Her cheeks turned pink and a frown pulled on her pouty mouth.
“I shouldn’t have come here. I just wanted to say thanks.” Her eyes cut me before she turned and walked away.
She made it to the hood of the waiting car that was still running before my conscious peeked out and slapped the shit out of me.
“Hey,” I called out to her.
She stopped and faced me again. Instantly, I felt like the biggest dick in the South when I saw her eyes brimming with tears. Someone so sensitive didn’t stand a chance around a person like me, but knowing that I’d probably never see her face again made it okay for me to kind of apologize for being myself for some reason.
“I’m rude, but you’ve seen firsthand what happens to shiny things in a chop shop.” I gestured to the world around us. “Your best bet is to stay away from these parts, princess. A pretty thing like you wouldn’t last two hours out here. How long were you at The Pit last night before you were dying on the bathroom floor? An hour, tops? Think of my rudeness as a blessing.” I adjusted my guitar case in my sweaty palm and turned toward my trailer door.
I looked back to get one final glimpse of her. The contrast between her and the trailer park around her was alarming. Although, with her fair skin, white hair, and pale-blue eyes, I’m sure she stuck out just about anywhere she went. She was unique, a single snowflake with her own icy patterns, and if she stayed in my hell of a neighborhood any longer she’d melt.
“Have a nice trip back to Wonderland, snowflake,” I said as I opened my trailer door.
“My name is Patience,” she snapped.
Patience… it was as unique as its owner. I liked it, although I’d never admit that out loud. Instead, I shook my head and laughed like she’d told me a joke, walked inside, and shut her out.
Four
Patience
“What an asshole!” Megan said once I got back in the car. “He had no right to talk to you like that. All you were doing was saying thank you. Geez, how hard would it have been to say you’re welcome and politely walk away? Chet said he was a dick to girls, but damn.”
She was right, of course. It took everything I had in me to get out of the car and spit the words “thank you” out. I’m already a naturally shy person, but the fact that he’d seen me in the worst state I’d ever been in made me even more uncomfortable. No matter how shaky my body was or how nervous I was, I knew thanking him was the right thing to do. He had saved my life, after all.
Now, after he so rudely snubbed me and walked away, I was thinking I should have just let sleeping dogs lie.
“What did Chet say his name was again?”
“Zeke Mitchell,” she said as she pulled off the bumpy rock road to the main highway. “Even his name screams asshole. The girls love him, though. What is it about girls and cocky assholes? I’ll never understand it.”
“Says the girl who chases every cocky cock in a ten-mile radius.” I laughed.
“Hey, now! A girl has needs. I’m sure one day I’ll find a nice boy I can take home to meet my mom, but until then, I’ll enjoy getting roughed up by the bad ones.” She jokingly purred then growled.
“I’m convinced there’s something wrong with you. Anyway, I did what I came here to do. I would’ve died had he not taken me to the hospital. I thanked him and now I can forget him.”
“Yeah, that would probably be best. Listen, Pay, I’m really sorry about last night. I swear I thought you left. I blew your phone up and went searching for you the minute I realized we got separated.” She looked over at me and frowned as she made a right turn.
She’d rushed over to my house the minute I was released from the hospital and then she spent the next hour crying on my lap and apologizing. It’s not like she drugged me. It happened and it would never happen again. You live, you learn, and you move past it. I’d been through worse and I’d go through worse again.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, and up until my arms went numb I was having a good time.” I tried to make her feel better. “But I don’t know if that’s my kind of place.”
“I understand. I know it’s not really your scene. I’ll go alone.” She jerked her car into my driveway and slammed on the brakes.
I grabbed the dash to keep my head from being smashed into it at the sudden stop.
“Why in the world would you go back there?” I asked, appalled.
“Well, I didn’t say anything because of all the craziness going on, but Chet asked me to come watch him play next weekend. Oh my God, he’s so freaking hot. He texted me this morning and called me beautiful. I think I’m in love.” She sighed.