Lovesick

Christofer's POV

All I knew was that I was trying to get to California and I was very lost. I had passed the welcome to Colorado sign almost an hour ago and hadn't seen anything but rolling plains and cattle. It was raining out and I felt bad for the miserable beasts.

They were all huddled together, laying in the mud. I was looking at them and not really paying attention to my car for most of the time, then my car started beeping and slowed to a stop. I looked around, alarmed.

I was out of gas.

Just great.

I got out in the rain and began to push my car to the side of the road. I debated waiting for someone to pass but I doubted that would happen any time soon. I hadn't seen another car since I left Kansas.

I sighed, pulled a sweatshirt out of my trunk and started to walk. In the rain. Surprisingly, it wasn't long before I came upon a house. It was a large farm house, with many barns and out buildings. I believe that the paint had once been yellow but it could really use a little love.

I stepped onto the porch and as I raised my hand to ring the bell I could suddenly hear yelling and crashing. Someone was fighting, and it sounded bad. The door burst open and a burley man shoved me aside.

He stalked off to a pick-up truck that was sitting in the long gravel drive way I had just walked up, and peeled out like he was being chased by the cops. The door was open and young woman, no more than thirty-five, was sitting at the base of the stairs, sobbing. Her head rested in her hands, elbows on her knees. Her long blonde hair veiled her face.

“Are you okay, ma'am?” I asked quietly. Her head shot up. Her eyes and cheeks were red with tears. She wore, what looked to be, a waitressing outfit for a dinner of some sort. She had on a short blue dress with a black apron. A name was embroidered in red on the left hand side, right above the chest pocket. It spelled out Amy.

“Yes,” she said, standing up and straightening out her apron, “I'm fine. Did you need something dear?” she asked.

“Well, my car broke down about a mile down the road. I was wondering if there was any way I could get a ride to a gas station or something?” I asked, rubbing that back of my neck nervously.

“Oh, I'm sorry. I have to get to my shift at the dinner. My daughter might be able to help. Gosh, where is that girl?” She stepped out onto the porch and called out, “Stephani!”

“In the barn mom!” a female voice called back. I heard a door slam and running footsteps before a girl about my age joined us on the porch. She had her mother's dirty blond hair and tan skin. She wore skinny jeans and and flannel button down that looked to be at least two sizes too big.

“Hey, baby girl, this is um,” she paused.

“Chris Drew,” I offered.

“Right, he needs a ride to the gas station, his car broke down. You think you could give him a lift?” Amy asked.

“Sure,” she nodded.

“Okay, I'll see you in the morning.” With that Amy left and climbed into a beat up, old, Subaru and pulled out of the drive way. As soon as she was out of sight Stephani rushed into the house. I followed silently just to stop when I heard the crunch of glass under my vans. I stepped back to find the floor littered with broken glass, slightly resembling the glass of a smashed beer bottle. Stephani came back in with a broom and dust pan. I watched as she cleaned up. I followed her to the kitchen where she dumped the glass in the trash can.

“Does this happen often?” I asked.

She looked at me for a moment, as if assessing wether or not she could trust me, before answering, “yes.” It was short and sweet, and to the point, just the way I liked it.

“Are you okay?” I asked again. She turned away slightly before nodding. With a light touch to her chin I turned her back to face me. Her face was slightly bruised, right below her right eye, and it was clear that she too had been crying.

“I'm fine, okay,” she said.

“Who did this to you?” I wondered softly.

“No one, I really am fine,” she whispered, it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself.

“Okay, whatever you say, love,” I said.

“You need a ride to the gas station right?” she asked.

“Yeah, I ran out of gas about a mile down the road.”

She looked at me incredulously for a second before asking, “You walked a mile here in the pouring rain?”

“Well, it was walk here or sit there and stare at miserable livestock.” I chuckled and she smiled.

“They don't really mind the rain that much, it's the mud that bothers them. Come on, lets go,” she said. I followed her outside.

The rain had let up a little and she led me to a red, short-bed Chevy S10. It was a nice little truck, made even better by the lime green peace sign on the back bumper. I climbed into the passenger seat and waited as Stephani climbed in and started the engine. It roared to life and she backed down the drive with a skill that made it seem easy. I probably would have hit a tree, or two.

“So, Stephani, can you tell me where exactly we are?” I asked.

“We are right outside of Colorado Springs. If you could have made it a couple more miles you would have been fine.” I realized she was right when we came upon the center of town. “And you can call me Steph.”

“Okay, Steph, do you like living here?” I asked.

