Page 118 of Falling Backwards
Mmm.He’s got me there.
I hunch my shoulders.“Well, I….”
His eyebrows go up, but the action is oddly patient.
Truth time again.
My shoulders loosen as I sigh.“It’s like you said: I didn’t want you to spend your free time being inconvenienced by me.”
“So you just suffered?”
“Somewhat, I guess,” I mumble.
“You didn’t need to do it at all.”
“Well, you were right, it’s not like I was by myself.Other people were there—not many, but still.My imagination or paranoia or whatever just—”
“No, don’t do that.”He calmly shakes his head.“Don’t act like you don’t have the right to be scared.It’s true I didn’t think you would be ’cause you were around other people, but that doesn’t mean you werestupidto be.If I was wrong, I was wrong.Youweren’t wrong to be nervous.”
I instinctively open my mouth as if to hold my ground, like my body can’t help being ready to counter him, but words don’t come.On the inside, my resolve is fading fast.
What he’s said makes sense yet again.
Maybe it’s because I haven’t mentioned that Tia and out-of-sight Dan and Ronald didn’t offer me much comfort even if they were technically nearby.Luke doesn’t know how‘around’people I was or wasn’t.And he doesn’t care.He only cares about how I felt.
So I don’t have the urge to insist anything else or try to make him see my point.He sees me already, in his own way.
I nod my understanding.My agreement.
“Tell me anytime,” he says.“It doesn’t matter what’s going on or—or what time it is or anything like that.You feel afraid, you come to me.That’s all you gotta do.I’ll take it from there.”
The words get me.So intent, so sweet.
“Okay?”he checks.
“Okay,” I say softly.
With a nod of his own, he shifts back into his seat, then buckles up so we can get going.
It occurs to me after we hit the rainy road that I don’t know what kind of driver he is in bad weather.A new twinge of worry hits my stomach because what if he doesn’t respect how wet the street is or how deep some puddles might be or…?
Well, he seems to be doing fine so far.
Except for one thing.
“Can you please use your blinkers?”I request over the sound of the windshield wipers slicking over splashing rain.
“This again?”he questions.
“Yes, this again.It bothers me that you don’t use them, especially on a night like this when people need as much warning of our actions as they can get.”
“I’m capable of keeping us safe.”
“But other cars might—”
“I’m watching other cars.”He gestures around us.“You know, all two of them that are anywhere in view.”
It’s true that there’s not much going on where we are, but I still wish he’d do what he’s supposed to do.What does it matter that the only cars I see are quite a ways away and no one is behind us?Does Luke also not bother stopping at traffic lights and stop signs when he’s the only car around?
