Project Runaway ✔️

Chapter Eight

Eight

Peach wasted no time in rushing me into a dress fitting for the wedding before I had a chance to run off and leave.

The dress was already picked out for me by one of her personal designers, but it needed to be taken in and fixed around my chest.

Tanner came along for moral support, but I didn't let him catch a glimpse of the horrid dress I was being forced to try on. Or so I tried. A normal teenage girl was already picky on what they wear, and I was especially picky since my expertise resided in fashion, a type of fashion that didn't include this disaster. The color of burnt orange, which is ironically exactly what I wanted to do to the dress. Its puff sleeves and raggedy tulle fit floppy against my skin and my heels weren't visible underneath. No matter if I wanted to, I simply didn't have time to fix the dress myself, unlike the royal romance movies would like you to think.

Suddenly, the curtain swooshed wide open and Tanner stood over me, comically glaring.

"Tanner, I could've been naked! Get out." I pushed his shoulders with my lanky arms, trying to force him away, slightly mortified he was witnessing such a monstrosity of a dress.

"The more you push me, the more I'll get closer." He meant it as a joke, but my mind rattled with those words. Hot mercury moved within my wrists, pulsating and painfully aching.

Taking him at his word, my smile glistened with delight as both my fists balled his shirt just below his chest, tugging him closer as if the flamboyang seamstress wasn't watching us in anticipation. He didn't have to get out of the room after all. In fact, I found pleasure in the game he was playing.

"Is that a threat or a promise, Tanner?" I winked, way too gleeful for a girl who was getting poked by pins in her thigh area.  One couldn't possibly find where the layers ended, so I don't blame the help.

"Easy there. I'm going to have to cuff you down. Shoot, I didn't mean it like that! Ugh, I'm going to stop talking right now." He groaned.

"Yes, I wouldn't want to get the wrong idea, but I think it's too late." Letting out a laugh, I turned in the direction of the mirror, watching a smirking reflection of Tanner.

He soon walked away when my seamstress closed the curtain again.

"Is he your boyfriend?" The man asked, mumbling with assorted silver pins in his mouth.

"No, he's playing hard to get."

As we finished my session, Tanner and I decided to stop for frozen yogurt, my cup being filled with vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and Tanner's filled with strawberry cheesecake and popping candy.

We were hardly full from our dessert, but our pockets weren't full either so we decided on going home rather than spending more money.

While I lost myself in the world of the radio, Tanner noticed something I hadn't.

"Pull your truck over; you've got a flat."

"Seriously?"

"Do you have a tool box?"

"Am I supposed to? Ugh, I think Ryan might have put one in the back if I remember correctly."

"You can thank me for that; I told him to put it in there for you, because luckily, I know you all too well and knew you wouldn't keep a kit in here."

"You bruise my intelligence, Tanner." Even if he was right.

"Get out of the truck." He ordered, hopping onto the pavement and staring at me from the door.

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm teaching you how to change a tire."

"Oh, thanks but I'm fine."

"You either come out with me or we will be on the side of the road all night. It's important I teach you in case I'm not here to do it for you. Yiu know that no matter the distance, I'm willing to travel to help you, but ya never know what could happen to me, or if I'm gravely ill." Talking about the 'what ifs' always hit a soft spot for me, so I reluctantly followed him out, watching the traffic as I reached him.

Tanner and I loved helping one another. For instance, I forced him into learning how to cut his own hair so I no longer had to do it for him. In return, he showed me how to cut the grass. (Not that I actually do it.) Manual labor such as cutting grass or changing a tire wasn't my strong suit, and definitely not in these melting conditions outside.

Tanner loved to work on cars, and I always imagined him opening up a shop one day, or even as a fun side job. Maybe if I'm rich one day, I'll buy him a nice vintage car.

I took off my jewelery and my just- ironed shirt, leaving me in a breezy spaghetti-strap top.

From below me on the ground rested Tanner, squinting his eyes to see me in the sun with his mouth agape.

"What?" I asked him.

"Nothing. Let's get to work."

After unscrewing these bolt-thingys and using tools I've never seen before, the flat tire was off. I wouldn't say I was a professional, but my handiwork along side Tanner's was better than my use of tool terminology.

"What's wrong with it?" I asked, confused.

"We hit a nail and the tire's no good so you can save up the air compressor. We'll ride on the spare until we get home."

"Oh gosh, I'm going to die out here. I can't believe we have to put another tire on!"

"Well, that's kinda how this works, princess. Or we can walk home." He laughed.

I grabbed the tire compressor with tired arms, taking a lesuirely walk to the car wasting as much time as he worked on the tire. I think I did enough.

As I put the compressor onto the mat, I realized my dad's watch wasn't on the seat cushion.

"Oh no. Shit." As I looked for the Rolex, I heard Tanner's voice in the background, asking me what was wrong. As I told him, with understanding he stopped what he was doing to help me.

"I'm sorry I interrupted you, but I can't lose that watch." I panicked.

"I know it's special to you." He said, resting a hand on my shoulder before rummaging on the seat once more.

Finally, with a little digging, we found the watch inside the crease of two seat cushions. I say we, but really Tanner was the one who was better at hide and seek, thinking to look in the cracks and hidden spaces invisible to the eye.

"Here ya go." He grabbed onto my wrist and set the watch safely where it belonged, careful not to get his blackened, tire-marked hands on the glass of the watch. 

"It goes on the other arm." He reached to remove it and I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"I was totally kidding! It's perfect, thank you." We momentarily stared at one another smiling, oblivious to the tire that needed fixing. A piece of my hair flew against his face tickling his chin so I backed away.

"So about that tire. Wanna show me how to put it on?" I said, deciding a little work couldn't kill me.

"It'll be my pleasure."