“It's not horrible. People here are just really set in their ways. They're not to welcoming of new comers,” she warned. “So, where are you headed, you know, once you get out of here?”

“California,” I said.

“That's cool, you gonna go become famous?” she asked.

“Actually, I wasn't really, um, telling the whole truth. I'm Christofer Drew Ingle,” I said.

“I know that. I just wanted to wait till you were ready to tell me. I really like your music,” she said.

“Thanks … for everything. You could have just pointed me in a direction and sent me walking. It means a lot to me. You know, if there were more people like you in the world it would be a better place,” I said.

“Yeah, if everyone just shut up and listened to each other's problems, even if there was nothing they could do to fix them, everyone would be a lot happier,” she agreed.

She pulled into the gas station and grabbed a red gas container from the back of her truck. I ran inside and handed the guy behind the counter a five, telling him to put it on pump two. When I went back outside Steph was filling the bucket. I took it from her as it filled. When it was done I loaded it into the back of her truck.

“Hey, your over eighteen right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said cautiously.

“Can you go in and buy me a pack of smokes? I'll pay you back,” she offered.

“Totally, I need some more anyways.” She handed me some money and I went in and bought two packs of Marlborough cigarettes. Sam was waiting in her truck when I got back. I tossed her a pack and climbed in. Immediately, she pulled a lighter from her pocket and lit up. She handed me the lighter when she was done and I lit up too.

“You hungry?” she asked.

“A bit, you know anywhere good?”

“My mom's diner is the best place in town. Their veggie burger's the best on the planet,” she said.

“You'd think if you raised cattle you'd want to support the meat industry,” I joked.

“God, if you knew what some of those pore animals went through, you would never look a burger the same way again,” she said as she pulled away from the gas station.

“I'm completely vegetarian. I could never handle knowing I caused the death of a helpless animal,” I said truthfully. She pulled into the diner and parked her truck. I climbed out and followed her into the diner. We slid into a booth and a waitress came over and handed us both menus.

“Do you know what you'd like to drink?” she asked.

“I'll just have a water,” Steph answered.

“Same here,” I said.

“Okay, I'll be right out with that.” The waitress left and I sat back. I saw Sam shoot a worried glance over her shoulder.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

“My boyfriend is here. If he sees me here with you he might get pissed.” I glanced over her shoulder to see a jock with his arm around another girl.

“He's here with another girl,” I gasped.

“Yeah, he's cheating on me,” she sighed.

“That's not okay! Why are you letting him do this?” I asked.

“Because he packs a good punch,” she muttered.

“He's the one who hit you?” I asked in a whisper, leaning across the table.

She nodded and I glared over at him. He seemed to feel my glare and looked over. I leaned forward a bit more and kissed her lightly. When I pulled away she looked shocked, and he looked pissed. I put a finger to my lips, silencing her, as he stormed over.

“What do you think you're doing, that's my girlfriend you just kissed!” he shouted.

“Well, I thought, since you were here with some other girl, that meant you didn't care about Steph. In which case I would tell her to break up with you now because I doubt you'd hit her with all these people watching,” I said calmly. “And if you did hit her again I would be forced to take drastic measures. Now, I doubt you know much about me but I'm a pacifist and I really don't want to have to hit you.” He looked shocked for a second but then he got really pissed.

“You think you can talk to me like that punk?” he asked.

“Uh he just did, and you know what else? We are over. You think that I'm just some toy, that you can cheat on me and publicly humiliate me like that? You think I don't have enough shit in my life already?” Steph was furious. He opened his mouth to speak before deciding against it and walking away. He made a good choice. I got up and grabbed Steph's hand, together we stormed out of the diner. We got into her truck and she pulled away.

“How did you end up with a guy like him?” I asked.

“I thought it would be cool to date the school quarterback. He thought it'd be cool to bang a virgin. He started cheating on me when I told him I wasn't going to have sex with him. When I confronted him about it he started to hit me,” she explained.

“That's horrible. I don't understand how anyone could be mean to you. I mean your the nicest, most beautiful human being I have ever met,” I said.

“Thanks Chris,” she said, blushing lightly. We got back to her house and she offered to let me stay the night. “You don't want to drive through the night anyways,” she said.

“Thanks, I've spent the past couple of days sleeping in my car. It's not fun,” I informed her as she set the up the couch in her room.

“Oh, it's no problem,” she said. I wrapped my arms around her from behind and kissed her on the cheek.

“It really means a lot to me,” I said as she turned around in my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck and placed her lips on mine. It started out slow and steadily grew more heated and passionate until finally we were forced to find her bed.