turns and shoves the door open and gets out of the car.

I follow her out in a hurry, surprised she's actually going along with it without more of a fight than that. But by the time I get to the other side of the car with her she's standing there with her hands in her face. "Now what?" I groan. There is no winning here.