When I'm With You

I thought that he was going to kill me. Seriously, I was helping Calista pack up everything in the short amount of time that we had in between when I invited her to live with Mat and I, and we left her current living space.

To be honest I don’t know what I thinking when I did that either. It was really just a spur of the moment decision because, quite frankly, I don’t think that I can stand living with just Mat anymore. I mean, we’re staying at my sister’s house, but she’s never home. Not to mention the point that we don’t really get along very well. She’s 24 and I’m 15, so she thinks that she’s mom, which we both know isn’t the case. She can pretend all she likes that I’m some sort of child, but we both know that that’s not true.

Anyway… I’m ranting.

Back to the current situation.

Derek.

He’s a very imposing figure. Normally, I don’t get intimidated, but this time… I’m not sure if it would be wise for me not to at least be slightly wary around him. First of all, he kept glaring at me. It’s not my fault that his ex girlfriend is coming to live with me. She needs to have room to move and staying in the same house as him with no one to come to when she doesn’t want to deal with him really isn’t the environment that she needs. Believe me, I’ve gone through that.

But, again, I digress. So, he’s probably somewhere around 6’5”, sorry it’s a bit hard when you having someone towering over you to estimate height, as compared to my 5’3”, which even on a good day is questionable. So not only do I feel small but really tiny as well. It’s not like I weigh a lot. It honestly doesn’t normally matter, but I don’t think that I’ve ever met anyone that’s seriously that intimidating.

So leaving that morning was not really something that I had been looking forward to. Calista suggested that we leave early just to avoid the whole interrogation process that I was bound to face since Derek had had time to sleep on it. I don’t think that I would have had too much of a problem, but just in case, I’d rather not have to deal with it.

So we left at around 4 in the morning which is even earlier than I would normally get up, but we didn’t really go to sleep, so it wasn’t a problem.

“Are you sure that you’re okay to drive right now?” she asked just before I climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Yes Calista. I’m just fine. I’ve driven plenty of times before.”

“Yeah, but you haven’t slept, and it’s 4 in the morning. “

I smiled in amusement. I probably only get a few hours of sleep as it is and not sleeping isn’t something that I haven’t done before, so it really wasn’t anything to worry about.

“Please stop worrying Calista. We’ll be just fine I promise. You might have to help me find my way out of here though. I was slightly lost when I got out here to be honest.”

“Slightly? No kidding, considering where you ended up.”

I started the car and began to drive off with an annoyed grimace on my face.

“I was exploring, and then your neighborhood decided to be all mean and start taking me around in confusing circles and annoying dead ends. Not to mention the point that Derek completely drove my car back over here, so I have no clue where I am,” I ranted as I continued down the road hoping that I was going in the right direction or that Calista would at least tell me if I was completely and utterly lost.

We talked about nothing in particular as we drove along. As it turns out, I wasn’t as lost as I had originally thought, but I know that I likely wouldn’t have figured all of the twists and turns out by myself without a little bit of time, which I didn’t have. So in the end, I wasn’t going to complain.

We stopped for breakfast when I heard my phone ringing, so I quickly excused myself.

“Hey, are you on the road yet?” came Mat’s concerned voice on the other end.

“Yes, we’ve been on the road for a few hours now.”

“Oh wow. You were up really early this morning then I’m guessing. Are you avoiding something or did you just miss me that much?”

Cocky bastard. Good thing I know that he’s just being annoying on purpose.

“Oh I’ve missed you terribly but no that’s not why we left so early. We didn’t sleep so it was easier to just set off when everything was ready.”

“Skye.”

“Oh don’t even start Mat. My insomnia is nothing compared to yours. I’ve driven without sleep before, and it’s only one night. We’ll be fine.”

It was then that I started noticing something was wrong. I couldn’t shake the feeling that
someone was watching me, and it was getting annoying.

“Well, please just be careful. I’m already in enough trouble with your sister for losing you yesterday. “

I rolled my eyes. It’s not like Ema was really that concerned. She just put up the “big sister” front for the publicity. She’s a senator, so I have to be on somewhat good behavior.
However, it also spells bad parenting (she’s not my parent or even my guardian, but it
always seems to appear like that). Although, honestly, I don’t really show up in her press that much anymore. I never really have. There’s only been one incident… but we’ll just leave that alone for now.

“I’ll deal with Ema, Mat. Don’t worry about it. And you didn’t really lose me, I left. Completely different.”

“This is your sister we’re talking about Skye.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

I was scanning the entire parking lot and everything around me by this point. I could almost picture the eyes on me, boring into my every movement and studying my patterns.

“Yeah sure, whatever you say Skye. Who’s this we that you keep referring to?”

“I’m bringing a friend back with me.”

“Skye.”

“Mat.”

“Are you sure that that’s safe?”

“It’ll be fine Mat. She’s nice.”

“Skye!”

“Mat, I promise that it’ll be fine. Please stop worrying, we’ll be back as soon as we can. I
went a bit further than I’d intended.”

I stopped and turned around to where I hoped would hide me from whoever was watching me.

“That’s not going to happen when it comes to you.”

I smiled. Mat always worried. He was more of my parent than my sister could ever hope to be, but it was always nice knowing that someone really cared about you.

"You're such a worry wart. I'll let you know when we're close."

"Alright. I'll be waiting at the door."

"Yes mom."

"That's right dear."

I laughed and hung up the phone.

I went in back into the restaurant still feeling uncomfortable, but starting to wonder if I was just being paranoid because I hadn't found anything.

"You ready?"

"Yeah... but are you sure? You barely touched your food."

She sounded concerned and I was touched, but that was another thing. I didn't really eat that much.

"I wasn't that hungry. It's hard for me to eat in the morning anyway."

She shrugged but I couldn't help but notice that she was staring at me with wary eyes. I'm tiny, and to anyone it might appear as if I don't eat at all. I do... just not much.

"I'm fine really Calista. We should probably get going though. That was Mat and he's getting a bit worried."

She smiled and nodded her head as we climbed back into the car and drove away from the small diner.

"He sounds like a great guy," she said after a few minutes of being on the road again.

"Mat? Yeah, he is."

"You're lucky to have a father like him."

Now that got me. I started cracking up, and I couldn't stop. I couldn't even imagine Mat as a father... well I could, but it was a strange picture.

"What?" She sounded so confused. "You are."

"He's not my father." I managed in between laughing and trying to drive at the same time.

"What?"

"Mat. He's not my father. He's my guardian, and even that is questionable on most days," I explained.

"Oh..."

"But you're right. I am lucky to have him."

We drove along a little further and I was getting increasingly more paranoid. I just couldn't get rid of the feeling that someone was now following us. I looked in the most discreet ways possible but I wasn't coming up with anything. It was aggravating. I can usually spot someone tailing me within moments, but this... whatever, was no where to be found.

That was until I made a particularly sharp turn and I found him. I smirked. Found you.

"Are you sure that you're good to drive right now?"

I think that I may have scared her a bit. I don't blame her. I did just make a pretty risky move just to figure out if we were being followed.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Are you sure?! I can drive you know."

"No. I promise, we're fine, but we have a slight problem."

"Really? I never would have guessed."

"Not that. We're being followed."