Escapade » z.m

42. Gemma Can Actually Drive Fast, Another Miracle

"You're slow today." Gemma says abruptly. It cuts through the silence, accentuated by the thawed snow that's gentle beneath the tyres. There's a certain stillness in the afternoon, even though it's not snowing anymore. The winds aren't moving and the busy part of Ravenford is hidden inside the warmth of it's home too.

Zayn turns his head towards her slowly, when it dawns on him that she is talking to him. She is driving today, the car. Of course, it isn't the best decision he has made, but how many best decisions has he made anyway?

Letting her drive the car, he can let that slip. She had insisted, after all, and he had found it hard to waver her persistence, not when he was in no mood for comebacks after avoiding an impending argument with Lucas the time he had gone to get the car keys.  Also the fact that his backache had been creeping up again, but if  he is honest, she doesn't drive rough. More importantly, she doesn't drive slow, like she does with her scooter.

"Sorry?" He blinks, his head leaning heavily against the headrest. His dark hair are starting to fall on his face now, but he is adamant on not cutting them, so he has tucked them in his beanie, which had dried only today after hours of being drenched.

"You're slow today." She says again, sparing him a glance. "You let me drive without much fight. You aren't even demanding any music. It's your thing, isn't it? Listening to music while you drive."

"I'm not driving."

Gemma tucks away a smile, "Yeah, but you know what I mean." She says, steering to the right to overtake another car. "What's happened? Not well?"

Zayn bites his lip and straightens his back, fixing the seatbelt. "Why isn't it your thing?" He asks, leaning ahead so he can talk to her. "Listening to music in the car? It's everybody's thing."

Gemma glances at him, and shrugs, looking ahead on the road again. "I don't know. Maybe when I'm driving my scooter, I don't have that facility, so maybe I'm habitual to the silence. I've never thought about this." She says between a chuckle. "Plus, driving is like...me time. I can introspect and...stuff."

"Emm hmm." Zayn nods understandingly, a smirk making his lips twitch. "Explains a lot."

She shoots him a confused glance. "What do you mean?"

"Why you crashed your scooter even when you drive so slow." He smirks, watching her lips part in surprise. "Must have zoned out."

She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it. "Please, Zayn, this is a sensitive topic." She says after a moment, hiding her sheepish smile. It is a sensitive topic for her, that night. It was the consequence of her own deliberate carelessness, after all. However exaggerated the results might have been.

She doesn't like feeling stupid, and the night had made her feel exactly that. On many levels. Although, each time Zayn makes some teasing comment about it, the weight of it becomes more bearable. "How many times are you going to bring it up? It wasn't exactly my fault." She adds, hoping secretly he wouldn't stop doing that.

Zayn pulls his eyebrows closer. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." She murmurs, no resentment plaguing the softness in her voice.

Zayn looks at her, at the small smile that's playing on her lips, the red hair that fall down her shoulders. He wants to ask her so many things, ask what she had been doing driving so late. If she was running away too, the way he was? Or was it a simple desire to feel the night? Did she need some air, because she felt suffocated in the walls of her own home too? When would she answer him?

"On a serious note though," Zayn speaks instead, knowing full well his mouth would betray him if he prodded those questions any longer. "Please be careful with the car. It's not mine."