Lost & Found.

I’d been sitting in the same trashy motel room for the last three hours. I hadn’t moved, I hadn’t touched anything, I hadn’t asked Fox why the hell we were here. Why? Because Fox had taken my car to get food.

Three hours ago.

We were in Omaha and I could only pray that he wasn’t stupid enough to stir up more trouble.

My stomach growled at me, but I tried to ignore it as I stared into the grey walls. You see, my guess is that they were originally white, but this place just never gets cleaned. I was afraid to touch anything except for the bed, which didn’t look all too stained, and my own things, which sat patiently at my feet unaware of the trouble our friend was most likely getting us into.

A rumbling motor, much too loud for my small car, made it’s way into the parking lot. I almost stood to check and make sure that Fox hadn’t screwed up my car, but I was automatically reassured when it could be heard exciting the parking lot. I sighed.

“Fox!” I whined to myself, bouncing a little on the bed, using my arms for support.

“What?” he snapped, obviously annoyed by my tone.

I hadn’t heard the car or the door opening. I stared up at him as he approached me, who was baffled.

“How? What?” I stuttered, shaking my head in disbelief.

Fox’s hand was cradling his head as he walked over to the second bed and collapsed, “shut up.”

I stood up, disgusted by how freely he touched the grime that covered the room. “What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with you?” he snapped back instantly. It was an automated reply.

Slowly I walked over to the side of his small bed. “What’s wrong?” I asked cautiously.

“Everything, Rabbit, just everything,” he sighed, peeking at me from underneath his hands. I sat on the bed next to him, afraid of what he would do should I make the wrong move. If I learned one thing about this man, it would be the fact that his moods swayed and snapped.

He was almost like a weeping willow tree. So beautiful to look at and so flowing and strong, yet were you to do something wrong, those beautiful branches sting like a bitch.

“What happened?” I asked, my fingers an inch from his hair and itching to just play with it. I shook my head, wondering where those thoughts came from.

“It’s nothing, Rabbit, don’t worry your pretty little head,” he muttered, smiling slightly as he let his hands slide down his face to rest on the bed beneath him.

I stared at him blankly, “Are you calling me stupid?”

I watched him as he laughed, shaking his head merrily. “No, Rabbit. I’m really not.”

And for once, I believed him.

~~~

“Why are we in Omaha?” I asked, pointing to a drive through restaurant on the side of the road. He nodded as he pulled into their parking lot, driving into the line of cars.

“No reason,” he lied.

I stared at him until he looked back at me, “you’re lying.”

We moved a foot in the line. “Why would I be lying?”

We moved two more feet. The next car was at the window. “I don’t know, why are you lying?”

“Because it’s none of your business,” he grumbled as we rolled up to the talking box. “We want a number one with a Dr. Pepper and a number four with a Coke.” I slapped him. “What?” he threw the words at me as the man on the other side of the box told us how much it was and where to pull up.

“Why’d you order for me?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Why are you asking so many questions?”

I shrugged and watched patiently as he paid for and took our food before driving the both of us back onto the highway. We stayed silent for the ten minutes it took us to devour our burgers and fries and then a few minutes after that also. We were on what looked like an interstate, but since I hadn’t caught a sign and there wasn’t exactly a class for this, I wasn’t sure. All I could see was road and a scattering of trees. Every now and then we could see a few small houses, mostly shacks, but some of them looked pretty nice.

That’s when I realized that our motel, which meant our bags also, was in the opposite direction. We were going the wrong way.

“Dude, our stuff is the other way.” Only halfway through my not-very-well-thought-out sentence he was already nodding and smiling mischievously.

“I know.” I stared at him, waiting for an explanation. “How much money do we have left?”

“You mean how much money do I have left, and it’s not much, thanks to you,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest and staring out my side window, watching as the utterly boring backdrop we were driving through became, annoyingly, even more dull.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” his accent flared, “and I ask because since we’re both on the run, you should really die your hair again.”

I turned to stare at him. “I’m not ‘on the run.’ You are ‘on the run.’”

My face was taut in seriousness as he sputtered, almost stopping the car, instead he just pulled it over onto the side of the road. Now we look like my car died and we need help getting it started again. “I thought,” he started with his hands pressed tight and flat against the steering wheel, “I though that,” he couldn’t think of what he wanted to say. I watched him intently with scrutinizing eyes as he shook his head and his dark, dirty-looking, waves clashed against his almost tan skin. His thin lips were parted in what you could call awe and his eyes were wide and confused and calculating.

He was an odd man.

I would admit to that.

“How long have you been away from home?” he finally settled on, looking at me seriously and I tried to ignore his gravely tone. I turned away to look out the window.

“I lost track of the days. It hasn’t been too long.”

“How old are you?”

I sighed at the way he softened his voice as if he suddenly decided that I was fragile. After all he’d put me through already, only now was he deciding this. I was very angry now. “What does it matter?” I snapped, swinging around to face him. My overly long hair seemed to whip his face. Or maybe my words were the slap that caused the hurt look in those adorable grey-speckled eyes of his.

There I go associating him with words like ‘adorable’ again.

“Seventeen,” I muttered, giving in, not daring to look at him as he put the small car back in gear and kept driving to his original destination.

The radio played a soft song and it was all I could hear.

‘The broken locks were a warning, you got inside my head. I tried my best to be guarded, I’m an open book instead. And I still see your reflection, inside of my eyes, that are looking for purpose. They’re still looking for life. I’m falling apart, I’m barely breathing, with a broken heart that’s still beating...’

I didn’t think I’d ever hear him speak again. “I’m nineteen.”

I watched him slowly pull into a parking spot in front of a worn down looking store. It still had lights in the windows, indicating that the place was open and ready for business, but I could only doubt that there was anybody living inside. I half expected skin stretched across skeletons and curled fingernails, their blind blue eyes staring right into my soul and all together scaring the shit out of me. I closed my eyes for a minute, trying to get the visual out of my head.

It was still burning on the back of my eyelids by the time Fox spoke again as he opened my door, “and I’m sorry.”

His sad smile was all it took to get me out of the car.

I almost wanted to hug the guy.