Chapter 4 - Cop Car

“Listen, don’t worry about it. My father’s a hot head and just likes to have things his way. So summer’s coming up in a couple of weeks. I was thinking we could go to the beach, stay at one of the hotels for a week."

“Your dad’s gonna hate that. He’s already starting to hate me a lot more than usual.”

“I know, I think he... No, never mind. But hey, it’ll be okay. I’ll just tell him I’m going on a girl’s weekend trip with my friends. He might be strict, but he does trust me a lot more than he should.” A month has past since Lizz and I took was able to hang out with each other. That night when after we got home from chilling on her boat her dad was already sitting on the porch just waiting for us to pull up. He then started shouting at us, telling her that she shouldn’t be around me and that I need to stay away from her. Who the hell does he think I am, her boyfriend?

Long story short; he forbid me to see her. But there were times she was able to call me and we still got to be around each other at school. Lizz said she got grounded because she broke her dad’s rules. Right now, we’re sitting at our windows on the phone. It’s the only way we could see each other after school. Yeah, we could just text or chat on the computer.

But I wanted to hear her voice... For some reason.

“Still,” I start off, “He seems to really not want me around. Well, more than he already does. By the way, will he be here after school? Wanna come over for a bit if he isn’t?” I asked her, she went silent for a minute before speaking up again.

“I can try. I don’t know if she has work today or not. Hey, it’s getting closer to seven. Maybe we should start getting ready for school.” Lizz said as she moved away from the window. “I’m thinking about riding the bus today with you.”

“Alright, see you outside then.” I replied before hanging up. She came back to the window and waved at me, I waved back until she turned to get ready. Most likely, I should be getting ready as well. I got out my dark blue sweat pants and my Go Radio shirt. Though, today was a hard pick for me as I found my Stuck In Your Radio shirt and had to choose between the two.

What if I wear the Stuck In Your Radio shirt for a bit and then change shirts in the middle of classes? What if I changed that order? What if I just pick one f*****g shirt? I sighed and left the room to get dressing without my shirts. “I’ll chose when I get ready to leave.” But, after I got all my things ready to go, I still have both the shirts staring at me in the face with only four minutes to leave.

“Yo...” My eyes moved from one band merch to the other. Finally, I breathed and took my night shirt off and putting the SIYR shirt on before grabbing my s**t and leaving for the bus stop. Thank god I didn’t miss the bus, I walked down the sidewalk to the see Lizz leaning on the sign.

“Took you long enough.” She laughs. “Cool shirt.”

“Yeah? It’s the f*****g reason I spent so long getting dressed.” I laughed with her as the bus showed up and stopped to open its doors. Even though we both out on at the same time, most of the greats were for Lizz. It was okay though, being ignored never bothered me anyway. I sat in the back with my friends and Lizz sat two seats up from me with her friends.

“Oh, cool! Oh, cool. Oh, cool. You still have the shirt.” Alex smiled. She looked excited and now I see why, she opened her jacket to show she was wearing the same shirt and it made me smile back. When the bus stopped to pick up one more person, Alex hopped up and moved over into my seat.

I gave her another smile. “What’s wrong with sitting with Brett?”

“Don’t feel like it. But I do feel like asking you a little question.” Her smile got bigger and I started to worry. 

“Question about what?”

“Ah, don’t be stupid. You and Lizzabeth. For a good while now you hating being around her and now you guys make plans to go to The Flent.” Alexs was at The Flent? A gathering of indie bands never really hit me as something she would go to.”Don’t ask why I was there. That’s the last time I try to impress a guy.” She laughs.

I shrugged and smiled while looking down. “Well, we asked if I wanted to go and I said sure so I went. Nothing wrong with that, right?”

“No, if you guys were just there looking like friends. But that’s not what I saw.”

“The f**k did you see?”

“Calm it. I didn’t see much. Just you guys sitting around a group of people. Her beside you, you beside her. Her with her arm over her shoulder. Her with her head on her shoulder. You looking clueless to notice her advances.”

Advances? What advances? Lizz always does that and that’s not consider a come on, though. “What do you mean? She always that. Hell, I put my arm around you.” I said while the bus pulled up at the school. Alex sighed and shook her head.

“Okay. But I’m telling you, give her a chance. See how far it goes before you realize that she really does like you.”

“Alex, please. She’s a cool friend and all, but she’s not my kind of chick.”

“I’m I your kind of chick?”

“If you were gay? Yeah.” Alex giggled at that, getting it all out before meeting up with Brett and Joel before our first class started. 

