Vincent had his headlights off when he rolled into my driveway.

The silver hatchback crawled into the tiny space behind Nancy and Tìa's almost silently. I had only known he arrived because I was staring out my window in anticipation.

I answered my phone on the first ring, the blue light casting my room in a faint, fuzzy glow. His voice was nearly a whisper when he said he was outside.

"Be there in a second," I replied.

My thoughts were hanging above me like candle smoke. The hours of not speaking accompanied by the fatigue sinking into my bones were taking a toll on me.

I had been waiting for his arrival in darkness. I had turned out my lights hours ago so my family would think I was asleep. My eyes had adjusted, making it easier to navigate through the shadows of my room.

After the confrontation, I had gone the rest of the day without speaking to anyone. It meant not eating with them and limiting my bathroom visits to only a well timed few. I hated that I let my family make me a stranger in my own home but I couldn't bear the thought of being in the same room with any of them again.

They had threatened me. All of them ganged up on me. They had shown me that they didn't trust me but that was okay because I didn't trust them either.

I slipped on my sneakers, wishing I could see my reflection in the mirror before heading out. I had chosen to wear dark colors, paranoid that I would be caught sneaking out if I didn't take every possible precaution.

I wore yoga pants that flare out at the ends and the gray sweatshirt Julio had gotten me from my birthday. It would be the coziest Vincent had ever seen me but it was fitting for the time of day.

I tiptoed out my bedroom, pausing after I closed the door behind me to listen for any stirring. When I heard nothing, I scurried past Nancy and Julio's room.

With a house as old as ours, it was less noisy to glide over the floorboards than let your weight sink into it. Luckily, many nightly trips to get a drink of water had taught me to monitor my footsteps. With a figure like Nancy and I had, curvy and full at the hips and thighs, one could hear us coming several feet away. I hoped I had found a way around that by rushing my steps.

My aunt and uncle's room was directly beside the landing of the stairs. I gripped the banister tightly as I descended. I tried to make each step light and tiny, telling myself that if I made too big of a noise I would have to simply run for it. The whole time I thought about the threat they had made.

Take a step out of that door and see what happens.

No te atreves.

When I made it to the door, my muscles began to unwind. I locked the door behind me despite how the keys jingled in the lock. I might have not been on good terms with everyone but I wasn't going to leave them vulnerable.

I jogged over to the car and pulled the door open. Vincent began to drive away the second my butt touched the passenger seat.

It smelled delicious inside, like coconut and pineapples. There was a tree shaped car freshener dangling from the rearview mirror that I assumed the smell came from but it was so strong it could have been coming from Vincent.

It didn't surprise me how tidy he kept his car. In my aunt's, there was always an empty bottle of juice in the cupholder or crumpled up tissues somewhere at our feet. Vincent, however, kept the inside of his car spotless. His cup holders were devoid of any empty bottles and didn't look sticky or filled with crumbs. The passenger seat was up in its straightest position and I guessed that if I opened the glove compartment, I would find its contents organized in alphabetical order.

We drove down the desolate roads of the suburbs, bathed in the blue of the night. Vincent gave me a once over, his grip on the wheel tightening.

"Are you doing alright?"

It was the first thing he had said since I stepped inside.  

I hadn't realized it but when I buckled my seat belt, I had never let go of the strap. I was clinging onto it so tightly my knuckles were white. I dropped my hands into my lap. Then I brought them up to my ponytail. Then I dropped them again.

The truth was, I wasn't alright.

I was thinking about a lot of things, too many things, all at once. I was thinking about what had happened with my family earlier in the day, the phone call, the picture sent to me of my own bedroom, what Darren would think if he knew I was in a car alone with Vincent, how I would sneak back home quietly.

I was a wreck.

"What was going on that day? When you ran into me and then got Kimberly and I ice cream?" I asked, deciding that maybe having some answers would cure my nerves. We had to make up for the missed time created by my sudden sickness. "Was someone following me?"

There was a hum in the air that was punctuated by his lack of response. I waited as he kept his eyes trained on the road. A green vein was pulsing in his throat.

"I was following you." He paused and I fought the urge to grab him by the collar and shake the rest of his answer out of him. It reminded me that I had forgotten to give him the leather jacket he lent back to him. That felt like my least concern at the moment.

I stared at the toes of my sneakers.

