Forever Enigmatic

Chapter 24

"KYLE! WHAT THE HELL!"

He turned the flashlight back on, so she was able to make his figure out. He doubled over in laughter.

He was laughing at her.

"Never mind what I said," she said. "You're just like all of them."

"Come on," he dragged on, walking towards her with the comforter swung over his shoulder.

"No," she protested. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a woman in this world? Anyone can turn into a murderer or rapist, even the people we trust the most, and it'll somehow be our faults that we got killed or raped or both. I don't kid about that."

"Okay, I get that, but you can't deny that it was a little funny." He smirked.

Sierra crossed her arms. She knew it was something she'd do to terrify her friends. She liked scaring and pranking them. However, it didn't change the fact that being conscious and terrified of a man's daily move was a reality for her and every woman. The difference was the messenger. The prank would be taken way out of context coming from a man because of everything happening in the world.

"Wipe that smile off your face," she told him. "You earned yourself a strike."

"What?" He asked, offended. She nodded and took the comforter from him, wrapping herself with it. "Why are you giving me a strike? What are the strikes for?"

"For making an insensitive joke. I do this to make people around me learn. You'll learn soon."

"What I'm hearing is that I should use this system on you too." He took off the comforter from her body. She pouted as he threw it over his car. Carefully, he climbed up the hood and sat down on top. He waved her at her to get up beside him.

She grumbled but followed him. It was weird to walk on top of a car, but he must have had something planned.

He sat criss-crossed and wrapped one half of the comforter around his shoulders. He patted the space right next to him for her. She sat next to him, and snuggled with the rest of the comforter.

After about a minute, she leaned onto him. "So why are we sitting on top of your car in the middle of the woods at night?" She whispered. He scoffed and turned off the flashlight from his phone.

"Look up," he ordered.

She did.

And by God, she had never seen anything more beautiful.

The twinkling in the night sky brought down a sense of comfort over her. Stars littered above like a blanket of light. They were so close together, yet so far. They shone in their radiance and cast a subtle glow over Sierra and Kyle.

She smiled.

"Do you like it?"

"I wouldn't have ever thought that such a tough, ruthless trainer, such as yourself, would be interested in stargazing," she teased.

"Oh, shut up." He playfully nudged her side. "It helps me think."

"Dangerous thing to do."

"It can be refreshing," he said. "There's a lot of noise in the world around us. Getting out of it and being with yourself helps."

Sierra grimaced at the thought. The noise she battled wasn't the one outside, rather the one inside already. Her brain was loud on its own. It never left her alone. She could close her eyes to sleep, but her brain never let her rest her body. It continued thinking about everything and anything, and by the time she could get some rest, she needed to get back to work or school.

Sometimes thinking made her shut down. She left because she thought too much. Thinking made her space out and leave the existing world. It was like her soul froze her body as it started thinking, and it would take a while until she came back to carry on with her life.

"I can't do that," she said.

She recalled her therapist telling her how she needed to get out and live. If she went out of her way to be alone to think, she'd probably drive herself crazy.

"Thinking isn't bad, Sierra, it's the overthinking that gets you."

"All I ever do is overthink," she scoffed.

"Trust me," he leaned his head to hers, "I know. I've seen it in action."

"I don't know how to stop it." She dropped her voice to a whisper. He inched closer to her until their bodies were pressed together. She pursed her lips. "Distracting myself is the only way I can survive."

"I'm not an expert or anything, but maybe you need to be more confident in yourself and make big moves. Actually risk it all."

She laughed. "How about we forget about this for now? This is going to open a can of worms I don't want to deal with right now. I think I've been through enough on my twenty-first birthday."

He didn't say anything else, which she was grateful for. She looked up again and stared at the stars, loving how they twinkled at her. When Kyle wrapped an arm around her body, it was as if they teasingly winked down at her.

The air turned crispier as the minutes went by. Her breath came out in small puffs, but she took that as an excuse to snuggle up to Kyle. He didn't seem to mind, and tightened his grip on her.

With a wistful sigh, her eyelids slowly drooped, and she fell into a deep slumber.

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Chapter 24 is short and sweet, don't you think?

What was your favorite part? I can't pick. This part is so cute and relevant in my opinion. I love that there's a cutesy scene and a talk on the reality of being a woman.

Since it's so short, I will try to update Chapter 25 within twenty-four hours. I'm not promising anything because I have class tomorrow and get back home at night, but I should be updating at most in three days.