The whole day I tried to speak to Lizz, but her stupid friends kept getting in the way. It was kind of weird, like at lunch we got to greet each other until one of them came up and dragged her away. She made it sound like they have some s**t to do, but every time I tried every time they pull her away. It was kind of pissing me off.

By the end of the day, I haven't got to talk to Lizz in any of my classes today. I started to feel sad instead of pissed because I should have fought back to see her or something. I was almost out the front doors of the school until I remembered that she had cheerleading practice. Turning back around, I hurried and ran to the gym. Even if I won't be able to talk to her, I can at least go see her.

Finally, reaching the gym and fully out of breath, I took awhile before going in. There were a couple of people sitting on the bleachers. I quietly walked up and sat on the edge, watching her and the other girls continued.

I have to admit that it wasn't that bad to watch. No interesting trick like on movies or T.V but it was still okay. I looked over at Lizz for a moment to see her looking back at me. Shining one of her small but cute smiles. I smiled back and waved until the coach got her attention again. Didn't really mean to, but I had to giggle a bit at her getting in trouble.

After practice was over Lizz ran up to the bleachers as I walked down. "What are you doing here?" She asked, smiling. "I thought this kind of thing wasn't your kind of thing."

"It's not. Trust me. I just wanted to come down because... Well... We haven't got to talk at all today."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. The thought has been running around in my head too. Been a little busy with things. How about we ride on out and get something to eat?" Lizz said and held my hand. Not sure why but when she said that she was sad about us not getting to speak with each other made my face turn red. Hopefully, on my pale skin, she didn't notice.

We walked over to her stuff sitting at the side of the new room. "You don't use the locker?" I asked while looking a bit confused.

"Neh, I change in the bathroom before coming here and put my stuff near the coach's. I hate the lockers."

"Fair enough, I guess." As Lizz picked up her bag, A friend of hers came out of nowhere and started tugging on her sleeves. Really? This is f*****g high school, not pre-k. She tried to pull Lizz along with her, but she stood her ground.

"O-oh, um... I told Hayz I would go out to lunch with her. I'm sorry Rachelle."

"Really? You never hang out with the group anymore, Lizzabeth. I’ll be fun.” Lizz sighed and her look changed. She looked just as annoyed as I was. Also, I’ve never seen this girl before. She kind of look really f*****g young to be cheering with these girls... Must be a ninth or tenth grader.

“Rachelle I haven’t spent any time with my best friend today so I owe this to her.” Lizz then looked at me and took my hand. “We should get going. I’ll change on our way home from the cafe.” She smiled and pulled me along with her. I followed but took a glimpse back at that girl. She was talking to a couple of other people on Lizz’s cheer team and kept looking at me.

A part of me laughed it off, but another part of me didn’t understand their problem. Whatever, in the end I got Lizz so sucks for them... I did it again... Alex has been telling me s**t about how I act around Lizz and what not. I will say that she’s grown on me, but there are times where I feel like being around her every f*****g day. I’ve felt like this before... I felt like this before with Brett, but I knew it was just a crush after we started going out for a year. The crush wasn’t that strong and I didn’t feel very comfortable as a girlfriend to him like I was as a friend. But Lizz... Damn it.

“You’ve been quiet, Hayz. What’s up?” She asked me, giving me a weird look. I just smiled and got comfy in the seat. “Hayz... Come on, really, what’s going on? You’re never this silent.”

“I’m a quiet person,” I smiled, trying to laugh it off. “Maybe it’s just I’m waiting on that coffee. Haven’t had any in two days and it’s starting to get to me.” She laughed at that so I must be off the hook, yes? She didn’t really asked me anything else, thank god. I’m not sure if I can tell her that I might... Maybe... Possibly like her just a little bit more than a friend. Hell, Lizz might not even be gay. What if that I end up saying it and I just make everything awkward. She’s not a homophobe so she wouldn’t hate me, we would just talk less because of the awkwardness.

She smiled at me and poked my forehead. “Don’t be a b***h, really. If something’s up, tell me. I wanna help, but I can’t if I don’t know. Either way, let’s just go get us some food.” One of her cute little giggles came out when she started up the car. A slight blush came to my face when I smiled. It’s getting easier to deal with how cute she would act.

Lizz turned the radio on after driving out of the school’s parking lot, asking me to pop in a CD that was in her glove compartment. I went inside and took out a mix CD to put in. Some of the music I didn’t really know, but it wasn’t really Country either, more of an Alt Indie feel which I found interesting. Also, I felt like I should have asked how her truck got here, but she could have called her dad to bring it he drove off with a friend or some s**t. Who cares, right?

