I wasn’t stupid; she was going to try and get me to meet Draven, and that wasn’t going to happen - not after watching that performance. I was sure to act like an idiot; besides, I didn’t know how to thank him for writing that song I loved – it had gotten me though the last few days – through the moments that were too much for me to handle.
I sat down in the driver’s seat of my car and shook my head no. Madison walked over to the passenger door, opened it, and leaned in. “What are you doing?” she asked, annoyed.
“Going home – need a ride?” I asked sarcastically.
She quickly reached over and grabbed my keys. “Tell you what,” she said, backing out of the door.
I flew out of my door, prepared to fight her to get them back. She flung her hand back as far as she could and threw my keys in the field behind us. “When you find your keys – we’ll go.”
I could have ripped her to shreds - she threw them in grass that was almost two inches tall that cars were creeping across. “I cannot believe you – how could you?!”
“Relax, just going to say goodbye to a few people, then I’ll help you look.” She took off in a sprint and yelled, “It’s for your own good!” over her shoulder.
As soon as I found my keys, I was gone - with or without her. The cars that were driving over the field she threw them in were starting to thin out. I reached in my pocket and turned up my music as loud as it would go. I stared at the shadows the car lights were creating across the grass - once I was sure they were ordinary, I began to walk cautiously forward, studying the ground; it wasn’t muddy, but the ground was soft. In the back of my mind, I had this fear that one of the passing cars had pushed my keys into the ground and I’d never find them.
I scanned the area she’d thrown them in for almost thirty minutes. With each second that passed, I grew more and more furious with Madison. Most of the cars avoided the area I was in, and I tried to take advantage of the light they gave the grass as they passed. I crouched lower, looking for any sign of the silver on my keys; then all at once I saw the shadows across the blades of grass began to slither toward me. I held in a scream that wanted to come out and somehow found anger. “Go away,” I said firmly. They ignored my request and began to grow - before I knew it, I was surrounded by dark figures.
I stood slowly and held my glare. Under my breath, I began to hum the melody that was blaring in my ears; then out of nowhere, the field I was standing in lit up and the figures instantly evaporated. A sly grin spread across my face as I turned and looked into the bright headlights that were shining on me. They turned slightly, revealing the gray Hummer they belonged to. My heart started to beat violently against my chest as I saw the shadowed driver put it in park.
He slowly opened his door and stepped out. I could see him clearly now: it was Draven. He walked cautiously to my side and tilted his head. I reached my hand in my pocket and turned the music down so I could hear him.
“Are you OK?” he asked seriously.
I looked to the shadowed grass, then into his eyes - I was sure he thought I was insane. It took me a second to formulate the words in my head before I could answer him. “My friend…my friend threw my keys out here because she wanted to stay longer,” I finally said, trying to hold a calm composure.
“Charlie…do you remember me?” he asked quietly as his eyes, which were full of a painful anger, danced across my face.
My heart began to beat violently against my chest as my mind echoed his perfect voice in my thoughts - it seemed so glaringly familiar to me. I looked down as echoes of him saying random words that I couldn’t make out rushed in and out of my vacant memory. “I guess we knew each other when we were little or something?” I slowly looked up to see if there was any truth in what I said.
His flawless jawline locked as he nodded once. “Yeah….we did.”
For a second, I thought he sounded sad, but in his stunning green eyes the painful anger remained. I turned my music down a little more so I could focus on him – his voice – every part of him. I smiled slightly and tried as best I could to hide the undeniable growing infatuation I had for him.
“I saw your mom today,” he said, smiling faintly.
“I remember,” I said, blushing slightly – my heart was racing so wildly, I could barely hear myself.
He nodded as his eyes carefully looked all around me. The silence was awkward, and I had to break it. “Good show tonight,” I said quickly.
“You did like it?” he said as a smile threatened to invade his perfect lips.
“Yeah…why wouldn’t I have?” I asked, feeling the heat in my ears burn.
“It just took you a while to move to the music,” he said, shyly looking over his shoulder at the passenger in his Hummer. He shook his head once, then looked back at me.
“You saw me?” I asked in a shaky voice. I was absolutely humiliated.
He turned back to me and looked intently into my eyes. “You’re hard not to see.”
I shook my head and looked down. “I don’t think any band has ever made me move like that – at least not in public.”
I dared to look up at him, only to see him smiling perfectly down at me. “Best compliment I’ve ever gotten,” he said quietly as his eyes searched over me.
“I’m sure you’ll find more; you have a natural talent,” I said, growing more comfortable with formulating simple sentences.
“We all do,” he said under his breath.
I heard Madison yell my name. Before I could break out of the trance I was in, I felt her crash into me.
“There you are. Oh – my – God, I really just ran all the way over here,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“Too many energy drinks?” I said shortly, absolutely furious with her.
“Nope. They’re just starting to kick in,” she said, pushing one into my hand.
