The Things We Wanted Most

The next morning, I got up at 5:00. I did my morning routine of taking a shower, doing my hair and getting dress in my work uniform. It was a powder blue dress that was puffy and went to me knees. I wore converse with it. My hair was straightened and up in a ponytail. It reached to the top area of my back, in between my shoulder blades. The dress was short sleeved but it was square cut in the back and a little higher in the front.

After locking the door to the house, I trudged to my car, a 1967 Mustang, which I had built up by hand. How someone could let this beautiful car go to waste I would never understand, but I found it and fixed it up. It still had tons of problems but on most days it worked. I wasn't even surprised when it would't start this morning. Crap! Crap! Crap! I thought. It was currently 5:45 and I would be late if I didn't get my car started within the next 5 minutes.

Swinging my door open I left my keys on the seat. Opening the hood, I noticed that the spark plug had completely fried itself.

"Crap!" I yelled. I slammed my hood closed and put my hand on my head.

"Need some help?" I jumped at the sound of the voice. I turned around and found Mike staring at me.

"Nice car," He said, looking my mustang over.

"Um. Thanks." I slowly moved towards the drivers seat door.

"Your car won't start?" I shook my head, grabbing my car keys and backpack, filled with back up cloths, out of the car.

"I could, maybe, fix it." Mike answered, I shook my head again.

"You don't want me to?" He had a look of confusion on his face. Realization fluttered to my face as I noticed he didn't know I was pretty good with cars.

"My spark plug is going to the car graveyard, and I'm going to be late if I don't catch the bus in the next 2 minutes," I announced. I started to walk down the driveway.

"Let e give you a ride!" He called, grabbing my backpack to stop me. I winced at his assertiveness. He slipped my keys from my hand anyway.

"I don't want to impose."

"I'm already up. Besides you won't make it to the bus stop in a minute." He started walking to one of the three cars in the driveway. He intrigued me. Why did he want this so bad? I was forced to to follow him into his Jeep.

"Where to?" He asked.

"Uhh, take a left at the end of the street." I whispered. We fell into silence after that. I occasionally told him where to go.

"What are you doing awake so early?" I asked suddenly.

"Couldn't sleep. I was going to get something to eat. Where are we going exactly?" I could feel his eyes on me, but I was staraing out the passenger window.

"I work at a diner, from 6 to 11, which is why I' up so early."

"Explains the get up," He laughed. I shifted uncomfortably.

"Sorry, I just don't knwo what to do in these situations," He thought aloud.

"Situations?" I said with a sneer in my voice. I knew what he meant, I just needed him to say it out loud.

"It just.." He broke off. He pulled into a parking spot.

"It's just that I'm some weak girl who got beat by her father and you saw it." I answered for him. It hurt for some reason that he thought that way of me. I grabbed my backpack off the floor and opened the car door. I slammed the door shut as I made my way to the dorr.

His hand was on my arm, pulling me towards him, before I got around the hood of the car though.

"It's not that! Just let me explain." His hand was warm and calloused. It sent shivers up my spine.

"You don't need to. Thanks for the ride, I'll see you tonight." I pulled away from him, tugging donw my dress and walking into the diner with 2 mintues to spare.

I ignored the eyes of my co-workers and walked into the back to put my stuff away. Taking a deep breath, I tied the apron around my waist and tucked a pad and a pen in its white pockets.