I knew he was following me. It was obvious. Somehow, the answer still frightened me. I glanced out the window, at all the houses with their lights turned out, all the streets empty of any signs of life. It was like the suburbs were one giant, living organism that had shut its eyes for the night. If something happened to me, it would never know.

"I was following you because there was word at the station that some people known to be working in the drug trafficking operation were spotted not too far from here." His hair fell onto his forehead, probably disheveled from a whole day of work. I noticed that his button up was wrinkled and his tie was crooked.  This was Vincent after hours and it felt wrong to see him this way.

"I had only wanted to stop by your place and see if you were alright. Just to give me some peace of mind," he said, his voice catching a defensive edge. 

"You followed me from my house?" I tried not to sound horrified.

"It wasn't my intention but while I was driving by I saw someone parked across the street staring at your house. When you left they started following you and so I followed to make sure nothing would happen."

I pictured it in my head. Someone reclined in their car, a description of me and their task given to them by someone behind the curtain. They had a gun tucked in their pants. Maybe some rope in their trunk. They were crossing their fingers, hoping I'd make their job easier by walking myself down a lonely street in the night hours.

"When you went into the restaurant," Vincent said, "I saw there were two people in the car. They waited for you to come out and then one of them left their vehicle. He was heading straight towards you."

"You beat him there?"

Vincent stopped at a red light. When he looked at me, I saw the glimmer of the man he had been when we were out having ice cream, reassuring and kind.

"Yes. I didn't leave your side until I was certain they were gone." He emphasized these words, urging me to believe them though I had not hinted that I doubted them. Knowing that he was such a principled person, I figured he wasn’t stressing this because he wanted to look good but because he wanted to have my trust. The only way this partnership would work was if we had trust.

I needed to stop letting my paranoia make me question Vincent. He had never given me a true reason to doubt him.

“While I stayed with you and Kimberly, Mac and some other officers were able to find the two guys."

"Were they part of the drug trafficking operation?”

He snuffed out the ember of hope before it could turn into a flame.

"Yes but they aren't talking."

I sighed. There was so much we could have learned if they had. They might have known why those men had gone after Adonis at the wedding. They could have known who was behind the operation and perhaps clear my family and Adonis for good.

Worries filled my head faster than I could catalog them.

"What if they blew your cover to their boss? What if that's why the person who called me was acting suspicious of you?"

"I never dealt with them. I only heard how their interrogation went since they may have to be released."

My stomach flipped as we zoomed over a speed bump. The word almost caught in my throat. "Released?"

"They are suspected to be part of the drug trafficking operation but nothing we have will stick."

I let the news melt on my tongue and create a bitter taste. If they were released, what stopped them from coming straight for me again? If Vincent had been the one to rescue me a few days ago and not my anonymous protection, then maybe these guys were good at their job. Vincent had only stopped them by chance.

I traced the cool metal of the ladybug pendant. Ironically, though it had been a gift from Adonis and held a picture of my mother, my fear of Nancy and Darren reading the letter that came with it made me think about them whenever I wore it.

Darren. I recalled how he had joked with me in the car, pretending to lose control of his vehicle right after discussing two mysterious hit and runs that had killed his mother and coworker. The action was such a clear sign of his innocence in my book. Darren was harmless but I wasn’t sure if Vincent knew that.

"Are you still suspicious of Darren?"

The light from a nearby lamppost illuminated Vincent’s wrinkled nose. "I never said I was."

"You didn't have to."

"I'm only trying to figure out who's behind this. The sooner I do, the safer you become."

I leaned closer to him and the smell of coconut and pineapples grew stronger. "You don't think it was Adonis anymore?"

He gave a side glance, reluctant to say anything. He was being stubborn but I knew what the guarded expression meant.

I had done it. I had convinced someone that Adonis was innocent. It was enough to part the clouds and give me a burst of sunshine amidst an otherwise vigorous storm.

I checked the time on the center console, reading that we had been driving for nearly twenty minutes. Vincent had never elaborated on what we were going to do once he snuck me out of the house and I had been too caught up to ask.

“Where are we going?"

"To Mac and his girlfriend’s apartment," he said, tapping a beat on the steering wheel. "Then to do the most nerdiest thing you've probably ever done in your life."

Author's Note: Are you enjoying the story? Let me know in the comments!