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CHAPTER FOUR OF ??

❝ the guy in the truck ❞

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TW: mentions of self-harm and past abuse (not for the reader)

THIRD-PERSON POV. THE JANUARY OF 2005. LOUISIANA, AMERICA.

THE SPLIT SECOND THAT BLAKE CAUGHT THE BEER THROWN TO HIM BY NICK WAS WHEN THINGS KICKED OFF. The lot of you were listening to music and drinking beer around the fire, with Dalton's camera recording everything. Blake chugged a beer. Dalton recorded a close-up of (Name) and said; "Hi, pretty (Name)". Dalton recorded some shots of the football game between himself, Blake and Wade.

He got Nick on film laying by the fire on his side and got a close-up shot of Paige being effortlessly beautiful. Then he got a close-up of his face. He got a shot of zooming on Nick, who just looked unimpressed. Then he got another shot of (Name) laughing and telling him to stop recording her.

Dalton recorded himself asking Paige and Blake if they were going to have sex that night, Paige laughed a little and Blake shook a beer can up and opened it, spraying the beer all over Dalton. After recovering from the beer attack, Dalton did a close-up shot of (Name) unaware of him filming her, the glow of the fire on the skin of her cheeks.

Then she looked up and noticed him, grinning mischievously. "Dalton, what did I say?" (Name) said in an amused tone, prodding the fire with a long stick to try and keep it alive for as long as possible. Dalton pretended to stop filming, "Alright, my bad, my bad," Dalton said.

(Name) dropped the stick, standing up and approaching Dalton and took the camera from his hands, smirking. "How the tables turn!" (Name) laughed in amusement, aiming the camera at Dalton. (Name), Carly and Paige managed to get Dalton into one of the tents and played a light-spirited joke on him.

They gave Dalton a "makeover". Blake and Nick talked about why Nick stole the car, and then (Name) stepped out of the tent, holding the camcorder out in front of her. "Dalton, get out of the damn tent," (Name) playfully threatened, as Paige and Carly forced Dalton out of the tent.

Dalton now sported a yellow vest with a pair of (Name)'s square-lensed, sparkly sunglasses. "Look how good you look!" Paige jokingly gushed. The others laughed at the joke, as Dalton struck a pose.

"You look like Elton John," Blake commented, sitting next to Nick with Wade by the campfire, as the crickets continued to chirp in the distance, "But more gay,". (Name) rolled her eyes at the comment, whilst Dalton let out a confused noise. "Elton John is gay?" Dalton questioned as (Name) deadpanned.

Eventually, Paige and Blake began to make out. Then Carly and Wade began to make out. (Name) handed the camera back to Dalton. (Name), Nick and Dalton just sat as the two couples began to kiss. Dalton recorded each couple kissing for a few seconds with some commentary.

Dalton flipped the camera between (Name) and Nick. "Don't even think about it," Nick playfully warned, "I ain't kissing you dude. Neither is (Name). And we're not kissing each other,".

"You couldn't handle the uber power of my uber ADHD," (Name) sassed, texting her parents on her flip phone, "Nor could you handle me. I'm too good for you,". Nick scoffed as Dalton laughed. Then they were hit by the blinding headlights of a truck pulling into the campsite, and stopping by the entrance.

All seven people squinted at the sheer brightness of the truck's headlights. Dalton stopped filming, as a sinister vibe overtook the vibe of the party. (Name) turned Blake's CD player off, squinting at the headlights that essentially invaded her vision. The truck remained still, but you could tell it was still on by the revving of the engine.

The truck looked like it had seen better days. "Yeah?" Wade asks, with Carly on his lap. No response. (Name) felt an odd shiver fall down her spine. She felt her fight, flight or freeze instinct start to kick in. Whoever was behind the wheel of that stilled truck was most likely dangerous. It felt like something straight out of a horror movie.

"Ayo, man you need something?" Blake questioned, with Paige on his lap. No response. (Name) gripped her knee with her hand, feeling highly unsafe right now. She just squinted with a hand out to block the bright lights of the truck's headlights. She paused her song, halfway through Scrubs by TLC, and slowly pulled her headphones down, missing some that Carly had said and got the end of what Wade had called out.

The truck was filthy. (Name) put her glasses out and saw how grimy said-truck was. She even eyed some chains on the front. Through the darkness and a small bit of light, she eyed a man's wrist hanging out of the window, his thumb tapping gently against the driver's side door. She felt a swell of pity, seeing the man's heavily scarred wrist.

Self-harm or not, she didn't know. Child abuse or not, she didn't know. Who'd do that to their own child? (Name) barely listened to the others talking, continuing to watch the truck and the man's wrist hanging out of the open driver's side window. He had some nice hands (Name) casually thought.

By this point, Wade and Carly had both stood up and (Name) decided to mutually do the same, standing behind Dalton. She held her arms around her torso as a form of comfort, feeling slightly unsafe at this moment in time. "Maybe we're on his property?" (Name) queried, adjusting their hoodie and tugging it downwards a little.

"Nah, we didn't pass a gate," Wade says, continuing to step forward. Blake stood up too, leaving Paige on the fold-up chair. Nick even glared over at the truck. Wade put his hand on Blake's chest to stop him from trying to fight the truck driver. Out of nowhere, Nick stood up and launched his beer bottle at one of the driver's headlights, shattering both the bottle and the headlight, leaving one headlight remaining.

"Nick!" (Name) snapped, "What the actual fuck is wrong with you?! Now, that guy might murder us or sue us for property damage!". (Name) turned to look at the driver, who she couldn't see through the windscreen, "Hey! I'm sorry about him, he's...a delinquent!".

Nick slipped his hoodie off and stood in front of (Name), and she sighed in annoyance. She was so done with Nick Jones and his tough guy persona. It annoyed her during their brief relationship and even now. Dalton walked forward next to Nick, like a loyal dog, and threw his arms up in the air. "What?!" Dalton yelled, his voice echoing throughout the clearing.

As if by magic, the truck began to reverse out of the entrance to the clearing, leaving. (Name) looked stunned and shocked, and confused as her brows furrowed. "Yeah!" Dalton cheered, chuffed with himself, as the mysterious truck drove away from the campsite.

The truck did a U-Turn and drove away. Dalton and Blake began to encourage Nick's behaviour and cheer for him. "What the fuck was that about?!" (Name) asked, stopping Nick, who looked at her longingly and scoffed, before walking away. (Name) rolled her eyes. "Don't encourage him, Jesus shitting Christ!".

(Name) turned to watch as she saw the truck driving away until it was completely out of sight. She reached into her shirt and retrieved a dog-tag chain necklace with a silver thumb ring on it and fiddled with it, she smiled at it, occasionally slipping it on her thumb and off her thumb. She couldn't help but feel a slight shiver fall down her spine when thinking of the events just now.

The evening went back to how it was shortly after and sleeping arrangements were made in the pitched tents. Paige and Blake would be in the first tent, Carly and Wade in the second and (Name), Nick and Dalton in the third. (Name) had a gut feeling as she burrowed in her sleeping back that this wouldn't be the last time she would see that truck.