“Then why
do you let—”
“Ian?” she
interrupted me, shrugging her shoulders. She counted off the reasons on her
fingers as she explained, “He's like my brother, I'm busy most of the time, he
wants to, he likes to, because I can—that's my favorite reason—and I think
that's all of them.”
“I did not
expect you to come personally,” Drei said, not quite hiding the disdain in his
voice at this development.
“This is
special,” she said as if that explained everything. “I thought I'd do it
personally. You drive, right?” Caroline waited for Drei to answer.
“When I
must.”
“Great;”
she tossed him the keys. “Since you're so wanted, we're going to sneak back in.
Drei will drive, and I've got this great
dress with me I'll change into later on.” Her emphasis dripped with sarcasm.
“What's the
dress for?” Was it just me, or did a dress not fit into the equation well? I
was pretty sure it wasn’t exhaustion inhibiting my ability to make the
connection.
“When we
get to the city, I'll pretend to be some uptown miss being driven around. Ian
suggested you sit on the floor in the back—something about less visibility…but
I agreed to pass it on. I'll even do up my hair to make it believable,” she
added, smiling—which was strange in addition to her unusual chattiness.
The full
plan made sense, though I didn't see how it would work. That probably was the
exhaustion speaking.
“There's
more to it, but I'll let you in on that later.”
“As is
typically you,” Drei remarked, sliding into the driver's seat.
“Come on,
Abs. I put some pillows down to make it more comfy.” As I made my way over, she
added, “And the passenger seat is all the way forward so you have some moving
space.”
“What's
with the blanket and extra pillow?” I asked as I tried to settle onto the floor
of the car. It was definitely more comfortable than the cell, but I wasn’t sure
how long I could sit there without my butt or legs falling asleep.
“Drei told
me you needed more sleep still, that he didn't even want you making this trip
yet. So I took the hint and made it so you could—you know—sleep if you wanted
to?” She kept smiling as if that made the situation less strange. Her
uncharacteristic nervousness was so startling I just stared at her—I mean,
since when was she not appearing fully confident about anything? It wasn't
until she asked if she did something wrong that I realized I hadn't stopped
staring.
“Are you
all right, Abriel?” Drei asked from the front seat, gazing down at me.
“Fine,” I
replied, shaking my head. “And no, Caroline, you didn't do anything wrong, I’m
just tired. Thank you.”
“Shall we
leave, now?” Drei asked.
With no
objections, he turned the car around to head back down the drive as I opened
the blanket over me, tucking the pillow beneath my head. Caroline slid over to
the passenger side, kicking her feet up.
“Don't fall
asleep,” she told Drei unnecessarily. “I'm going to try to catch some shuteye,
too. It was quite the drive up here.”
I closed my
eyes. Although I still felt tired, part of me wondered if it was because I
still needed sleep to heal or if it was because I had ventured into
oversleeping now. It didn’t matter much then as I couldn't seem to stop
thinking, so I mapped the car. Drei was focused on driving, checking his rear and
side views every few moments. Caroline leaned against the car door, her head
rolled to one side, her hands resting in her lap, appearing passed out. Then
one of her hands reached out to my head. I could feel her fingers in my hair,
tendrils of curl wrapped around her appendages. It wasn't offensive, and there
was a certain hesitancy to the gesture. Something about it, actually, was
comforting. Maybe it was the fact, for the first time since I'd met her,
Caroline was actually showing she could be more than a hothead. That she could
care.
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