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 Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:47 pm
Once he started driving, Austin barely glanced at his passenger. He could see her out of the corner of his eye or when he glanced at the mirrors and caught her reflection. For all of his recklessness, the young man considered himself an excellent driver and he, for the most part, paid close attention the the other drivers on the road and in his general space.
After all, if he wasn't capable of calculating the odds of his success rate based on their speed relative to his own, he wouldn't have been able to pass between cars as smoothly (or as terrifyingly to anyone in the car with him) or with the precision that he did.
He might not use his brains the way his parents or even Sophia thought he should of, but he did his smarts now and again.
"We're going for a drive, what's it look like Soph?" He asked, only slowing as they hit a red light. It was then that he glanced over at her and flashed her a warm, genuine grin that she likely hadn't seen in years tossed her way from him.
"Don't you trust me?" Maybe it was ballsy of him to ask, but Austin felt like no matter what had happened to separate them he still expected her to treat him like that sweet boy she'd grown up with and trusted explicitly.
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Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 5:55 am
A drive did not equal a race in Sophie's mind and judging by how quickly Austin floored it from zero to fifty, there was nothing cool and casual about this particular drive.
One hand rose to grab for the handle above her head while the other fell to the seat itself, gripping the bottom of it as she made the debate of either focusing on the road or focusing on Austin. As she watched the car weave in and out of traffic, she found herself instinctively jerking, muscles tensing and feet pushing up from the floor mat every time they found themselves reasonably close to another vehicle. His driving was smooth, confident - much like himself, really, but with the lack of control on her part, Sophie couldn't help but tear her attention away from the road and the nervous stomach flips it was giving her.
Amethyst eyes fell on the driver instead, just in time for him to toss out a casual "Don't you trust me?"
The smile he offered was a dangerous one. A nostalgic one. A memory of another young man who'd managed to make her stomach flip but for all the right reasons.
Sophia was starting to wonder if she'd put her heart in the way of danger instead of herself, by getting in his car.
"It's not you - it's the other drivers," she argued feebly, suddenly feeling very much warmer than she had only moments earlier. The hand on the seat moved forward to turn the air on full blast.
What in the world had she gotten herself into?
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Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:39 am
When he first started driving, Austin was a cautious and incredibly defensive driver but as he grew more comfortable behind the wheel he'd started being more daring. It helped that he started to trust his work on his car more and more over the years until they were a fine tuned machine.
A boy and his trusty car that he'd basically built from scratch.
He hadn't wrecked yet, not seriously, and he liked to think that he probably wouldn't crash any time soon. But, seeing Sophie's panicked state had him easing up on the gas pedal just a tich. His grip on the gear shift was a firm one and each shift was almost seamless.
"Come on Soph, you don't need to trust them," he paused to glance her way, brows knitted together when he frowned, "you just need to trust me." His tongue darted out to wet chapped lips. "When have I ever gotten you hurt?" As soon as his sentence finished his full attention was back on the road, when he took a right and then a left to take them towards some of the canyons and tunnels they had.
"Have a little faith in me, I'm not an idiot."
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Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2017 11:23 pm
“I didn't say you were one!”
Her voice was strained, almost exasperated as she did her best not to be as obvious with her winces and body tensing every time they passed another car.
He knew what he was talking about. She needed to remember that he was more or less an expert when it came to cars - sure he was smart, he just applied his knowledge into vehicles instead of books, like her. Right, right. It didn't matter that he failed to have a degree in this sort of thing...years of practice was just as good, if not better, right??
Sophie wasn't a fan of fast driving. She wasn't a fan of rollercoasters, she wasn't a fan of flying. Anything that had to deal with loss of control or high velocities quickly rocketed to the top of her Do Not Want list and the speed of Austin's driving was right on up there in comparison.
Still, she did her best to act nonchalant.
“Aren't you w-worried about the police? Surely they must camp around here, r-right?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 1:35 pm
His response was a grunt, fingers twitching around the gear shift.
Sophie still hadn't said that she trusted him and it irked him, made his jaw tick and nostrils flare a little, especially when she once again questioned him. In response he reached over and tapped something strapped to the dash.
"Radar," he stated, as if it explained everything. "Let's me know where cops are." It wasn't a foolproof method but it helped. For his preference of driving, Austin had a remarkably clean driving record.
Suddenly, he pulled over and off the road and into the first gas station he saw. The car stilled abruptly when he pushed it into park and he turned to face her, squinting. "If you don't trust me Sophie, then you should get out." His tongue ran over his teeth as he tried to decide what he wanted to say.
"Shoulda known you wouldn't like this or being in a car with me." He shook his head, turning his attention to the window so she wouldn't see how annoyed he was about it all. "You haven't cared or enjoyed anything I do since we were kids."
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 1:40 am
Eyes followed his gesture towards the dashboard, settling on the small device. It made sense, getting a head's up on where the police were, especially when he was involved in fairly illegal things like drag racing.
Sophie leaned forward to get a better look when she found herself falling sideways at the sudden, unexpected turn of his vehicle. One hand shot out to catch herself on the door’s arm and the other reached for anything on her left...resulting in her grabbing hold of the driver’s shoulder.
