I was glad that I had not gone with Darren. It was quiet in the car. I and Brian were the only ones awake. Claire and Jake were asleep.
Music was playing at a low volume in the background, unlike in Darren’s car where the music must be blasting at full volume. I pitied Sam.
“This is boring,” Brian whined from the driver’s seat.
“There is nothing you can do about it. You’re driving and Claire and Jake are sleeping,” I said.
“Let’s talk.”
“We did. The whole day.” I reminded him.
“Some more.”
“About?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to talk about?” He asked, glancing at me.
I thought for a while. “Let’s play twenty questions.”
“Okay. You start. No questions related to family.”
“Fine. Um… what is your favourite book?”
“I don’t like reading books.”
“Seriously?” I asked him disbelievingly.
“Yeah. It’s kind of boring and I don’t see the point of reading books. What are we gonna do reading that?”
I shook my head at him. “You’re missing a lot in your life. Anyways, my favorite book is Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks.”
“Hmm,” he hummed. “What’s your favourite song?”
And so we went on talking about random things. We were questioning each other for about half an hour when I finally got bored of it.
“I think that’s enough,” I finally said.
“What? We still have an hour left until we get home.”
“But I don’t want to ask any more questions. I am tired,” I said, and right on cue a yawn escaped my lips.
“What am I-”
“Shh,” I cut him off, shushing him as my fingers reached the volume control and turned it up slightly.
“What are you doing?”
“You won’t shut up, will you?”
“Nope,” He muttered but I ignored him.
It was the same song. I loved it when I was a little girl. I started singing along with it. I still remembered the lyrics.
“You like this old song?” Brian asked.
“Yeah. It was dad’s favourite! And I used to like that song too.”
Dad’s favourite. It brought back a slew of memories. Those were my most cherished memories of my life and I will never forget my dad. He was the most important person in my life. Now he was no more. And that was only because of mom and dad’s own family.
No. I shouldn’t blame his death on mom. She didn’t kill him. I was stupid to think of it like that. What was I even thinking? Mom wasn’t to he blamed.
My dad died because of my uncle.
But even he was not in this world anymore. That was what he deserved. He deceived us. He deceived my dad. What kind of a brother was he? What did he get from my dad’s death? Nothing but his own death.
My dad didn’t deserve what his brother did to him. And sometimes I missed him terribly. I wish he had never left. I wished my uncle hadn’t betrayed us. His own family.
“Brooke, are you thinking about your father?” Brian’s voice reached my ears. I looked up at him. He was staring at me.
“No,” I lied.
“Don’t lie.”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I just stared out of the window. I couldn’t see anything in the darkness other than the tall trees which effectively hid everything around us in their shadows.
I felt a hand hovering over mine before Brian’s long fingers pried my fingers apart as he entwined our hands together. It felt nice. Whenever he held my hand, it always felt nice. I gripped his hand tighter.
“Thanks,” I said quietly, glancing at him. He smiled a tiny smile.
And so our hands stayed like that for an immeasurable period of time. He could drive with one hand. I couldn’t do that unless I wanted to run into a tree or get hit by a truck.
But I was not complaining. I more than wanted his hand in mine. I don’t know when I started liking it.
After some time, I felt my eyelids began to droop.
“Do you mind if I turn it off?” I asked Brian, pointing to the radio.
“No,” He said and so I turned off the music.
“Are you feeling sleepy?”
“Yeah, a bit.”
“Don’t worry. Go to sleep. I’ll wake you up when we reach there.”
“Aren’t you sleepy? I can take over driving for a while.”
“No. I am fine. I want us all to reach home safely. With you, I think we’ll instead reach a tree.”
“Hey! I can drive without causing an accident.” I said and playfully hit his arm.
He chuckled. “I doubt that,” He muttered under his breath. “Anyway don’t worry about it. Go to sleep.”
“Okay,” I shrugged. “Tell me if you want me to drive.”
