Storm Brew

I looked over from the highway road to Nate. I could've laughed at his stance, but he'd chuck his sunglasses at me. Since I was driving I didn't want the distraction. Head tilted into the rest, right arm resting on the car door and straight face. He had a major hangover—there hadn't been any Tylenol. I would've gone to the pharmacy but it served him right. It was a lesson to teach him he shouldn't break promises. Two drinks aren't four, six, ten—thirteen. I should've waked him up with a blaring horn. Instead, I let him sleep 'till midway and he complained that it was too early.

Men.

"I'm hungry," Nate's soft voice jostled me. Right, he was famished simply because he'd puked breakfast.

"I can't do anything about that." I answered honestly. I couldn't; we had no food in the Mustang and there wasn't a service station for another four miles. He'd just have to wait.

Nate did a dramatic sound, I smiled to myself.

"Have you read the next clues?"

"No, I was busy taking care of you."

"Hum," Nate twisted around, reaching for something in the backseat.

"What are you looking for?" I asked curious.

He didn't retort, he didn't have to because he sat in the previous laid back position only this time with my messenger's bag.

"I'll read it then."

I laughed a little.

"You stick to protection—I'm the clue solver machine, wasn't that what you said?"

"Yeah, well," He shrugged and then his shades were pushed up by a smirk. "Since you're reversing our roles, you know—hiding things from me, worrying about The Order showing up, driving us around…" Nate gave a one shoulder shrug. "I'll take on your duties. Which include watching you while you drive, reading clues, solving them, changing songs…" He trailed off stopping ticking my so called duties on his fingers.

"I'm not reversing our roles—"

"Tell me how you found me then." Nathaniel interjected swiftly.

I ground my teeth. There was definitely a thing Nate wasn't: A quitter. I could be stubborn too.

"No,"

He laid his head on the leathery headrest.

"Role reverser," He called with a mild snicker. "So, I'll be you and you'll be me today."

Okay so I couldn't help but smile at that—a little.

"What if we get ambushed by—"

Nathaniel groaned.

"Take a chill pill, Mel." I huffed giving him a look.

"Fine," I sighed defeated.

Nate unfolded the paper where the clues were. I watched intently as he read something over—probably the third clue.

"What does it—"

"Shh, don't distract me."

I blinked. That was what I said when I was reading or drawing and he started talking. Was he really pretending to be me? Nate's lips were a continuous smirk then he looked up. I thought he'd found something…

"Eyes on the road grandma,"

I rolled my eyes but did just that.

"You're on," I murmured with glee in my eyes.

If I was playing Nathaniel for the rest of the drive I had one advantage. My hand reached for the iPod hooked to the car's console and took it out. There was nothing in it I could torture him with, it was his iPod, but the radio had plenty. I smiled after surfing through three of them, turning on the volume, I smiled, pleased at the groan from beside me. I caught his hand going to change the station, I smacked it.

"My car, my rules," I said trying to make my voice sound deeper like his.

Behind his sunglasses I knew his eyes widened like saucers

"Ah, but it's not your—"

"It is if I'm pretending to be you, so…" I stuck my tongue out. "Deal with it, baby."

Nate's shoulders squared for a little while, until he sighed abnormally loudly.

"Picked a bad day for hangover…" He pinched the bridge of his nose as I started singing along. "I knew you liked that type of music…" I heard him grumble above the song.

I never told him I didn't, I'd just said I liked rock, too. Red by Taylor Swift ended quickly since it had been playing before I found it. Nate was relieved—not for long though Payphone began immediately. I could hear him shift around in his seat, moving the papers in my bag.

"Did you know your Mom was born in Georgia?"

"No…" I replied dazed. "Does it say there?"

Nate took a pause to answer.

"No, she told me."

Then an awkward silence ensued between us. There he was again, knowing things about my parents that I should know. Not him, me. Instantly, I felt guilty. Shouldn't I feel thankful? If I did know all those things it would probably mean I'd been raised in the midst of assassins. I wasn't sure on how much Nate had listened to—about my conversation with Drew—I didn't know if he'd heard the part that my parents had wanted to adopt him. Well, that would've been bad for us… in a way. I thought, glimpsing at the review mirror seeing the waves of ash hair fall to the dark sunglasses. I preferred Nate as my boyfriend than my brother—even if it would've been through adoption. I already had a person to play the brother part anyway.

Pacey.

