Messy Ending

“Dai? Dai? You need to wake up, Love.” Ben shook my shoulder lightly, a chuckle blended into his words at my lack of cooperation. The man now attempted to wake me at an early hour of the morning. It couldn’t have been later than five in the morning and that, combined with the fact that today was the day of my nineteenth birthday, made my boyfriend an easy target of anger.

“Ben!” I groaned in a drawn out whine. One of my eyes popped open long enough to read the digital alarm clock sat, crookedly, atop his nightstand. “It’s far too early to be awake!” Again my eye fell shut and I yanked one of the pillows Ben kept to his side over my face.

“Come on, Love.” One calloused finger jabbed at my side. “I’ve planned something for your birthday. We have just enough time that you could take a quick shower.” One hand of his slid across my abdomen, a swarm of butterflies invading my guts.

The pillow lifted from my face, without warning, and both my eyes cracked halfway open at my boyfriend. “You’re taking me somewhere? At five in the fucking morning?” It seemed unimaginable that any place he could take me required that I be up this early.

“Please, Dai? It’s a long drive is all.” Those green eyes that had captured me that first night I had found myself accompanying him to his tour bus, succeeded in melting my organs to mush as they always seemed to do. I squeezed my eyes shut once more, in an attempt to ignore his pleading orbs.

Another minute or two of Ben’s coaxing and I shoved the plush comforter off my thin body, the action came along with a low growl. “Fine! I’m up!” Ben’s arms encircled my waist, his face dug into my neck with a quick ‘Thank you’ mumbled into the crook of it. “I’m sleeping in the car,” I cautioned. The voice I used with him had softened, though I still found myself annoyed at how early I’d been awoken.

A nudge against my shoulder told me Ben had nodded in agreement, almost unwilling to release me from the tight grip he held on my waist. It took some serious squirming on my part to break myself free of his grip and race to the bathroom, playfully, before the man could catch up to me.

~~~

All I needed were ten minutes to clean myself thoroughly. I stood on the cool, bathroom tile, just examining myself in the huge, foggy mirror hung over the porcelain sink long after those minutes had passed. Wet locks of my brunette hair sent water dripping across my back at a steady pace. Brown eyes stared back at me, somewhat lifelessly. Perhaps it could only have been the early hour at which I stood there that had drained my eyes of the brightness they usually held. I decided that I’d add a thin layer of make-up, nothing fancy, just to brighten them up a bit. On the other hand I didn’t mess much with my hair. I only ran a towel through it and let the natural waves settle in.

The night before I had gathered myself a change of clothes that I could wear this morning. I dressed myself in a pair of ripped skinny jeans matched with a small purple and black tank top of mine. I shoved my feet into some old worn out Converse that I had owned for quite a few years to this point.

Outside the bathroom door, once I had checked over my appearance with a satisfactory gaze, Ben lay across his bed. I narrowed my eyes and made my trek across the room one of silence. A plan of revenge assembled in my mind and my lips curved into an evil smirk just before I pounced on him, straddling his waist.

Both Ben’s eyes flew open, accompanied by a surprised, high-pitched yelp. “Shit, Dai,” he exhaled his words, slightly frightened at my actions.

A giggle bubbled in my throat as I pushed locks of his light hair to the side of his face with my manicured fingers. “Karma’s a bitch, right?” I joked, bent down to level myself to Ben’s ear for just a moment.

Our gazes met after that, green eyes boring deep into mine. Dark hair that curtained around my face tickled against Ben’s flesh. We just sat, silent, like that for nearly five minutes. Each of our mouths curved into sweet smiles for the other.

“So.” He cleared his throat. “Ready to go, Love?”

As much as I would have loved to remain in our current position, I nodded in answer to his question. By this time I had gotten myself pretty anxious over where Ben had planned to take me for the day.

~~~

Boisterous thunder crashing through the ominous, gray sky sent me straight awake. Somehow I had managed to curl myself into a protective ball with what the little space in Ben’s passenger seat allowed during my sleep. I just lay there until another crack of thunder sounded over his car, at which I shot straight up.

Rain smashed against the windshield, each time pushed to the side by the windshield wipers. Water almost seemed to bounce up and down on the pavement before us. These were the types of days I loathed.

“Ben…” my voice came as nothing more than a small, raspy whimper. “It’s storming.”

It didn’t seem that he had even noticed I had been awoken with the way he turned to stare. “I know…” He frowned. “I’d hoped that you’d sleep through it.” One of his hands left the wheel and held mine up to his lips for a tender kiss. “You’ll be fine, sweetheart.”

