C h a p t e r 14
road less traveled
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BLAZE'S POV

"I said I am sorry 28 times! Trust me I am counting. Please forgive me now or at least slow down!" Natasha whined for as she said twenty eighth time but I still didn't turn around or slow down my pace.

She deserved no mercy. She is the one who got us into this mess so she might as well suffer alongside me.

"Oh come on! You know as well as I do that it's really your fault. Why did you have to kick me? If only you had let me sleep like a baby I wouldn't have wanted to get back at you..you egotistical pig!" she cursed from behind, sounding breathless.

Keeping a deaf ear to her irritating banter I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and continued stalking forward. I was well aware of that fact that my angry fast paced stride left her panting, as she jogged to keep up with me. Even her voice was sounding distanced and shrill. As she had to scream at the top of her lungs for her voice to even reach my ears.

At first she was silently walking behind me, pouting like a kicked puppy after an hour of walking her complaints started. This girl was so full of herself that instead of focusing on trying to reach to the next town as fast as we could she wanted to take five minutes break every half hour as she needed some time to relax. Like this wasn't a crisis or a bad situation that we were stuck in because of her but an adventurous hike.

It wasn't like we couldn't stop and take five minutes break. I just didn't wanted to. Especially when those five minutes could get us nearer to our destination. The next town, where we could possibly be able to catch the local bus to the other town or try to arrange a taxi at the least. However to do that, it was absolutely vital that we made it to the other town before sundown or else we would be stuck to either wait or continue our journey on foot again because the station Clerk had been very clear that Treswell turned into a ghost town after sundown and it is impossible to get any sort of help from the town at night.

So yeah her petty complaints were worth nothing to me.

She could die in the middle of the fucking road for all I cared. I would not slow down or give into her picayune demands. She should have thought of all these discomfort before taking impulsive actions.

I am not saying I am not at fault or that I did not kick her but she could literally have done fifty six different things without jeopardizing our travel plans. And the reason I am saying this is because I have literally counted them down but no. She had to go ahead and complicate things because apparently that's her forte.

We would have already covered half the journey by now in the luxury of our train compartment if it weren't for her stupidity. Now instead of enjoying the comfort of our seats we were forced to walk miles and miles in hope of hitching a ride. Even that was entirely depended on our luck. Which seemed to be short since not a single ride had passed us till now.

The station clerk had made it brutally clear that the next train to both Honetop and Delegres would not arrive until tomorrow evening and since neither of us knew our school's phone numbers and since Natasha's parents number was unreachable, we were pretty much screwed and stranded.

I would have gladly waited a day if the freaking station had a waiting room or if the clerk hadn't warned us about the absolute threat of being robbed or worse at night, as a lot of homeless thief's came to sleep there after dark.

All this left me with only one option. To walk or hitchhike our way to the other three towns in order to make it to Delegres. If only Glazer could understand that.

"Look Warner if you are still mad about the whole kick in the groin thing then I...I said......" her voice didn't reach far enough for me to know what she said but I knew it must be either a curse or a sorry again.

God if I heard her say sorry one more time I will rip my ears out. I can never understand what the hell even goes in this girls head.

Can't she see me seething? Why would she repeated irritate me further by apologizing? Even though I had made it perfectly clearly it wouldn't work. That I won't forgive her for making us miss our train. Yet she keeps repeating the damn word. Each time she says the damn word i feel my blood rising. It's like she wants me to die of anger and irritation.

This girl...

Sighing and cupping my ears to ward of her voice I continued walking ahead.

After few minutes it started feeling odd when I couldn't hear her grunts, curses, sorry's or the fast echo of her footsteps when she ran to catch up with me.

Finally! She learned to walk silently. Hallelujah !

Out of curiosity I turned around to see what a silent and defeated Natash Glazer looked like and almost had a heart attack when I saw her fallen on the ground so far away from me.

Without sparing a second to think I dropped my bag and ran towards her as fast as I could.

Reaching her I first turned her over and then got rid of her bag that had weighed her down. I then as gently as I could lifted her by the waist, making her head rest on my shoulder.

"Natasha" I patted her face but she didn't react.

I immediately reached for her bottle of water and splashed few droplets on her face, while continuing to pat her cheeks and softly shake her up. After what felt like hours worth of minutes, she finally opened her eyes.

"What...happened" she mumbled, in a hoarse voice running a hand over her face.

Hearing her broken soar voice I felt remorse. In my anger I hadn't even bother checking up to see how far away she was. Or whether or not she was alright. She had used up so much of her energy in keeping up with me and yelling at me that she had freaking fainted.

Nice work Blaze.

Once she was done drinking water she got back up on her feet and started with her damn apologies again. Sighing I let my body fall back and sprawled out on the the empty road and closed my eyes. When I opened them again a second later she was kneeling besides me looking at me with her big brown puppy eyes.

'I am sorry' she mouthed again.

"You know what... I think I prefer the cursing and spitting Glazer more than apologising Glazer so..if you can kindly shut up now please" I sat back up and gave her loophole smile.

She batted her eyes at me. Once, twice and then a relived smile broke through her face. Jumping up she quickly picked up her bag and extended a hand towards me.

