Curses were pouring out of my mouth for about three minutes now and I wasn't nearly done. I hit the steering wheel of my broken down car out of frustration and tried once more to restart my smartphone, of course without success. I was in the middle of a forest. And it was raining. Initially, I had planned to just drive around a bit to think - probably the only way you could just think and ruin the environment - but I had ended up driving in the direction of an old cabin in the middle of the woods I had been to once or twice when I was really little. I didn't even know if I had been driving in the right direction anymore but before I could have figured that out my car had decided to just give up after a few unhealthy sounding groans from the car I was now on the middle of the road, debating how to get back. Sure, I could walk but that would take hours and it was already getting dark. Not an option. Calling someone to pick me up was also out of the picture thanks to my phone. So basically the only option left was sleeping in the car but apart from my parents inevitably getting panicked and calling the police or something like that I really didn't want to. I'd still have to get back eventually and the car really wasn't that comfortable. I also didn't have a blanket. Looking at my watch, I decided I had about two hours until it would be really dark and it would take about three to get home. If I walked. So the next logical conclusion was that I was now going for a hopefully only two hour run.

Sighing, I got out of the car and looked skeptically up at the clouds. If it was going to start raining, I was going to go ballistic.

It started raining in about five minutes. It started out as a harmless drizzle but I just knew that it would be pouring in no time.

A car approached behind me, the engine purring and the gravel crunching behind me. I stepped out of the way and continued running, not wanting to attract to much attention. I was alone in the middle of the woods after all. But as soon as I saw the car I knew that hadn't been necessary. The car was bright pink with black stars on it and the words "smile sunshine" were written in bold letters on the hood of it. Everyone in town knew that car. It belonged to know other than Tessa Hendrix. Just like her car everyone knew exactly who Tessa was. She moved to our small town with her parents only last year and was already notoriously famous. No one really knew her too well since no one actually wanted to have anything to do with her but there was new gossip about her almost daily. Not that she was the towns badgirl or something. Well - she might be. But she didn't do anything *bad*. Sure, she skipped classes regularly and didn't really seem to care all that much about school but she certainly wasn't like the girls in wattpad stories, wearing all black, smoking during school, yelling at teachers, getting into fights… you get the picture. No, the reason why people avoided her like the plague was that she was simply herself. And she happened to be openly gay. At least that was what everyone was saying.

I was thrown back into reality when the car stopped next to me. I too stopped and looked at the car like it was an alien spaceship or something. The window rolled down - it was one of those really old windows that had to be rolled down by hand - and Tessa looked out at me with a smile on her face. She was always smiling at everybody.

"Hey! Was that your car just back there?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered, still kind of taken aback that this conversation was really happening. "It suddenly just stopped."

"I can take you back into town if you want. That's where I'm heading anyways. Unless you want to continue running in the rain of course."

I debated briefly if I should just ask if I could call someone but that would be incredibly rude and anyways, the rain was getting stronger by the second. "That would be really nice. Thank you!"

"No problem", she said, still smiling. I couldn't help but notice two adorably dimples on her left cheek and wondered for a second why on earth no one wanted to talk to her, even if she was gay.

I hesitated for a moment longer, before walking around her car and getting into the passengers seat. It smelled of lemons and something summery, that I assumed was her perfume and a bit like leather, probably from the leather seats. A rock song I'd never heard before was playing and it somehow fit perfectly to the sound of rain drumming onto the roof. The leather seats were brown but every bit of fabric or plastic had been painted either black or pink. I looked around, trying not to look too curious. For some reason I had always expected an old car like this - especially this old car - to be cluttered and messy but it was extremely tidy. The grey-yellow speckled backpack that had been on the passengers seat moments earlier was now on the back seat and a bottle of water as well as a pen and a notebook were laying in the middle console. That was it. Even my car, which I considered to be pretty tidy, was more cluttered than this.

"Um… thanks again," I said, in an effort to stop the surprisingly not totally awkward lack of conversation. "My name's Avery by the way."

"Really, it's not a problem. I'm Tessa."

"I know." The words slipped out before I could stop it. "Um, sorry, it's just, you're pretty known around school and your car…"

"Don't worry about it. I don't expect to be overlooked or anything."

A nervous giggle slipped out of my mouth and then Tessa was laughing as well. I didn't know why, nothing was particularly funny but I didn't have a lot of time to think about it because Tessa laughing was the best thing I'd ever seen. She already had an happy vibe around her everywhere she went, with her almost permanent smile and colourful clothes but when she laughed all of that intensified by a thousand. It was like she was happiness in human form and I couldn't help but continue to laugh with her, even if it was awkward. When we both finally calmed down I was still staring at her with amazement.

"So, what were you doing in the forest anyways?" I asked after a while, now genuinely interested in talking to her.

"There's this old abandoned cabin here that I discovered recently and I like to go to every one in a while. It's quite calming actually." Now I was staring at her with disbelief instead of amazement.

"Is everything okay?" She asked.

"Oh, yeah, I just… I was actually looking for that cabin. I used to go there when I was little."

"Really?" Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You actually weren't far from it. Five more minutes or so and you would've reached it. I could show it to you sometime, if you want."

The offer actually sounded genuine and I had to remind myself that I was talking to Tessa. The Tessa.

"Thanks, but you don't have to. I'm sure I'd find it on my own as well and I don't even know what made me want to go there again."

"I'd like to. If you ever want to go there again just say something and I'll take you there." This conversation was not going like I had expected it too. Sure, Tessa was always nice to everyone, even though they made it clear they didn't want to be near her but I hadn't expected her to be this nice. I mean, surely she didn't want to spend time with someone who had never once spoken to her and turned away like everyone else when they saw her coming near them. But nothing at all hinted that she might not mean what she said. Weird.

"Where do you live?" The question surprised me, but a look outside told me that we'd arrived back in town. I hadn't realised it but Tessa had to have been speeding for us to already be here. I didn't comment on it though and just told her the street. And cursed myself seconds later. I should've let her drop me off a block earlier or something. But the town was small and she probably would've noticed anyways.

"Isn't that a detour for you?" I asked remembering that she lived at the other side of town.

"Only a little one." She said and just kept driving. "Don't start, I really don't mind and it's still pouring outside." I snapped my mouth back closed and swallowed my protest. In no time her car stopped in my driveway and I jumped out. 
"Thanks again! Really!"

"Again, no problem," she said, an amused smile on her face, "see you around."

"Yeah, see you." I shut the door and she began backing out of my driveway, waving to me before driving off in the direction we had just come from. I stared after her for a second but the rain pouring down onto me made me snap out of it and I dashed to the front door.