The shopping center we went to was a little bit away from the school as we road, walked, sang for awhile. Lizz was talking about how she wanted to leave her car and just walk around the country. It sounded nice, but I wasn't sure if that was something I wanted to do. Then again, why not? We would finally be alone and no one would bother us.

"We haven't really gotten to just walk around the lakes or anything. So I was just thinking it would be pretty chill. I haven’t had a relaxing time to myself in a while.” Lizz smiled as she parked the truck in the cafe's back lot. I sat there for a moment and sighed. She’s right. Most of the time it’s just been us talking over the phone or at school.

“It would be nice.” I smiled as I got out and followed by her side in the cafe. The place was chatty but still kept its calming feel, just like it should anyways. The only reason I come here is because it’s pretty local to our town.

Thankfully there wasn't much of a line so we got to order pretty quick after walking in. But there was this new kid behind the counter. Some guy who seemed to be a year or two older than us. I didn't really like the cool-guy front he was putting up, the creep kept trying to flirt with both of us! Really? Both of us? Lizz was nice about it, but I felt like punching the dick in the face. Still, Lizz kept hinting me on to just forgot and order my coffee. I didn't want to start anything so I did just that.

"I'm glad you was there, Lizz or I'd've been kicked out real quick." I mumbled as we finally walked out with our drinks in hand.

"It would have been kind of cool though." She laughed, "To be honest, I was about to yell at him myself for treating you like that. You know, with the whole flirting and everything." Lizz mumbled before we got to her truck. She was telling me about a park trail that led to an area that was blocked off. Not sure why, she wouldn't tell me.

She kept telling me to just settled down and that it’s a secret. Sometimes a surprise. We had four things of coffee with us and the smell of caffeine wasn’t helping me calm down. I just wanted to know, that’s all. But I guess she thought it was would be better if she leads me around or some s**t. Cute.

We finally drove up to Shane park after an hour or so and parked near the river. Lizz said there was a landmark at the end of the trail if we just followed the river up. I sighed and got my other cup of coffee out while handing her the ice coffee. How people drink those, I would never know. “How long is the walk?” I asked, following behind as she started walking the along the river side.

“Not long. I’ve walked this alone at times because I never really had anyone to walk with. By myself, it was less than an hour.” She took a small pause before speaking again, “Hey, can I ask a quick question?” She asked with a worried smile. It almost made me worry.

“Sure, I guess. Shoot.”

“... It’s been, what, a couple of months or so since we’ve officially became friends? Why is that? I mean, we’ve known each other since middle school and I’ve always been nice to you.”

I sighed, stopping her before she kept on. “Yeah, yeah, I know. It didn’t really matter if you were being nice or not. I just... I don’t know. Gave you a chance?”

“A chance?”

“A chance.”

“What does that mean?” Lizz’s tone of voice changed when she stopped. “You know, all I wanted was to be your friend. But I’m hearing you saying you took a chance.” I stared at her, realizing that I picked the wrong words. But it wasn’t like I lied. I did take a chance on her.

“It means, your personality didn’t match my interest and I found it annoying to be around you. But after getting to know you it was less annoying and more interesting. Like, I didn’t know how real you were until a month ago, the person I see in school is different. You’re actually different around me... And I like that.” Lizz stood there in silence while I have her a soft smile. Or, at least tried to. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I fear that I might have hurt her.

She took a moment before showing me one of her smiles. But it was weak, I can tell. “I do realize I am different around you. I’m myself around you...” Lizz mumbled as she started walking. “It’s not easy hiding myself because everyone wants you to be the pretty in pink princess. My family, friends, teachers... I’ve been playing on leaving all that behind one day but never found the right time or heart to do so... And then I met you.”

“What?”

“You’re kind of the person I’ve always wanted in a friend... You have the rebellious personality and push-back attitude that my family would never let me be around. Or dated. You know? So, I’m sorry you thought I was annoying. If I had known, I would have been me long ago.” She smiled at me, a bit brighter this time. Now I feel really bad. She put up such a great front that made me push her away for a good a*s while.

Damn it.

“... I-I’m sorry Lizz...” I mumbled, keeping my head down as we stayed walking along the river. Again, I heard a soft giggle coming from her. It made me smile, but not as much as I wished.

“It’s okay.” Lizz finally said after a long time walking. “Besides You’re still pretty cool to me. Even if it did take you awhile to want to me by friend... Come on, it’s right over there.”

“... There?” I pointed, “Where it’s blocked off construction tape?” She smiled and nod her head, telling me that I’ll be fine. They were only working on a new cabin for some dude... I think." I laughed then sighed while catching to her.

