Strike-Out

Night at the Bar

Chapter 14

"Hold Isaiah, I'm gonna go find Moon." Eva replaces my hands with hers and I get up and leave the room.

Moon busts through the front door with a bag in his hand. He stops when he see's me.

"Oh God Chapin you're all bloody." He runs over to me, dropping the bag. "Are you okay."

I'm shaking, I'm cold, and I'm bloody. No I'm not 'okay'.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I lie. "I just expected you to be here when I got here."

"I am so sorry." He kisses my forehead. "Let me go take care of Isaiah and I'll be right back."

He goes into the room and Eva comes out.

"Is there a sink in here?" I nod. I remember seeing one behind the counter.

"Here, follow me. I need to wash up too. Hopefully my clothes are clean."

I let my arms soak in the warm water. It almost makes me fall asleep.

"Feel good?" Tom's voice awakens me.

"Yeah."

"I bet." He wraps his arms around my waist and kisses my head. "Hi Eva." He says with his lips against my hair still.

"Hi Moon." She says nonchalantly.

He kisses my head again, and again. I can feel his beard getting tangled in my hair. I turn around to play with it.

He smiles at me.

"I'm glad you're here." Tom kisses my cheek gently. I rub my fingers over it.

I remember his bite mark.

"Look at this." I pull my jacket down to show him the mark.

His eyes get big. "Wow. I did a good job!"

"My mom saw it, and my brother, and Eva." I whisper angrily at him. "My mom wasn't too happy."

"I guess we're going to have to find a better spot." He winks at me. "Why are you so tense?" He feels my arms. I am tense.

"I don't know I was scared, and now I'm freezing."

"Oh come here." He pulls me in. I tuck my arms under me and against him to stay warm. He lets go and walks to the counter, pulling something from it.

A jacket.

It was his letterman.

How cute.

He wrapped it around me, holding me again. "Stay close." He whispers.

Eva is laying in a booth, probably asleep.

"In one of the back rooms is a few couches, why don't we go snuggle up in there?" He pulls me towards the door.

"Isaiah will wake up in the morning and see us." I say worried.

"Who cares? He's going to find out."

"I guess you're right, but what if he tells my mom?" I pull Tom to me and breath in his smell.

"He won't, and if he does I'll take care of it. Stop worrying."

"Come on, Eva!" I holler to Eva.

"Would you like to sleep in the back of my truck with me?" Moon asks, taking me by surprise.

"I never thought you'd ask." I reply jokingly.

I tell Eva where we're going and she nods tiredly. Then she walks into the back room.

Moon pulled me out of the building. Before me was his little black chevy truck,

"This..." Confidence laces his voice a bit too strongly. "is my baby."

He runs his hand down the hood of it, and I can't help but laugh.

"Oh yeah?" I say jokingly.

"There's not room for two baby's around here." He gives me a strange look before replying.

"Well you're my baby girl, that's my baby truck." I laugh at his efforts.

"So what's her name?"

"You just assume it's a she?" He scuffled his beard.

"You called it your baby..." I walked up to him. "I would hope you aren't gay."

He dropped the tailgate on his truck, and with one hand swooped me up and place me onto it.

"If I were gay, I wouldn't do this."

His hand went straight to my head and twisted into a tight grab with my hair.

My toes curled as he went in for the kill.

"You're..." Kiss. "So..." Kiss. "Irresistible." Kiss.

He let go before I could realize and slipped away to the front of his truck.

I wrap myself tightly in his letterman and shivered. The night was still. So silent you payed more attention to the flow of air than surrounding things.

His front door slammed shut with a clank of metal as he made his way back to me. On his arm was a blanket. He tossed it into the bed of his truck, then hopped over and into it.

I just sat there until he grabbed my legs just under the knee caps an swung them over. I was too tired to resist. He pushed me to the side and spread out the blanket.

I rolled over it until I hit his knees.

He smiled at me squinting.

"You know something?" He says quietly.

"What?"

"Your eyes," He rubbed his beard and then looked up. "look so beautiful when the moon reflects on them."

"Which moon?" I ask jokingly.

"Both." He says seriously. I swallow the spit built in my mouth.

I look up at him.

There he is, and here am I,

But for some reason, neither of us could move. I was frozen to the bed of his truck.

We held eye contact for a while. Until he broke the silence I secretly appreciated.

"You're so beautiful Chapin."