amity // phan

twenty.

-dan-

Over the years, my dad had bailed on me a few times, from missed birthdays to postponed movies. But he'd never left me waiting in a parking lot before.

The night was cool and damp, the clouds hanging low in the sky, like they were about to crash into the earth. I was sitting cross-legged on the pavement, my phone clutched in my hands, trying to decide who to call if he never showed up to get me.

My mom wouldn't be home until late that night, Spencer and Amelia were seeing a concert together, and Phil's phone had been going straight to voicemail since he'd left.

I ended up calling the only person I knew who I thought might answer. My fingers were shaking as I dialed.

"Hi, Damien," I said quietly. "Sorry to, um, bother you– where are you right now?"

"Just got off work."

My voice caught a little. I swallowed. "Listen, I was just wondering if . . . Could you give me a ride? I'm at the plaza off Aberdeen and it's too far to walk to the bus stop. I wouldn't have called you, but–"

There was a pause, and I thought I heard him laugh. "I'll be there in like twenty minutes."

Then he hung up.

-

When Damien's car finally pulled up, I didn't know if I was more relieved or terrified.

It wasn't like he'd actually done anything to me since the beginning of the year, but we also hadn't really been alone since then. And it was hard to forget that he could still beat the shit out of me if he wanted to. Hell, he could probably hold up the sky with his fingertips if he put his mind to it.

I was sitting awkwardly in his passenger seat, my eyes trained on the floor in front of me. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, I could feel the way he was watching me out of the corner of his eye.

"Were you stood up by a date or something?" he asked finally, as he pulled out of the lot.

"Stood up by my dad."

"Ouch," he said.

I drummed my fingers on my legs, trying to think of something, anything, to say to him. But he was Damien freaking Sedcole, after all. A senior who had nothing in common with me, and who wanted nothing to do with me.

I leaned back in my seat, and we drove through the city in silence, the lights around us glittering and laughing in the dark.

"Hey," I said, when he drove past the turn that lead to my house. "You're going the wrong way."

He tapped his hands on the steering wheel, and he blew out a breath. "Actually, I was thinking I could show you something first, if that's okay."

I looked at him carefully, but his eyes were still trained firmly on the road.

If that's okay.

"That's fine," I said softly.

I was surprised by the hope rustling it's wings in my chest.

He was still Damien, after all. And maybe he'd let me down again, maybe he'd be cruel, maybe he still hated me just as much as before.

But deep down, glimmering inside me, was the fleeting idea that he might not.

-

We drove quietly for a few more miles, the city giving way to smaller and smaller roads. Right when we were in the middle of nowhere, Damien pulled over, and got out of the car.