4. Lourdez
FOUR
Lourdez
W hat the fuck was I thinking getting into this car? I text Amelie. It’s my second message, but she still hasn’t seen the first where I told her whose car it was.
I steal a glance at Lochlan, my knight in shining anger. His hard face stares ahead. Squinted eyes hide behind glasses that I’m pretty sure he only wears to drive because yesterday when I saw him in town, he wasn’t wearing them. His squint makes me feel like he’s thinking of something, probably something along the lines of him regretting picking me up.
For some reason, I feel the need to break the silence, even though initiating it was my idea. It’s been thirty minutes of us traveling together, and those thirty minutes have been some of the least comfortable of my life.
“Will you close the window now? It’s freezing.” Another puff of cold air leaves me.
“Yeah. I turned the heaters off while you were doomscrolling. My screen was fogging.”
“Aren’t you cold yourself?”
“A little.”
“And you’d rather stay that way to spite me.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Because you won’t understand the reason.
“Fine. Freeze.” He continues along the road.
It’s no more than two minutes before I give myself access to rights I don’t have and blare the heaters.
He reverses my efforts in no less than a second, and as if by some magnetic charge, my fingers head back to do the same to him.
A tight grip wraps around my wrist, and I wince, clutching the bruise that was already there as he shoves me away.
“That didn’t hurt you. Don’t even think about accusing me of some shit again, or I will drag you out of the car and leave you here.”
Cradling my arm as his eyes flick between me and the road, silently, I whisper, “I wasn’t. I wouldn’t.”
Maybe he didn’t hear me, but either way, he didn’t reply.
His finger hits the button that winds his window to the top. He adjusts the heaters only to keep the windshield clear, but I still say, “Thank you.”