Fading Read Free Page B

around, I see him sitting in the car waiting patiently. He’s probably even turned the heaters on so it’ll be warm when I get in there, the jerk. 
    Like a woman who’s being sent to her death, it’s takes me three times as long as it normally would to reach his car, when I do, I open the door and debate running away but then it starts to rain, so I climb in reluctantly.
    “Ready?” He asks once I’m buckled in.
    “Sure.” I answer and turn my head to look out the window.
    Hopefully he dives fast.
     

Four
     
     
     
    “You don’t have to take me home. I’m fine. I can get a taxi.” I tell the windscreen, partly to break the silence, mostly because Jason is the last person I want to be alone in a car with.
    “I’m taking you home. It’s no big deal. Besides, we’re almost half way there now.”
    “Fine.”
    “Why are you saying fine? What did you want me to do? Pull over and let you walk from here?”
    “No. I’m just saying that I could have gotten a taxi home, it’s not a big deal.”
    “Why are you so worried about being alone with me?”
    “I’m not worried about being alone with you.”
    “Then what’s the problem? If you’ll remember, we used to spend a lot of time alone together.”
    “That was a long time ago.”
    “Almost ten years ago, I know. But you don’t have to be so damn hostile all the time. You act like you hate me.”
    I finally turn to look at him because talking to the window is getting ridiculous. Jason and I used to be best friends once but that was a long time ago. He’s no longer my cute next door neighbour, now he’s the guy that I avoid at every available opportunity. But much to my disappointment, he stopped being cute years ago. Jason is one of those guys that one day is that guy you know and then the next, he’s the guy that’s hard to resist. He has it all, from his gorgeous thick sandy brown hair, near perfect jaw line and perfect grin, to the body that’s hot, but not so hot that you’d be self-conscious about getting naked in front of him because you just know that no matter what shape or size, he appreciates the female body.
    Too bad he’s a first class arse. “I do hate you, Jason. What makes it worse is that you know it and if I know you as well as I think I do, I’d say you like that I hate you.”
    A pair of chocolate brown eyes turn in my direction full of humour. “You think you know me?”
    “Jason,” I sigh loudly. “I probably know you better than you know yourself unfortunately.”
    “Maybe that used to be the case but people change. I’m not the same person I was ten years ago, definitely not the same person I was nine years ago.”
    “Whatever.”
    “And what do you mean you think I like that you hate me? First of all I didn’t know you hated me. That’s such a strong word, I just thought I annoyed you. Secondly, I don’t enjoy that you can’t be alone with me for more than five minutes without looking for an escape route. If I weren’t so unsure that you’d jump out of a moving vehicle to get away from me, I’d be driving faster than 25 miles per hour.”
    “I’m not going to jump out of your car while it’s moving, Jason. I’m not crazy.”
    “Aren’t you?” He moves his eyes back to the road.
    “What do you mean, ‘aren’t I?’ Of course I’m not crazy.”
    “Then what the hell is wrong with you?”
    For a few seconds, I don’t reply. There was a time that hearing Jason yell at me, wouldn’t have been a big deal. He’s a passionate guy, I just haven’t seen it for so long that it takes me by surprise. “Don’t shout at me.”
    “Then tell me what the hell is wrong with you. As much as you might hate me, you can’t change the fact that I know you, Lily. And no matter how many times you say you’re fine and everything is good, you should remember that I know when you’re lying.”
    “No.” I turn fully in my seat so I’m facing him properly because I want him to know I mean every word that I’m