We kept on forward until we reach the tape surrounding the cabin in progress. I looked around to see nothing but a huge river and a the flower field we stood in. With the sun alright starting to set, it made the moment look and feel like a Disney movie or some s**t. I’m surprised I don’t see fairies flying around here!

Lizz took her sandals off before sitting down with her legs in the water. I sat beside her but keeping my legs cross as to not to get them wet. The mood was... Interesting. Quiet, bright, but dark at the same time. Personally, I liked it and I seemed like she liked it too.

She leaned her head on my shoulder and slowly kicked her feet. I slightly leaned my head on her’s by instinct. For awhile we talked a bit about how overprotective her family is and how my family was pretty chill about a lot of things. She got a little defensive when talking about that kind of stuff so I ended up changing the subject to music and s**t. That smile came back to her face and that’s all that matters, really.

Without knowing, we ended up staying out longer than we thought. Neither of us knew what time was it because we left our phones in the truck, but that didn’t really bother us. We came out here to be... Alone? Yeah... To be alone, I guess. Having a phone would only ruin it. Then again, this alone time allowed words to slip out our mouths without thought or even rethinking what we said. I knew cute and adorable got tossed around back and forth. Her hugging my arm and me not doing s**t about it. It’s always been like this, but it’s wasn’t until recently that this didn’t seem odd to me.

“It would be fun though! A month from now I’ll have to go to this camp thing that I never liked going to but my family made me, I pack some stuff and make it seem like I’m driving to the camp.”

“Knowing where this is going, I feel like it’s an easy way to make your dad hate me more.” I started to laugh, hearing her laugh with me.

“No! Like, I’ll part behind y’alls house and text you. You’ll have to two weeks worth of clothes though. We’ll head to a town or two away and just have a fun.” Her smile softens which made me smile just looking at her. “It would be fun. Think about it. I’m not fully sure how your family is but you don’t ever just wanna... I don’t know, run away for awhile? I’ve never been old enough or had the right person to have a great week with.” Lizz stared at me for a moment with that same bright smile. It did look different... It looked like a persuasive smile with a hint of begging.

A smile soon came to my face before sighing. “God, fine! I’ll join you in your two-week getaway. You don’t have to beg over it.” I joked, winning a hug from her as she giggled. She started talking more on where we can go and a place to stay when she was cut off by a bright a*s light that almost blind the hell out of me.

We both stood to see two people dress in uniform. One of them Lizz seem to know. “Jackson? What the hell, man!? That’s not cool.” She ranted and he moved his flashlight down. Finally able to see, I can make out two police officers. One male, I’m guessing is Jackson, and the other female. Great, just beautiful. I f*****g hate the police...

“You know what time is it? Your father’s been looking for you, trying to call you and everything.”

“What do you mean looking for me? He knows I always come up here.”

He shrugged and motioned up to follow him, “I guess this was the last place he thought of.” Lizz hugged, making small talk with Jackson until we got back to the cars. Their red and blue lights were on, to me, that seemed f*****g pointless since we didn’t really do anything. “Hannah can drive your truck back. You both have to ride in the back seat.”

“Excuse me? Wait, I don’t even know her. I’m not gonna trust someone I don’t know with my truck.” She started, her voice rising in tone. I had a shocked look on my face as I backed out of that. Though, I did look over at Hannah who seemed more shocked than I was.

“She’s not going to do anything to it, Lizz.”

“Can you drive it?”

“What?”

“I rather have you drive it since you’re my cousin and all.” He sighed and opened the back seat of the car. Lizz got in first before I did. From the window, we watch Jackson and Hannah converse a bit until Lizz started laughing. “I’m sorry I brought you up here. Something told me my father would freak out, but I just really wanted to you to see this place at night. It’s f*****g beautiful.” I turned my head to see her smiling, her face a bright shade of red.

Sighing, I leaned over to her and rest my head on her shoulder. “Don’t sweat it. Knowing your dad, I might not be able to see you for a month. Our getaway will be worth it.” Hearing her laugh made me smile even more. The door had opened and I can see a little bit of Hannah getting in the driver seat. I guess Jackson really did end up driving her truck back home.

She really didn’t say much other than asking Lizz where she lived. The ride home was quiet but not as awkward as it should have been. I mean, I’ve dove in the back of a cop car lots of time so sitting back here with Lizz didn’t feel any different. Plus, the way she would giggle out of nowhere the whole ride home got me laughing as well. I can’t wait til that getaway.

Author's Note

Listen to Keith Urban's Cop Car while reading this.