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Jack glanced over at her and frowned as he noticed that she’d crossed her arms and was in full-blown pout mode. “Because, kid. You can’t seem to behave yourself at camp, and they were about to kick you out.”
Amelie shifted her whole body in her seat a faced him. “Please don’t take me home, Jack. Please.”
“Where, smarty pants, do you suppose that I take you, then?”
“With you.”
Jack laughed hard. “That’s hilarious. Um, no. You are not coming with me.”
“Why not?” she hissed.
“Well,” he said, holding up his hands making quotation marks in the air, “for starters, because you are a pain in my ass who had caused me nothing but trouble for the past seven days.”
Amelie slapped her thigh. “Really, Jack? Seven days? Exaggerating much? Anyway… as I recall, you were the one who busted in the rec closet and beat the crap out of my boyfriend.”
Jack glared at her and then focused back on the road. “He’s not your boyfriend.”
“Whatever. If you take me home… I’m going to tell everyone that you kidnapped me. Because you did kidnap me, Jack. You know you did. You took me against my will.”
“You were wasted, Amelie. And you are not blackmailing me.”
She grabbed the wheel and turned hard. “We’ll see about that.”
Jack pushed her off and steadied the car before slowing and pulling off on the shoulder. He pushed his door open and went around to the passenger side. “Get out.”
Amelie didn’t budge. She fixed her gaze and stared straight ahead. “What in the hell are you doing?” he screamed. “You could’ve just gotten us killed!”
She leaned over and rolled up the driver side window. Jack rushed back to the front of the car as soon as he caught on to what she was doing. She locked the doors and killed the engine. “What the fuck, Amelie? We’re not playing games here.”
She smiled and held up the keys, dangling them in front of him. Jack’s face reddened, and he pounded on the window. “You’re dead, kid. DEAD!” he yelled.
“Take me with you. Promise me you will… and I’ll unlock the doors.”
Jack held up his middle finger and pressed it against the glass. She flinched but only a little as he slapped the glass one last time for good measure. It was futile. Amelie sank back in her seat and let her head fall back. Jack couldn’t let her win this battle… that much he knew. He’d wait her out he told himself. He’d just sit and wait her out. He headed further off the shoulder, into the brush and took a piss. Then he walked a few feet further and sank down into the grass. He watched her down that entire bottle of Gatorade. Eventually, she’d have to pee. Until then, he’d just wait. Unfortunately for Jack, it was turning out to be a very, very hot day.
FIVE
Jack wiped the sweat from his forehead as the hot early July sun beat down on his back. He was growing angrier by the minute, and Amelie was apparently growing hotter by the minute. She’d cracked the windows just slightly, though still not enough for him to fit his hand through. Instead, she’d stripped down nearly to her underwear, which only further pissed him off. He couldn’t not look at the barely dressed girl sitting in the front seat of his car. He couldn’t decide whom he was infuriated with the most—her or himself for being attracted to her in the first place.
He folded his arms across his knees and rested his head there, pondering his options. At some point, he must’ve dozed off, because the next thing he knew someone was tapping him on the shoulder. He looked up, startled, to find Amelie standing over him holding a bottle of water. She was barefoot, in cut off shorts, no top, and a pink lacy bra. He stared at her hair tied up on top of her head and felt a feeling he couldn’t place. It was fury, he assured himself.
“Here,” she said thrusting a bottle of water at his face “Jesus. I can’t believe you’re so stubborn you’d rather die out here than take me with you.”
Jack hesitated, and then decided he was too thirsty to be obtuse, so he grabbed the bottle, gulped the water, and refused to look at her.
“Fine. I’m sorry.” She sighed. “There. I said it. Now, will you take me with you?”
Jack stood and brushed the dirt from his shorts. “You need to call your mother before she has the police looking for you.”
“My mother’s in Europe. Trust me, no one is going to be looking for me, Jack. Did you have to force me to say it? Is that what you wanted to hear? That she sent me to camp and fled the country? That I’m all alone…”
Jack sighed, unfazed. “Fine then. I’ll just take you back to camp.”
“Fine!” She called over her shoulder as she climbed back in the car and slammed the door.
Jack got in and started the ignition. “You have no idea how close I am to murdering you.” He picked up her tank top and hurled it at her. “And put your god dammed clothes on, would you?”
Amelie slid the shirt over her head and promptly started crying. “I don’t understand why you hate me so much,” she gasped between sobs. “What did I ever do to you, anyway?” Jack sat there staring at the blubbering snotty mess slumped over in his front seat, his mouth agape. What in the world is happening here he asked himself? How in the hell did he get himself into this? And more importantly how was he going to get himself out of it? After a few minutes, her sobs seemed to subside, so Jack put the car in gear and got back on the road. From the corner of his eye, he watched as she crossed her arms and pressed her forehead to the passenger side window as he made a U-turn and headed back in the opposite direction, back toward Camp Hope.