I bit my lip. Parker knew—thanks to Aric—what was really going on with my life. He knew about my parents' real jobs, and about Nate… what if he told Pacey? What if he told the police—the media? I should really have a sit-down with Nathaniel and explain what kind of trouble we could be in. Keeping things to myself normally didn't end well, it blew up in my face.

"How do you know so many things about my parents—I mean, I know they found you and took you to their house in Cali but you were adopted by the Armstrong's…" Nate ruffled his hair, that gesture was probably the one I saw him do most. "You have my role for the car ride," I began. "You said I was the sharing-type, so share." I smirked at his bummed out face.

"I told you your parents and mine were friends—they'd go over our house. Your Mom liked to talk to me—your Dad wasn't much of a talker with anyone except your Mother—anyway." He looked up from the sheet. "I asked questions and she didn't mind giving me the answers. She was nice." He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal or he was trying to make it seem that way because of me. "Actually," I looked at him because of the embarrassment note to his tone. Nate didn't do embarrassed often. "She talked about you a lot," My eyes twinkled in surprise. "That's how I… hum… know so many things about you."

Wow, that blew me away. My Mom knew things about me? It wasn't like I mentioned Pacey to them when they were over at New York. They'd talk about grades, work—like how well the Company was going. That was basically it.

"But…" My fingers curled on the steering wheel. "My Mom didn't know all those things…" Nate gave me a fleeting glance. There was something he wasn't telling me. "Nate," I called, he didn't return his attention to me. "You know something—there's more to it. You know it." My tone was slightly angry. Why did all the people in my life seemed to know more about it than me? It was beyond annoying, like, I wasn't capable of being in charge of it. "You're a dick." I muttered under my breath. I loved him, but it didn't mean I didn't get mad.

I saw a station coming up, he was hungry but I was hesitating about pulling over, just to see if he'd give me the answers. Of course I ended up doing it. The Tylenol thing had been enough.

After a minute I looked to him expectantly.

"Well?" I drummed my fingers like I'd seen Nate do all those times before.

Nathaniel lifted his shaded eyes to my face.

"What?" He asked a bit dumbly.

"You're hungry, right? We're at a gas station."

Nate looked toward the outside.

"Oh," He muttered. "Could you go out and get me some nachos, two sandwiches and a cola?"

I was going to smack his head.

"Do you see my face?" I pointed to my expression. "This is my pissed off face, Nathaniel. I'm angry at you."

He ruffled his hair anew then reached for the backpack pulling out his wallet instead of bills of money all together. I watched as he made his way into the station. When Nate stopped looking over I dove for the clue sheet on his seat. I couldn't resist not knowing what he'd been looking over.

Those who know their history and other's are most wise.

Okay, so Mom had gone out of her way with this one. What was this supposed to mean? At first glance I drew a blank. Maybe it was the fear of getting caught, I didn't need to have Nathaniel the-laid back-smartasss on my case telling me that I was being unusual with the whole worrying business. The reasons I wanted to finish this crazy hunt were many. The main one was because of The Order, because I was in danger and was putting others in harms way as well, starting with Mr. Hangover. Then I wanted to go home, be with my friends, attend College—I wanted to forget I ever killed someone. But I knew one thing for sure: I would never be able to forget I stumbled upon this twisted reality because of Nate. Whether I wanted or not he was part of my life—of my heart. And Nate belonged in that world.

Stashing the clue paper back I leant into the driver's backrest. My eyes travelled to the blond head walking to the register. He was a killer, but... there was so much more to him. I bit my cheek, could he... would he...? I didn't want to think about it, I didn't want to jinx anything.

After three more hours we'd arrived to North Carolina at a city called Fayetteville. Nate hadn't studied the clue again. He'd eaten and stayed quiet; it looked like he was thinking. Maybe about the riddle, I didn't know. He'd been like that since he exited the station.

"Where do we go now?" I asked after parking close to the market square.

Nate looked from his window to me. For the first time since he'd woken up he lost the sunglasses.

"I don't know," He whispered rubbing his temple. "I guess we can stop here for the night and reach Georgia tomorrow."

His voice wasn't a monotone, it was absent though, and I wondered what was up with that. Sure I was a little ticked off because he was hiding things about my own life, but...

"What's wrong?" I reached for his hand carefully.

Nate watched the outside again, was there someone following us? I hadn't spied any Lexus, silver or not.

"Nothing," His eyes settled onto me. "I feel better—from the headache." He said quietly, my fingers curled around his... he pulled away to open the car door. "Lets find a place to stay."

My head tilted as he climbed out of the car. Just what was going on with him?