by Lauren Wood
“That’s fine.” He said.
“Where are we going?” She asked.
“Honestly I hadn’t thought about yet. I normally just go until I feel like stopping.” Derrick answered.
“Hmm, well that’s okay.” She said her eyes began to get a wistful look. One that said she had always dreamed of having this type of adventure.
“Are you hungry?” Derrick finally asked. His stomach had growled to let him know that he hadn’t fed it today.
“A little bit, but I don’t know if I can eat.” She said.
Derrick called the waitress over who took their order. He got them both a hamburger. Her a single, and for him a triple cheeseburger. He was ravenous when he really thought about it. As soon as the food came he dove in and ate it quickly. There was no small talk; he was thinking to himself, asking himself, why he had invited her to go with him.
It was something that he didn’t care to fully analyze though at the moment. Instead he just thought about her, the one from the past. She had broken his heart so badly, had almost made him loose everything. No, correction, he had lost everything that night.
He let his mind float back to the past once again. It was that night, he was in the car, and they were coming home from a wonderful night out. He was so in love with her, thought she had loved him too. He had been a fool, for how long had she been dishonest with him. How long had he thought she was another person?
Anger flashed in his mind. He looked at her in his mind once again; there was the smile, the words she had begun to say. He had looked up at her, waiting for her sweet voice to come forward.
Derrick heard the scream like it was happening right at that moment. “Look out.” She had yelled.
He looked up, it was too late. The car was already on top of them, his victims, the two he had killed that night. He could see their faces just as well as he could see hers. They were burned into his memory for ever more. The mother and her little boy, he had only been two. It killed him to remember it now. It had been an accident. But had he not have looked over at her, they would still be alive right now, maybe.
If that hadn’t been enough though the aftermath was worse, it had crushed his world. Derrick had jumped out trying to help them. He couldn’t do anything, they were dead, and he knew it. She had looked at him, the way, it had been horrible.
“Why?” She had asked him. Like he had done it on purpose, when she knew damn well he wasn’t that way at all.
“It was an accident. You were talking to me.” He had stated to her.
“Oh you’re blaming this on me? You killed them, not me. You’ve been drinking, you are a drunk, and you know that, you’ll go to jail”
He had been shocked by her words. His mouth had to have fallen open. For one thing, Derrick rarely drank. Sure he had one at dinner, one single beer, but they had been down two hours ago. That wasn’t even in his system anymore. What was she talking about? Maybe she was simply in shock. No, she told the police when they showed up that Derrick needed to be tested, he had been drinking.
Thankfully, the tests had shown that he didn’t even have any alcohol left in his system. But she had crushed him, shown him that she would never be the type of female that would give him what he needed, support.
When they finally left the scene of the crime, they hadn’t talked. They had driven back to their apartment, Derrick had gone and packed his bags, and he was gone. He could remember her words as he packed up his things. They had been hateful words, not the words of a female that could have ever loved him. Surely, she might come around. But he had left and never got a call from her again. It had been a month later when he left; the small town was no place for him to live anymore. She had gone around and said all kinds of bad things about him. People would look at him with hate in his eyes. He had lost his job, and all his friends. Derrick had found out the hard way that he had never had a true friend in that town that month. He had never looked back, and never let another person close to him.
Derrick had to wonder if he would have messed up and married her, what would have happened? Would she have faked her love for him even longer? It had been during that month of waiting he had found out much more about her than he needed to know. She had been seeing other guys, at least one, and had been playing Derrick all along.
He planned on never letting another person that close to him again. So why had he let Mac come with him, or at least ask her. His mind screamed, no she’s coming with you remember. Oh shit, he had agreed to it.
“Are you okay?” She asked him when he looked up.
“Yes, sorry just memories from long ago, something I need to leave alone.” Derrick answered.
“I know those, I have many of my own.” She smiled.
The smile changed her face, made her beautiful, stunningly beautiful even. Derrick had taken a deep intake of breath at that moment.
“What?” She asked him.
“Nothing, just you looked so different when you smiled.”
Mac blushed her face taking on several shades of red. “Thank you.”
“You ready to go?” Derrick stood up.
“Sure. Do you mind if I go to the bathroom first?” She asked.
“Oh, go ahead. I’ll pay the bill and wait for you.”
She ran off to the restroom. A part of his mind yelled, run, get out now. Leave her, go by yourself, she’s trouble. But his body didn’t run, instead it went to pay the bill and he stood there looking at the flyers in the front of the restaurant. One’s that advertised all the fun things a family needed to do if they visited this area.
He picked up a flyer.
“That’s a beautiful resort; you and your misses should check it out.” The waitress said.
He looked up at her, then back at the flyer. It read Pocono’s Wood Resort. “Maybe we will thanks.”
“It’s only a few miles up the road now.” She added.
“Thanks.” Derrick went back to staring at the flyer. It looked like a beautiful location. But more romantic than what he really wanted.
“Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there.” Mac walked up on him.
