Supernova Souls - Ryan Upchurch

-16-

Delilah hung halfway inside the engine bay, standing with one foot on the concrete, other propped up on the side of her truck. Her head was almost hitting the side of the popped hood while she attached the jumper cables to the battery. Ryan already had the cables hooked to his truck's battery, and now he was leaning against the door with his arms crossed, watching cars pass by on the cracked asphalt.

"Shit!" She cursed, narrowing her eyes at the clamps in her hand, pissed that she couldn't seem to make them fit onto her battery by herself. She never could focus on the task at hand whenever someone was watching her.

"Mo'fuckin' truck." She tried again, yet it slipped back off. She could practically feel his eyes on her now, burning holes into the top of her head. "Ryan."

"Yeah?"

"Stop fuckin' lookin' at me." Inside her head, she had added a lot more to that sentence, but she decided against saying the rest out loud. Her mama always said, if you ain't got nothing nice to say, don't say it at all.. and the words swirling in her head were anything but nice. Working on vehicles was usually her strong suit, but if the truck she was working on wasn't cooperating, she'd get frustrated. Ryan's blue eyes had been staring at her like icy laser beams, and that simply wasn't helping her-it had quite the opposite effect on her, it spiked her anxiety.

"Fine." He said, but for a few moments she could still feel his eyes on her before he tore them away.

The clamps still weren't cooperating with her no matter how hard she tried, but she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of winning this fight. As quickly and effectively as she could, she tried again. They didn't catch, and slipped back off the battery. "Shit."

"You sure you don't need no help?"

"Yes, I'm sure, now leave me alone."

She leaned farther underneath the hood to shield her face from the boiling sun and wiped the little beads of sweat that had gathered on her forehead, then tried the battery again. Once I get home I'm putting this bitch on Facebook Marketplace. She thought, again trying to attach the jumper cables to the battery, though her many attempts failed.

Boots thudded against the pavement, the sound slowly getting closer to her but she didn't once look up until Ryan's calloused hand lightly nudged her arm. "Lemme try."

Her eyes trailed over to the hand that was littered in ink that sat right next to her arm, then up to Ryan's face. "No."

"One time." He said. "You been tryin' to hook the cables up for ten minutes,"

"Well, it ain't my fault they've got grease all over 'em and they won't fucking work!" She stepped down, throwing her hands up in surrender before they dropped down to her sides, black marks from the cables randomly scattered on her palms.

Ryan took them from her and placed the cables on the truck's battery, only having them slip off for him once instead of what felt like millions of times like the cables had failed to work for Delilah.

Delilah crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight onto one leg, her hazel eyes burning holes into the back of his head. "How the hell did you get them on so damn fast?"

"I had my fair of shitboxes. I used'ta do that almost every day just to get back and forth to work." Even though he couldn't see her, she nodded. They both stood in silence, simply staring at the hunk of metal that brought them both here. Delilah, however, was glaring at her truck like the fire in her eyes would set the truck ablaze and she'd never have to deal with it's bullshit again.

                                         —
The windshield distorted the outside world in terms of light, turning the sun that was beginning to slowly shift to the beginning of a sunset into darkness instead of the blue bleeding into lighter shades of blues, yellows and pinks.

Through the dark tint, Ryan gave Delilah a thumbs up, which was what they'd agreed on him to do once he needed her to try and start the truck.

She nodded and turned the key in the ignition, crossing her fingers with her free hand. The truck stalled for a few seconds, and Ryan looked up at her with a semi-confused look in his eyes, drowning out the bright, sparkly shade of baby blue. Delilah returned the look, her smile turning into a frown.

Then, the Excursion roared alive.

The whole truck shook but settled quickly, leaving the sweet sound of the idling exhaust filling the former silence. Well, until the radio came on by itself, which the truck did often after a few seconds of running.

"Yes!" Delilah practically squealed the simple word out while her right hand dropped onto the steering wheel, running up the side until it reached the top. Ryan looked up at the windshield and smiled, even though he could barely see Delilah through the tint.

She tightened her grip on the wheel with a massive, shit eating grin on her face, stunned it only took one try to get the truck to start. Ryan took the jumper cables off her truck, then made a shitty attempt at trying to hold them (half the cables were dragging the ground) and made his way to Stitches, where he took the cables off his truck's battery and tossed the set of old jumper cables underneath his backseat.

Delilah left her truck running while she slipped out of the drivers seat to go close her hood, and Ryan was busy slamming his trucks doors so the locks would catch.

"Hey, thanks for everything today." Delilah's lips curved into a small but genuine smile. "You really didn't have to."

"It really ain't no trouble, darlin'." He said, punctuating his sentence with a harsh slam of his truck's front passenger door. "But, you're welcome."

She nodded. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye."