November 6 #4
Being so close, he got a whiff of her. She smelled like…a childhood, something familiar that could take a mind back through time. Something sweet and strawberry, like bubblegum or ice-cream.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered, sounding panicked. “I have pepper spray.”
“Easy.” He slowly released her elbow and lifted both hands to show he meant no harm. “No need for that.”
That wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for, but he only had himself to blame. It was the beard. He definitely looked like a creepy stalker. He remembered his hitchhiking tips. Appear friendly and approachable. And Smile! The latter took too much effort, so he went with the former.
“Sorry for sneaking up on you like that. I didn’t mean to scare you. Um…I overheard you in there…um…You’re going to Georgia.”
He didn’t think it was possible, but her eyes grew even wider. Yeah, eavesdropping probably made him seem even creepier.
“Yes,” she replied, not sounding any less panicked. She was actually pressing her back against the car to get further away from him so he took a step back.
“I was wondering…I’m going to Florida…it’s the same direction and I wanted to ask if you…wouldn’t mind giving me a ride…just to Georgia and then I’ll find my own way.”
“Oh.” She visibly relaxed, but still looked wary. “It’s a bit of a strange request.”
“Yeah.”
She gave it some thought. Actually, she gave it a lot of thought before she smiled at him.
A cute smile despite the fact that she had an odd type of face.
Definitely not ugly, just different. Skin the color of rich honey, which looked soft and…
touchable, however, every feature seemed a little too extreme for her small, oval face.
Her eyes were too wide. Her nose was too sharp.
Her lips were just a little too plump. But when all those features came together, it almost worked.
It was the type of face that if you stared at it long enough, maybe—just maybe—it could be pretty.
“Okay,” she said softly.
“Okay?” His eyes almost popped out of his head. A bucket of relief tipped over inside him. “Really? You’ll take me to Georgia?”
She shrugged like it was no big deal. “Yes.”
“Oh, my God! Thank you! Thank you so much. Um…I’m just gonna run back in and get some water…and then we can go.”
He raced back inside and grabbed two bottles of water, trying to get what he needed and pay as quickly as possible so she wouldn’t have time to change her mind.
She was already back in the car when he came out again.
Soft murmurs floated through the air as he approached and her words became clearer as he got closer.
“What were you thinking?!” she snapped, glancing at herself in the rearview mirror.
“Adventure, yes. That’s what’s this trip is all about, but picking up strange hitchhikers?
Are you crazy? He could be a rapist or a serial killer.
” It was obvious she was having second thoughts and Kevin decided to hang back and listen to her scold herself.
“Who does that? Who just goes around offering rides to random strangers? What was I thinking? I’m a moron…
I could leave. I don’t owe him anything.
I could just drive away and not look back…
No! Relax, just take a deep breath and relax.
He’s probably a normal guy and I’m blowing this out of proportion.
I wanted to make friends, I wanted to meet new people. That’s what I’m gonna do.”
Kevin felt a little more comfortable to move to the window when he heard that.
“He’s not a very big guy. If he tries anything, I’ll just—”
“Am I interrupting something?” he cut in, leaning into the driver’s window.
“No.” Her eyes met his and he could see the torrent of questions.
“Is there…something you want to ask me?”
“Yeah…uh…are you planning on killing me and burying my body somewhere in the wilderness?”
His eyebrows creased a little. It was an odd question, because it seemed like she would take any answer at face value. “Just out of curiosity, what would you do if I said yes?”
“I would drive off and leave you here.”
“Hmm…then no. I have no intention of killing you.”
Her panic returned immediately. “I’m confused. Do you mean that? Or are you just saying it so that I’ll let you jump into my car?”
It wasn’t the question that was odd. It was her and he needed to allay her fears so that she wouldn’t leave him stranded. “Look, I’m a fairly decent guy. I wouldn’t hurt anyone, especially not someone who was kind enough to give me a ride all the way to Georgia. Okay? I was just messing with you.”
“Okay.”
And just like that, she was convinced. She opened the door and got out.
He was grateful, but it was very unnerving.
He was expecting her to grill him a bit more, but she just took his word.
She did, in fact, accept his answer at face value.
