The roadside diner was empty save a few regulars and Lizeth, who felt she would have been more correctly named had she been called Zebra.

Her tangled hair was a golden auburn thanks to hours in the sun; her dirty skin was a toasty brown and her tired eyes a strange navy blue that made you wonder.

Her lips were chapped and she ran her tongue over them before asking for a coffee and blueberry muffin. She didn't particularly care for coffee or blueberries but, from all of the books she had read and movies she had watched, she felt like it was an appropriate and cheap order.

The waitress was as cliché as Lizeth's order and said that the coffee and muffin were on the house after she observed, "you look a mess, you poor dear."

Lizeth didn't bother to argue. Sending a small smile at her in return she nestled into the red plastic booth, her back against the cold glass of the front window.

Danny was planning a quick in and out at the small diner with the goal in mind to make it to Arizona before the sun went down. Those plans were quickly forgotten when he spotted a young woman dozing off in a booth near the front door.

Early morning sunlight streaming through the window lit up the golden hairs on Lizeth's creamy brown skin and her curly auburn hair was spread out against the window making what looked like a halo surrounding her head. Her mouth was slightly open and her blue tank top clad chest rose slowly with every breath. Covered to the mid thigh in cropped jean shorts her long, slender legs were stretched out on the dingy bench and her feet in dirty brown ankle boots hung off the edge.

She was beautiful in a kind of untamed way that drew Danny to her.

He watched as a kind looking waitress set down a cup of coffee and a muffin on the table saying something that made Lizeth jolt awake. Danny's lips quirked up at the corner as she almost tumbled off her seat catching herself by grabbing onto the edge of the table. Clumsy had never looked so good before.

His eyes scanned the rest of the diner noting that there were only a few customers taking up less than half the booths. He had no logical reason to sit at the same table as the young woman but decided he might as well take the chance.

Lizeth was taking out a rather big blueberry from the warm muffin when she felt a presence by her side. Navy blue eyes flitted up to meet mocha ones lined by long dark lashes. Lizeth slid her eyes away from Danny's and took in his tanned face scruffy with unshaven facial hair. His mouth was grinning; his lips a nice pale pink and, as she looked back at his eyes, she noted they were smiling too.

She noticed he was wearing jeans that hugged his legs nicely and went into big, sturdy dark brown boots. His white tee hinted that he was fit and his arms, tucked loosely into his pockets, hinted that he worked long hours in the sun.

She immediately decided she wasn't interested, simply because she was.

"Can I sit here?" His voice was like a rumble that vibrated in Lizeth's bones. To hide exactly how his speaking affected her she went back to picking at her muffin.

"I 'spose but," She glanced around his tall broad figure to notice more than a few open tables, "there are plenty of other open tables…" Her voice was husky yet smooth, low but feminine and it took Danny a second to recover after hearing it.

A hint of amusement was evident in Lizeth's eyes as Danny sat down. She glanced at him over the rim of her mug.

"I'm Danny by the way." He said catching that glint in her eye, "I'm not a creep or anything. I've just been traveling the past three days alone and talking to someone other than myself or the radio was just too great an opportunity to pass up."

Lizeth couldn't help but think that Danny had a really nice voice, some particular senses seemed to think so too. She blamed it on the fact that she hadn't heard a good looking male her age talk in a while.

"Lizeth is me. I mean, what I am called...you know, my name," She cleared her throat realizing how painfully awkward she was being. "At the moment, however, I am entertaining the idea of changing my name to Zebra."

Danny was amused and even more so intrigued by the girl in front of him. She looked like she would posses all the smoothness of a beautiful young woman but at the moment she was being endearingly awkward. Leaning forward in his seat he rested his elbows on the table and looked at her. "Why Zebra? Lizeth is a beautiful name."

Lizeth's face scrunched up at the bitter taste of the black coffee after she took a particularly large gulp, almost choking on it when Danny complimented her. She scowled when she saw him smile and bite back a chuckle. Speaking of biting…Lizeth's gaze traveled from his eyes to his mouth which suddenly looked a lot tastier than her blueberry muffin. She had decided that she was rather enjoying the muffin too.

To keep from doing anything rash she stuffed some muffin in her mouth and then did something she shouldn't have, she spoke. "Oh um, thanks…" She trailed off when she saw pieces of muffin fly from her mouth and land embarrassingly visible on the table in front of her almost close enough to touch Danny's elbows.

Lizeth drummed her long slender fingers on the table for a moment, drawing Danny's eyes to them, before she hastily brushed the obscene crumbs off the table brushing his elbow in the process. Glancing sheepishly at him she apologized with a painfully uncomfortable look on her pretty face.

She had watched the smile grow on the man's face across from her but she hadn't expected the cute little chuckle to burst from his lips. Soon that chuckle evolved into a full out laugh; his head was resting against the back of the bench and his chest was moving faster than usual to catch his breath. He'd been holding that one in for a while.

Danny looked back at Lizeth as he wiped tears from the corner of his eyes. If she had been mortified before she was now looking at her half full cup of coffee with an interest it wasn't deserving of. Her top teeth had captured her bottom lip and she was chewing on it.

He let out a breath and all of the sudden images of his teeth biting her bottom lip flashed through his mind. They were nice images that involved her arms around his neck and his around her slender waist pulling her up against his body… he shook away the appetizing thoughts by a visible toss of his head. Not the time, he thought tearing his eyes away from her mouth to look at her eyes.

