Attention

8

___

First two hours

We started our journey to the beach once we were finished eating and I couldn't get one thing off my mind.

"You know," I started. "you didn't have to pay for the both of us."

He shrugs. "I wanted too. Take it as my thanks for helping me. A lot of people wouldn't do what you're doing."

I smile to myself and look outside at the passing trees. The sky was starting to turn dark and fill up with gray clouds, looking like it was about to rain.

I can't believe the situation I'm in right now. I'm going on a roadtrip with Carter. The boy I've had a crush on for so long. But he's right. I didn't expect his life to be like this. I just assumed he had a happy life with his parents and his sibling and I shouldn't have. Just because someone is always happy and has so much good recognition, it doesn't mean that they aren't going through a tough time.

My eyes started to feel heavy and start to droop so, I just let it happen. I lean my head against the window, falling asleep to the low volume of the radio.

The next thing I know, I'm being awoken by a gentle tap on my shoulder. I try to ignore it because I was sleeping so good but it became more persistent.

I slowly open my eyes, my vision and mind being a little foggy from just waking up. "Huh?"

"Ava, wake up. Ava." I hear the voice call.

I finally sit up, rubbing at my eyes and look over at Carter with a drowsy look on my face, the one who's been trying to wake me. "Oh hey, how long was I sleep for?" I ask, yawning.

He looks at the time on his phone. "Like an hour and a few minutes."

And then I notice that we are pulled over in front of a motel and it was storming harder than ever right now.

He notices my confusion. "Yeah, I woke you to tell that I had to pull over because the storm was getting really bad and it was hard to see so, I'm waiting for it to calm down."

I nod. "Alright, that's fine."

We sit in silence while the heavy raindrops from outside fill it. Very loud thunder booms from the sky, making me jump in fear. I hate storms. They just remind me of danger and chaos and I don't like it.

"You alright?" Carter asks me, noticing my jump.

I nod, hesitantly. "Uh, yeah, I just really hate storms."

Carter points at the motel. "We can get a room super quick just to wait off the storm."

Being in a motel room with Carter? Sounds tempting. "Um, no, it's fine. I can handle it."

This time it's lightning that strikes very close by and I let out a yelp. My face heats up in embarrassment when Carter has a small teasing smile on his face and says, "You were saying?"

"Alright." I mumble.

-

Getting a motel room was really easy and cheap. Carter was gonna pay all of it but I couldn't help but feel guilty so I had to beg him to let me, at least, pay half. And I did.

We make it to our room and it looks exactly like you would expect a motel room to look. Like a crack house.

My face scrunches together. "Is that underwear?" I say once I notice underwear hanging from a lamp.

"Yeah," Carter nods in disgust. "don't touch anything."

I sit down on the bed and Carter follows suit next to me. A muffled thunder and pattering heavy rain makes its way into the silence between us. I look around the room, scrunching my face in disgust at all the stains on the wall. What kind of stains? I don't want to know.

"So, what made you so scared of storms?" Carter asks, looking down at me.

I smile at his attempt to make conversation. "When I was eight years old, my neighbor's dog got struck by lightning so, that scared me forever."

A shocked look appears on his face. "Oh, that's actually really sad. I thought you were gonna say just because and not have a reason."

I chuckle, shrugging. "I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?"

A light smile shows on his face and he just stares at me for a second. His eyes search my face for what? I don't know but it makes me nervous so I look away, look away just in time to see a bug crawl near my foot. And I do what any normal person would have done.

I scream with both of my eyes widened and quickly lift both of my feet off the ground and onto the bed. "A bug! A bug!"

In the process of my freakout, I didn't realize I clutched onto Carter's arm. But I did.

Carter doesn't even seem to mind that I'm clutching him so desperately. "Where? I'll kill it."

I gulp, trying to ignore the feel of his muscles under my palm. "It went under the bed but it was so close to crawling on me." I shudder. "We need to get out of here."

My breath gets caught in my throat when Carter's hand reaches up to cover mine. "Wait, do you hear that?"

I strain my ears but hear nothing. I shake my head. "No."

His green eyes pierce me and a slow smile is suddenly on his face. "Exactly. The storm's stopped. So, we can leave this terrible motel."

I beam in realization. "Alright, then, let's go."

A/N:

That was...interesting, wasn't it?