Page 6 of I Hear You

She laughs and passes me the suitcase. Her laugh is beautiful and I want to make her do it again. I place her luggage in the truck bed, then open the passenger door for her. She looks at me curiously as I stand with the door open, but she gets in and puts her backpack on the floorboard. When she’s safely tucked inside, I shut the door.

Should I not have opened the door? Was it too much? It’s not like we’re on a date. I’m just giving her a ride. I push the confusion out of my mind and make my way around the car, sliding into the driver's side. Madison is leaning forward, her face practically pushed against the air conditioning vent, her eyes closed. I let out a short laugh and turn the air to a cooler setting. She sits back and exhales loudly as I pull away from the curb.

“So, you’ll be living in the dorms?” I ask, trying to keep the conversation light. Trying and failing to keep my eyes on the road and not on her.

“Yup.”

Her focus is on the town as we drive down Main Street. I take advantage of the red light ahead and look at her.

Her soft brown hair is no longer piled on top of her head and drops a few inches below her shoulders. She must have pulled it down when she got into the car. It’s not a dark brown, it’s more the color of an acorn. When the sun hits it, some strands appear golden. They look natural, not the way a girl's hair looks after she's been to the salon. I noticed earlier she's kind of tall for a girl. If I had to guess, I would say she’s about five-eight or five-nine. The perfect height that she could easily lay her head on my shoulder if we hugged. It’s a nice thought.

Although I think my favorite feature of hers has to be her lips. When I saw her chewing on her bottom lip earlier, I was so incredibly turned on. Her lips are plump but not that big, and they look velvety soft. Like if I ran my thumb across them, they’d feel like icing on a cupcake. I wonder if they taste like icing, maybe strawberry or vanilla? She doesn’t appear to be wearing any lipstick. They’re just naturally a rosy color. Plump, pink, cupcake icing lips. I can’t take my eyes off them and imagine how they’d feel wrapped around–.

“Do you live in the dorms, too?”

Startled by her sudden talking again, I flinch just a little.

I hope she didn’t notice me staring at her lips. I am an asshole. She’d think I was too if she knew what I was just imagining. I turn on my blinker to make a right turn toward campus and answer her, shaking my head and the thoughts of her soft lips out of it.

“No, I still live at home with my mom. It’s cheaper and my mom needs me.”

I don’t know why I shared that last part with her.

“Oh,” is all she says, but she’s looking at me now. I can see her out of the corner of my eye.

Campus is only a few blocks away now. We talk easily for the few minutes it takes to get there, sharing our majors and classes. I’m disappointed when I realize we won’t have any classes together. She’s an English major which makes me even more uneasy because I think that’s the path my Mads would have taken. My Mads always avoided the subject of college. I’m not even sure if she decided she wanted to go to college. Maybe she’s moving into the dorms athercollege right now, exploring the campus and finding all the best places to sit and write in the afternoons. My daydreaming takes a dark turn when I think of the possibility of her meeting a guy, just like the Madison in my car, met me. The idea of her meeting some random college guy and falling in love has me white-knuckling the steering wheel. I try to rein in my thoughts and be present in the car.

The Madison in my car is a good distraction from the Mads I shouldn’t be thinking about. As much as I keep repeating in my head—right now is not the time for dating—I can’t help but notice how comfortable I feel around her. How much I’m dreading this car ride ending.

I pull up as close to the dorms as I can and put the truck in park. I don’t make a move to get out because I don’t want this to be over. We continue chatting even after I park. Madison is telling me about a documentary she watched on the bus ride here and a documentary has never sounded more appealing to me than it does being described by the beautiful girl sitting next to me. She’s just finished telling me the last details of the film and we’re just goofily smiling at each other in the silence now.

Madison looks around and her eyes go wide.

“Oh my gosh, how long have we been parked at the school? I am so sorry, I just kept talking,” she says, reaching for the truck's door handle.

“Only a few minutes,” I lie.

It’s been nearly twenty, but I didn’t want her to ever stop talking. We both get out of my truck and I walk around it, getting her suitcase out of the back. It’s only summer quarter, but there are still quite a few students on campus moving into the dorms early. I place her suitcase wheels on the ground and start pushing it toward her. Our fingers brush and my body heats the same way it did when we shook hands. I look up and see zero reaction from her. Good, she must not have even noticed our fingers touched. This is all just inmyhead.

We’re both now standing on the sidewalk awkwardly. Her clutching her suitcase as if someone could snatch it again at any moment and me with my hands pushed into my front pockets and staring down at my shoes.

“Well, I’m sure you want to find your dorm room and get settled in,” I say, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I probably should.”

Madison looks up at the dorm buildings. She looks nervous and I find myself wanting to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything is going to be amazing.

“Thank you so much for the ride,” she says.

“No problem. I’ll uh, see you around maybe?”

“Yeah maybe. Thanks again for the ride. Bye Henry,” she says as she starts walking away.

I briefly considered asking for her number but remember I shouldn’t be involving anyone else in my mess of a life and she doesn’t seem like the type of girl you could date casually. She seems like the type of girl you fall madly in love with. The type of girl who, if you get just one taste, you’re addicted. Besides, she’s already at the building, pulling the doors open and disappearing.

I jump back into my truck and push my face toward the air vent just how Madison did, except I’m used to the humidity in Easton. I’m sweating for entirely different reasons.

Chapter three

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