Freefall ✓

08 | dance

Just kiss me in the rain, so that I know you're not one of them. Those who run for shelter.

—jm storm

▬▬▬ ♫ : ▬▬▬

Little League- Conan Gray

Surrender - Natalie Taylor (heard from the beach)

▬▬▬ ✦ ▬▬▬

AUDREY

"Is this funny to you? I almost died from the fright!" I outcried against Cameron's entertained state.

He laughed even more at that, stirring up my almost rage at him. "Relax. You're acting like we've just committed a crime."

"Sort of did," I said under my breath, indistinctly. He heard it, of course. His eyes flashed with a hint of realization.

"You've never skipped class before?"

"No!" Was skipping class something that normal?

"I'm gonna pay for this," I mumbled, shaking my head persistently, "We're gonna get in so much trouble. We're gonna—"

"Princesa," I snapped my head at him at the mention of the idiotic nickname that I'd already learned to react to, "when was the last time you did something fun? Something against the rules?"

I stared ahead, taken aback. The word echoed against the resonant walls of my mind. Rules, rules, rules.

Right. The unspoken rules I had formed for myself and followed throughout high school. Keep a low profile, don't attract attention, focus on my grades. . .-something against the rules? More like everything that I had been doing these last days had been against the rules!

And lastly, Cameron. A factor my younger self couldn't have even come close to foreseeing and regarding. No wonder I didn't know how to react to or deal with it.

The question he had asked was floating around the car unanswered, but he didn't seem to mind.

I took the minutes of comfortable silence between us to notice just how cautiously he was driving. Never exceeding the speed limit, keeping his eyes trained exceptionally on the road and slowing down before each crosswalk even if there were no pedestrians in sight. His prudence was above normal.

I squinted my eyes at him but chose not to comment on it. Instead, I brought up something else.

"I thought you skated to school."

"I do most times. I prefer not to drive. It's just -uh. . .I got up late today so didn't really have much choice."

I snickered lazily at his confession. "Where're you driving us anyway?"

He contemplated visibly, settling on: "Somewhere."

Usually, that sort of avoiding-the-question attitude would've annoyed me, but that time I just shrugged it off. I turned to watch the view of the coast we were driving by blur into one seabreeze hue.