Getting Some Where?

I didn't even think about what she was saying, all I saw was her hand on the door and I was upset. How could she even be thinking about going when there was so much more I wanted to say to her? We hadn't talked about anything really, we just touched on the surface of what was happening with us. "Where are you going?"

"Huh?" She looked confused. "What does that have to do with what I just told you?"

I nodded towards the door, "Where are you going? I thought we were going to have a serious talk?"

"We are," she reassured me. "I just thought that I should go turn off my car." She opened the door, "I'll be right back."

In the rear view mirror, I watched her slip slide across to her car and open the door. While she was gone, I thought about what she said - how she lived on her own until her father died. I didn't know that. I started to wonder why I didn't know that when I realized that I didn't take the time to really talk to her before - I was more interested in getting into her pants, if I were to be honest. Although, I don't see what's wrong with that. Sure, I wanted to get into her pants but I do care about her. Hell, if I didn't, I wouldn't have bothered her after she blew me off the first time.

She was taking a while, I glanced in the rear view mirror again, only to see that her car was still going and she was sitting in there. What the fuck? I slipped my car into reverse, spinning my tires as I backed up to where she was parked. She did a double take and then with an amused look upon her face, she lowered the window on the passenger side while I rolled down my window.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I leaned towards my opened window. She held up her finger as if to say 'one moment' before turning her attention to something inside her car. When she looked up again, I asked her what she was doing again.

"Oh," she smiled sheepishly. "I love the song that was playing - I just had to listen to it." She reached for her keys, paused and then turned towards me again. "Listen, I was thinking..." she brushed her bangs back from her face and with a smile, she asked me if we could go to my parents house. "I just don't want to sit around the parking lot all day."

I, of course, agreed.

We pulled up to my parents' place a few minutes later. I killed the engine and jumped out of my car to make my wait towards Sara as she came walking up the drive. "Hey," she smiled at me. "Wanna go in..." she trailed off as her eyes focused on something over my shoulder.

Turning slowly, I was surprised to see Luke in Claire's driveway with a shovel in his hands - he was cursing up a storm. "Hey man, do you know what you are doing with that shovel?"

Luke flipped me off as he looked up. "Fucking woman decided that she needed her driveway shovelled before she let me in this morning," he came over to where we were. "What do I look like? The fucking servant boy?"

"Well..." Luke shot Sara a dirty look when she laughed.

"It's not funny," he snapped. "I didn't come over here to shovel the damn drive!" Turning to me, he asked me to grab my dad's shovel and help him. "I haven't see you in forever man, help a friend out."

Before I could even think about answering, Sara cozied up to me. "Sorry Luke, Tanner has other things he has to do this morning."

Without missing a beat, Luke grinned, "Trade with me?"

"Fuck no!" I slipped my arm around Sara's waist. "Come on Sara, let's go inside." We moved forward, Luke told me I wasn't being fair and I told him I didn't care and I didn't share.

Sara was laughing as we entered the house, I asked her what was so funny and she told me that Luke may be bitching about the shovelling now but he wouldn't be after he was done. I asked her what she meant and she smiled, "Claire will make it worth his wild. She always had a thing for guy's doing physical things - sports, yard work, anything really that involves lots of effort and sweating."

I thought about the first time I spoke to Claire, the day that I was mowing my parents' yard and she asked me to do hers. "How do you know that?"

"We used to be friends," she said nonchalantly.

"You what?"

"We used to be friends," she repeated.

"What? When? You two can't even stand each other!"

"Well," she removed her gloves. "Claire and I used to hang out with the same crowd - she used to date a friend of mine - they broke up but we had become friends so I still talked to her. But then I met Ken, she hated him from the start. One day she came to me and told me that he was hitting on her when I wasn't around, I didn't believe her and I told her that. We got into a huge fight and stopped talking."

I took her coat when she removed it, I hung it up and removed mine before I turned to her. "Why is it that I don't know these things about you?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "You never asked?" She wandered off towards the living room, leaving me to follow. "It's not like I was trying to keep anything from you Tanner."

I was starting to figure that out.

She sat down on the couch. "I guess I never offered that information before because I was told that I ramble on when I should just shut up."

"Who the hell told you that?" I demanded as I sat down next to her. She gave me this look and I knew who said that bullshit to her. "Sara, I want you to forget everything that bastard ever said to you. I like it when you ramble, it's cute." She blushed. "In fact," I slid closer to her, she had to tilt her head back in order to look up at me. "I would love it if you did so right now."

"Really?" She raised a brow. "What should I ramble about?"

"Hmmm," I smiled down at her. "Why don't you ramble on about why you couldn't stay those mornings?"

She took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. "Well, I really, really wanted to stay but the first time my aunt, my mom's oldest sister was coming to town for a visit and I had to help mom with a bunch of cleaning before she got here. The second time was because my aunt was leaving that morning and my mom was going with her."

"Oh." Those were pretty good reasons to go home. "You wanted me to go with you?"

She nodded, "My aunt wanted to meet you. I...umm..." she blushed. "I kinda told her about you."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. I should've told you why I wanted you to come with me but," she shrugged. "I guess I got caught up in the fact that you seemed adamant not to go with me, I didn't think about being reasonable." She sighed, "I'm sorry Tanner, I knew the difference but when you said no, I flashed back to all the moments with Ken...he refused to go to my parents place at all. He swore that my parents hated him and he wasn't about to go to their place when all they did was put him down. But they didn't Tanner, they just weren't happy that he never came over."

"I'm not him."

"You think I don't know that?" She turned to me, taking my hand in hers. "Tanner trust me, I know you aren't him and I don't mean to compare you to him either but it's hard not too. Some times I wonder..."

"You wonder what?"

"Well...some times I wonder if I moved a little too fast. If I gave myself enough time to 'get over' being treated like crap by the bastard!"

I tried really hard but I couldn't stop from laughing. "You called him the Bastard!"

"Yeah," she smiled. "He is a bastard, he treated me like crap and I didn't deserve it."

"No Sara, you didn't deserve what he did to you; no one does."

"Yeah," she brought our hands up to her face - she kissed the back of my hand. "I really like you Tanner, you are so good to me and you are a nice guy but..."

"But?" I sat up straight, this sinking feeling in my gut. "Why do I think I'm not going to like what you are going to say?"

"I really like you Tanner," she repeated. "But I keep screwing up. I don't want to but I do. It's like I let you in but not completely because I don't want to be hurt."

"I can't promise I won't do something stupid Sara but I don't mean to hurt you."

"I know but...it's just that..." She looked so helpless and so alone as she let go of my hand and hugged herself. "Maybe I'm afraid of needing you too much."