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We drove off and because the streets were so narrow he went slow. I didn’t say anything, still trying to process his apology.
“Can I give you a lift home after we jump-start Violet’s car?” he asked. “I would like to talk with you.”
I was a tiny bit tempted to say yes because the truth is I still loved him, but there was the one thousand four hundred and ninety-five times these past weeks where I had promised myself I would never allow anyone to hurt me like he had. And this was exactly why I didn’t want to go with him in the first place. It would be no different from the first time Daniel gave me the Oxy pill. It feels innocent but gives a taste of more, and soon you’re hooked. If I allowed Gabriel to give me a ride home, it would be another forty minutes in his company, and I knew from experience how addictive he could be to me.
“Thanks, but no thanks, I’m going with Violet.”
He didn’t say anything but kept driving.
Two blocks later I spoke up. “Hey, you’re going in the wrong direction.” I turned my head in the direction we were supposed to go.
“No, I’m not,” was his short answer.
“Violet is waiting for us.”
“Then call her up and tell her you’re going with me.”
I got angry with him. “I’m not going with you. Stop the car.”
“No.”
“I tried to open my door, but as soon as my hand touched the door handle I heard the locking mechanism and it made me turn my head around. “Unlock this door,right now,” I demanded.
“No,” he said and kept on driving.
“G, I swear that if you don’t pull over and let me go right now I’ll call the police.”
He tensed up but didn’t stop or even look at me. I figured he knew I was bluffing, and he was right; I wasn’t interested in coming into contact with the police.
“I’m not going to harm you; I just want to talk,” he said, clamping onto the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white.
“By freaking kidnapping me?”
He didn’t reply to that.
“I’ll never speak to you again.”
“Cia, you haven’t spoken to me in ten weeks. I already told you that I’m not going to hurt you and that I just want to talk.”
I crossed my arms and pressed my lips into a thin line, signaling that it would be a one-sided conversation.
As I sat next to him contemplating what would make him do something as absurd as this, my phone rang.
“Is it Violet?” he asked but I ignored him and answered the phone.
“You won’t believe what G is doing.”
“What’s wrong?” Violet asked, concerned.
“He asked if he could give me a lift home and when I said no he decided to take me anyway. I’m in his car and I can’t get out.”
“Ohh.” Violet didn’t sound as shocked as I would have expected.
“Put her on speaker,” Gabriel insisted.
“I heard him, it’s okay,” Violet told me so I pressed speaker.
“Hey, Violet,” Gabriel said out loud. “I’m sorry about the set-up but I took your advice, and now I’m going to drive around until she listens to me.”