He could very well have been a rapist or a murderer and yet she trusted what he said so easily.
Was it just his charm, or was she really that na?ve?
“C’mon,” she said as she got out of the car. “Let’s get your stuff in the boot.”
He didn’t know what she was referring to until she reached the trunk. The word boot made her accent more prominent. It was strange. She was Indian and he could definitely hear that, but it was distorted somehow, mixed with something different. Australian maybe?
“Isn’t this weird?” she asked. “I mean, what are the odds of the two of us meeting like this?”
“It’s weird,” he agreed with a nod.
“Here we are, both of us traveling across America, going in the same direction at the exact same time. It’s weird.
Stuff like that only happens in the movies…
or those corny romance novels, you know the ones where the author is just trying to force two people together and thinks of this completely ridiculous scenario to make them meet. ”
“I don’t read romance novels.”
“But if you did, wouldn’t you be rolling your eyes right now? I know I would. I would just be like…stuff like that never happens, but here we are, in real life. It’s so weird. I don’t believe in destiny, but it’s like…it was meant to be.”
That was a lot of words in a short space of time and Kevin felt the stirrings of doubt in the pit of his stomach. She was really, really odd. She opened up the trunk and he stuffed his duffle bags on top of the three bags that were already in there.
“You’re really good looking, by the way.”
The comment was unexpected and strange and took him completely by surprise. His head snapped up to look at her. “What?”
“You…you’re super cute, not in a normal cute kind of way. More like in a Larry the Lumberjack kinda way, like lure your victims into the woods so you can hack up their bodies into tiny pieces kinda way.”
He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m struggling to see how that can be appealing.”
She smiled, not in the least bit perturbed. “Well, Larry has to lure his victims into the woods somehow. That’s the appeal you have.”
“Thanks,” he said even though he didn’t mean it, and with that he realized that this was a bad idea.
Luck had turned out to be a relative term.
There was absolutely no way he would be able to travel cross-country with this girl.
She was crazy and now he was seeing the dangers in hitching a ride with strangers.
He was the one who needed to be worried.
She tried to close the trunk, but he caught it midway and pushed it back up.
“You know what? I think I’m just going to take the bus.”
Somehow this brief interaction made him rethink his reservations about taking the bus. Actually, the bus couldn’t possibly be that bad.
“What? Why the sudden change of mind?”
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he thought she was a complete psycho. It was obvious she didn’t know and he didn’t want to be the one to break the news to her. “I don’t want to inconvenience you. It’s a really long trip and I don’t want to impose.”
“It’s not an inconvenience,” she said quickly. “Really. Like you said, it’s a very long trip and I could use the company. It’ll be so much fun, two friends road tripping through the US, living the American dream and—”
“We’re not friends,” he stated curtly.
He didn’t take the term friend lightly and he didn’t like the offhanded way she used it.
It was very clear that she didn’t know what it meant.
She seemed taken aback for a second and he understood why.
The comment hadn’t exactly been polite. Barely ten minutes with her and already his asshole side was rearing its ugly head.
“I know.” She looked up at him with light brown eyes that were almost hopeful. “But maybe…we could be.”
Something about the way she said it, that silent plea, made it impossible for him to grab his bags and turn away.
It was a peculiar change of events. One minute he was desperate for her to give him a ride and now she was the one who seemed desperate for him to go along.
He wanted to say no. For the sake of his sanity, he should say no, but there were other reasons why he felt compelled to go with her.
A girl travelling all by herself—she was an easy, unsuspecting target.
Judging by how easily he convinced her that he wasn’t a killer, it was likely that she would end up hacked up and buried in the woods somewhere.
He didn’t want to have added guilt when he eventually saw her face on the news with the word MISSING flashing below her picture.
I’m gonna regret this, he thought with a heavy sigh. “Okay.”
“Great! This is going to be great, I just know it.”
He hopped into the passenger seat. “I’m Kevin,” he said once she got in too.
“Jasmintha,” she responded, shrugging off her oversized jacket and tossing it into the backseat. She pulled off her knit cap next and it was then that he noticed her hair: thick, pitch black hair twisted into a single braid, so long it probably reached her backside.