Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 164459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 822(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 822(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
“Please,” he added, his tone partly clipped.
“Sorry,” I murmured.
He whipped his head to look at me. “Don’t apologize to me.”
“Why not? You’re right. This is your car. I shouldn’t be touching your stuff.”
“Yeah, but still. Don’t apologize. Makes you seem weak.”
“Is that what you think of me? As weak?”
“I think you have a bad habit of letting people say whatever they want to you.”
I thinned my brows. “How would you know?”
“I hear shit.”
“The shit you hear is most likely rumors.”
He laughed. “I doubt it.”
“Really?” I turned in my seat, giving him my undivided attention. “So what is it that you’ve heard about me, Drake?”
His name came out naturally for me, and when he heard it, he struggled with a smile and a frown. Did he like me saying his name? Hate it?
He didn’t speak on it so I assumed he liked it. “Doug Hide… the smart kid that used to play soccer. Heard he called you a stupid, spoiled rich girl because you kept scoring higher test grades than him.”
“Okay… that one is true, but he didn’t exactly call me out. He made a big deal about it after school one day and I called him a fucking dickwad in front of the soccer team.”
Drake laughed. Like truly, honestly laughed. “Dickwad? Was that supposed to hurt his feelings? Because it damn sure wouldn’t hurt mine.”
I giggled. “Well, you shouldn’t even compare yourself to those guys. You are a lot tougher than some of the other boys in school. And I really don’t care if it did or not. All I did was pass my test. It’s not my fault I’m smarter than he is.”
“You have always been pretty smart.”
“Yeah? Well you have too, from what I can remember.”
He focused on the road again, gripping the wheel as if his life depended on it.
I continued. “I thought I was #1 in our fifth grade class, but Mrs. Pots told me I wasn’t. And when I asked her who it was, she said she couldn’t tell me. I’m pretty sure if it were any of our other classmates, they would have bragged about it until the summer, but none of them ever did… and that only left one person. Someone who hardly ever spoke.”
He pretended he wasn’t listening by cranking the volume of his radio up, but I knew he was. He didn’t turn the radio up loud enough to drown me out.
“Did you seriously have to drop out of school?” I probed. “I mean, couldn’t you have worked around whatever your situation was?”
“It was urgent.”
“But… still. You’re only a minor and I’m sure—”
“Look, girl,” Drake snapped, stomping on the brakes as he reached another stoplight. “Just stop asking me questions. I’m not your friend. I’m not someone that will open up to you, no matter how much you bat your big brown eyes at me. I’m only giving you a ride home because you were clearly freaking the fuck out back there at the cliff. I don’t know what the fuck you were freaking out for, but you don’t see me pestering you, asking you a million and one personal questions about it.”
My face straightened. I sluggishly sat back, feeling the seatbelt tighten across my chest. Slowly pulling my line of sight from him, I stared out of the passenger window, fiddling with my fingers.
I’d pushed his buttons. It was clear that he didn’t like to be asked personal things. He’d always been that way, but I thought with time he would have changed.
I was wrong.
God, what was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just shut the hell up?! Or better yet, why couldn’t he just talk to me about it?
The rest of the ride was silent. Other than the roaring of his engine, which soothed me in a way, the silence was deafening.
I wanted to apologize, because he was right. He could have asked me what my deal was back there—why I was panicking about my whereabouts—but he didn’t.
And I knew if he had, I wouldn’t have told him anyway.
The only person I ever told about that was Kylie. And even then, it’d taken me a full year and a half to finally inform her at a sleepover. She’d kept my secret safe. I could trust her.
Drake neared my gated neighborhood. I knew Roger, one of the neighborhood security guards, wouldn’t let Drake in because he wasn’t on the list, so I told him to stop at the curb at the entrance.
Before I climbed out, I had to apologize. His silence was really starting to make me feel bad.
Perhaps I’d triggered something. Something unmentionable.
“Listen, I’m sorry for asking so many questions. I’ve been a very curious person for pretty much my whole life. I’m sure you remember.” I forced a laugh and when he didn’t look my way, or reveal even a hint of humor, I awkwardly continued. “Anyway… um… thank you for the ride. I really appreciate it, Drake.”