My Life Of Evasion

6. It's Not That I'm Immature...It's Just That You Started It!

Chapter 6

It's Not That I'm Immature...It's Just That You Started It!

You know those awkward car rides where only one person is usually talking?  Usually that person is trying to get the other people in said car to talk or at least comment on what he or she is saying.  Just to get a word out of them is the goal.

Well, that's what Max was doing as we drove home later that night. 

But it totally wasn't working.

With Ben and Drew sitting in the back, Sophie squished in between them.  She didn't look too excited about it either.  They were looking at her like she was going to jump up and attack someone like she was a wild animal.  In turn, she was looking at the two of them like they were the Plague.

And I wasn't trying very hard to try and hide my smile at her discomfort. 

"It's just crazy to think about your dad being the one finding all of this out," Max said, obviously to Sophie, even though we were all listening, too.  "And to know that you knew about it and didn't even mention it when we..."

"I couldn't," Sophie said from the back.  "It was a matter of international security."

"But still.  We deal with things pertaining to international security all the time."

"And we break into places," Ben said. 

"And you can't forget running from crazy people with guns either," Drew pointed out. 

I smirked, rolling my eyes as I looked over at Max.  Even though he was supposed to be focusing on driving, especially since it had started snowing again, it looked like he was a million miles away.  I couldn't tell just where that little world of his was, but it definitely wasn't here. 

I turned my head slightly so that I could look back at Sophie out of the corner of my eye.  Her eyes were focused directly on me, like they had been for most of the night.  Sure, when she'd been speaking to someone else directly, she would have been looking at them.  But otherwise, it was always me.

If you asked me, it was kind of creepy.

She could have been plotting a way to kill me or something. 

That, or she was just curious.

About what, though, I had no clue.  I mean, I wasn't that interesting. 

"So you two have a house together?" Sophie asked.  She obviously was talking to Max and I.  I didn't say anything and just let Max continue doing the talking like he's been for the past few minutes that we'd been driving. 

"Yes," Max said, looking back at her in the rearview mirror.  "We've only been in it for about a month now since it was finished, but it's like we've been there for years."

Ben snorted back.  "That's because everything in it is centuries old."

"I noticed that with your parents' house, Callie," Sophie said to me.  "Were all of the artifacts in there found by you on your expeditions?"

Oh, God.  She was talking directly to me.  I actually think that it was the first time all night that she was.  Mostly she'd just looked at me, but now it was actually words she was throwing at me.

At least it wasn't daggers.

Or bullets.  Bullets would probably hurt worse.

"Um," I said, glancing back at her just to show her that I was acknowledging her.  I didn't want her thinking that I was going to be immature and not be the bigger woman.  The current girlfriend could be civil with the ex-girlfriend, right?  And without any hair pulling?