Ten Below ZeroTen Below Zero(27)

“Ha,” he laughed humorlessly. “That’s just it – you aren’t living. And if you liked this life, you wouldn’t have asked me that question. You’d have told me to f*ck off.”

“F*ck off.”

“Too late now. I’m stuck on you. Which means you’re stuck with me.”

I slapped his hand from my hair and turned, walking down the sidewalk away from him.

“Not running away from me this time, Parker,” he said, catching up with me.

“Go away.”

“No.”

He made me angry. I wanted to hurt him. “I don’t even like you!” I yelled, turning to him, my fists balled with rage.

“You don’t have to like me.” He grabbed one of my fists and brought it to his chest, pulling me close. “But something about me gets to you. I can hear it in the noise you make when I get close to you. I see the look in your eyes, a combination of desire and fear.”

I tried pulling my hand from his, but he held tight. I yanked harder and he reached out, grabbing my other fist and pulling them both into him, pulling me so we were inches apart. I stopped fighting. “What do you want from me?” I asked, defeated.

“Come with me on the road trip.” There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation.

“You barely know me,” I protested.

“You barely know me,” he replied.

I shook my head. “Why?”

“I want you to.”

I furrowed my brow. “That’s it?” I asked incredulously.

“Yep. Men aren’t complicated creatures, Parker. And we mean what we say. So come on, humor me. Come on the road trip. If you want to return home at any point, I’ll buy your plane ticket.”

I fidgeted. I couldn’t help it, but I did want to go on this road trip. And a bigger, scarier, part of me wanted to be around Everett as much as possible. If he thought he could make me value my life, maybe I could make him fight for his. Both were a losing battle, but the words fell from my mouth a moment later. “Okay.”

“Okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, fine.”

“Whoa, don’t sound too thrilled, please.” He let go of one of my hands and I brought it to my chest, self-consciously. “Just promise me something,” he said, a laugh on the edge of his voice. I looked at him and cocked my head to the side in question. “Don’t fall in love with me.”

I laughed. For the first time in years, I actually laughed. It sounded rusty and maniacal. But I actually laughed. My eyes bugged out of my head and I slapped both hands over my mouth.

Everett was looking at me curiously. “That sounded like a dying cat.”

I cleared my throat and removed the hands covering my mouth. “You’re rude.”

“I am, and your laugh is f*cking awful.”

“Yeah, well don’t worry, I’m not in danger of falling in love with you.”

He nodded. “Good.”

We resumed walking when a thought suddenly occurred to me. “Wait. Do you have a reliable car for this road trip? Mine is, well, not reliable.”

Everett scoffed, “Like taking your car was even a remote possibility. I don’t think you can actually call that piece of shit a car.”

“It is a car.”

“Don’t you mean ‘cars’?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Yes, actually, it’s two cars welded together. It still runs.”

“Really?” he asked.

I kicked a pebble on the sidewalk and looked down, avoiding looking at him. “Well, not right now apparently.”

“Like I said, piece of shit.”

“Like I said, you’re rude.”

“Are you in love with me yet?”

“Not even close.”



I didn’t realize we were walking to my apartment until we reached the parking lot. “Um,” I said, gesturing at my building. “This is where I live.”

“Let’s go up,” Everett said, walking towards the stairs to the apartment.

“Um,” I said again. I was nervous about letting him see where I lived, but then I realized it didn’t matter. We’d be on the road soon anyways.

“Come on,” he said, gesturing with his fingers for me to follow him. “I’ll help you pack.”

I followed him into the building. “How long will we be gone?”

“I don’t have a time limit. Unless you fall in love with me, then your ass is on a plane.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not going to happen. And I start classes in two months, so I can’t be gone longer than that.” Was I really agreeing to a long road trip with this man, this man I barely knew? Apparently I was. I was throwing caution to the wind for the sake of convincing him to fight. But I couldn’t figure out why I cared or why I was putting so much effort into it.

I opened the door and looked around cautiously. When the big room appeared clear, I walked in, letting Everett follow behind.

“Are you thirsty?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Hmm,” I hummed, grabbing a soda and a lime from the fridge. Instead of handing the soda to him, I opened it and grabbed a glass from the cupboard next to the fridge, filling the glass with soda.