CHAPTER FOUR: SHARKS

Thunderstorms are as much our friends as the sunshine.
-Criss Jami

Demetrius is a really calm, adorable kind of human.

Sometimes I've been told that my personality is too big for my body or that I'm bigger than life, and I kind of get it.

Honesty, with the confidence and honest-tendencies I have even when living in this economy I should be a beefy nine foot republican who's not afraid to fight god.

If anything, instead of minding this particular trait of mine Demy actually likes it.

He says it's good to be friends with someone who unabashedly speaks their mind, even if it's a potentially embarrassing compliment or something people don't talk about often.

Personally, I think it's better to say what you think and compliment people rather than keep your mind a secret and only share insults and criticism.

We're humans, not machines, we need compliments and love to thrive.

By the time I was ten, every single one of my siblings had found at least one of their soulmates, if not their world.

See in my family soulmates are people you were always supposed to meet, the people you know your life would be different- -in a bad way- -without. While the world, your other half, that's the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, usually in a completely romantic way.

At this point, eight years later, I finally found one of my soulmates.

Demetrius Bonnes.

Yes, Jae is my best friend and she's a major part of my life, but without her at my side I am still capable of being myself. I would still be me, without her. I can imagine us in a world where we're strangers, after a big fight or just drifting apart.

With Demy, I'm not willing to let him go.

That doesn't mean he's more important to me than Jae, I love Jae and she's my best friend, but I'm not sure if she's one of my soul mates.

The problem with this conclusion is that I don't know what kind of soulmate Demetrius is to me. He's definitely not just my friend, something my own mother noted on, and making him my best friend feels nothing like being best friends with Jaelynn.

Figuring it out can wait until later.

I'm content being confused for now.

Because now, I'm sitting in the mechanic's truck and able to rant about anything- -anything, even why I think he's cute today, or what I think about aliens, or how annoying it would be to be set on fire- -and he will listen to me.

He says because my voice has a rasp to it, one that makes it seem less soft but more distinguishable, he likes it more than others.

While I talk, he just listens and occasionally gives input to me -while I'm okay being burned like a witch, he'd rather drown.

I told Demetrius that he likes the water too much and he just laughed.

Thus, a great pair was made.

While he took the time to pull off the highway and find a gas station to stop at, I booked us a room for at a hotel that had good reviews- -and a pool because Demy likes swimming- -that's a halfway point so we only have to drive three more hours before getting to Jae's, rather than the eleven hour drive.

Sending the information to my dad- -who Demetrius actually likes more than my mom for some god damn reason- -I tell Demy I got the room, who just nods.

"We have to get some mango gum." I say, tilting my head at him and pointing to a Speedway.

"Gummy sharks." Demetrius nods, flicking on the blinker. "I'll pay."

"Oh, you're going in with me? Let's go commit arson!"

Fire isn't something I necessarily hate.

Shaking his head at me, he just turns into the parking lot and sighs, parking and finally turning to me with the keys in hand all while I grin at him. "No infractions, felonies, or misdemeanors."

Geez, what a wet fucking blanket.

"If you insist." My grin doesn't even fade, all because soon Demetrius is rolling his eyes at me and unable to stop himself from smiling back. "Aw, look at you," I coo. "Such a cutie."

Groaning and turning away from me, Demetrius pulls his hat down to hide further. Without much forethought, I snatch his hat and pull it onto my own head with a sly wink in his direction.

Not letting him try to snatch it back, I just grab my purse and jump out of the truck.

I watch him sigh through the windshield, running a hand through his hair before following suit and locking the truck behind him.

It's almost funny the shit he lets me get away with just because he's awkwardly insecure while simultaneously being okay with me calling him cute.

"Your hair!" Exclaiming this, I try not to giggle aloud at the instantly messy way his hair seemed to rise up and make a bird's nest on his head. "So fluffy and cute."

"Annoying." Demetrius corrects me, hand still trying to fix his hair. "Hat?"

"Nope, mine now! You can have it back when we get to Jae's."

In other words, I'm forcing him to be conditioned to be comfortable around me while still not passing a boundary and making him uncomfortable around people he doesn't know.

And I'm completely okay being annoying.

Demetrius just shrugs, "Or I get my other one."

"I'll take that one too and stack them like pancakes." I threaten.

Walking close enough to bump me and make me stumble, Demetrius laughs out a "Yeah, okay." and lets me grab onto his arm and walk side by side, not bumping me again.

