Page 38 of Wandering in Darkness
“Well, I’m confident that at this point in time, it’s a good thing. Let’s not focus on the past. Let’s pretend we don’t even know each other. Hi, I’m Blake.”
“Where did the name Blake even come from?” I ask.
“I panicked. Some guy was like, ‘Hi, I’m Blake!’ And then two minutes later, they asked my name, and the first name that hitme was Blake, so I just tossed it out. Only then did I remember that was the other guy’s name. We’ve had beers to celebrate our Blakeness.”
“You definitely don’t look like a Blake,” I say.
“He thinks it’s the coolest thing ever that we share the same name. He even enthused about how we spell it the same. Like how the hell else are you spelling it? With a C?”
“A silent Q.”
He laughs and I glare at him. My joke wasn’t very funny, so he shouldn’t find it funny. He shouldn’t laugh. He shouldn’t try to make me see him as the person I was busy falling in love with—the person who I’d wanted to spend more time with and have a life with.
The SUV turns around the corner and my eyes seek out the road ahead of us, but I don’t see them at all. Did they already get that far ahead of us?
“In the trees,” Grayson says.
I turn and look as I realize that the SUV is tucked off the road in the trees.
Grayson glances over at me. “Well… I don’t exactly have a gun on me, so this is all you… unless you want me to do it and I can borrow your gun?”
He slows the car down, using the trees to tuck our vehicle out of sight.
“No, I got it,” I respond. I’d honestly prefer not to have to deal with it, but I can’t imagine sitting back and doing nothing when Antonio’s life is at risk.
“Okay,” he says. “I’ll do the best I can to provide backup.” We quickly slip out of the vehicle and slink toward theirs. I press myself in against the trees while Grayson looks over at me and smiles.Smiles. Like what is he over there so happy about? We could get shot in the next five minutes and be left dead on the side of the road, but he’s over there happy as can be.
I glower at him, which doesn’t seem to fix much.
Then I decide I really should be paying attention and hurry over to my next piece of cover. I can’t yet tell if they’re still in the vehicle or have left.
I inch forward a few more trees and then look over at Grayson, who is staring at me like we’re on the set of some romcom and he’s just locked eyes with the love of his life. Like what the fuck?
Making sure my eyes are wide and show my displeasure over this, I mouth, “Stay focused.”
This results in his smile widening. Like does he think I’m over here whispering words of love to him? Did he misread my mouthed words? Does he now think I’ve forgiven him when I plainly haven’t?
I cock my head and he just winks at me before slipping behind the next tree. Like why is he even making his way closer? He has absolutely no weapons on him. What is he planning on accomplishing? Does he think I’m going to nurse him back to health if he gets shot? Because I’m sure as shit not planning on it.
Using the protection of the trees for cover, I hurry closer to the SUV and finally get near enough to see that two guys are inside of the vehicle, and one looks like Antonio. Three more are outside of it, and I can’t quite tell whether that’s all of them or if there are more that I don’t see. Carefully, I start moving closer to see if I notice anyone else, but at this point, it’s apparent they don’t see me, and I have the element of surprise… but Antonio is still in the vehicle, and I have no guarantee how safe he is at the moment.
Grayson nods his head to the side, signaling to me that he’s going to go around to the SUV, but he doesn’t have a gun or any type of weapon on him. What if they just shoot him in the head? What if he fucks up and then they take him hostage as well?
All of these uncontrollable scenarios race through my head as I realize I’m losing control of the situation.
I reach out to stop him, but he shakes his head and starts moving toward the far end of the SUV.
Feeling anxious, I almost rush after him, but I notice tension in one of the men a moment before he turns to look our way. If I’d rushed after him for some foolish reason just now, I would have been seen, and all of this would have been for nothing.
I just get caught up in this idea that I need to do it all. I need to shoulder everything out of fear of anyone else getting hurt or killed. Because if I do it all, the only life at risk is my own. And I care about that a whole lot less than I care about losing others.
I keep my eye on the SUV, waiting to see when Grayson reaches it, but there’s a guy trying to change the tire who is busy digging around in the rear hatch. Reaching down, I pick up a rotting walnut that’d fallen from the tree and fling it. It strikes a tree near the man at the hatch before falling down and rolling toward him.
The man immediately turns, and I see Grayson rush across the distance to the car, ducking down so he can’t be seen over it. I can’t see him from this angle, either.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Sounded like something falling from a tree; stop panicking about everything. Just move quickly. I don’t see their SUV just yet.”
