// C H A P T E R T E N //

I looked around in the same area, walking with wide eyes, carefully...as if the car would appear out of thin air. There had to be a good explanation for this...it was a fucking car. A big ass car. Cars didn't just come up missing...people didn't just lose cars...

I grabbed onto my head again for what was most likely the millionth time that night.

"No...no...no..." I moaned under my breath, noticing some guys toking on some cigs. I went over to them, somehow with a new gain of confidence that I usually wouldn't have.

"Excuse me...hey um, have you guys seen a car?" I asked.

They just stared at me, then burst into laughter.

"There's like a bunch of them parked in the lot." Said a guy with a spiked mohawk and ripped leather jacket. He didn't make sense in his surroundings, for the guys with him looked like legitimate preps.

I sighed, fed up as hell, "A black car! I fucking...black car with...a hood and..."

"A convertible?" One of the others asked, this one in a sweater vest.

"Yes," I looked at him, bright eyed and hopeful.

"Looks like someone stole your car, princess." The odd one tossed his cig and stepped on it.

"What? No...no, no, absolutely not..." That was it. All I needed to snap. I was losing control of myself and my patience. The night just couldn't get any worse.

"We saw the whole thing."

I took my jacket and held it up to my face, screaming into it with just enough might it needed to release the emotions. I didn't care if they thought I was crazy. Maybe I was.

"What the hell are you doing to her?" It was Matty from behind me. I didn't even want to look at him, I couldn't face him if I tried.

"We aren't doing anything." They all claimed.

"What's wrong?" I could feel his hand on my shoulder.

"Her car got stolen." One of the guys answered.

His hand was gone.

"WHAT?!" He shouted, I finally put the jacket down, looking at him. My eyes stung as they were annoyingly wet and red as fire...

I saw George and Adam beside him, both in a state of shock.

"Yeah her car got stolen and she's going mad." The guy repeated, looking at me and back to Matty.

Matty stormed off, pacing the lot, focused. He looked around for the car, looking as if he were to explode at any moment. He came back to where we were, "who the fuck took my shit, did you see them?"

"Yeah we saw the whole thing-"

"WHO THE FUCK WAS IT?!"

"I don't fucking know a couple of guys wearing leather coats, similar to mine-"

"DON'T FUCKING SHIT ME YOU KNOW WHO THEY WERE, WHO THE FUCK WERE THEY?!"

George and Adam held Matty back, I didn't move from where I stood the entire time. They steered him in the opposite direction, I followed, slowly behind.

He turned around, "you're the only one who had the keys." He looked at me, the sudden calmness in his voice made me even more nervous than I already was.

"I had them...and...-"

"And what? You just handed them off to someone else who could fucking get into the car?!"

"NO!" Shit, I was crying.

"THEN WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE KEYS? WHERE THE FUCK IS MY CAR?!" He yelled.

I shrugged slowly, unsure of what to say.

George sighed, "it's my fault. I distracted her when she was in the car...she had your keys and she had everything under control until I got in the car too." He said.

He was right...I did have everything under control until he came...with those words I then remembered. The keys were in the ignition when I went to the backseat...from the backseat I left, when he'd undone my bra...leaving him, and the keys...which he was probably too tipsy to notice were in the ignition when he'd too left the car after I.

I didn't like him taking the blame though...and with what Adam had said inside I had felt guilty, as if I'd owed George all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry." I said, my voice was weak.

There was a silence between the three of us.

"I'm gonna go find us a ride." Adam sighed and walked away, beyond irritated.

I went to the curb and sat down, I needed to be alone. I could feel someone following me, I didn't want to talk to anyone.

George sat beside me, I scooted over slightly.

"Look, I'm really sorry. It's my fault. I'm sorry about this and I'm sorry about what I did in the car." He shook his head.

"It's fine." I said.

We both sat in the company of one another in silence. Somehow it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be. I felt the wind going through my hair, and to my surprise it felt nice. I closed my eyes, taking it in...I imagined myself being back home, in the California heat. I imagined the sound of the crickets, how they chirped ever so loudly around this time...I smiled a bit to myself, feeling a little more at ease.

"Matty wont be mad at you forever...he's like that." George said, "that car is kind of important to him. He bought it a few years ago with a girlfriend. I think he remembers her by it."

I opened my eyes, "...the one who died?" I asked.

George nodded.

I felt even worse about his car going missing now.

"What happened-"

"LET'S GO!" Adam called from a distance, we both turned around to see him hopping into a 1970s Volkswagen bus, Matty behind him.

George ignored my half finished question, standing up and holding out his hand to help me up also. I took it, getting onto my feet and walking with him to the vehicle.

He let me in first, the car was packed, with other people we didn't know. All guys. I started to feel like a slut. Even though I had no intentions on doing anything with any of them.