"So, why gummy sharks instead of gummy worms?" Asking this, I dunk under the door he opens for me and watch amusedly as he shivers at the warm gust of wind that doesn't affect me at all.

"Less chewy." He explains. "It was something me and Riggs could get everywhere and get it cheap, too. We had to travel far to get from house to house and not all the time could we be together, it's hard to keep even siblings together in the system, let alone friends. So we'd have these in our bags and give them to each other when we could, saying, I got these from Monty or wherever I was last. And he'd always reply, Really? I got mine from San Kilbea. Familiar. Tasty."

"San Kilbea is where my siblings live! Well most of them." And that is completely off topic for a really adorable personal story I was just told. "Oops, um, that's a cute story. Sorry I got sidetracked. I think it's really good that you guys found a way to connect like that, even when it was hard. Tell me you at least eat them head-first."

"It's okay." Giving me a small smile, Demetrius bumps me again. "I know how your brain works by now and trust me, my brain would jump around just like that if I didn't take my medicine. Yes, head first. Humane way to eat gummy sharks."

"Ha! I love that I'm you, but without medication." If I need medication I think it's much too late for me to actually care or to change anything. "Is that bad? I don't know if that's bad but even if it is, hell, that's funny."

"Not bad." A light tapping on my wrist, that I barely comprehend before I open my hand for him to hold, doesn't give me much pause and I keep walking right towards the candy and gum. "Can I ask something?"

Giggling at him, I swing our conjoined hands around, grabbing mango gum to wiggle at him. "Course!"

"If... the boyfriend dude does anything," I notice Demetrius snag a bag of gummy sharks from the shelf as we walk past, making me smile despite the probably impending uncomfortable conversation. "Do you want me to intervene? I know you can handle yourself, but I need to know before we get into the situation."

Honestly all I heard was 'something, something, something, you can handle yourself, something, something.'

All I know is that Demetrius is talking more in this moment than I've ever heard him and his voice is a really attractive voice and I've gotten so used to the over pronunciation of his words that other people are starting to sound weird.

"I like your voice!" Blurting this, I have no regard for what he thinks of me. "Also, I have absolutely no idea what you just said."

Am I blushing?

No, pfft, of course not, I don't simp over a fucking voice.

"Are you sure you're not the one with hearing problems?" Demetrius laughs, and that's cute too. "I asked what you want me to do if her boyfriend does anything?"

"Um...I don't know, I don't feel like making you get that involved in my best friend's problems is okay." I admit honestly. "And I doubt he'll do anything while we're there. We might argue a bit, and he might yell at me, but I don't want you to argue back and then get them both mad or something."

Pausing the conversation to pay, I wait for Demetrius to reply as he doesn't have to hear, but just pay.

"I'm not going to let him yell at you," He doesn't exactly sound happy while saying this either. "Jae shouldn't let him do that, either, Eris. Her problems, your problems, my problems. It's okay to lean."

Knocking into me once again causes me to get revenge by grabbing the bag- -he likes to carry things for me- -and pull him towards the door. "I'll just cut him off before a real argument starts. I know how to walk away. You don't like talking, I'm not gonna ask you to pointlessly defend an argument to a guy you don't even know."

"Fair." The mechanic hums in reply, hand moving down to grab mine again. "Can I step in if he tries to stop you from walking away?"

"Dude," I laugh. "If he tries to stop me from walking away he'll be on the floor before you can reach us."

This wasn't a lie, self-defense is probably one of the first good things I ever learned how to do with my body other than kick a ball.

"Not step in to get him away from you, I know you're capable of doing that yourself, I meant to calm you down or make you feel better. You don't like arguing, or making Jae upset."

"Oh...I didn't think about that." God, I love it when I take words out of context and make a conversation twice as long. Speaking of long, I once again have to take in the distance between the seat and the ground when I open the truck door. "Yeah, that'd be nice. But again, I doubt he'll actually do anything. I'm more worried if his friends go over, or if Jae wants to go out drinking or something."

"Often?" Demetrius questions.

"Often enough when she was home." Shrugging, I look away from his eyes. It's hard not to be completely honest when I'm making eye contact. "She just wants to experience everything at least once, I dunno, just that kind of person. But I babysit the group when that happens and um... I guess, I don't know. Guys are dumb, especially when they're drunk and like, twice my size. I told her we're coming down though! She said it will be a 'calm weekend'."

"Guys are always dumb." Demetrius says and I believe him because, well, he is one. "I'll babysit with you? Allowed?"

