You & Me.

Scarlet.

“We've been coming back to this street for the past half hour. John we missed the only motel available.” I folded my hands, rolling my eyes. I was right and he was wrong. We missed the motel we've passed by four hours ago because he claimed that he was sure there were motels on the road.

“When the hell are you gonna stop driving around in the same spot? It's almost midnight and we won't be safe on the road at this time of the night.” I blurted out feeling my entire body heat. “So now what?! Are we gonna roam around in here till the morning!?” I raised my voice a little since he was ignoring the shit out of me. He kept his eyes on the dark road in front us. “Ugh whatever.” I muttered, leaning my head against my seat closing my eyes.

“We're stopping here.” Suddenly I felt like he was driving in an uneven pavement. I opened my eyes noticing that we left the road.

“Where?” I asked curiously looking around, it was pitch black and I couldn't see any signs of motels or at least a house.

“Here.” He stopped the van and I finally realized that we were going to spend the night in the middle of nowhere.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked trying my best to stay calm. I was definitely not going to fall asleep in the middle of nowhere.

“I have blankets in the trunk and I'll make a fire to keep me warm.” He simply said like it was the easiest thing to do. He opened the drivers seat and went trembling in the truck. I quickly followed him, folding my hands as I felt the cold air hit me.

“I'm not sleeping out here.” I said, he ignored me looking through the trunk trying to find blankets. “John..” I slowly said, “I am not going to sleep in here,” I told him, my teeth gritted. This time he gave me a stern look. “I'm gonna sleep inside the van.” He let out a chuckle.

“Do you think you can handle falling asleep inside a van for approximately six hours? Well in that case you'll die out of lack of oxygen.” He walked looking for a spot to make the fire, “Which is going to satisfy me to say the least,” he smirked clapping the dust off his hands grabbing some wood from the ground.

“I don't care, I'm going in there.” I walked closer to him wanting to grab a blanket. Before I got the chance to pull it from his hands he held both of my wrists as the blankets fell on the ground but he didn't seem to care at all, he pulled me closer, my nose only a few inches away from his.

“Scar.” he whispered my name and I could feel my steady heartbeat. “This attitude of yours will take you nowhere but trouble.” He smirked, I felt his warm breath. He kept his eyes on my lips, nose, neck.

“Let go of me.” I said, trying my best not to sound shaky but I blankly failed. I didn't know why I was feeling shaky, but I was and it annoyed me. He gently pulled himself away from me handing me a blanket without looking at me. Walking towards the van, I tried to take in what just happened. I was still shaky and my heartbeat was still steady. Why was I feeling like this all of a sudden? It made no sense to me.

I got into the van, I breathed in and out for a few times. What was he trying to do with that move? Was he trying to say something? Was he trying to tell me that he can be stubborn too? I shook my head trying to get this all away.

I stared back at him for a moment realizing that he already started a small fire and stayed seated on a large rock grabbing a pack of cigarettes from his pockets. I found myself smiling at the way he was wrapping the blanket around his body to keep warm. I kept looking at him, examining his moves. I couldn't look away for some reason. He still had the exact same attitude from the day I met him, and it annoyed me more than anything. But there are times where I think that he could be someone else, someone that no one ever saw before. He got up from his spot and it took me moments to realize he was walking towards the van, I quickly pulled the blanket over my head and laid in the backseat pretending to be asleep.

“I just want to-” he said but then stopped when he realized I was "asleep".

“You're already asleep? That's quick of you.” He said and I could feel his dark shadow. I heard him trembling and it was obvious he was looking for something. I heard the sound of an untuned guitar, guessing that John grabbed it. He suddenly pulled away the blanket that was covering my face, I shut my eyes closed pretending to be asleep.

“Goodnight, Scar.” I could imagine that stupid smirk of his as I heard him, he gently closed the door to the backseat and walked back to his 'camping' spot or whatever.

For a moment I keep my eyes open, wishing if I just agreed to stay and sleep outside. The van smelled of food and cigarettes and I couldn't handle it at all. After a good ten minutes of trying to fall asleep I gave up, grabbing my blanket, wrapping it around my back and made my way out of the van. John quickly looked over at me smiling.

“Couldn't sleep in there huh? What a shocker.” He dramatically said as I rolled my eyes at him.

“Shut up.” I said taking a seat next to him, we both sat on the ground. Staring at the warm fire, I kept my eyes on the flames saying nothing.

“You know I would totally love it if you stop being mean for at least ten minutes. Do you think you can do that?” He faced me now, but I didn't move a single muscle. He kept looking at me, not waiting for an answer but just examining me. “Never mind, you wouldn't be able to handle a second without saying something mean.” He turned his head away grabbing a small notebook and a pen as he started writing something down.

“That song..” I said after a short silence, “These Four Words.” He tilted his head up looking at me, and I turned my face looking at him. I knew that there was someone behind this song. The lyrics, and John's voice were too sad. I almost couldn't believe that it's really him singing that song. “Did you... did you, uh write it about someone specifically?” I hated myself for asking because a) I don't want to sound nice b) I don't want him to think that I'm stupid. But I was too curious. His eyes were shining under the flames like crystals. I could see a lot of hurt in his glossy green eyes.

“What makes you think that?” He suddenly asked, “I write music, Scar. Not stories.” he let out a nervous chuckle. I knew that he was lying, I could see it clearly but I decided to ignore him.

“Just curious.” I mumbled, turning my head back staring at the fire. “I mean normally successful musicians write songs about their lives, or stories from their lives.” I said, “Mostly about love.” I whispered, saying the truth.

“They write fantasies, things that make people live some kind of story and take them away from the ugly reality they live in. That's why they're famous.” I could still see so much pain in his eyes, as he said that. Lies . I knew it. I looked away having enough of his blabbering.