“I don’t want it,” I said, giving it back to her. “I’m ready to go, but I can’t because you lost my keys.”
“No I didn’t – here,” she said, pulling them from her pocket and laughing out of control.
“What?! I watched you throw them,” I said, snatching them from her hand.
“No, you watched me pretend to throw them – very convincingly, obviously.” She looked at Draven. “I was looking all over for you.”
“Right here,” he said, quietly staring at me.
“Great show tonight,” she said to Draven as she began to dance along with the music the band on stage was playing.
I smiled slightly at him and said, “Nice to meet you.” I then looked at Madison and said, “I’m leaving with or without you – now.”
I started to walk to my car.
“Alright, you win – you don’t know where you’re going anyway; that GPS has no signal,” Madison yelled.
I’d taken almost four steps before I felt Draven’s hand on my shoulder; I swear, I could feel energy coming off him. I hesitated and turned.
“Wait,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you two to get in a car.”
My cheeks flushed; I was sure now that he’d seen me countering the shadows in the field and thought that I was insane – too insane to drive.
“I’m her ride, and I have no idea where I am – I’m kinda out of options.”
He looked over his shoulder at Madison, then at me. “Let her ride in my truck. I’ll show you how to get back.”
“You want her to ride in your truck?” I asked, trying to hide the anger and jealousy I felt for Madison – did he like her?
She started jumping in place. “Sounds like a plan to me,” she said, running to his Hummer.
“Alright, then,” I said, looking down and walking to my car.
I sat down in the driver’s seat and turned up the music in my headphones just loud enough to cover the threat of the whispers – I couldn’t believe she’d just ditch me – I mean, what kind of friend was that? I could see the lights from the Hummer coming up from behind me. I couldn’t figure out wha
t he was doing; I was supposed to follow him, so why was he behind me? I was looking out the driver’s side window when I heard my passenger door open. For a second, I thought Madison had realized how cold it was to make me drive back on my own - but when I turned to the passenger side, I saw Draven climbing in.
“What’s going on?” I asked nervously, hitting ‘Pause’ on my phone as I watched him push the seat back so his legs could have more room.
“I told you I’d tell you how to get back,” he said, smiling slightly.
Every part of me was tingling. I had no idea how I was going to focus well enough to drive – what I’d do if I had to fight these shadows in front of him – I was horrified.
“Yeah, but I thought you meant follow you,” I said, trying to take in a breath after I said the words.
“I wanted to ride with you,” he said, pulling his belt on.
As he leaned closer to me to fasten it, I could smell the addictive aroma of his cologne. I was literally trapped in my worst nightmare.
“Just for the record, you’re only my second passenger – third, if you count my teacher,” I said, putting the car in drive.
“Duly noted.”
I caught myself staring into his perfect eyes. His dark lashes framed the most alluring color I’d ever seen. It was like they were intended to be black, but a shade of the most perfect green had shattered the black canvas that they were.
He stared back at me with almost the same wonder, then smiled slightly. “That way,” he said, pointing to the left.
I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment, and I tried to smile through it as I turned the wheel. I crept down the gravel driveway, fighting the glare of the headlights coming from his Hummer. Just before I reached the road, he reached up and moved my rearview mirror, taking the torture of the lights away. He then gently reached for my headphones and pulled them out; his warm fingertips had brushed up against my skin, and it took everything I had not to faint. I couldn’t stand this feeling; it was too out of control. I angled my eyes at him to see if I could see what he was doing to me.
“You have to be able to see and hear if you’re going to get us home,” he explained, relaxing into his seat and grinning innocently.
I looked in front of me at the dark road, listening for any reason to put my headphones in. I had no idea how I was managing to have a calm outward appearance; I was just thankful that I did.
“Why were you listening to headphones anyway?” he asked as he pointed for me to turn left.
I raised my eyebrows and tried to look confident. “I guess it’s my ‘vice’ – I didn’t take you for a person that listens to the radio,“ I answered.
“Can you see me that clearly?” he asked.
I angled my eyes at him quickly, then looked at the road. I don’t know what it was today, but everyone seemed to be referring to seeing like it was more than it was. I guess that’s a new form of slang in Salem.
“I can see perfectly,” I answered, not knowing how else to respond to that statement.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him nod, and it sounded like he mumbled. “I can only hope.”
I turned to look at him, curious as to why he said that. He nodded his head toward the road, telling me to focus on driving.
“You know there’s an outlet here to plug your phone in so you can hear your music, right?” he said, reaching for the dash to show me.
“Duly noted,” I said, mocking the words he’d used before.
He shook his head, grinning profusely. “What band are you listening to?” he asked.
“One that plays music,” I said before I could sensor the sarcasm in my tone. It was a reflex I had when my friends in New York would ask me why I listened to the kind of music that I did.
“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head and trying to hold back the sly smile that always surfaced when I was uncomfortable. I didn’t want to admit I was listening to his band, so I tried to curb the conversation to just music itself. “I like all music, but I love alternative, indie bands. I like…I like seeing the music before it’s polished, kind of like looking at a perfect sculpture before the dust of its creation is swept away.”