"Yeah, if that is what happens, I'm not opposed to him." I raise my head and smile again. This weekend I doubt she'll go out drinking, especially because I missed coming over last weekend. Still, I'd be lying if I said being around Warren doesn't make me uncomfortable. "Wanna help me up, tall man, or am I just stuck down here?"

He shakes his head, sending me a small smile back. "Is that a topic change?"

"Yes and it's also me wanting to get into your fucking massive truck."

Then, without much to warrant it, Demetrius looks me up and down, starts to smirk and grips my hand tighter.

Narrowing my eyes, I take a small step back against the truck side. "Don't look at me like that, Demy."

"Hat for help."

"Not fair!" I gasp out, a hand flying up to grip the hat. This rat bastard! "You can't use the fact that I'm vertically challenged against me!"

His smirk widens more but he obviously doesn't do it much and isn't a big enough asshole to be a naturally good smirker, because it looks more like a smile than an actual smirk.

"Why not?"

"It's against the tall people rules or something." Whining this, I think it becomes clear my argument is rather weak as I lightly kick his foot before remembering I'm supposed to stay a safe distance away. "How about you let me keep wearing this and see your fluffy hair and I won't call you cute while introducing you to Jae."

For the look on his face it's safe to say I know how threats work too.

"Doesn't seem fair," Demetrius says, still holding out his hand for me to take. "But deal."

"Great!" I chirp, taking his hand and shaking it more excitedly than I should have. And how I know this is because when Demetrius mimics my movement my entire body literally is shook too. Fucking giant. "Help me up now, tall one."

He agrees and picks me up, one arm around my waist and the other on my thighs so he can drop me playfully and safely onto the leather seat.

Giggling rather loudly, not bothering to quiet myself down, I hear my door close and the mechanic scoff as he climbs in and still finds me laughing.

It's his fault so the least he could do is laugh too.

After the five hour drive before this stop, and the three hour one to the hotel, I know we're both going to be tired and giggly at the end of the night.

For the next three hours, while Demetrius completely vibes out to some loud ass music with a deep bass, I actually find it in myself to sleep in the backseat of the truck.

Growing up in such a chaotic house made it damn near impossible for me to lose a night of sleep over music alone, and once I had my own earbuds in playing a true crime podcast and one of Demetrius's giant ass sweatshirts on with the hood used for a pillow, I proved that quite easily.

Waking up, surprisingly, was much harder than falling asleep.

But Demetrius saying "Eris." in such an obviously exasperated yet cute way is apparently, a better alarm clock than the one on my phone.

"Fuck." I say to myself, rubbing at my as I sit up, noticing that he unbuckled me -probably having brought our bags inside already. "Are you okay still, Demy? Your tired voice is cute."

"I can't hear you." He grumbles, squinting at me.

"Yeah," I grin. "But you can read lips."

"I wasn't looking," Yawning, he runs a hand through his hair, leaning against the truck's door. "I didn't think you were awake yet. What'd you say?"

"First, I asked if you were okay. Second, I was saying how your tired voice is really cute, so it's a shame you're deaf at the moment."

"At least I can see," He says. "And what I'm looking at is good enough to make up for the hearing loss."

Winking at the very awkward boy's accidental flirting, simply because he's way too socially nervous to actually flirt, my grin widens and I wiggle my eyebrows at him. "Are you saying I'm hot?"

Bless this poor boy- -man?- -because he just flushes and proceeds to pull his own hat down over my eyes, wrapping his arm around my hips only to throw me over his shoulder.

"I'm saying you're not ugly like Riggs." I hear him mumble, making me laugh.

He only picked me up because there's literally no way for me to communicate with him at the moment, and he has to wait for him to get my little quips and blush-causing honesty until tomorrow.

Deaf prick.

Doing one of the signs I can manage to actually show him at the moment, I wave one of my hands instead of holding onto his chest for stability, and sign, "I love you." before giving him a thumbs up.

Demetrius stumbles in his step, making me laugh again.

Honesty's not a crime and he's quickly become someone I care about, when I love someone I'm not shy about it.

Putting me down when we get to the front desk, probably so it doesn't look like he's kidnapping me, Demetrius pointedly keeping me walking in front of him and his eyes on the door numbers.

And he is so red.

"There's only one bed. Manager, flood, everyone moved up a floor. Is that okay? I figured... cuddles?"

Nodding, I grab onto his hand and smile when he finally meets my eye. "Cuddles!"

The tired mechanic grins and opens the door for me.

This day, however slow and non-eventful, was a good one. Lately I've been having more good ones.

Demetrius is to blame.