They Don't Know About Us (BWWM)

Chapter 9

Ava woke slowly the next morning, soft sunlight gracing her eyes as she gradually opened them. She had no idea where she was at first, her surroundings seeming hazy and unfamiliar for a few moments. She pushed herself up into a sitting position, glancing around the motel room only to see Gavin sleeping on the floor. Memories from last night rushed back to her, and she nearly wanted to curl up and cry. How had she gotten into this situation? It still blew her mind how quickly things had changed in her life. One moment, she was happy and excelling in college, then she was on the run with her professor to who knows where.

Gavin stirred a little, the sunlight cascading onto his face. His eyes slowly opened and immediately shifted to her, like his first instinct was to check on her. "Hey," he greeted her quietly, his eyes blinking slowly as he gradually woke himself up.

"Hi," Ava murmured, her eyes casting themselves down to the blankets bunched up around her. Looking at him just made everything feel all that more real, and she didn't like that feeling.

Gavin kicked off his blanket and got to his feet, his arms moving to stretch. "Well, I'm still your teacher. So, I'm going to teach you something today."

"What topic of psychology could you possibly be teaching me today?" Ava asked, narrowing her eyes in confusion as she slid herself out of the bed, straightening her clothes. She really enjoyed learning things about psychology, but she figured now maybe wasn't the best time for a lesson.

"Not psychology this time. Think of it more like a life skill," Gavin replied slowly, testing his words out. He threw his pillow and blanket back on the bed before motioning for her to follow him outside. He went into his car and grabbed a few papers from his glove department before taking the license plate off his car, dead silence filling the air in the motel parking lot.

Ava just stared at him, confused as to what elaborate scheme he was planning. She glanced around to see that no one was around like last night, the place having an eerie feel to it. Not even the soft orange and blue of dawn could comfort her.

"Alright, let's go shopping," Gavin told her, a small smile lighting up his face as he led her across the street to an abandoned used car dealership. Most of the cars were old and rusted, but a few were in alright condition. "They know my car, so it'll probably be better if we switch it up a little to throw them off," he explained to her as he stood next to an old white Corolla.

Ava nodded silently, finding that idea smart, but there would be no keys in the car. She didn't know how they could actually take any of these cars. She moved around to the driver's side of the vehicle to see him open the unlocked door and sit in the seat, his body leaning down beneath the steering wheel. "You're not going to ...," she trailed off as he started unscrewing a screw on a panel below the steering wheel.

"First, you take off the steering column cover," Gavin merely replied, steadily showing her step by step how to hotwire a car until the engine rumbled to life. "Any questions?" He asked once they were both situated in the car and pulling back out onto the road.

Ava had a lot of questions in her head ranging from how did he know how to do that to why did he teach her. It was strange to her that she had just witnessed someone hotwiring a car that wasn't their own. She had only seen these types of things in movies, and reality seemed too separate from that for this to actually happen right in front of her eyes. "Who taught you that?"

Gavin's expression seemed to darken some, a bit of an unpleasant expression crossing his face as he kept his eyes focused on the road ahead of them. "My father. He taught me a lot of things," he murmured, a hint of resentment in his tone.

Ava could tell there was tension between Gavin and his father since she was fully experienced with tense situations with parents. She didn't want to pry, so she merely nodded, a small frown adorning her face. She couldn't help but feel for Gavin a little. She knew what it was like to have a rocky relationship with parents. It had caused her more hardship and discomfort than she was prepared to face throughout her life. Her friends had been great at filling some of the gap, but there was still a hole in her life that her parent's support and affection should have filled.