I looked to my side to see if I was making any kind of sense, and I found him smiling adoringly like I’d just read his thoughts.
“Perfectly conveyed… you have a way with words,” he said quietly.
I moved my head from side to side, knowing that his words, his music, perfectly conveyed words into whatever I wanted them to be.
“Your mom said she was happy that you were home,” he said as he angled himself against my door so he could see me more clearly.
My cheeks flushed. I thought about pulling my hood up, but I pushed down my suffocating need for security and let him see me.
“What else did my mom say?” I asked, even though I was terrified of his answer.
“Not much… she said that she’d bought you this car for graduation, and…” he paused.
I looked to my side to see if I was doing something wrong or had missed a turn. He was just staring at me.
“And?” I said, letting my sly smile surface again.
He hesitated, then said, “That she asked you to play.”
I shook my head no. “She’s crazy…I don’t know how.”
I glanced at my side to see the painful anger in his expression again. He pointed for me to turn right at the next street. “I can see the music in you.”
I smiled slightly. “I love music – guitars.”
He pointed for me to turn again, then let his hands rest on his knee. I noticed that he simply couldn’t keep his fingers still; it was as if they were playing music, with or without his guitar in his hand. I could clearly imagine the sound it would create if he were playing – it was helping block out the anxieties of the darkness around me – I just knew the whispers were waiting for a moment to make me look like a fool.
It was quiet for a few minutes, but it wasn’t awkward. Even though my emotions were out of control, I felt safe around him. I relaxed in my seat and glanced to my side at him.
“So, do you have a lot of friends in the UK? I heard you spent a lot of time there,” I said, curious as to what girl had inspired the song of his that I loved so much.
“Not really; just dad’s family…we’re kinda shy,” he answered quietly as he stared out at the dark road.
“You didn’t look shy to me – I just watched you play,” I teased.
“The stage is one of the most private places in the world,” he said calmly.
I tilted my head, wanting an explanation because I couldn’t disagree anymore. I had seen too many nervous musicians fight their way through their talent.
“Well, if you see it the right way, that is,” he said, smiling slightly.
“What is it with the word ‘see’?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Do you want a definition?” he asked.
“No,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Why did you ask, then?” he asked, trying to hide the curiosity in his tone.
“My sister just said something about it earlier, and you’ve used the word more in the last thirty minutes than I have in the last week.”
“Your sister is a writer.”
I nodded, surprised he knew that.
“Most creative people see the world differently than others; they see what’s yet to come.”
“Deep,” I said, only pretending to mock his words.
“How do you see the world around you?” he asked sincerely.
I looked to my side to gauge his expression; he was intently waiting for my answer and looked prepared to judge my every word, which made coming up with a compelling answer impossible.
“Sometimes it’s hard to see out of the glass box I’m in.”
“Your shield,” he whispered.
My grip on the steering wheel tightened; Britain had always talked about a shield I had around me.
Draven reached in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone
; as he read a text, he erupted into laughter.
“What?” I asked daringly.
“Nothing… would you like to stop for waffles?”
“It’s, like, almost one in the morning,” I said, looking at the clock on the dash.
“Do you have to get up early?” he asked, apparently amused by me.
I smiled slyly and shook my head no.
“Well, are you hungry?”
I was hungry, but I knew I didn’t have any money on me. I really wasn’t even sure I had money at my house. I thought there was a good chance I had twenty stashed in my favorite jeans, but I knew if I didn’t, Kara would give me some.
“I have to go by my house first; Kara said to tell her if I was going somewhere else, and she’ll never answer her phone if she’s asleep.”
As Draven started to text on his phone, I looked in my rearview mirror, but I couldn’t see the headlights of his Hummer anymore.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“Aden had to get gas,” he said as a new text came in.
He laughed as he read it, then sent a response. I felt my ears burn; I had no idea what he was saying, and it was making me mad. I was way too self-conscious for this.
“What’s so funny?”
“Aden is having a blast with Madison; he was thanking me diligently,” he said, putting his phone in his pocket.
“Really?” I asked, not sure if he was teasing or not.
“No, not really, not-at-all,” he said, trying not to laugh.
“What did he say? What did she do?” I asked, feeling embarrassed for Madison.
“Nothing bad, just that she’s conveyed every emotion humanly possible in a never-ending sentence, and now she’s starving – all caps. They’re fine,” Draven said.
“What did they say about going by my house first?”
“Um, I believe it was a ‘n’ with twenty ‘o’s’ behind it, then it said, ‘Charlie has no clue on how to manipulate a curfew’.”
“What did you say?” I asked, glancing at him.
“I do,” he answered, winking at me.
“You planning on charming my sister?”
“Your sister is charming; she doesn’t need to be charmed,” he answered as he pointed, telling me to turn again.