Page 97 of Catch Me
“Why are you pissy?” His voice was closer now. I just shook my head.
Since I knew that I’d be done pretty late today, I’d planned to leave tomorrow. That was probably a stupid idea. I could drive through the night and be back early in the morning. That would give me time to sleep before I had to catch my flight to Seattle. There was no longer a reason for me to be here.
It was done. Over. The three weeks had passed, and now it was time to move on.
I put my hand on the exit door, ready to push it open, but it felt too heavy. There was a ringing in my ears that made it hard to focus. When I thought about leaving, I tried to imagine what that meant.
Home. My mom’s house. School. Regular life.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I breathed.
“Hey.” Through the ringing and the sound of my heartbeat in my ears, I couldn’t tell if Travis was close or far away.
When I turned around, he was right there. The worry in his eyes froze me to the spot, leaving me helpless. Lost. Pathetic.
“Let’s just go,” I suggested before he could say anything.
“Yeah, sure.” His eyes searched my face, so I tried to force a neutral expression. “I have to drop you off, or I can get you a ride.”
“Why?”
“I have something to do tonight,” he replied.
“What?”
I knew it was none of my business, but I fought the urge to backtrack. I wanted to know, and it didn’t matter how much I tried to fight it. If he didn’t tell me, I’d probably stalk his IG, hoping for him to post about it.
Shaking my head, I turned and walked out the door before he could respond. “Sorry. I don’t know why I asked.”
“Bro, chill the fuck out,” he said with a sigh.
When I didn’t slow, he stepped in front of me. On instinct, I shoved him, making him stumble back. He looked a little surprised, but then a half-smile appeared on his lips.
Was he a maniac? I was starting to think so.
“Sorry,” I mumbled again.
“You wanna come with me?”
“No.”
“Fine, get in the car.”
Without a word, I climbed into the passenger seat. I got on my phone, absently scrolling through my news feed. Now that I had a minute to think, maybe driving home tonight was dumb. I hated that I was reacting like this just because of this fucking guy next to me.
The Jeep came to a stop, and when I looked up, I saw that we were in a parking lot.
“What are we doing?” I asked.
He didn’t respond. When he got out of the car, I grunted in annoyance.
I could sit here, of course. He was probably just grabbing something real quick. As he got farther away, I swore and opened my door. I came up beside him, shoving my hands in my pockets. He didn’t even look at me.
Damnit.
He grabbed a cart and started going down the aisles. I looked around, realizing that this place was full of kid’s stuff. We passed a section with Nerf guns, and I unashamedly checked them out. There was one out of the box, so I picked it up and aimed at the back of Travis’ head. The lightthunkwhen it hit him was more satisfying than it should have been.
Slowly, he turned around. He eyed the gun, and even though he was trying to keep a straight face, I could see that he was close to breaking.
