Yours Truly

18. Leave with Grace

By the time Rowan made it to the same address Sera had given him last night, Sera had worn the same short skirt from yesterday and paired it with a T-shirt from Wes' closet that he suggested she change into. It was really over-sized and long, giving away that it's a guy's T-shirt. Sera folded its hem in an attempt to make her outfit look cuter, she wore her jacket, put on some lipstick and blush that were already in her bag, fluffed her hair, and was ready to go.

She said goodbye to Wessy and rushed outside in a hurry.

Forest man was waiting patiently in his car, his windows rolled down. Sera's lips turned upwards at the sight of his head turned away from her, obviously lost in thought, and she jogged to the car like she always did.

"Hi." She said, getting comfortable in her seat and then facing him.

"Hi." He turned toward her, his voice was quiet.

His voice was always quiet but right now it was tired, almost sad.

Sera promised herself that she wasn't going to keep nagging him and ask him if he was okay. She felt annoying enough without doing so.

"Where are we going?" She asked, trying to avert the conversation from anything that might be embarrassing.

"Are you hungry?" He started driving somewhere, not really looking at her at all.

"No, are you?" She avoided looking at him, too.

Why was he acting this way?
I might be just imagining it.

"Coffee?" He suggested.

"Sure."

They stopped at a red light, and Sera felt his stare on the back of her head as she looked out the window. When he didn't look away, she decided to turn around and look at him.

She couldn't see his eyes because of the sunglasses but his face was blank. He had one hand on the steering wheel, the other resting on his thigh. Was he looking at her? Or behind her?

Sera raised her brows in question.

"Did you change your shirt?" His voice was quiet, deadly. The kind of tone she was familiar with from hearing him use it with people at work whom he wasn't too pleased with.

"Yeah?" She looked down at it, confused.

"Who's shirt is that?" The light was green again, and he started driving, eyes on the road instead of her.

"Wes gave it to me since I didn't have any clothes." She explained, a moment of silence followed as Rowan just kept his eyes on the road, his jaw tense.

Sera laughed lightly at him, still staring at his side profile unbelievingly. She was trying not to annoy him but this went south really quick.

"Rowan, what's with you?" She asked finally.

"I'd rather not talk about it right now." He mumbled after a while.

"When, then?"

"When I fucking feel like talking about it."

"What's your problem?" Sera was done by now, her patience ran thin with him.

Rowan went silent, and Sera would be lying if she said that she wasn't scared. He felt like a ticking time bomb that's bound to explode any minute now. His expression was hard, his jaw tense, and his hand was gripping the steering wheel tightly.

"Why did you agree to hang out if you're just gonna act like this?" She was angry, almost as angry as she was last night and she felt tears prick her eyes again.