Wanted

•Vulnerable•

{•edited•}

                         ~Atticus's POV~

        "Your hair looks cute like that," I say once the truck is off. She touches her hair gently, giving me a soft smile. This couldn't be more awkward. There's a huge elephant in the room and we're both trying to ignore it for as long as possible. My attempt at flirting doesn't seem to impress her much.
    "Are we gonna get out?" She asks, looking around. I nod, getting out of the truck. She follows after me, moving branches out of the way to walk over to me. It's dark, but the lights huh give it a nice glow. She looks over at the picnic table. "How'd you find this place?" She asks.
    "When I was younger I'd leave home for a few hours every day and go on a run. One day I ran for longer and just ended up here. I started coming every time I'd run after that first time. A few minutes further down is a camp sight. A lot of families come here during the day for picnics," I explain. I'm surprised I was able to answer that question without giving too much information about myself.
    "Really? When I was younger, I'd leave home and go to Alaric's. I would just hide under the bed incase my mom came," she says. I wonder what it was like for her to grow up. Does she have a good relationship with anyone in her family other than Alaric? Does she have close friends back home? Did her friends know about her family?
     "Alaric is an interesting person. Very entertaining," I say, laughing at the memory of some of the things he was saying earlier. He's not someone I could hang around with for a long time, but I can handle him for a certain amount of time.  
    I set the bag of food in the center of the table while we sit across from each other. She sets her phone down on the table just as her screen lights up with a text notification. The person's contact picture looks familiar but is not a face I know off the top of my head.
   "Your sister mentioned when we were talking that you guys had a brother. What's he like?" She asks, looking at me with her chin in her hand. I laugh uncomfortably, looking at the dirt. Marissa can never keep her mouth shut.
   "He and I are complete opposites. He's been in prison for the last two years," I tell her.
    "What's he in for?" She asks, fiddling with her fingers.
    "Multiple accounts of murder, possession of firearms, under the influence of controlled substances," I say, starting to list everything off. To say he's not a great person doesn't begin to explain him.
    "Sounds hot." I can't tell if she's joking or not. I hope she is. Then again, a criminal, serial killer is probably her type. I'm probably just being a douchebag, but that's what I'd expect from her. "It's good to know that everything about you isn't squeaky clean."
    "A lot of stuff isn't," I mumble. I start taking the food out of the bag, setting some of it in front of her. "You look really nice tonight."
    "Stop with that already," she says with a laugh. "Compliments make me uncomfortable. How would you like it if I called you handsome every five minutes?" A shy grin sneaks onto my face.
   "So you think I'm handsome?" She scoffs, taking a bite of the chicken. "I'm sorry about how I am towards you," she says. My hand drops from reaching to get a fork. "You don't deserve that."
    "I haven't exactly been the nicest to you either," I say, scratching the back of my neck. I don't even know why I do it. Maybe it's because I feel the need to push people away, but something in me doesn't want to keep doing that to her. This is for work. Strictly work.   
    "Just because you're a cop doesn't mean I should disrespect you. I just know what I've been told my whole life about you guys and they aren't good things," she tells me. "The way I grew up, you don't trust the cops because they can get you instead." There's something behind her words, but I can't understand it.
    "What was your childhood like? Growing up?" She sets her form down, crossing her arms on the table. I don't know if this is information that can help with anything, but it's a start. I feel disgusted with myself when I think back to my initial intentions.
    "Weird, it definitely wasn't normal. I grew up super close to Alaric because my dad practically raised him since his dad, my uncle, died. Out of everyone, I can say I'm not like the rest of my family," she starts. I'm not surprised that her dad brought up Alaric because of how close their relationship is. He's like a brother to her. "I was always very quiet until middle school and didn't have many friends, I still don't. The older I got, the more I developed my dad's personality. He and I have never got along."
    I have to keep myself from making any sign of shock. That wasn't what I was expecting her to say about their relationship. I had expected they were close and he was super over protective. "You guys still don't?"
    "No, I wish. Every time we talk we just end up fighting. I love him, but it doesn't even feel like he's my dad. He's always kept me and my family away from everything; I just want you to know that. I never know anything about anything unless I somehow accidentally find out. I'm not in the loop," she says.
    Did she somehow find out what I'm doing? Why is she suddenly telling me all this? She doesn't know anything about her dads business. But that's not even what we need. I need to get close to him.
    "Thank you for letting me know. It's wrong of me to assume," I say, feeling like a complete dick for doing this to her. She's opening up, being vulnerable how I wanted her to be, and I feel terrible for it because I'm not being real with her.
     "And about last night, that was stupid and can't happen again. That was extremely unlike me. I would usually never do anything like that," She tells me. I'm slightly disappointed she said she won't do it again, but I understand what she's saying. She doesn't seem like the type to give out easy, and last night didn't change that any.
     "I can't say that's not something I usually do, because I'd be lying," I say. She puts her head down, compressing a laugh. "But I don't want to do that again with you until things are different."
    "What do you mean different?" She asks, her voice obviously nervous.
    "We'll see after this date."
   ••••••
                             ~Bex's POV~