I quirked an eyebrow at her helping hand and shook my head no. She immediately withdrew her hand with a shrug, flipped her hair and walked away.

Getting up, I chuckle looking up at the sky then sighing I looked back at my bag carelessly discarded in the middle of the deserted road and started walking towards it.
This time though I made sure my pace was moderate enough for her to match.

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We had been walking for two hours now but not a single human or vehicle was in sight. I was slowly starting to panic. I don't know what we would do if we didn't manage to get a ride to the next town.

Two hours of straight walking even had my legs begging for a break but I insisted on us keep going forward. If we were to walk through this empty road at night, I would feel much relieved if we were at the least nearer to the next town then far.

Meanwhile I even made it a habit to look back at Natasha every five minutes to make sure she is walking and not passed out on the road.

This girl is an unsolvable riddle to me. One can never know what is going on in that head of hers.

While I was losing my shit here, thinking how the hell will we ever make it to the next town let alone Delaris; she was busy jumping around, trying to catching falling leaves and humming unknown songs.

"How can you go from complaining about how this walk is slowly killing you to having the time of your life?" I finally voiced my thoughts, not being able to contain it anymore.

She stopped skipping to walk normally besides me. She had a calm smile on her face, as she thought up whether or not she wanted to answer me.

"It's just....all my life I have been driven around or been told where to go, how far away to go. I just...I love this Blaze! I have always dreamed about..about how it would feel like to be lost...or to take a road less traveled like Robert Frost talks about...but I never got a chance too. I wasn't allowed and now even though this sucks I can't help but feel happy for some reason. I mean can't you see Blaze...we are all alone...with no one to tell us what to do...we are taking each step of our own choice! And look at this place. It's so beautiful and quite...I am loving it." she literally bounced on her feet in excitement.

She really did look too happy to be stuck in this position and I didn't know what to make out of it. I couldn't understand what she meant out of anything she had just said.

"That sounds.....borderline crazy! Like I am not even kidding, that's not a sane person's talk it's a mentally unstable person's talk. What the fuck Glazer! Honestly I am worried about my life right now. I am really scared by you Glazer!" I raised my hands in the air, drawing a wide space between us. To which she only laughed.

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I had just zipped my pants when I heard her scream for help. For the second time I dashed out of the woods, ran towards Natasha. Towards the road where a car had stopped.

Two guys had taken a hold of Natasha and one lay on the ground spitting blood. I didn't have to ask to know what had happened.

Without wasting time I grabbed the first thing that I could find, which happened to be a thick broken branch of a tree and went straight for the fucking bastards.

I slammed the branch on one of the guy's head. The impact made him let go of Natasha's hand with a yelp but he soon recovered and turned at me. I could see anger in his eyes but I wasn't afraid of him.

I saw from my peripheral vision Natasha jam a kick in the face of the guy that was on the ground, when he tried to grab at her legs. Followed by a hard punch to the other guy with her now one free hand. Making him stumble back. She then grabbed him by his hair and slammed his face hard into the passenger side windowsill, causing it to crack. She kept pushing his face hard on the windowsill over and over until the glass gave away.

To say I was impressed would be an understatement. I was absolutely awed and enthralled by her.

I too focused on the fat guy that was trying to take a hold of my hands. I pushed him away from me using the branch and when I saw the perfect opening I kicked him hard in the groin. He instantly fell on the ground screaming with pain and I used that opportunity to slam him with the branch again.

The other guy who had tried getting Natasha's legs quickly came to his rescue. He picked his friend up and ran towards their car. I dropped the branch and stepped back, knowing the fight was over as the cowards ran for their life.

Natasha however wasn't done by them just yet as she continued throwing stones at their car. She even managed to break the whole back glass with a particularly big stone. I let out an impressed whistle at that and clapped for her.

However, when she didn't stop throwing stones even though the car and the fuckers were gone I became a bit worried and tried stopping her.

"Hey it's done...they are gone Natasha...Natasha" She pushed against me with all her might. Angrily cursing at an empty road. Not knowing what to do to get her to calm down I did the only thing that felt right to me.

Grabbing her hands in mine I pulled her towards me. Pulling her into my chest I turned her around and hugged her.

"Hey...it's okay...it's okay...Natasha they are gone....it's okay...everything is fine...it's okay" I consoled her, speaking softly into her ears.

She pushed and plowed at me for few minutes but then calmed down. I thought of letting go of her then but she suddenly hugged me back.

She held onto me like I was her lifeline. Clinging to me she tugged at my jumper and hugged me tighter. As if she wanted to dissolved into me.

I have never have been good with comforting anyone and even now I didn't know what or how I should be acting but when I felt her wet cheeks press to my neck, some unknown feeling overcome me. Making me forget everything and hold her tight. Pressing her closer to my chest I absorbed each violent shake of her body as she cried. Running a calm hand over her head I felt each drop of her wet tears as they seeped into my jumper and cooled my heard.

I don't really know why or when but I forgot about our situation or anything and everything that happened before this moment.

All I wanted to do was comfort her and stay like this. For as long as she wanted.

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Alright does anyone needs tissue or ice creams or hugs? Or did I not manage to capture your awww's just yet ?