He nodded.
Even though the heat was on, I was still cold. I rubbed my hands together to warm them.
I turned back in my seat only to find that Claire and Jake were in the same position. Claire’s bag was lying at her feet. I didn’t want to wake her up, so I carefully lifted the bag and drew it on my lap.
There was no sweater or jacket in her bag. And neither had I thought of bringing my jacket along with me. I didn’t knew it would get this cold.
“Are you cold?” Brian asked, glancing at me for a second.
“Yeah a bit,” I said as I placed the bag in it’s place.
“You didn’t bring a sweater or a jacket?”
“No. I didn’t know it would get that cold at nighttime.”
He nodded. His hand reached to the jacket that I hadn’t noticed earlier. It was hung on the headrest of his seat and he took it off from there and placed it on my lap.
“Wear it.”
“Aren’t you going to need it? It’s cold. You should wear it. What if you get sick.” I asked worriedly.
“I don’t need it. You do. So just wear it.”
I obeyed as I was freezing to death and he looked unaffected by the cold.
As I slid the jacket on me, I caught Brian staring at me.
“What?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing. You just look good in my jacket as well.”
“Thanks,” I said, rolling up the sleeves a bit as they were far too long for my arms. He nodded in my direction.
I leaned my head against the window, bringing up my legs above the seat and hugging them close to my chest.
In no time, my eyes closed and I fell into deep sleep.
Somewhere in my sleep ridden state, I felt something warm on my hand. Subconsciously I gripped it tighter, enjoying the warm feeling and sparks it provided me.
~
Brian’s? POV:
Brooke had curled up in a ball. Her eyes were closed, her delicate pink lips slightly parted. She had tightly clutched the jacket around her. She looked so adorable.
I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t resist holding her hand and so I gently threaded my fingers into hers. She was cold. I wished that my hand would warm her up a bit.
I turned my focus back on the road. The trip was really nice. And Brooke had told me about her past. I felt really bad for her. She went through a lot at a young age. But there was nothing I could do to make her feel better. But I didn’t need to. She was a strong girl.
Half an hour later, we all reached Darren’s house. Finally. I was so tired and wanted nothing but to get into my bed.
Darren’s car was already parked outside, beside Brooke’s car.
I looked at my side. Brooke was still asleep. And so were Jake and Claire.
I got out of the car. Darren came out, probably hearing my car pull up in his driveway.
“Finally you all reached,” He said.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
“I dropped all of them at their houses.”
I nodded.
“I need a bed! Now!” Claire hollered as she stumbled out of the car. She could have fallen on the grass if Jake hadn’t caught her by the waist.
“Careful, sleepyhead,” He cautioned her.
“I want to sleep, Jakie!” She put her arms around Jake, who was obviously enjoying this little moment with his crush.
“Guys, I’m going to take her home,” He informed us as he gently pulled her in his arms and placed her in his car. They drove off.
But Brooke was still sleeping in my car. I should have asked Jake to take her home too. Looks like I had to do that myself. Well, I wasn’t complaining.
“I’ll drop Brooke at her house,” I told Darren and started walking towards my car. Darren blocked my way.
“No! Um… I mean, I’ll do it. And you need to get home. You live quite far away,” Darren said.
“It’s okay. I’ll drop her,” I said, walking past him.
“I said no,” Darren said, putting a hand on my shoulder, preventing me from going ahead.
“I said I will,” I said, shoving his hand away. What was his problem? I could drop her off myself.
I reached my car and opened the passenger seat. She was still asleep. Her bag was beside her.
After a while of searching through it, I finally found her car keys. Darren kept on insisting to drop her off himself.
Like I was going to listen.
I kept her bag in her car and left the passenger seat open. Then I walked back towards my car.
I didn’t want to wake her up. She looked so beautiful. I didn’t want to disturb her from her slumber. So the only option left was to carry her.