Derrick stood there, the waitress smiling at him, and Mac looking over the flyer. “Let’s go.” He walked out the door with her trailing behind him
Hopping on his bike, he pulled onto the road, the rain was much lighter. It hadn’t stopped, but he could at least drive in this type of weather. He opened up the storage on his bike, and pulled out the extra rain protection he had. “It will be quite big on you, but you won’t be soaked any worse on the ride.”
“Thank you.” She smiled and put the gear on. She swam in it. Derrick chuckled looking at her. “You look like a little kid wearing their parent’s clothes.”
“It’s not my fault the man who rescued me is ten times taller than me.” She laughed.
Derrick laughed even harder at her comment. She was really quite small, maybe 5’ 4” tall, compared to his 6’ 4”. A foot shouldn’t seem like so much, but it was because she looked so small in his gear.
They got on the bike and drove off, without thinking his bike led the way to the resort. Why? He didn’t want it, but when she had said she always wanted to go, he had been convinced. Maybe his heart was trying to tell him something. He knew he was lonely, knew he needed human contact. But he didn’t want to take the chance again. The last one had hurt him too much.
So many people had rubbed it in his face that she had told them he was really nothing to him. That she knew she could do better, and would never be satisfied with him. Why had she said those things?
Derrick wondered sometimes if they had simply been hurting him for the two he had killed on accident. Why were people suddenly so mean to him? He knew he hadn’t grown up in the small town, but had truly felt they had accepted him as their own. It hadn’t just been her in the long run that had turned their backs on him. It had been them all, but he had to blame her and himself for that situation.
Mac saw them pull into the resort and Derrick
could hear a squeal of delight from her. She sounded like a child who had gotten a treat when they thought there was no hope. It was delightful to his ears, the sound of pure happiness.
Derrick smiled; he loved the sound of happiness. It had been entirely too long for him. He felt better about the choice instantly. Going to the office he paid and got the keys for one of the cabins.
He drove over to where the desk clerk had told him to go. As they pulled up she made the sound again. It made him warm inside to hear it. It was so honest, so truthful.
Grabbing his things off the bike, he helped her off and they went inside. He opened the door and she flew past him. “Oh my goodness, it’s beautiful.” She turned and smiled at him.
Derrick felt a warmth go through his body. It wasn’t a feeling he had in sometime. He smiled at her. The happiness he felt emanate from her body was nice.
He turned around and grabbed the bag. “You can have the bedroom, I’ll take the couch.”
“Really, you’re too big to get a good night of sleep on that small couch. I’ll sleep there.” She answered.
“Okay.” He really just wanted to take a shower, maybe start a fire, warm up a bit and get some sleep. He looked over at the firewood and decided he would start it then take a shower.
She watched him intently as he went to fixing the fire. He could feel her eyes on him. But he didn’t turn around; he could tell she wanted to find out more about him. It was like a sixth sense.
“So what is your story?” She asked him when he kept working on the fire and wouldn’t turn around.
Derrick sighed, he shoulders heaved, it wasn’t a story he wanted to share with her. But the words started to come out of him even so. He heard the story play out to her, saw the images of that night and the month after. Derrick didn’t even realize that Mac was in the room as he began to tell the story. As he kept talking it felt better though it didn’t hurt as much, giving voice to it really seemed to help. But he was scared to look at her as he told the part of the mother and child he had hit.
Derrick heard her make a small shocked sound. He felt the shame of the accident come over him again. He didn’t want to continue but did anyway, it wouldn’t stop. He just kept talking the story weaving the past to her. He didn’t look up at her when he finished, just waited for her to tell him how bad of a person he was, after all that was what everyone in town had said to him.
“It wasn’t your fault. Really, you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it.” She said.
Derrick looked up at her; Mac could clearly see the pain that haunted him from that night. He was sure that if he ever got over those deaths it would be a miracle.
“I know, but maybe had I not looked at her. Not been so enchanted by her lies, they would still be alive. Or if I hadn’t have had that one beer.” Derrick stated.
“No, things happen in life for a reason. I firmly believe that. Tim left me for a stupid reason, and it hurt. But you know what? It made me realize that I didn’t really love him. I was just settling with him, I thought he was the best I could do, that I would never find another person. She was sleeping around on you, what kind of relationship could you have?” Mac said.
“I know this, but that doesn’t make the rest of it any better, any easier. The whole town, my friends, or who I thought were my friends.” Derrick stated.
“You need to let it go, you’ll never be happy as long as your hanging on to the past. You really need to forgive yourself.” Mac said.
Derrick looked at her. “I don’t know if I can. The kid was only two; he had such a long life ahead of him.”
“What if he would have turned out to be a serial killer? You may have saved hundreds of people in the future.” Mac pointed out.
Derrick sat down, he had never really thought of it that way. It was too hard to consider such a young kid turning out so bad. But he guessed it might have happened.
“Really you should consider just letting go of the pain. You can still feel bad about what happened, but that doesn’t mean that you have to feel the guilt every day.”
Derrick listened to her. Maybe she was right. But how could this young girl who had just recently been thrown out of a car by a man she had wanted to marry be so positive? He found it hard to imagine that she would have thought so positive about life.
