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The voice is smooth, deep.
“I got you.”
Out of nowhere, the smell of bergamot and spices hit me; it’s mixed with something earthy and warm. Something I don’t recognize yet I love. The hand on my neck tightens. “Hey, hey, come back.”
I take in some deep breaths, following the pressure of the hand on my chest. My vision clears again, and I twitch when I understand the man is holding me.
I gulp some much-needed air and shrug him off me.
“Wh-why are you touching me?” I say as I step to the side and turn to him.
He blinks at me. “Are you okay? You were…gone.”
I struggle to find my words as I look around again. There’s only one car left in the parking lot, so it must be his. A black Ford Ranger. He follows my gaze to it before peering back at me.
“Where do you need to go?” he asks calmly.
“SFU,” I huff.
His lips curl, a silent ‘of course the rich girl was on her way to the rich, private college’.
“Come on.” He puts a hand at the small of my back and guides me toward his truck. “Let’s get you there.”
I let him open the door for me. There’s a step to get inside the car and he helps me up. He grabs my seatbelt, but I put my hand on his.
“I can fasten my own seatbelt,” I murmur. My mouth still feels a little like cotton, but it’s not what’s been keeping me speechless. It’s the fact that he just stopped my panic attack from getting bad. He just…stopped it. He just pulled me back to reality before I truly lost myself, and I don’t even understand how.
He slaps my hand away and clicks the seatbelt into place. “I don’t know. You’re still giving me baby chick vibes right now.”
A small chuckle escapes me. “Baby chick is a pleonasm. Did you know?”
He cocks an eyebrow at me, so I keep going. “Using more words than necessary to say the same thing. A chick is already a baby bird. You don’t need to specify it.”
“You’re fucking annoying.” There he finally said it.
I give him a small, knowing smile and stare ahead. I should say thank you for all of this, but something is stopping me. I’m still not convinced he wasn’t involved in my car’s disappearance. I’m still not sure I’m safe in his presence.
He gets into the driver’s side, and in less than twenty minutes, we’re leaving the North Shore by the other side of town.
“Are you feeling better?” he asks after long minutes of silence. We’re on the highway now, going back toward the south of Silver Falls.
“Yes,” I nod. “Um, thanks for driving me back.” I look his way, but he’s looking at the road.
This man is so handsome.
He’s got a tattoo on the side of his neck, a Fatma hand with an eye in the palm. His prominent jaw is enhanced now that I’m seeing his profile. His long eyelashes and plump lips are so obvious, and electricity shoots from my chest to my lower stomach. I look away, feeling my cheeks warm.
“It’s no problem. After all, my gang did steal your car while I was distracting you by grabbing a phone charger for you.”
The heat in my cheeks starts burning from the embarrassment. Now that he says it out loud and the anxiety of being on the North Shore has abated, I can see how ridiculous my statement was. “I’m so sorry about that. It was out of line.”
The lack of response makes me babble. “I was being ignorant. I know not everyone on the North Shore is part of a gang.” God, I feel so stupid right now. I really acted like the typical Stoneview girl.
My eyes dart to him again, only to catch his tongue going over his front teeth before he shakes his head. “S’alright, cupcake. Don’t fret about it.” His eyes still don’t come to me. I’m dying to see the thick, muddy browns on me, to catch some sort of interest, but there’s nothing. He doesn’t look my way.
He enters Silver Falls from the south bank and finds his way around easily—no need for GPS or signs. Before I know it, the streets of Silver Falls go from middle class to absolute elite. Beautiful mansions line the streets, their manicured lawn a perfect green. Some of them adorn Greek letters, showing which fraternity or sorority they belong to. We’re getting closer to SFU’s main campus, and the contrast with the North Shore of Silver Falls is stark. I wonder why this guy has been here before. He clearly knows his way around.
“Do you come here often?” I ask as he takes a left and the gigantic, gated campus makes an apparition. It’s recognizable by the huge castle-like red brick building that dominates over every other of the college’s buildings from the top of a high hill.