Lizeth raised her eyebrows at Danny who seemed like he was struggling with something as he stared at her lips. She momentarily wrestled with the idea that there was muffin all over her mouth but a swipe of her tongue over her lips assured her there was not.

She cleared her throat. "Do you know Beach House? Great band…sing this song called Zebra. My boyfriend told me that it described me perfectly before I left and it has stuck to me since. Don't you hate when your significant other, that you are trying to make less significant mind you , thinks they know you so well that they pick that one song they know you like a lot and say it sums you up?"

Danny wasn't really sure what to say after Lizeth's little spiel. He was kind of stuck on the fact that she had a boyfriend and also taken aback that she could talk that fast. "Well…is it true, does the song really describe you?"

Lizeth tilted her head to the side slightly. "I 'spose so. The thing is he was practically putting himself in place of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, the main singers, going far enough to ask me the question of, 'don't I know you better than the rest?'. Super corny anyways.

"The boy assumes that because we have been together nearly two years that he knows every little detail about me! I mean, does he think me that simple? I couldn't stand his bloody cockiness; I just had to go. We were getting in too deep anyways. He was becoming too protective like I was his-his bloody fiancé or something! Oh and when we were with his mates…ha, I couldn't stand it."

When she was finished she drank some more of her coffee that was now cold and ate a crumb of muffin waiting for Danny's response. Lizeth wasn't sure why she told the stranger, albeit attractive stranger, her woes but she didn't regret it. Sometimes people that knew you the least had the best advice; she had already decided that the people who knew her the best had nothing helpful to say.

"If you don't love him let him go. Doesn't the song go, "Oasis child, born and so wild…your love is stag in the white sand/ wilderness for miles/ eyes so mild and wise"? You don't need to be tied down and besides, you're wise. Song says so itself."

Danny was distracted by a crumb that was stuck to the corner of Lizeth's mouth. The sudden desire to reach out and run his finger tips over her full bottom lip, then soft upper lip before flicking off the crumb over took him like a powerful wave.

What he said was so perfect that Lizeth practically swooned, "You forgot some of the lyrics there…" she murmured trailing off when she noticed his eyes trained so fixedly on her lips. A little shiver went up her spine.

"Yeah, but does it really matter? It would have just ruined what I was trying to say had I said them." His voice was lower than before and the reaction Lizeth experienced when she first heard it doubled from the change.

She was leaning towards him, her elbows raising her upper body across the table a ways. Danny was doing the same, a curious smile on his face as her navy blue eyes looked mildly into his making him wonder.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, his words blowing over her lips. "I'm weighing my reasons for kissing you." Her honesty made him chuckle, a response that caused Lizeth's breath to hitch in her throat. "I am wild after all and wise. One really can't go horribly wrong with traits such as those."

"Truth, now what is your decision?" Danny asked seconds away from just taking initiative himself and closing the gap.

Lizeth took too long to respond and Danny pressed his lips to hers.

The moment their lips were touched he noticed her lips were chapped and sweet while she noticed his were warm and sent a shiver up her spine. She slowly pulled away after the quick taste making the kiss more like an elongated peck.

When she opened her eyes Lizeth suddenly realized exactly what she had done and in her haste to sit properly in her seat she knocked down her coffee mug.

"Damnit." She cursed pulling away quickly to avoid getting coffee on her top. Danny chuckled and leaned back brushing his fingers along his smiling lips. "Alright there?"

"Great." Lizeth snorted piling napkins on the small puddle of cold brown liquid before leaning back in her own seat.

"Well that was interesting." She said after a brief silence of studying one another.

"I haven't kissed a girl in a roadside diner before." Danny said glancing around at the few people in the diner that seemed uninterested in what had happened between the two young people moments before.

"Yes well I can say the same thing I suppose." Lizeth muttered blushing slightly. She pulled a couple crumpled dollar bills out of her pocket and smoothed them out before laying them on the table.

"Leaving?" Danny asked, trying not to let the disappointment seep through his voice.

"I've got wilderness for miles that are just waiting to be conquered. I can't put it off any longer." Lizeth replied with a shrug. Standing up and fixing her tank and shorts, Lizeth sighed lightly and looked at Danny again.

"It was a pleasure to meet you Lizeth, who would have been more appropriately named Zebra." Danny said with a grin reaching out to shake her hand. She shook it, "And you, Danny."

The sun was all the way up now and the heat of the day was almost on full blast. A few more customers meandered into the diner for their morning fix and Lizeth nodded at some fellow travel weary faces as she held the door for them.

Danny watched her through the glass window as she unlocked the door of a dusty blue jeep and got in but was out the door before she even started the car.

"Maybe I will see you at another random diner along the road. I'm heading to Arizona from here." He said once he reached her car, his hand grasping the sill of the open window.

Lizeth smiled lightly at him, "I'm stopping again in Phoenix."

"Good, well save me a seat if you think about it." Danny tried to sound nonchalant but his heart was pounding.

Her half smile was far away and her eyes were didn't hold any promise. "I'll think of you when I listen to the song Zebra from now on." She offered touching the back of his hand lightly. He let go of the window.

Standing in the parking lot Danny watched Lizeth run away, dust kicking up under her feet. He knew he wouldn't see her in Phoenix and he wondered if he would ever see her again at all. Oasis child, born and so wild.