Page 7 of Was I Ever Free

She starts the car and answers with a nervous but hopeful smirk. “Ready!” Her tone is forced but still excited. She holds her hand up, folding her two middle fingers down, her index finger and pinky still standing straight. I’m assuming she thinks she’s giving me the devil sign but her thumb is still up, so she’s actually signingI love youinstead.

I reciprocate the devil sign—the proper way—and after a beat, she looks at her own raised hand as if noticing I’ve tucked my fingers under my thumb. She carefully mirrors me and then looks up beaming, the specks of gold in her green eyes shimmering.

I’m slightly stunned by my body’s reaction to such an honest and open smile.

Luckily, her attention turns back to the task at hand—driving us out of here—but I let my gaze linger a little while longer, studying her. She gives Lenix one final wave and pulls out onto the street, driving away. I watch her sister grow smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror until she finally disappears. What’s left is just me, Lucy, and the uneasiness of two practical strangers on the road together.

4

Being caged in a vehicle with less than an arm’s length separating me from Bastian is harder than I ever expected. He has not said a word since we pulled out of my street twenty minutes ago. I am not surprised, based on the little I know of him. But as much as I would rather sit in silence and let my nerves eat me up from the inside out, I need a co-pilot. I wring my hands around the steering wheel while chewing anxiously on the inside of my cheek, trying to build up the courage to open my mouth and speak.

With my eyes on the road, I try to pop the compartment between us, but with my limited experience driving, I struggle to multitask and end up swerving hard to my left, narrowly missing a parked car, then over-correct and land in the next lane over. Letting out an embarrassing squeak, my hand flies back to the steering wheel and I grip it even harder, my shoulders up to my neck. With no music in the car, the silence is deafening and all I can hear are my shaky breaths as I try to recover from what I just did.

Bastian curses under his breath, but keeps his eyes down on the screen in front of him, the silver chain bracelet on his left wrist clinking against his laptop while he types, looking as unbothered as ever.

My nostrils flare, knuckles white. I am still quite flustered, but try my best to appear calm and address him. “I–I need your help.”

I give him a quick sideways glance, as he does the same. If you can call that a glance. More like a small twitch of the eyebrow, and a slow slide of his eyeballs. He stays silent, apparently waiting for me to speak again, so I stutter into my next sentence.

“I need you to tell me where to go.” I point to the middle compartment. “Can you open this for me, please?”

For a second I think he will not do it, then I hear him let out a long heavy sigh. He closes his laptop and slides it into his backpack at his feet, finally opening the compartment. Quickly, I dip my hand in and grab the map I placed right at the top.

“Here,” I say, handing it over to him.

“What’sthat,” he says with a bite of disdain, taking it from me with two fingers and holding it up as if it is contagious.

I try to willfully ignore his reaction, but I answer him nonetheless. “It is a map of the United States.”

When he takes too long to reply ordoanything, I look over. He is staring at the map, now on his knees, as if lost in thought.

“What is wrong?” I ask.

Snapping out of his reverie, he gives his head a small shake. “Nothing,” he quickly says, and then, “What do you expect me to do with this relic?”

“I need you to give me directions.”

“With this thing?”

“Yes,” I manage to say with a semblance of authority.

“No.” His own dominance slicing mine clean in half. He drops the map back into the compartment and closes it. “First stop?” he asks while pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Café.” I cannot help the small smile appearing on my lips while I say it.

This is it. I am finally taking the leap, and going on an adventure.

I can feel Bastian staring but ignore it, and wait for him to enter the address into his maps app.

“It’s two hours away,” he says, as if I am unaware or even care how far away it is.

“I know.”

A long pause. Then a scoff.

“Alright then.”

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