Love Hurts

"Nothing. Charlie was just leaving," I replied before Charlie could. "Weren't you, Charlie?"

He just looked at me. That blank, familiar, "What'd I do?" stare.

"I drove 75 all the way here until I got stuck behind a stupid combine, dang it I hate those things!" Sam's long, heavy brown hair blew around her face getting in her mouth as she spit out the word "combine." Sam hated farm implements.

"Thanks for coming, Sami, I really appreciate it," I purred, edging Charlie out of the picture by standing in front of him as if he were invisible. "I'll get my junk out of the Bug and we can jet, it'll only take a sec."

"No hurry, Iz," Sami responded, eyeballing Charlie with her evil blue-eyed Ice Glare. "What the heck are you doing here, Charlie," she put him on the spot. "Hoping to rescue a damsel in distress. Your specialty these days?"

"You know what, I should be going, I gotta do something in town in a little while," Charlie responded after deciding not to dignify Sami's accusation with any sort of defense.

"Good! You better git, then!" Sami encouraged waving her hand toward his obnoxious make-out mobile.

I smiled to myself. Sami always had my back.

For a minute there I felt a little guilty. Charlie was just trying to help. He'd have done anything I asked him to do. I just don't want anything from him. Least of all his help.

I'd rather be lonely than pitied.

"See ya, girls," he had to nerve to holler out his window as he pulled away, spraying dirt at us as he left. I knew he didn't mean to, but I called him a name just the same.

"I HATE THAT GUY!" I screamed at the tops of my lungs.

It felt good.

"He's such a tool. Don't waste another second on him, Izzy," Sami consoled. "But just remember: love and hate are not always too far apart."

I knew what she meant, even though I decided not to react to it. When it comes to people, you don't really hate something you never loved. Why would you bother?