It wasn’t a minute later that I heard Kye.

He pulled over, and I jumped in.

“I didn’t know if you would actually come out or not. Did you tell your dad you were coming with me?” he asked, already pulling away.

“I snuck out.”

He started laughing. “You’re, like, twenty years old, and you have to sneak out?”

“Yes, because you know who my dad is, and how he would feel about this.”

“Yeah, hard to forget. You know he’s going to find out eventually, considering I have to make it clear to Holt, right?”

“Yeah, I know, but I’m also not going to tell him at ten o’clock on a random Thursday. Maybe at a nice dinner or something where you can show him that you aren’t a barbarian.”

“So no eating soup with my hands?”

I laughed and leaned back, suddenly at ease. The car was comfortably warm, the lights from the dash leaving us in a low glow, and the rumble of the car was more soothing from the inside. That, and it smelled amazing, the musky cologne scent making me take deep breaths of it.

We drove in silence for another ten minutes, Kye seemingly knowing where we were going, but I quickly became lost.

“Where are we going?” I finally asked, losing track of the turns we had made.

“Around? Why aren’t you happy? Do you miss Dean?”

The sudden change of topic back to Dean jolted me back to reality.

“I don’t know. Part of me misses having such a perfect boyfriend. Like everyone envied me for it. I know how shallow and pathetic that sounds, but it’s hard to let go of when that was my entire life the past few years.”

“The other part of you?”

“Feels pathetic that I like the image so much that I’m fake dating you to get it back.”

Kye laughed, and I lightly smacked his arm. “You can’t make fun of me for this.”

“I’m not trying to, but it’s funny you think dating me helps your image. And honestly, that you even want to hang around these people. I can barely handle people I do like. Why waste my time?”

“You don’t have girlfriends? Or want one, at least?”

“No, not for me.”

“Boyfriends?”

He shot me a glare but grinned. “Not what I was getting at.”

“Interesting. Just sleep around, then?”

“Not quite what I was getting at, either. Do you want to put on some music?”

I nodded, picking a song and snuggling back into the seat. The rumble of the engine became soothing, the warm musk making me close my eyes and enjoy it. My mind held onto the thought that I was in a death trap with Kye, but my body fought it, drifting off as he eased into another curve.

I didn’t know how much time had gone by, but suddenly, Kye was tapping my arm to wake me up.

“I figured you should get home,” he said, quietly. 

“It’s one in the morning?” I asked, my eyes going wide when I looked at the clock on my phone. “You’ve been driving around with me asleep for two hours?”

“I think so? I don’t know. I didn’t keep track.”

“Oh my god, was I drooling?”

He leaned back in the seat, his eyes heavy, and I wondered how tired he felt. He looked good, the easy smile on his face making him less intimidating. It nearly put him into the cute category more than the feral one. “I also didn’t keep track of that. I was just enjoying driving, and you weren’t really bothering me.”

I leaned over the console, putting us a little closer. His eyes dropped to my lips, and I took the invitation to lean towards him more. He didn’t move, frozen in his seat as he continued to stare. 

“I really can’t tell if you want to kiss me or not.”

“Daisy,” he said, the whisper so clearly a rejection that it immediately stung.

I pulled back fast, the heat creeping up my neck, and I knew I would be red in a second.

“Sorry.” I grabbed my bag off the floor, pushing the door open to run home. 

“Talk tomorrow?” he asked.

“Yeah, talk then. Goodnight.”

“Night, Daze.”

I didn’t wait for him to pull away before I started back to the house, doing everything I could not to break out into a full run. It was rare for my confidence to waver, but Kye rejecting me was enough to make me want to puke.

Friday

Daisy

Are you still showing up tomorrow?

Kye

Yeah, I’ll be the super annoyed tattooed guy in a fast car, hoping that his fake girlfriend says I can go drive instead.

Daisy

Do you like doing anything other than driving?

Kye

Does riding bikes count?