CARNIES! Chapter 5 (Flashback)

CHAPTER FIVE

I saw Tony as he started to step closer, and a flashback engulfed my mind.
Tony meeting me for the first time.

---1 year ago---

I stood there, cold in the winter air. I was waiting for the neighbor to pick me up from school. Dad had just enforced a new rule that didn’t let me ride the bus. School closed right after the buses left, so I was left there, shivering in the cold.
I had my arms around me, trying to stay warm and failing. When I moved my fingers, they hurt, like shards of ice were piercing them.
A guy walked up, smoking a cigarette, wearing a thin jacket. Dumb ass, I’d thought. He nodded to me when he walked past, and continued to the parking lot. He turned, watching me, walking backwards, still smoking the cigarette, until he reached his battered car.
He got in, started it up, and stopped right beside me.
"D’ya need a ride?" he asked over the noise of the car.
I stood there, shaking in my boots, for all of ten seconds until my survival instinct kicked in and I nodded rigidly. He waved me in and I sank down into the low car, heat engulfing me.

I didn’t say anything until I got feeling in my bones again.
"Thanks." I said. He looked over to me while driving and smiled.
"You’re welcome."
I snuggled up in the car, way more comfortable around him than I’d been in a while.
"Where do you live?"
"Right up the road, near that gas station near the skating rink."
"Oh. OK. I have somewhere to stop first. Is that OK?"
"Yeah. You gave me the ride, after all."
"Cool." He said and turned at the next four-way.
He pulled up to an abandoned looking warehouse that I hadn’t seen before.
"I’ll be right back. Stay here." He said and got out of the car. He left it running, heat blasting.
I stayed in there for about two minutes before taking the keys out of the car and leaping out into the cold air.

I walked around the building where I’d seen him enter, and he was walking back. He saw me, and his eyes widened in surprise. He jogged up to meet me.
"What are you doing?" he asked, but didn’t snap like I’d thought he would.
"I was…" I had no idea why I’d followed him. He nodded, like he knew what I was thinking, and lit up another cigarette.
"You shouldn’t do that," I said, nodding to his lighter and the pack in his hands.
He looked at me, shocked that I said something so forward, and let smoke out of his mouth, sighing.
"Whatever." He said. He hopped into the car, waiting for me and the keys. I handed them to him when I got in. "Thanks." He said, and the car added a low rumble to the silence.
He dropped me off right in front of the house. He waved goodbye, and I kind-of stared after him.
That week we continued the ritual. With the warehouse, but without me following him.
Soon he actually asked me to come with him.