I put my left hand behind her back and my right arm slid under her legs. I lifted her up, careful not to let the hood of the car touch her head. I carried her back to her car.
Her ear was pressed against my racing heart. I didn’t know why but now whenever I touched her, my heart had a strange reaction. It started to race and jump wildly.
That night at her house when I had almost kissed her, I felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest. I didn’t know why I tried to kiss her. I just felt like I should. I wanted to.
I gently placed her on the seat. She was still asleep. I guessed that she was a heavy sleeper.
I rested her head on the headrest and covered her with the jacket in her car.
Darren was still insisting on driving her home. He just couldn’t shut up, could he? I resisted the idea to slap a tape over his mouth.
I got into the driver’s seat and drove towards her house.
~
Brooke’s POV:
I heard the familiar noisy engine of my car die down. I slowly opened my eyes. It was dark inside my car.
I sensed a presence beside me. I looked towards the driver’s seat and Brian was staring at me.
“Have we reached already?” I asked.
“Yeah,” He said. His voice was different. He looked tired and sleepy. I knew I should have drove the car for a while so that Brian could have some rest.
I looked around. Claire and Jake were not there and we were at my house. In my car. Things suddenly fell into place. Claire and Jake had already left for their house. And Brian had drove me to my house because I was asleep. Aw, So sweet of him to do that for me.
“Thanks for driving me home,” I said.
“You’re welcome. You must be tired, go home,” He said as he got out of the car. I got out too and walked towards him.
I suddenly remembered something.
“You’re going to go now?” I asked him, leaning against the car door.
“Yeah. Good night,” He turned around to leave.
“Wait,” I said as I grabbed his arm. He looked down at me. “Are you going walk to Darren’s where your car is?”
“Well, as you can see, I have no other means of transport.”
“Take my car.”
“It’s fine, I’ll walk. It’s not that much of a walk.”
I knew that. Darren’s house was just a fifteen minute walk from my house. But still. I wasn’t going to let him walk to his house at the dead of the night.
“No Brian, you have to take-”
“Shh,” He shushed me, placing a finger on my lips to shut me up.
His arms rested on either side of my car, trapping me in between. His face closer to mine, near my ear.
“You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine,” He whispered in my ear, which sent chills down my spine. I shuddered.
He pulled away, but remained in the same position. I saw him staring at my lips and then he bit his own lip.
His face inched closer to me again as he leaned in. His face was inches away from me now. His cool breath made me shiver. But he didn’t stop. He further leaned in to close the distance between our lips, now just a few centimetres away.
Part of me wanted to feel his lips against mine.
Our lips were barely a few millimetres apart. And that little distance could have soon disappeared if my mom hadn’t decided to open the door at that very moment.
As we heard the door creak open, Brian pulled back immediately.
My mom came out.
“Brooke?”
“Yeah mom, it’s me.”
“What are you doing outside? Come on in.”
“Yeah… just a sec.”
She nodded and left the door open for me as she went inside. She was probably sleepy and didn’t want to stay up for me.
“Do you want to stay for the night?” I offered.
“Um… no. But thanks. I’ll be on my way.”
“Okay,” I said.
He turned around to leave but suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned back to face me again.
“I forgot something,” He said and before I could ask him what, he quickly leaned towards me and placed a soft kiss on my lips.
—
I was kidding.
His lips came in contact with my left cheek. It made me shiver from the cold as well as it made me feel warm.
The moment he did that, my heart fluttered and I could feel butterflies dancing in my stomach.
I blushed, looking down to hide my face which I swear, was as red as a tomato.
“You look cute when you blush,” He said and I looked up to see him wink at me.
“Good night, Brooke,” He said and turned to leave.
I locked my car and went inside. I locked the door and went straight to my bed. My mom was already back to sleep and Ryan probably hadn’t even bothered to get up. Not bothering to change, I flopped on my soft bed and pulled the covers over me.
The kiss on the cheek was the last thing playing on my mind before my eyes shut.