Since 2004

six

       I walk another mile or so before stopping. The sun is starting to set in the sky and I know I can't walk another fourteen miles home. I need someone to come get me.

I pull out my phone and call my mom. She doesn't answer. She's often in meetings around this time so that's probably where she is right now. I try Allie.

She picks up on the third ring. "Hey girl, what's up?"

"Are you free right now?"

"I'm still at the gym. I'll be here for a few more hours, sorry. Why?"

"Oh, no big deal. I need a ride home from somewhere and my mom isn't answering her phone. I'll find one though don't worry about it."

"Ugh, I'm sorry I totally would. Maybe you should call up hot neighbor for a ride.  More ways than one."

"Oh, god. No! Bye Allie!" I hang up and groan.

It's not like I don't have anyone else to call, I'm just not close enough with anyone else to ask them to come get me fifteen miles away. Maybe I'll call Sandra and pray that Aidan isn't around and that she'll come get me herself.
Sandra answers right away. "Hey, honey. What's going on?"

"Do you think you would be able to give me a ride home from somewhere?" I ask.

"I'm sorry honey, I need to finish up this work email right now. Let me send Aidan to come get you. Send the location to my phone and I will forward it to him.

"Oh, no-- Sandra, it's fine. I'll find a ride home from someone else." No, I won't.

"No way, Sophia. Aidan's coming down right now to get you. Send the location and he'll see you in a few minutes."

Holy shit I'm so dumb. Why the hell did I call Sandra? Fuckity fuck fuck. I run a hand through my hair in frustration and send Sandra my location. I don't want a ride home from Aidan by any means but by now it's getting dark and it really seems to be my only option. I need to whoop Sam Mills' tiny little ass. I wonder if he ever got his pants down from that tree. I didn't stick around long enough to find out in fear he would come after me and admittedly, he could definitely beat me.

***

Aiden's car comes rolling up to me twenty minutes later. There's music playing and the windows are down.

"Are you crazy?" he asks. "What are you doing out here?"

"Long story," I reply, shortly. I will not, by any means, be relaying the details of tonight to Aidan.

I put my hand on the door handle and Aidan doesn't unlock the car.

"You're telling me what happened before you get in here."

"Aiden, I've had a shitty ass night so will you please just let me in the fucking car?" I snap. By this point I'm kind of past wasting my energy arguing with him.

Aiden looks surprised for a moment but he unlocks the door without saying anything else. When I get in, my hair swings back and Aiden gets a full fledged view of my fresh hickey.

"Were you with a guy?" Aiden asks. He knows I was. How else would I have got that?

"None of your business," I reply sharply. "Can we please just go?"

"What do you want me to tell your mom if she asks? I picked you up on the side of the street in the middle of nowhere and you can't tell me where you've been or what you've been doing."

"Did your stupid wilderness retreat teach you how to become nosy? Can you just back off? Two months ago you didn't give fuck all about my life! Why do you care now?"

"Oh, honey, it's not your life I give a shit about. Don't think my helping you has anything to do with you being you."

Ouch. "Then why are you helping me? Leave me on the side of the road to walk fifteen miles home if that's what you really want to do!"

"I'm not going to do that."

"Why not?" I demand. He doesn't say anything at first.

"I have this moral to be a good person to people when they need it. I want to be able to be present for people because I know what it feels like when no one's there for you and it sucks.  Even when it's annoying assholes like you who won't recognize any nice gesture I might give them."

"What do you mean?" I question.

"Have you said thank you once for my driving you to school? Were you going to say thank you for me picking you up out here when I have a million better things I could be doing right now?"

Am I silent or have I been silenced? He was so right though. I haven't said thank you for anything he's done for me the last couple of days and he has wasted quite a bit of time on me recently.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Thank you." It physically hurts me to utter those words to him but I know I need to. For once I will actually admit that Aidan is right in this situation and I am not.

"What exactly was the point of your wilderness camp? To learn new morals and get outside for a while?" I ask. I am genuine curious.

This question seems to tick Aidan off slightly and he doesn't answer. I raise my eyebrows. "Answer me."

"Answer me first," Aiden replies quickly. He doesn't look at me as he speaks. We still haven't driven away yet. "I asked what you were doing this afternoon and you didn't answer me."

"I'm not going to."

"Great. I won't bother answering you either," Aiden replies. I swear his voice has gotten audibly angrier in the past couple minutes.

At this, he peels off the side of the road and the car ride home is excruciatingly silent. I need to find someone else to get rides from. These awkward car rides are becoming too much.

We pull into my driveway and I turn to look at Aidan before I get out.

"If you really want to know, I was with a guy. When you fucking called me to see where I was, it sort of just blew up. He kicked me out of his car. It was a whole thing."

"So it's my fault?"

"I mean if you just minded your own business which is something you're all of a sudden not very good at--" I stop talking when I see Aiden's expression. He looks more angry than I would like.

"Have a good night, Sophia," he says. He turns his head to the other direction and that's my cue to get the fuck out of this car.

Why do I say the dumbest things possible?