“How about we play a game.” I said as the idea popped to my head. I thought that maybe somehow I can get him to tell me the truth. I knew that I was annoying him since he was writing down something. For some reason I wasn't too curious to find out, and that isn't a habit of me.

“Whats the game?” He looked up at me, keeping the notebook away this time.

“Okay, so..” I slowly reached for my pocket and brought out a red lipstick, “This is what we're gonna use for the game.” I started. “All we have to do is ask each other questions, it doesn't matter if its personal or not but what matters is that we have to answer them without lying.” He nodded his head eagerly, “But if you think I'm lying and not answering the question right, you'll pull the red lipstick and write the letters to "liar" on the person's forehead each time I lie or you lie about something.” He smiled.

“Ready!?” I said not realizing that my tone had some kind of excitement, and he nodded his head. “You start.”

“Why are you always rude?” He asked.

“Because I simply hate getting attached to people quickly. I want to be someone they just see as they walk by the street and say hi. That's all I want, because I know that getting attached to someone is like getting attached to this series of black holes that lead you to ending up alone.” I answered, truthfully.

“I guess you're not lying.” he mumbled, looking upwards. “Your turn.”

“Why do you end up sleeping with different women every night if you have a girlfriend?” The moment I asked him the question I could feel his eyes widening and looking at me. I smirked at him waiting for answer and knowing exactly that what I asked was something he was running away from.

“Lately we've been having some problems. But she loves me, and I don't think she'll have the heart to leave someone like me.” He answered. I kept staring at him, and he was getting nervous which means he was lying.

“Lies.” I said grabbing the cap from the red lipstick. He let out a groan but I ignored him getting closer to his forehead. I wrote the letter ‘L’ on his forehead lightly laughing at how stupid he looked.

“Laugh whatever you want Scar. I'll be doing that to you even if it takes forever.” He scoffed but I kept laughing.

“Okay, stop. It's my turn,” he said, thinking of a question. “Do.. do you forgive your father for leaving?” He looked up at me, and I could see pity in his eyes. God, I hated people looking at me pitifully. They make me feel like I'm a victim of my own emotions, but instead I am the one who is holding those emotions as victims, and I am stronger than feelings.

“No.” I answered, and the word left a bitter taste in my mouth. But I forced myself that it is the truth.

“You're lying.” He said, “Maybe I don't know your dad, and maybe I don't know you but what I know is that your dad loves you. I know that you love him and I know that you forgive him.” He was looking into my eyes, making me want to immediately breakdown but I bit my lower lip so hard I thought it was about to bleed. I did it 'cause crying in front of him would make me look weak, and I hated looking weak especially in front of him.

“Let's finish this game already,” I threw the red lipstick to him as he got closer to me, leaning into my forehead drawing the letter ‘L’ biting his lips.

“I told you I'd get my revenge soon, Scar.” He was so close to my face that his raspy voice was all I can hear. “You look pretty good.” He laughed, covering the cap of the red lipstick.

“Shush,” I gave him a death look, “It's my turn.”

“Why did you refuse to give me back my phone when I came asking you for it that night?” I asked, bitter flashbacks from that night rushed into my head.

“Because..” he trailed off, “I wasn't interested in seeing you again.” I let out a chuckle knowing that it was a total lie.

“Then why were staring at me out the window?” I asked, shocking him. “I saw you..”

“Well, because you- you were standing by my car and I was scared you'd do something to it.” he rubbed the back of his head nervously, “At that moment I was literally expecting everything from you.”

“Well do you know what I think?” I whispered, getting my body close to his. “I think that you, are lying.” I looked him in the eye, smiled arrogantly and grabbed the lipstick as I drew the letter ‘i’ next to the ‘L’ on his forehead.
He groaned once again.

“Well, let me ask you something.” He quickly said as if a question popped to his head. I nodded waiting for him. “Do you really like reading? If so, prove it.” I shook my head laughing because I knew that this was the easiest question ever.

“There's this line from the book I'm reading now, a line that got glued to my head the moment I read it.” I remembered, “In the story, the guy leaves the girl because he thinks she deserves someone who's better than him, which totally broke the girl's heart. So she wrote him saying:

‘I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise.’

I looked at John for a second, and he was completely and closely listening to me and I could see that he was actually interested, so I smiled and continued.

‘I'd catch myself just walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I’d seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice.’

He looked into my eyes, listening to my words as I went on.

‘And then I’d realize that you weren’t there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me.’

“Then he comes back to her, and he makes her believe in herself again. Because she never thought she'd see him again, but she did.” I smiled remembering the story, and noticed that John was still looking deeply into my eyes as if studying my every move.

“What?” I asked, a little confused. “Don't do that.”

“Do what?” his voice dropped to a whisper, as he bit his lower lip.

“Don't look at me like that.” I smiled and looked away, straining my eyes to the night sky, “It makes me feel nervous.” I felt my body tense as he got closer to my face making me look at him. I felt his warm breath in the cold air.

“Am I making you nervous Scar?” he smirked almost whispering. I didn't want to admit it but I was sure as hell feeling nervous. His eyes trailed to my lips. I held my breath, my eyes widened as he stared at me. His hands moved to my heart.

“You are nervous.” He felt my heartbeat as it got faster every second. He leaned in, slowly and closely. It took me seconds to realize that he was about to kiss me. I pushed myself away, gasping.

“I'm t-tired. Uh, I better get - go get some rest.” I stood up grabbing my blanket, walking to the van. I didn't know what he is up to, but I knew that there was something. Those seductive moves, why was he doing that? I had no answer but all I knew is that I wasn't falling for him, it can't happen.