He has rolled down the passenger seat's window and is leaning towards it. I can't see much of his expression thanks to the pouring rain but he loudly calls, "Stewart?"

I awkwardly wave at him and offer a small smile. He motions his hands towards himself.

I silently groan and get to my feet. My butt hurts and my legs are way too stiff and as I near his car, I realize I'm far past drenched. I probably look like a soaked mouse. Thank goodness I'm not wearing a white shirt.

I lean down to meet his worried dark blue eyes that appear black in this light and his wrinkled brow. "Professor."

"What were you doing?" he asks with disbelief. His left hand stays on the steering wheel and he pushes his glasses up with the other one before landing his elbow on the compartment between the passenger seat and the drivers' seat.

I glance back at where I was sitting and lift a shoulder as I turn to him. "Sitting."

He gives me an incredulous look before inhaling sharply. "Are you waiting for someone?"

I shake my head. "Not really."

"Get in the car, I'll drop you off."

"No, no, there's no need for that." I wave my hand and push aside a wet strand of hair sticking to my forehead.

"Stop being stubborn and just get inside."

"I'm really fine."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "Stewart, you'll get pneumonia and die. Will you get in the car now?"

I gape at him. Why is he being so dramatic!

I eye his car warily. And the expensive interior. "I'll ruin the cover," I mumble.

His grip tightens on the wheel. "Don't worry about that."

Hesitantly I nod. What's it with people and constantly offering me to give me a ride.

Ever since that day, I've avoided cars at all costs. It has either been walking or public transportations for me.

I gulp down the non-existent saliva in my mouth and timidly move my hand to the door handle, but the courage to even touch it vanishes.

The door clicks open and I glance up, catching a very irritated Wright watching me as pushes the door open and returns to his seat.

I inhale sharply and muster up all the courage left in me and climb in the car. I press my thighs together and keep my bag on them, making sure I take as little space as possible.

With a side glance in my way, he subtly shakes his head before pressing a few buttons and instantly warm air starts blowing and my seat warms up.

He leans into the backrest, looking straight ahead he asks, "Better?"

I nod and mumble a weak thank you, making him sigh and turn to me. "What was that?"

I shrug. "I was sitting."

"Under the freezing, pouring rain. Of course, because it's the most normal, standard thing for any college student to do."

I shift on my spot. "I like rain." Fidgeting with my fingers, I avoid looking at him directly.

He rolls his eyes and runs his hand through his hair. "Okay, your address?"

I rub my forehead and move aside the hair sticking to it. "I can't go to my apartment," I admit softly.

He frowns. "Did you actually lose your ho-"

I interrupt him, "No, no. it's just that..." my voice trails down. God, this is so stupid. "We can't open the door."

"We?" he quirks an eyebrow.

"My roommate and I," I say and he keeps staring at me with confusion. I draw a sharp breath and explain, "Actually, my roommate's boyfriend broke the key and couldn't find anyone to fix it... so we're kinda locked out."

"Broke the key?" he repeats with surprise.

"Apparently. She said half of it was in the hole." His eyes stay wide with parted lips. I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from smiling. "He's a huge guy." I motion with my hands as though trying to give a vague measurement of Jack's gigantic physique.

He chuckles, "Clearly." And drums his fingers on the steering wheel for a beat before starting the car and slowly pulling away from the sidewalk and driving down the street.

My heart hammers in my chest and instinctively I clutch the side of the seat and hold my breath. My entire body goes rigid and I force myself to breathe through my nose and out from my mouth to calm down.

Wright glances at me sideways. "You okay?"

I offer him a small yet awfully awkward smile and nod. To not appear weirder, I place my bag on the floor of the car, next to my feet.

He swerves into the main road, still driving slowly, and asks, "So, do you have any other place to go? Perhaps to your parents."

I chew my bottom lip. "No, they live on the other side, it's too far."

"I can take you there if you want."

"No, no..." I peer out the window. The buildings going by, the cars moving or stopping beside us only worsen my spiking anxiety. My fingernails dig into the leather of the seat as my gaze darts from one moving object to the other.

"Stewart," he sharply calls, startling me. I jump and face him with wide eyes. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asks with more urgency, worry smearing over his handsome features.

Vigorously I nod. "Yes."

"Are you still cold?" his hand moves to me.

I slightly cower away. "No, I'm fine." Even to my own ears, my voice sounds way too pitch to be normal and convincing. I turn and look out the window to avoid his inquisitive gaze.

He inhales sharply and I slump my shoulders, pressing my legs tighter to each other as I fight the urge of opening the door and running away.

This was a bad idea. Getting in the car was the worst thing I could have done today. I'm not ready for this.

But I stay glued to my spot.

"Any ideas where you want to spend your night?"

I try to shrug, but moving my stiff muscles are harder than I thought. "You should have left me there."

