Recently Adjacent

RA 20: "What a rush!"

I don't really know what to say other than enjoy the chapter, so...enjoy the chapter!

Henry:

Mackenzie was still driving by the time Mr. Doughboy invited himself into the van right next to me and the boys.

Girls in the front, boys in the back. 

That was the only interesting thing I can say about our time on the road. We all got pretty used to McKenzie's crazy driving, even Mr. Doughboy.

There were these awkward moments when I would look over to him and look away and he'd do the same. I don't like when people cover themselves up like that. It's as if he has something to hide. It's already bad that we let him catch a ride when he was running away from something. 

Suspiciously, I looked to him and said, "Why are you covered in all black?"

He looked at me for a good 10 seconds and then had the nerve to ask, "What?"

"I asked why you're dressed like that - in all black?"

"Well black is my favorite color I guess."

"I get that, I'm just curious why you look like you're ready to rob a bank at night?"

His demeanor suddenly changes and he fiddles with his hands as he looks away from me. "Is there something else we can talk about?"

"Sure thing," Andrea butts in from the passenger seat and makes eye contact with the boy in the rear-view mirror before asking him her next question. "So where are you headed?"

"I'm not really headed anywhere. Just going where the road takes me." After a long pause he starts speaking again. "I thought that going away would help me clear my head. So far it's doing just that, but I'm becoming kind of lonely."

"If you want you can stay with us." McKenzie says as soon as he stopped speaking. It's as if she has been prepared to say that all along.

This trip is already longer than I expected, I don't have my vehicle, I'm trapped with Andrea who was NOT supposed to be here, a hotel is chasing our tails, I have a 14 year old driving us around in a foreign state, I have to pee, and every single lousy plan I had previously is being ruined and she wants to involve a 6th party?

"NO!" I yell out.

"Hehehe. He's just joking." McKenzie laughs it off nervously. I can see her cheeks turning bright red as she drives. "Aren't you, Daddy."

Was she trying to seem like a sweet, innocent child? If so it was very ugly. She couldn't even call me "daddy" without squeezing her teeth together.

"No, child," I respond back with the same tight teeth.

"DADDY!" sounding like a devil child, McKenzie quickly clears her voice to sound sickeningly (and fakely if that is even a word) debonair. "Mh-mmm. Daddy, you know I am driving right now," she says robotically.

It was a threat. I know it.

She turns her head around to look straight at me going 70 in a 35. I didn't even know those went that fast. The double sided road was clear, but that could change in an instant.