Cars.

I sat inside with him and his dad just talking. Well they were talking about car things. I pretended to be interested for show I guess. I knew a couple things and I was usually able to fake some knowledge, because I had an uncle that worked on cars who I had watched countless times. But here I was daydreaming again. “Kristin?” I snapped back, “huh?” I muttered quietly, they were both looking at me. Bill looked at me with a smile then looked at his dad “now you said you knew things about cars.”

“I just didn’t hear what you said.” I stated matter of factly.

“Well lets see here, what kind of car do you have?”

I stared, “A Honda.” I responded.

“What year?” he asked, a grin stretching across his face. I tried to peek out the window, “No cheating,” he laughed. I could lie I thought, but he probably knew what it was.

“I don’t see how that has any relevance to knowing anything about cars.” I grumbled. They were laughing pretty good.

“I bet you never even changed a tire.” He added.

“ I have so!” I lied, I had watched people that counts right?

“Oh well then I stand corrected.” He teased.

“You know we have a car out in the garage that could use a change if you are an expert.” His dad began, at that they both started laughing. I felt my face go red and I excused my self from the table. Lots of girls do not know anything about cars, I said I was a quick learner. Why the hell do I need to know anything bout cars anyway. Stupid cars. I walked outside, I fumed for a couple more minutes and decided to go for a walk. I looked around and realized I was right next to the garage. Well I thought to myself, maybe I’ll look at the cars see what there is to see. I opened up the garage and walked in. There were a couple different cars and I looked at them all. One had no engine at all, one looked normal just with a black primer on it instead of paint, and one had a flat tire.

I thought about it for a long time and decided I would just change the tire. It couldn’t be that hard. And then they wouldn’t be able to make fun of me, right? Plus I had seen tires changed before, it couldn’t be that hard. I looked around for a while and found what I thought to be a jack of some sort. I found a wrench and figured that was about all I needed. It was the back right tire that was flat so I put the jack under the back right and though trial and error figured out how to get it up a little. Ok this is good. Oh I need a tire, fuck me. I looked around, and I’m not to stupid to know that you cannot put any tire on any car. Stupid cars, I thought angrily. Oh I had an idea I’ll look in the trunk. There are always tires in trunks. I went into the car and pushed buttons till the trunk opened. A tire! Yay this is kind of fun I thought happily. I unscrewed the thingies on the tire and got it off, cake. I was sweating and super dirty but I would get this done. I pulled out the new tire and got it on then rescrewed the thingies back on. I looked at my work. “That was easy!” I said out loud, and happily went back to the jack to figure out how to get it down. I turned a switch in the back to the left and to my surprise the whole damn thing smacked down to the floor in one loud bang. The jack got knocked back and I fell over backward.

Now this is where it got bad, with the new tire on the car started to roll forward. I must have released the brake when I tried to find the trunk latch. I knew some things about cars. It started to roll forward. I’m dead, I’m so dead, “fucking cars” I hollered as if that would help. I ran to the car which I found to be much more difficult then I had planned. Do you know how hard it is to try to open a car door while its moving? Especially since you do not want it to roll over your feet. I started to get mad and kicked the car which was now rolling into the ditch in front of the house. It didn’t look to be damaged. I heard a yell and looked back to see Bill and his dad running towards me. “Dammit.” I muttered under my breath.

Bill looked at the car and then at me. “Kristin are you ok?”

“Yes.” I grumbled trying not to look at either of them.

“What the hell were you doing!?”

I didn’t respond.

“What were you doing?” he repeated with much more heat in his voice.

Now I had yet to get him angry and this was not good. “I changed the tire.” I replied as if nothing was wrong. “See look at that back right tire it looks great.” I started “you know maybe if the parking brake would have been on,” I started trying to get the blame off me.

“The parking brake was set, and what the hell were you doing changing it by yourself?” he began angrily. “You could have been hurt..”

“I’m fine.” I stated coldly.

“Well my car isn’t.” His dad added. I could tell he was more amused then mad but he gave me a stern look none the less.

“Well all I did was change the tire.” I stated as innocent as possible. “I don’t really know what happened but I will help you get to the bottom of it…”

“KRISTIN.”

“yes?”

“This is not funny.”

“sorry.” I replied dryly.

“Its ok,” He said starting to smile, “We will get this fixed up. Why don’t you go inside and make some coffee.”

Now I’m not exactly sure what made me mad about this, after all I was the one who had managed to get one of his dads car into a ditch. Maybe it was the fact that bill was not actually mad at me. But what ever it was I got mad and started to do something I seldom do.

“William!” I started. “ I am not a child; I can change tires, I can fix things, and I know things about stupid cars.” My hands were on my hips and my face was getting red. “Maybe if you wouldn’t always treat me like a child, I’m not a child am I? If you think I’m a child maybe I should sleep in the other room. You started it anyway.” I was pouting now and quite unhappy. “I told you when we started dating that I get into trouble, you were mean in the first place.” I stopped at that I didn’t know what to say.

I looked at Bill, he was trying to suppress a laugh, I turned to his dad who was opening laughing quite.
“I hate you!” I stamped as I started toward the house.

“ Kristin.” Bill started trying to catch my arm. I slapped it away and kept walking toward the house when he grabbed my arm. I attempted to jerk away but he held me hard. I turned to try to get out of his grip and he took my other arm. “Kristin, you could have been hurt, I was just pickin’ on you bout the tire and you know it. You know better then messing around with things like that.” He explained sternly. I tried to jerk away again and saw every bit of amusement leave his face. He reached back and smacked me hard on the backside. We both kind of looked at each other. “Get in the house and clean yourself up. NOW.” I did.

I sat inside and turned on the TV. I hadn’t really meant to cause any trouble. Bill came in after while and we went home. I didn’t say much. As soon as we got in I went to take a shower still quite cross. I took a nice warm shower and as soon I was done I hopped into bed, figuring I’d take a nap. But dammit Bill was right there. “Kristin, you weren’t very nice to me today.” he started quietly. Pulling himself on top of me.

“I was too, you were mean.” I started. I couldn’t help looking into his eyes. I pulled him close to me and gently kissed his cheek, “I was just trying to make you happy,” I said still pouting. His lips met mine. I looked at him warmly, and gently pulled him close. “I’m sorry.” I said again; now I was smiling.