"As much as I'm all about facing existential crisis head-on, in this weather, especially in a state you were in, offering you a ride was the most logical thing to do."

"I don't have anywhere to go," I mumble, my voice wavering the slightest as I study my wet pants.

He rapidly taps his fingers on the wheel before pushing his glasses up his nose. "Do you have any classes tomorrow?"

I shake my head no and he nods. "Good, I'll drop you off tomorrow morning... hopefully by that time your friend has fixed your door too."

I tilt my head to one side with confusion. "Tomorrow morning?"

"I'm sure we can manage to fit in my flat for a few hours."

I scratch my neck; my mouth is suddenly too dry. "I doubt that's a good idea."

"Well, what do you propose instead?"

I glance out again. "I don't know... but I'll manage, you don't have to do that," I mumble.

"So... you're telling me you'd rather spend the entire night, stuck outside, under this rain rather than letting me help you?"

"Someone can see," I point out.

"I doubt anyone would... and if you don't go around telling your classmates then there shouldn't be any problems."

I fiddle with the band of my wristwatch, too exhausted to keep up with this losing argument. "Okay... thank you." I glance at him and he only nods.

Wright readjusts his glasses and turns up the sound of his radio and one of Bach's famous melodies plays in a pleasant volume.

I can't help the forming smile on my face, as I slightly relax into the warm chair. The song reminds me of the good times when everything was seemingly rainbows and daisies in my life. I gaze out the window, thankfully, the forming traffic stops him from speeding down the lane.

"What?" he curiously studies me for a beat before returning his focus to the road.

I bite my bottom, still smiling, and drop my eyes to my feet, pinching the fabric of my jeans. "My dad loves this song." I smile and glance at him.

"Really? He must have a great taste."

"He does." I grin. "He has this huge collection of vinyl records, actually it was grandad's but Dad kept on adding to it whenever he found something old, really rare, or valuable. He adores his collection." I beam.

Shaking my head I continue, "Whenever his work used to get too much, he had a player placed in the corner of his workroom and he would have played this song. Sometimes he rewound it multiple times, that was like our cue that he's working on something really complicated or important so we stayed away from that side of the house."

Wright chuckles and stops the car as we get trapped in traffic. I relax into my seat as I study his handsome face.

"This was my mom's favorite. She used to play it on repeat sometimes even for days." He shakes his head. "It was annoying, it drilled straight into my head and on the other side of the house, my sister used to watch any show that was on the TV, literally anything, with the loudest possible volume. It was a nightmare."

I giggle. "We never had that problem. The house was divided into four parts and we stayed well away from each other's zones. My dad had the right wing of the first floor, the ground floor was my mom's entirely, and no one dared to walk freely around that part because of all the statues and sculptures she had designed the place with. The left-wing of the first floor was for Mason and the second floor's right-wing was mine and on the left side, we had a few guestrooms."

I shift on my seat, getting more comfortable before going on. "The fourth floor was for whoever claimed it faster for a day. It had the home theatre and the built-in jacuzzi and whenever I wanted to call over my friends, I had to make sure Mason didn't have any girlfriends over at our place."

"You lived in a mansion?" he asks with surprise.

I shrug. "Kind of, it was a moderate size, not like those ridiculously huge ones."

"Right," he drawls as if not believing me and I roll my eyes, but my smile stays. "Does your dad still have the collection?"

His question takes me off guard. My smile falters. "No, my uncle does now." He even took that away from Dad too.

"Oh," Wright's face visibly falls too.

To not fall into an awkward silence I add, "He doesn't have enough space in this new place they're living to store it. At least now that the collection is in my uncle's hands, they're safe and won't be ruined."

The melody keeps on playing, filling in the car and brewing quietude, but it's comfortable.

Minutes tick away, the rainfall gets heavier, and the sound hitting the car mingles with the soft music. Even though my clothes have dried up to some degree, the bone-deep chill refuses to leave my body.

With my gaze, I trace the raindrops sliding down the window's glass.

It takes over an hour for us to get out of the traffic jam and enter a busy but not locked with cars' highway.

The speed of the car gradually increases and my body tenses up again. Heart hammering, tips of my fingers getting icy cold even though Wright has the heater on. My eyes dart from the window to the mirror, and then the windshield before going back this route and repeating it in an unbreakable cycle.

The number of cars decreases and his speed increases.

I stop breathing, flashes of that day pop in my head, burst before my vision. I tremble as I clutch the side of the seat once more.

∞ ∞ ∞

Well, what are your thoughts on the little bonding moment they had? =) Aaannnddd she's going to his apartment too *wink wink*  tell me what you think about that =)

Anyways, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote if you did and comment your thoughts.

Tomorrow's chapter is going to be tense xD [I've already written it, so I can tell for sure, lol]

Stay safe, lots of love, happy reading <33