Chapter Four: Subtle Disclosures

“Uh, Kara?” a man’s deep voice whispered in my ear.

“Ugh,” I groaned groggily in reply. I was still half-asleep, with no intention of becoming fully awake yet--and that meant I was going to block out any and all attempts at speech. Shifting slightly under the thin blanket covering us, I nestled my head deeper into his shoulder. There was hardly any room, what with the two of us lying right up against each other in the cramped backseat of a car, but I was so very tired...

A moment later I heard the man beside me sigh, and my head fell abruptly onto the seat when he moved to sit up. “Hey, I was using that...” I protested half-heartedly. Lucky for me I was a hard sleeper, and even the sudden motion didn’t deter me from my goal of reaching the lovely world of sleepy oblivion.

“No, don’t fall back asleep!” he pleaded.

It was only then that I suddenly awakened completely. I was glad that I could finally remember what had transpired the night before and, perhaps of equal import, who the naked man next to me was. But a second side effect of the alert state of consciousness, this one not so good, was the really horrible pounding in my temple area. “Oh, my head...”

Derek let out a light laugh. “Yeah, me, too. Guess neither of us should’ve hit those drinks so hard, huh?”

Opening my emerald eyes just a crack to glance up at him, I could already feel them burning. “Jesus. Derek, what the hell time is it?” I grumbled, making a sincere attempt at sitting up. Unfortunately, it was only partially successful.

“Seven oh-five,” he answered matter-of-factly. As if that weren’t the most ungodly hour in the history of waking up.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I said as I pressed a hand to my pain-filled cranium.

He gave me a rather sheepish apologetic look. “Sorry. It’s just that I have to get to work pretty soon.” He leaned across the seats, fished out his boxers, and slid them on beneath the blanket. “I think we might have time to grab a coffee though, if you want. I’m sure you’re just as desperate for one as I am.”

I managed to get up to a sitting position and rubbed my eyes. “This is worse than the police academy...” I mumbled absently.

“What?”

Oh, shit, I thought in silent panic. Why couldn’t my brain keep certain things to itself?

“Nothing. I didn’t say anything.” I leaned over him as I searched quickly for my clothes, then started pulling them on one garment at a time.

Derek suddenly looked at me with questioning blue eyes. “You’re in the academy? Or are you already a cop?”

Since I didn’t really know the guy all that well outside of a physical context, I wasn’t quite sure what kind of reaction my answer would cause. Seeing as I’d met him drunk inside of a bar in a bad neighborhood, however, I figured I already knew which answer was likely to get me into trouble. I opted to go for a truth-but-not-the-whole-truth approach. This was still my official story, anyway, and I doubted that even my twin brother Phillip knew I was actually working undercover.

“Was in the academy,” I clarified. “That was before I got kicked out for unlawful possession, though.”

He blinked several times, then scratched his head. “Huh. Interesting.”

“Yeah, it all happened forever ago. Haven’t associated with the fuzz since.”

When he continued scrutinizing me with an indecipherable look on his face, I began to grow a little uneasy. But I didn’t let it show, of course.

“Um, in case you haven’t noticed, there’s like, no room in here. Mind opening a door or something so we can get out of here?” I asked, as much to honestly get him to do it as to gauge his present intentions. Now that we were both dressed, I longed to breathe fresh air again; on the other hand, things would get very complicated very fast if he ended up deciding he didn’t like my answer.

Much to my surprise--and considerable relief--he simply said “Oh, yeah” and opened both of the rear doors. Cool air finally filtered into the hot and stuffy vehicle, and I was glad to be able to stretch my legs again. Derek appeared to have the same idea, as he immediately stepped outside and stretched in front of the door.

I didn’t even pretend not to notice the unintentional display; his lean and muscular body looked even better in the light of the rising sun than it had last night in my drunken stupor. And now I knew he had the skills to back it up, too.

I was startled out of my musings when he suddenly peeked his head back into the car. “So? Coffee sound good?”

Say yes, say yes, say yes! my brain yelled at me, and I had to work to suppress the thought. No, I told myself firmly. I can't afford to get involved right now.

“Actually, sounds great, Derek. But I don’t want to be responsible for making you late, and I need to get going, anyway.”

Emerging from his medium-sized silver SUV, I stood, did a quick stretch to loosen up my stiff muscles, and then walked around the car towards Derek. I gave him a brief kiss on the lips and said, “Thanks for last night. Good luck with work, and maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”

“Wait, don’t you need a ride home or anything?”

Yeah, like I was really going to let him see the hellhole dump I had to live in.

So, even before he uttered the words, I’d already started walking away. “Nah, I’ll be fine!” I called over my shoulder.

In that moment I saw him standing there, he simply stared after me, perplexed.

“Kara...” I heard him say, but by then I was on my way.

---

Twenty minutes later I was almost home, and grateful for it. My head was giving me four hundred kinds of hell at the moment, and I couldn’t wait to take a shower and hop back into bed. Whatever Derek may have thought, seven in the morning was not an appropriate time to be facing the world just yet.

Sadly, my brother Phillip apparently sided with the young man I’d met last night at the pub.

“What the fuck, Kara?” he asked angrily when he saw me walk through the door. His tone was even, yet forceful.

“What do you want from me, Phillip?” I replied wearily. “Did we or did we not agree that yesterday was our night off?”

He gave me a scolding look, and for a moment I forgot he wasn’t beyond my own age. “Kara, we also agreed to meet back here hours ago. Do you have any idea how much internal shit I just went through?”

“Phillip, we said dawn. Dawn was what, two hours ago, max? You’re exaggerating, as usual, Phillip.”

“This isn’t a game, Kara! You could’ve been dead for all I knew!”

I closed my eyes against the sudden sharp sound of my brother yelling and said, “Shut up, Phillip. You’re giving me a migraine. And trust me, that’s something I really don’t need right now.”

Scoffing rather loudly as he crossed the room, Phillip retorted, “Yeah, no shit. But I bet that wasn’t the end of your evening right there though, was it? You probably got trashed and then let some guy pick you up, didn’t you?”

“That,” I said, anger lining my voice now, “is none of your fucking business, Phillip.”

“None of my business?” he hissed. “Kara, what the hell are we going to do if you go and get yourself knocked up, huh? Tell me. Because you see, then it becomes my business. Who do you think’s going to be the one who has to help take care of you?”

That was it. He just had to go there, didn’t he? Now, with that one stupid comment, he’d managed to get me thoroughly pissed off.

I snorted. “Oh, yeah, I forgot you were the savior of the whole world and that no one could possibly be a functional member of society without you. Well screw you, Phillip. I can take care of myself just fine, without your so-called help. And besides, if you recall, I'm not the one who got us into this mess in the first place. So just leave me the hell alone,” I spat. “And you know, maybe if you'd get some every once in a while, maybe you wouldn’t be such a dick.”

And before he could reply, I stormed out of the small room and promptly locked myself into the bathroom.

Sometimes I really, really hated my brother.