While he wasn't built like a football player, Austin still had his fair share in build. The summer before high school had resulted in a change that had turned an awkward nerdling into a stud and she definitely felt that stud’s muscle through his shirt before allowing her hand to reluctantly release its hold of him.
It took her a moment to register what he was saying, amethyst eyes turning to glance out the passenger window at the homely looking gas station. She'd never been out to this particular part of town before, so the bars on the windows and the peeling, faded advertisements lacked the comforting familiarity that the businesses near her neighborhood gave her. No, it might have simply been a little run down but the convenience store looked downright shady.... and he was willing to toss her out, here, of all places? Without a second thought?
The hurt in her voice was evident as one hand rose, fingers brushing against her bottom lip. “You would abandon me at a gas station?”
A longer glance revealed no sign of a bus stop in sight. Bus passes only worked if she took a bus and it didn't appear to be a viable option at this particular spot. She hadn't even glanced at her phone since his arrival into the coffee shop, who knew how much juice it still had in it?
Neither detail mattered, though, as Sophie turned to grab her bag from the backseat of his favorite treasure. His quick willingness to just leave her in the middle of nowhere told her everything she needed to know: there was no trace left of the sweet, nerdy boy she'd grown up with. Instead, some pompous, self-absorbed prat had taken his place and if he could just...just leave a girl on her own like that, who knew what else he was capable of?
“O-Of course I trust you,” she stuttered out, her emotions quickly threatening to overwhelm her. “I wouldn't have gotten in the car with you in the first place if I didn't trust you!”
He didn't even turn to look at her.
Shoving her glasses further up the bridge of her nose, Sophie turned and fumbled with the car door’s latch, finally unlocking the mechanism and releasing her from the young man's car.
Planting both feet securely on the ground, her voice quivered as she turned around, betraying just how upset she'd become.
Y-You're a j-jerk, Austin Lynch.” Her bag was clutched tightly to her chest, tears forming in the corner of her eyes, “A d-downright jerk!"
And with that, she slammed the car door. Turning on the balls of her sneakers, Sophia Thomas started walking towards the gas station, holding in her breath as she tried to keep herself from crying.
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:02 am
The grip on his shoulder nearly had him turning back to her but he didn't, still feeling agitation hot and rampant in his chest. His grip on his steering wheel was almost enough to turn his knuckles pale and his jaw moved like he was working out words in his mouth that he wouldn't say.
You would abandon me at a gas station?
Sophie was the only person that could make a question like that sting to him. Other girls were a dime a dozen, ones he barely had to know before they were getting in his car and hoping he'd take them home for the night. He didn't give a s**t about them and he wished that he didn't give a s**t about Sophie Thomas, the literal girl next door for him, but he did.
"Soph that's not--" He stopped, because the girl was grabbing her things and tearing up and-- <********>.
"Yeah," he huffed exasperated, "I ********' know." He was yelling after her even as his car shook from the force of the slam. He waited fifteen seconds, counting to regulate his breathing, before he was getting out of the car and going after her.
Barely catching her wrist he tugged her away from the door. "I wasn't going to leave you here Soph, I woulda called dad to come get you."
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:39 am
Sophie was quick to learn that being a few inches over five feet tall meant that one's steps were severely shorter than those of a six foot, six inch person.
Her head had ducked itself down upon hearing Austin's hollers after her, only reconfirming that yes, he did indeed know that he was a grade A jerk, something she was hoping had just been a phase... or something! She had to have been kidding herself, imagining that he was somehow going to revert back to the lovable doof she'd grown up knowing, that he'd tease her and they'd go back to their inside jokes and habits with one another.
Sophie knew it was a lost cause, but still her heart couldn't resist playing the what if game.... so when she felt a sudden tug at her wrist, wide eyes turned back around to the hand's owner. There was a soft look of hope on her face as the tears slowly retreated from the corners of her eyes.
Austin! He'd followed her!
This was it, this was going to be the part where he'd apologize and ask for her forgiveness and then maybe they'd go back to the car and he'd suggest they go back to the little ice cream parlor they'd used to visit as preteens and---
"I wasn't going to leave you here Soph, I woulda called dad to come get you."
He... he was going to call his father to come retrieve her from this hellish place?
The hopeful look was quickly dashed, turning into something far more incredulous. The bag never left her chest as she stared him down, eyes narrowing.
"You'd call your dad to come retrieve me? Your dad, Austin?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 9:49 am
Now that they were here, half caught between the gas pumps and the door Austin didn't know what he was doing. Words left his mouth before he really thought about them and they made things worse.
Thick fingers refused to let go of her wrist and he frowned at her.
"Yeah, my dad," he huffed right back at her, not understanding why she was so damn upset about the idea. "You clearly didn't like being in the car with me and my driving."
Austin had wanted to take her and do something fun but it was obvious that their versions of fun didn't align at all anymore and he was pissed at himself for bothering to try. "Figured you'd rather get a ride home with someone who's not going to make you cling to the oh s**t handle the entire drive."
He shuffled from foot to foot.
