Breathless Behaviour

8

Heath

She's looking at me.

I can feel it, her gaze, those water clear eyes on me as I walk ahead of her. I can feel the way they trail up my back, down, everywhere, exploring. Like a small stream, slow, finding, dragging across every rough inch of me as discreetly as they can.

She's looking at me, gaze sliding over my skin, searching for cracks as water finds them in rocks to break it until it's nothing. She looks and stares but it does nothing to me, it's just a small stream, not a river flowing, cascading ocean and even if it were, it wouldn't rattle me, it's nothing.

It's not unsettling because no matter how much she looks, she won't find a crack in my facade, a way in, no one will.

Not only did I have years of military experience, training to not break, to show nothing but I had spent my whole life in a town where everyone talked behind one's back. Where people were always watching, waiting for something to talk about, to drag you and eat you like the vultures they were.

I had spent my life used to the scrutinizing gazes that her staring didn't bother me.

Not one bit.

She was just another pair of eyes in this town.

Shrugging off the trickle of her eyes, I rounded the corner, my steps measured as I make my way to where I parked my truck, Aldo still in the same spot I left him- in the back. I see him and I also see the people of this town, people who seem to stop briefly as they see me, eyes following my every step, waiting.

Astoria lived up to its meaning, like a hawk, watching and picking at everything. With a little over a thousand people, everything was seen and heard about. Nothing went missing, if something unexpected happened, gossip, it was known to everyone in a matter of hours and by the end of the day, you were news.

Everything was known like the appearance of the golden haired, blue eyed girl behind me.

It took me one visit to the hospital to find out that people had started asking about her the moment she hopped out of the train. They had asked and pondered, wanting to know why she was here, who she was, what she wanted and it was a small gift that no one knew who she was yet- it was a matter of time before it happened, people would remember, she would talk and as soon as her mothers name slipped from her lips, everything would be known and I didn't know what would happen after.

Or I did- I had learned to see all possible outcomes- and none of them looked pretty

It could go several ways, no one would care or they would bash her the same way as her mother and grandmother and all her family. They would spit her name and curse at her even when she had done nothing, they would drag her until she ran but it had been years... but knowing these people, they would find something either way, they always did, small town, big rumors, lies and secrets, a whole reputation.

This town was awful.

Walking among them all, I knew for a fact that if I didn't have a reputation already- not talking to people, ignoring them, calling out their bullshit- people would ambush me to ask me about her. They would crowd me, question me as to why she was with me, who she was but no one even looked at me, said one word that wasn't the usual, Alrick, how's Echo Ridge? How are you? Good seeing you.

They didn't ask about her but I knew they wanted to. Hell, I could taste their curiosity on my tongue, thick and bitter like blood. They knew better than to ask me but one way or the other, they would find out everything and I could avoid it, tell her to shut her mouth about her family, keep her in Echo Ridge but she was here to learn not for me to pamper her and protect her, to coddle her up.