Chapter 7: Eden
725 Words
I stared at my purse and opened it, pulling out a photo of my parents. I ran my thumb along the small frame and hid it as Michael climbed into the driver's seat.
"Do you like music?" Michael tried to make me feel comfortable, but I could tell that he knew I wasn't. His smile faded as he watched me rest my elbow on the window and peer out of it. "We don't have to listen to music. We can just talk or... I could just listen?" He backed out of the spot and shifted to take off towards his favorite place to get food.
I didn't want to talk about anything with him. I wanted to just get to his place and hide. Just curl up underneath the covers and get lost in my thoughts, crying until I couldn't anymore. Until I couldn't breathe or think. Until I was someplace else that made me happy and made me realize that I had made a good decision. This hadn't been a good idea. His father alone had proven that to be true. It was a mistake and now I was locked in the cage that I had made.
Michael glanced between the front window and me beside him. I could feel his eyes boring into me and trying to feel me out. I hated it. I didn't want him to try and understand me or what I was going through because he couldn't. He would never understand what it was like to be me.
"We can... talk about how shitty my father is?" He offered with a s**t-eating grin, and I suddenly burst out a traitorous small sound from my lips before I could silence it. "Did I just get something out of you besides anger...?" Michael teased and I rolled my eyes and kept them on the window. "Guess not. And here I thought I had you smiling..."
I tried to keep a smile from creeping onto my lips as I peered out the window. He wasn't going to win, nope. I wouldn't let him. I had to hold strong and be better than this. I couldn't let his charms and silly jokes get to me.
"Wanna hear a really bad joke?"
I could tell he was trying his hardest to make me relax and not be so scared of him. I couldn't fathom why this man cared so much about my company or about whether I felt comfortable or safe with him.
I licked my lips and pressed them into a thin line as he took a corner hard. I didn't really care about what he had to say. Nothing he could say would make me want to be with him. Nothing would make me fall for him or make me comfortable being around him. It was a lost cause.
"Why do you f**k a sheep on the edge of a cliff?" Michael went back to looking at the road, as he shifted and parked outside of a small restaurant. He stared at me as I kept my gaze locked on the passenger window. "So, it pushes back."
I perked up and slowly turned to peer over at him with a horrified expression. Did he seriously just? Oh my God...
Michael suddenly blushed and grabbed the back of his neck as he awkwardly peered down at the center console like he was internally kicking himself for what he had just said. "I would expl... I'm just gonna own that."
The corner of my lips curled up as I burst out laughing at him. I hid in my hair and brought my fist to my lips as I tried to not laugh, but the joke was just so bad. So, so incredibly bad. I had no idea what had taken him over to consider that to even be remotely okay to say. It was so inappropriate and crass that I couldn't believe that a man of his stature even said it. I bit my bottom lip to try and silence my hysterical laughter. He had done it. He had broken me.
"Now that you've enjoyed laughing at my brutal pain... how about we go in and grab something to eat? We're not going to sit here. I'm gonna order it to go." Michael awkwardly smiled and watched as I nodded and calmed down. "Great."
- Writer
