The Infamous Levi Privet

Four.

I wake up groggy. The whiskey definitely was lingering from the night before, clouding my head and making me feel like functioning is the hardest thing in the world to do.

I roll over, propping up my pillows, ready to close my eyes for another half hour when I catch a glimpse of my alarm clock that sits on my bedside table. 11 am.

"Shit" I curse under my breath. I had my second shift at the cafe today and I had already screwed it up. I force myself out of bed, literally yanking myself out, and head to the shower. I let the warm water wash over me, cleansing me and making me feel like myself again.

Lindy is going to be furious.

I linger in the shower just a little longer than needed so that I can try to avoid the potential wrath that was waiting to be unleashed on me downstairs.

I change into clean clothes. I dress tidily just in case I have to go into the cafe. I could just imagine the walk of shame I would have to do passed Lindy, and Lucy.

When I get downstairs, it's quiet. No one seems to be home. I peak out of the front door and sure enough, Finn is out front, fiddling with parts on his truck.

"Hey Finn," I say biting my lip out of nervousness. "Thank you for getting me home last night."

Finn puts down what he is doing and strides over toward me. "You've got a bit of explaining to do to Mum. She's covered your shift today."

I cringe, letting my long dark hair fall in front of my face like a protective curtain.

"Don't worry about it though. You're getting used to everything and Friday's are quiet in the cafe anyway." he shoots me a reassuring smile.

"You feeling as bad as you look today?"

I scoff, shoving him playfully on his arm. "I deserve that," I say miserably.

Finn just laughs and wanders back toward his truck.

"Do you want to show me around some more today?" I call after him. My words fall weak. I am prepared for him to deny me.

Finn kicks the dirt underneath his shoe. He is thinking.

"Y'know what? Sure."

"If you have plans already, don't feel like you have to drop them for me."

"Nah, it was just helping some friends clean out the workshop. You ready to go now?"

I glance down at my bare feet. "I can be." I shrug, spin on my heels and hurry upstairs. The first thing on the agenda, popping some painkillers to subdue my pounding headache.

-

Finn's tour starts off rather slow with not a lot of chat and a lot of staring out the window. The mood was mostly my fault. I was still feeling the self-inflicted effects from the night before. My mind was also shrouded by thoughts of Jake. The supposed town 'riff-raff' who I found to be rather kind and thoughtful, albeit persuasive. He was different when it was just me and him compared to when it was his mates. Once we were in the booth at the bar alone, his whole 'Mr. Cocky and Confident' image vanished and he became nervous and genuine. I had never come across any boy with such a personality disorder where he could have literally two different personalities at once.

Finn flicked the indicator on and swung a left. The turn perked me up and my heart rate picked up as Finn drove off of the main road and started to cruise down a long gravel track. I had seen this scene in horror movies before.

I peeked in the rear vision mirror and watched as the trees absorbed the road behind us until all I could see was a thick wall of green. The gravel track was bumpy and paired with the sunlight on the road that streaked through the trees, it appeared to be covered in cracks like a broken window pane. It was enchanting being out here.