I neglected the furthest seats back where Matty sat alone. I didn't think I'd be exactly the person he'd necessarily wanted to be next to at this moment. George went to the back with him.

"Oh, you two switch." The driver turned around, he has piercings all over his face...literally...well okay not literally but he had tons. Not just your typical lip nose or brow, but like...everywhere.

"What?" George asked.

"You're too tall, I can't see behind us, you and the chick, switch." He said, turning back around.

I hated being referred to as being just a chick.

Which brought me back to wondering who the chick George was with earlier today. I suddenly hated him. I knew the feelings were temporary. I always had temporary feelings of hatred or embarrassment. I'd think about a moment, and there the feelings were planted. Then after settling on them for a bit, they'd wither.

I got in the back, next to Matty, and buckled my seat belt. The car began to move. Matty didn't say a single word to me. I wondered if he was still happy to have met me.

I looked straight ahead. The weird guy with piercings all over his face had took a cassette tape and stuck it into the player. I raised my eyebrows, a cassette tape...I haven't seen one of those in years.

I recognized the song right away as it picked up wherever he'd last played the tape...it was Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye...I guessed I judged people way too hard in my mind, because this guy was the last person I'd expect to be a Marvin Gaye fan...but then again, who couldn't be?

Matty looked at me, I could feel his eyes on me. I tried to attempt to act like I didn't notice. I was too afraid to look at him back.

"Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you." He said

I took a deep breath, turning to him, "its okay. I'm sorry I got your car stolen."

He shrugged, "shit happens.."

"What are you gonna do?" I asked, the tension in my shoulders loosened up a bit at last.

"File a police report. And find out who the fuck did it, and kick their ass." He laughed. I did too.

He shook his head, "joking about the second part." He rolled his eyes playfully, looking out of the window, "I should kick your ass instead."

My jaw dropped, he looked at me once again, a smirk on his face. He threw two fake blows at me. I pushed his hands away, trying to stop myself from smiling so much as my face began to hurt.

I sighed, gathering up every bit of courage I had, "Maybe we should never do this again." I said.

He lowered his hand slowly, his smile fading.

The roads grew bumpy, our body's moved with every single jolt given from the road.

"I'm bad news. You guys shouldn't hang out with me." I shook my head.

He smiled, why was he always smiling at the most serious times?

"I'm serious." I said, turning my body a bit to face him as much as my seat belt would allow.

"Continue." He said, he was slumped so far down in his seat that it almost looked like he was laying, propping his hand up behind him on the arm rest.

"That's it." I said, my face growing solid as stone as my body regained it's nervous stiffness.

He closed his eyes, still smiling, "you know..." he said, as if he was thinking about what to say next, "usually I'm the one to tell someone I can't see them because I'm bad news."

"Well, maybe we're both bad news." I said.

"Which means we should keep seeing each other." Matty opened his eyes.

Seeing each other...what type of seeing did he mean with the word seeing that he used?

"I've pissed Adam and George off already, lost your car...I mean...and I've barely known you guys."

"We all fuck up sometimes." He shook his head, "I haven't met anyone that understands me, in so...so long..." he closed his eyes again, pensively, "until...I met you." He said. "Doesn't it make sense to you?"

He thought I understood him? I didn't understand him at all. Not one bit. The guy was so hard to read that I could've taken a rope and hung myself. Okay maybe not all that, but seriously...I did not understand him.

I blurted it out without thinking, "I don't understand you at all."

He opened his eyes slowly.

"Why do you want to hang out with me? I'm stupid. Okay I'm weird as fuck.-"

"Stop downing yourself-"

"No, no no no. Its the truth. I mean, I love me. I'm fucking fantastic okay, I'm not insecure...but like...to other people...I'm a pain in the ass. I know that. I got your fucking car stolen. How are you forgiving me?! Do you feel sorry for me or something?! I'm fine with being alone, really! I-"

He sat up, "shut the fuck up. Please." He covered my mouth with his hand, I sighed, looking at him and waiting for him to set it free. He didn't.

"I do feel sorry for you. Only reason," the car stopped, I noticed we were outside my house.

"Alright first person! Who's house is this?" The driver turned around, so did everyone else.

Matty and I looked around at everyone, I rolled my eyes, sighing. Why was everything in my life so awkward all the time? He slowly removed his hands, setting my mouth free.

"It's mine!" I said, unbuckling my seat belt and putting my jacket on.

"...is because you don't think other people can see how fucking fantastic you are." He finished. Everyone turned back around.

"...goodnight, Matty." I said, opening the door and climbing out of the car.

I walked through the lawn, neglecting the walkway. The grass crunched beneath my feet. I smiled to myself uncontrollably, trying to look as attractive as I could from behind as I didn't hear the car drive off yet. I turned around as I got to the door, taking out my keys and going inside.

All the lights were out, thank God. All I wanted to do was get some food, and go to bed...I was starved, and exhausted.