“How do I move past it?” He asked, not waiting for her to answer, he got up and headed off to take a shower. He had spied a look at her face and could tell that she had been thinking of other things, not his situation, but perhaps her own.
As Derrick walked away he didn’t notice Mac and the look on her face, it was one of sadness, like her world was crashing down on her. She had to chuckle really, like her world was crashing down, she thought? No, the fact was that her world had crashed around her feet, and quite quickly.
She thought back to the moments before she had first been in the pouring rain on the side of the road. Mac had been feeling discontent for some time now with Mike. Mike Jonas, a real asshole, a guy who she swore she couldn’t live without, at least that had been before. Now she was faced with the knowledge that he hadn’t really held her heart, no, she hadn’t really loved him. She had simply been afraid of being alone. She thought about Derrick, she had always fallen quick and hard for men in the past. Derrick was a nice looking man, tall, muscular, his dark brown hair was cut in a neat tight style. He wasn’t the type of man that you would think road a motorcycle. He honestly looked more like a business man, well the leather chaps he had been wearing when they first met were not what a business person would wear. But once they had gotten into the room, or actually cabin, he had taken those off, and it transformed him quite a bit.
Mac heard the shower turn on in the other room, and wanted to get up and sneak a peek at Derrick. She was almost positive that the body under his close was well put together. With tight muscles, maybe a bit of fat, but nothing much, you know that little pouch that some men get that eat a bit more than they should. Mac let her mind slip to other parts of Derrick’s body quickly. She blushed a bright red quickly. With a sharp intake of breath, she focused on the fire once again.
Mike, how would she live without him? She really had very little money, and couldn’t indefinitely go on the road with a man, especially one she didn’t even know.
Mac heard the shower go off and turned to the fire, she didn’t even have clothes to change into if she took a shower. But she desperately could use the warm water to wash over her chilled body. The fire helped a bit, but as her situation hit her harder, she realized Mike would destroy all of her things. So even if she could talk Derrick into going to their old place, she wouldn’t be able to save anything.
Derrick walked out, his hair a mess, no shirt covering his upper body; some tight jeans on his lower half. He was a very nice looking man. “Hey I know you don’t have anything to wear, but here is a shirt that you can wear. Why don’t you go warm up in the shower, after that the fire will be able to full get rid of the chill from the rain.”
Mac smiled, got up and grabbed the shirt. Her fingers lightly touched his as she grabbed the shirt. She felt a sharp electric jolt. Mac turned red, as the memory of what she had thought about a few minutes ago came back to her mind.
Turning on the water, she stepped under the warm stream; it washed over her, cleansing her mind and body. Derrick had left his shampoo and body washes in the bathroom for her to use. She inhaled the scents as she washed her body. Mac wished that she could stop falling for men so quickly. But she felt her body react to the thought of the man who was in the other room, probably lying in front of the fire with no shirt on.
Derrick sat by the fire, the warmth felt much better now that he was clean. He thought back to what Mac had said about moving on, he knew he would have too. But, the pain she had caused with her betrayal. She had been his first and only serious relationship. He had given her everything. Why? He felt so stupid right now. The shame of knowing the whole town had seen her with the other men. The fact he had been blind t
o it. Worse yet the fact that the accident was something he would have to always live with.
He heard a noise and looked up, there was Mac. Her brown hair flowing around her shoulders, the shirt coming just above her knees, she looked beautiful. Derrick knew it had been a long time since he had human contact, more than three years now, and his body came alive without much thought.
He tried to quickly think of anything else but how she looked in his shirt, but his mind wouldn’t let him move past it. His body continued to react; he adjusted himself to make it less obvious that he really enjoyed what he saw. This was not the type of night he wanted to have. Sure sex was just that, but he knew that this girl was fragile, she was off limits.
Shortly after she got out, he made a quick excuse and went to the bedroom. No better way to avoid a mistake than simply heading to bed. Mac watched him walk away, Derrick saw a bit of disappointment in her eyes, or maybe it was just wishful thinking on his part. What guy wouldn’t like a girl to want to make love to them so bad they would throw themselves at him? But Derrick really wasn’t like this; instead he would like to know a female first. Strike that Derrick thought I never want to be in love again. As he tried to force himself to sleep his mind was trying to talk him into going to her and taking what he wanted, even if he had to lie to get it. Derrick instead forced his body to stay, and eventually he slept.
The next morning his nose was assaulted by the best smell he had had the pleasure to have in quite some time. He sniffed in the air, and then figured he was simply dreaming. After all they didn’t have any ingredients; at least he couldn’t imagine the cabin coming fully stocked. But he swore as his body came more awake that he could hear the bacon sizzling, and smell the fat of the meat that was one of his favorites. There was also the smell of eggs, pancakes, toast, and coffee.
He walked out to the kitchen to find it wasn’t a dream. “It smells great!” He said, scaring Mac.
“Oh my goodness.” She screamed and jumped in the air. “I didn’t hear you.”