"What do you want me to do Sophie?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 1:46 am
By the time he'd finished talking, her bottom lip was in serious risk of tearing. Perfectly aligned teeth (thanks to the braces she'd worn from the impressionable age of ten until thirteen) continued to worry away the soft skin of her bottom lip as eyes anxiously continued to search his face, watching every crease and wrinkle as he spoke.
“Austin, I don't…”
She'd already been upfront about it - she'd silently chosen to trust his driving when she'd climbed into the passenger’s seat. He obviously felt like she was blaming him for her nervous behavior, which...well, it wasn't entirely unfair of him to think.
“It's hard for me to let go of things, okay?” Not to mention her ever-growing fear of fast. Rollercoasters, driving, skiing - if it involved doing anything considerably fast, Sophia Thomas wanted nothing to do with it. Which meant having concerns when it came to most of the things that Austin enjoyed, nowadays. “I-It’s not you, it's me.”
She winced. Okay, like that didn't sound cheesy.
Her eyes fell down and she focused her stare onto their shoes. “Life would be a lot easier if I could be more like you about things, I know. I just…”
Sighing, Sophie intentionally avoided making eye contact with him.
“I'm sorry I'm not the girl you want me to be. I'm not exactly the kind of gal I want to be, either.”
God, why was she even bothering to say this to him? He'd probably caught the tears in her voice and felt guilty, nothing more. She called him out on being a jerk, so he was making a half-assed effort to show he had some humanity left in him.
“It's probably best if I just went home.” One hand gestured back towards the store's door, her voice sounding defeated. “Don't worry about me, I'll just use their phone and call somebody.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 9:10 am
Standing next to Sophie, Austin felt like a giant and he was both grateful and annoyed that they were so far out of the city. The fact that they were arguing would have drawn attention, if there were anyone around to draw attention from, and the fact that he looked like he could easily overpower her made him uneasy.
Enough so that he let go of her wrist and slid his hands into his pockets when he stepped back to give her some space.
He looked uncomfortable when he rocked back and forth on his heels. "I'm not asking you to be anything but you Soph." The admission was quiet and his gaze had diverted because it felt weird to be saying something like that. Yet...it was Sophie and he'd known her since they'd been in diapers.
"I'm not going to leave you here alone Sophie." That he was at least sure of. "Don't be stubborn about something dumb like this."
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 6:57 am
It was her turn to look up at him awkwardly, the young woman forced to tilt her head even more than she usually did because Austin was enormous compared to all of the other students and teachers she was used to addressing.
He wasn't going to leave her there - points for him, at least. Maybe his decision to dump her off on the side of the highway had been a rash decision, just like hers had been to leave the car and distance herself from the boy that had almost made her cry.
Fair was fair, they'd both made some spur of the moment calls that hadn't been the smartest. Funny, coming from two of the smartest kids in their high school class.
Sighing, the bag in her arms shifted upwards as she hugged on to it tighter. Words eluded her for a moment as she tried to figure out a proper way to apologize... even if she didn't think she was necessarily in the wrong about any of this.
"Just...." Teeth flashed as she bit her bottom lip again, sucking on it gently before releasing it, "I trust you, okay? I know we haven't been... y'know. Close. But that doesn't mean I trust you any less than I did back then."
Save for the occasional trust in the notion that he'd disappoint her when it came to things like school and her feelings, but.
Her head shook and she forced out a laugh. "Fast things just make me nervous, you know that. But if you still want to take me wherever, I'm fine. Just don't judge me for holding onto the.." what had he called it? Oh, right - "Oh s**t handle, okay?"
There. That was an olive branch, sort of... right?
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:43 am
Green eyes studied her face, flicking this way and that as if it would give him more insight into what his companion was thinking than he had figured out so far. In the end, he shrugged at her, hands slipping into his pockets.
"Alright," he said simply, offering her no more and no less before he gestured at his car across the parking lot waiting for them.
Austin waited for her to start walking before he trailed quietly behind her, something in him unsettled without being able to put a finger on what exactly. Maybe it was the idea that Sophie said she still trusted him like always or maybe it was the fact that they'd been fighting at all. Or maybe it was that he missed what they had, back before high school started and they drifted apart.
Whatever it was, he didn't like it.
"Let's just get you home Soph."
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:08 pm
There was some awkward shuffling in response to his alright, the young woman making her way towards the car, if anything to escape the uncomfortable lull of silence that had settled between them.
Once in the car, though, Austin appeared to have made the decision that instead of taking her to his intended spot, she was better off back at home, where he no doubt felt she belonged. Heck, maybe it's where she did belong; clearly she wasn't meant to be a passenger in Austin Lynch's ride.
"Yeah, okay."
Glancing out the window, she remained quiet for the duration of the trip, doing her very best to avoid using the "oh s**t" handle or any other part of the car. Granted, his driving was significantly slower than it had been on the trip out there, but she assumed he was probably more concerned of upsetting her once again.
Sigh.
It was funny, in a sad, bitter way. Sophie had finally gotten to ride in his car and it had been anything but the happy, wonderful daydream they'd weaved together all those years ago.
Perhaps some things were better in thought than in practice, after all.
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