The known stranger

3. Gas station

I drove to school warily the next morning, Emily had refused to come along so I was by myself. I had forgotten to pop my meds in the morning thus the throbbing pain in my head was coming back, I cussed under my breath while parking my car under a maple tree in the parking lot, it was surrounded by a lot of them, they were painted with different hues of autumn at this time of the year, fall was my favourite season. I smiled as a rust brown leaf fell upon my nose.
With slow, deliberate steps I entered the english class. My eyes darted towards my seat at the back, he sat there, dressed in a black leather jacket and black denim, looking like a demigod. I gulped and looked around for another empty seat in the small classroom, there were none, so hurriedly I took a seat beside him.
"Hey" his voice was low and husky, I looked at him and forget to reply for a few seconds. He must have thought that I'm dim witted.
"Hello" I said and looked straight ahead. "What happened to your head?" He asked quietly.
"Umm...a glass pane fell upon me in the cafeteria" I mumbled. He furrowed his brows as soon as I said that. "Close your eyes" he said suddenly.
"What?"
"Close your eyes, right now"
My heart was beating fast as I did what he said. I felt a gust of cool air being blowed on my head, I gulped; what was happening ?
"Can I open my eyes now" I  asked softly. "Yes" he said sounding a little out of breathe. When I opened my eyes he was looking at me intently, also all of the pain in my head was gone.
He couldn't possibly have done that, right ? "My head" I said confused about what to make out of all of this, I inched away from him. He furrowed his brows, "you're suspicious of me aren't you?"
"How did you do that ?" I asked adamantly "and why?" I added, something was settling in my heart.
He looked at me for a few seconds and then looked down.
I touched his shoulder, a current passed between us, I gasped and pulled my hand back, his eyes widened. What was that ?
"Are you a magician or something ?" I chuckled lightly in hopes of easing some tension. He didn't say anything just looked on and that made me feel a little short of breath.
"May I have everybody's attention please" our teacher roared "this is the last assignment for the session, everyone is to be paired with your seat partners and have to write a drama, be as creative as you can be, you have exactly 2 months from now to submit. The chosen script will be played out in annual school fest" I looked at Ethan he smiled at me mischievously. "So when do we start partner"
"Never" I cut him short, I felt unexplainably drawn to him and I didn't like that.
"Are you free today?" He asked hopefully.
"No"
"Okay I'll see you at 5 at your place" he said with something in his eyes. I just nodded weakly when he wouldn't leave my gaze.
The bell rang, feeling frustrated with myself I packed my bag and stood up to leave but Ethan chose to follow me.
"Do you need something?" I looked back and asked without ever stopping.
"Yes, you" he said matter of factly.
"What?" I stopped dead in my tracks, he did too. A devilish grin appeared on his face. "What? It only seemed sensical to me to get to know my partner plus we got to start somewhere" he said with a strange gleam in his eyes "with the story" he added.
"Aren't we gonna work on that today?" I said folding my hands, I saw his gaze flicker at my chest for a second, a blush crept up on my face. He had a defeated expression on his face as he opened his mouth to say something "ok th..." but Brittney came running from behind laughing, she accidentally pushed me lightly into his hard chest, for a moment I was engulfed in his soothing scent, he held my arms to help me from loosing my balance, I stood up on my feet as soon as I could, tucking a strand behind my hair I glared at my best friend. "Hey I'm Brittney but you can call me bree or brit or whatever" she chuckled while shaking hands with Ethan, I rolled my eyes. "Hello I'm Ethan, I'm Ella's partner in English" Ethan politely replied. "Oh, that's cool why don't you join us at the lunch, maybe bring your friends too" she said with more enthusiasm than that was necessary.
Ethan broke out into one of his charming smiles as he looked at me "sure Brittney" he said and walked away.
I glared at her, "what?" She asked confused, I rolled my eyes and started to walk away, next class was maths-the only class I shared with bree. "Wait, what's wrong" she asked grabbing my hand. "Nothing's wrong let's go or we are gonna be late"
"Do you not like him?, I thought you guys were talking"
"No bree he's just, annoying" I breathed out while furrowing my brows. And there is something very odd about him.
"Annoying?" She said quirking up her brows, then stopped dead in her track "oh" she threw me a look. "Nooo don't even go there" I screamed like a teenager, well practically I was one. "Does our little sweet Ella has a crush on Ethan Theodore" she said suggestively. I pushed her away, she took a seat beside me smiling with twinkle in her eyes, but my expressions made her drop the topic.
I entered the cafétaria with Brittney, our seat was empty as usual, I didn't really feel like eating so I took a sandwich and went on to sit. Occasionally my eyes fluttered to the entrance but he didn't come, after 10 minutes or so I finally relaxed and ate my sandwich in peace.
My car was running low on gas so I decided to fill up after school, I drove to the gas station that was nearest to the school but it was closed, turns out all the gas stations in the area were closed owing to a strike. I googled to find out that the only place gas was available was across the town, after texting Emily, I decided to drive there. I needed some time to think and be by myself.
It was an overcast afternoon with a sky that was enveloped with grey clouds that were gathering over the horizon, the temperature was dropping so I rolled up the windshield and turned on the heater. It started to rain after sometime, I put my hood on and got out of the car to fill the tank. The gas station was quite secluded in this weather, after filling up I decided to get some mints, when I entered the shop it reeked of alcohol and weed, there were 3 middle aged men that sat behind the counter, drinking. Instantly I turned around and got into my car, one of them came out and started running towards me "please ma'am don't report us if you need something I will bring it here" his red eyes were filled with a menacing look, I gulped and thought of a plan. "Yeah.. can you get me some mints ?" I ought to say sternly but my voice came out very weak. "Sure ma'am" he said and went inside. I turned on the ignition and rode away as fast as I could, my heart was thundering inside my ribcage I wiped away a bead of sweat and turned the corner, after a few minutes a black mini van started following me, it turned on every turn that I took. On top of that it was raining so heavily you couldn't look beyond 20 feet.
Great, so I was going to end up dead today.
I glanced at my watch it was 5:30 in the evening, without panicking I drove as swiftly as I could-about 5 miles from here I would cross the woods and be in a populated area, I chanted in my head repeatedly.
4 miles ahead
3 miles ahead
The car stopped, I felt lightheaded and my body started shaking, I looked back there was nothing in sight. Taking a deep breathe I tried to start the ignition. Nothing. Wiping my tears and gathering some courage I got out in the heavy rain and ran towards the woods, after running for about 5 minutes I crouched down on a fallen log and cried till my head felt heavy and my lungs gave out.
Heavy shower was disguising any other noise and I couldn't really say if it was wise to go out yet so I decided to climb a tree and hide there for sometime. It was something dad had taught me in childhood, I smiled sadly at the distant memory. I wish you were here dad.
I wept while clutching my heart, with some difficulty I finally managed to climb on a thick branch, it was covered with moss, heavy rainfall had made everything slippery.
Rain was terribly ominous for me. I had concluded in that moment.
The canopy was thick so not a lot of raindrops poured down but my clothes were already soaked, I checked my pockets only to realise that I had left my phone in the car, some time passed by, darkness was falling around and I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of warm places and my mother's smile in my mind.

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A/N : I know this story has a lot of grammatical mistakes, so I'm sorry for that. English isn't my mother tongue.
And I hope y'all are liking this story so far :) like and comment if you have any suggestions.