Lightning flashed across the sky and again was followed by a loud boom of thunder, sending me to bury into the warmth of the jacket Ben had given me that first night we’d kissed.

~~~

Ben

These storms terrified Dai a considerable amount. I could tell by the way she bundled my jacket around her body as a sort of a protective cloak. Her quivering body in my passenger side concerned me a bit, but I needed all my energy to focus on maneuvering through this storm. Rain pelted my car at every angle only adding to the intensity of Dai’s fear, I’m sure.

“Where are you taking me, Ben?” the girl finally spoke up in such a low voice I strained to hear over the pounding rain.

Any bits of my concerned expression were lost, replaced by a huge grin at her question. “That, my dear, shall remain a surprise.” I hoped that this surprise would be enough to keep her mind away from the storm we’d become caught in.

“Ben!” she almost whined, folding her tan arms across her chest.

“Oh, you’ll see once we’ve come close enough. I’m sure of it.” I let out a small chuckle and interlocked my fingers with hers.

“How long have we been driving anyway?” A stray lock of dark hair fell over her eyes as she turned her gaze to mine.

“About three hours.” My shoulders lifted in a shrug, my gaze once again focused to the road ahead of us.

“Did I really sleep that long?!” She sighed, disregarding her original question and instead shooting me another. “And how much longer do we have to go?”

“Just an hour, Dai. You know, you really shouldn’t be this impatient,” I teased her.

Whatever snide remark she had thought of vanished once another quick boom of thunder cracked through the sky. A squeal of terror left her lips, her head falling to rest in her hands. Had I not heard the quiet sobs she emitted I would never have guessed she was crying.

“Hey now, sweetheart.” I reached to move her hand from her tear streaked face and take it in my tight hold. “I promise you, you’ll be alright.” I paused for a second, wanting her eyes to meet mine. “Please look at me,” I pleaded, giving her hand a gentle squeeze in mine.

Finally, her red, puffy eyes met mine. Tears left wet, glistening streaks across her cheeks, though her make-up appeared miraculously untouched. Must be waterproof make-up that she wore.

“I promise,” I repeated to her in reassurance. I paused a moment, wanting nothing more than to keep her mind away from the ensuing storm. “Talk to me,” I requested, abruptly.

She giggled and damn, it was so fucking cute. It kept replaying in my head until she answered. “About what?”

“Anything… Everything… Whatever you prefer, really.” She slightly tightened her lock on my hand, not that I objected.

Her mouth scrunched up to the side in though. “I’ve told you, I’m not all that interesting, Ben.”

“That can’t be true,” I scoffed, disbelievingly. “Tell me about your family, Dai.” All I could do was hope the question wouldn’t draw too much attention to our destination.

She seemed to consider the question, carefully. “Why my family?” she finally questioned me.

In all reality the question came to my mind as curiosity of what I had set myself up for, walking into her grandparents’ home with this birthday plan I’d thought up for her. “Curious,” was all that came to my lips alongside a casual shrug lifting my shoulders.

Over a sidelong glance I saw several thoughts flash in her muddy eyes. “Hmm,” she hummed. “At the age of eight, both my parents gone by that time, I moved into my grandparents’ house with Caitlin, my sister.”

Vaguely, I recognized the names Sammie had fed me the day she’d rang up her grandmother.

“My grandparents always have been sort of… I guess you would call them ‘old fashioned’. Their heads are still kind of stuck back in their day, you know?” She paused, letting out a small laugh. “They never had approved of my music or interests really. Caitlin on the other hand is the perfect child… Or was as she’s not exactly a child anymore. Now she’s twenty-five, six years older than me. She’s been married since twenty and has two children. Jax and Atalie, both of them four years old.” That’s where she stopped, almost at a loss of words.

“Your grandparents wouldn’t like me very much, would they?” I broke her long silence, nervous now that I knew what I could expect.

With a sweeping gaze over my pierced, tattooed appearance she answered, “They’d love you, I’m sure.” Something seemed to occur to her at that moment. “Why’re so nervous about it suddenly, babe?”

“Oh, uh, no reason,” I chuckled, nervously scratching the back of my neck.

“Ben…” She turned from me to look through the nearly forgotten storm at our blurry surroundings and seemed to have recognized something in them, ten minutes away from our destination.
“That’s where you’re taking me isn’t it?”

The huge grin on my face to see her this happy must have answered her questions, because she nearly leapt over the console and attacked me in a huge embrace. If I wouldn’t have caught control of the car she would have made us swerve into a nearby ditch.

“This is seriously the sweetest thing anybody has ever done for me!” she screeched, totally unaware she’d almost been the cause of a wreck. Although, at that moment I didn’t care about that. Tears nearly fell over her cheeks in what I only hoped would be happiness. The thunder had apparently even been tuned out by the excitement she was in to see her family again.