She wasn’t completely out of it to not realize where they were going. Granted, she didn’t recognize most of the streets or the signs but she could find her way back to the restaurant if Hamburger Boy decided to ditch her. Which she didn’t entirely put past him. He obviously didn’t like that she was here at all. Oh, she got that memo. And actually, she wouldn’t mind being left behind if it meant getting out of this truck. The stupid thing. It was nothing but a machine. Metal and bolts. What a silly thing to be scared of.
Her fingers curled tighter around the seatbelt. She forced herself to swallow, to breathe. If she didn’t start relaxing, she was going to start freaking. That would be really bad. Mostly because she’d be embarrassed forever. She was trying to impress everyone here, not prove them right. That she wasn’t ready to do this. That wasn’t ready to be out in the real world. Maybe she was still new at being a werewolf but that didn’t mean she didn’t know what she was doing. She could so do this. It was just a car. Truck. Automobile. A controllable piece of work on wheels. Whatever. She could totally handle being in it. There wasn’t anything for her to do anyway besides sit there and stare out the front window. The windshield. Was its only purpose to shield her from the wind? What about trees? Other cars? How much force could this shield take? Would it really be able to protect her? God, was she going to need protecting?
No, she had to stop thinking like this. She was trying not to freak here.
The truck swerved down a street and her body swung with it. Like a statue, rigid and frozen, she moved with every turn of the truck. If Caleb turned too sharp, she bit her tongue to keep from letting out a squeak. Wolves didn’t squeak. Not even when they were scared out of their minds. She had her mind. It was still there inside her pretty little skull. There was no promise that it would stay there though. She had heard horror stories about humans dying in car crashes and their brains landing several feet away. Just popped right out of their like the cap off a soda bottle. Whether those stories had any truth in them, she had never asked. The idea alone of it being possible was enough to scar her. As if she weren’t already.
The car came to another stop and she shuddered as the purr of the engine disappeared. It was off. Next, there was a hand in her face and words in her ears. She turned her head, the first real movement she had made since getting into the truck. “I’m not afraid.” Because she wasn’t. Alright, maybe she was but she wouldn’t admit it. And she could say that straight-faced without a tremble in her voice because denial was her forte. Except her eyes were still wide and she hadn’t let go of the strap across her chest yet. “But I … I’ve never been in a car before.”
Then she remembered that she was still on the job. They were at their first stop (she hoped there weren’t many) and there were deliveries to be made. He had told her not to touch anything but maybe she could help with something. Anything to get her mind off her current terror. “Which bag do you need?”