-Primrose's POV-
I've never been a morning person. Sometimes my sister has to jump on my bed to get me up for school. Sleeping on the ground didn't help with that a bit. I can hear the radio playing and someone is singing along. I check my clothes and myself and I seem ok. Nothing bad happened to me.
Something smells like real food! Normally it's just cold sandwiches for breakfast and dinner. I have a kink in my back but eventually crawl out of the tent. Outside, the hugest man I have ever seen is cooking eggs over the fire.
I look for Stacy and guys we were hitching with. The big guy turns around and looks at me. "They left you here." He has a young pretty face. It doesn't fit the rest of his body at all, and his voice is low and growling like his throat is hurt.
"That doesn't make sense. Stacy and I were going to the festival together!"
He turns back to the eggs and after a long pause he rumbles, "Some people aren't suited to camping. They got scared."
I'm looking around for my backpack and I can't find it. "They took my backpack! Everything was in there!"
"…sorry. I'm the one that scared them. I forgot you were in the tent. Maybe they will come back for you."
"It's my first time going by myself and it's not going very well. We hitchhiked with perverts, and now I don't have any money or clothes or anything. I'm gonna miss the festival! My sister is going to make fun of me." I'm starting to cry.
The guy hands me plate of eggs and goes to lean against his car. He is muttering to himself quietly, shaking his head back and forth. He comes back over. "When and where is the festival? Also, what is the festival?"
"It's the Burning Man Festival. It's…it's at the Black Rock Playa. They have it on Samhain and all the witches will be there and I'm supposed to go there without my family for the first time 'cause I'm eighteen but I'm a terrible witch!" I'm trying not to but I'm hiccupping and sobbing.
"Witches? Burning Man sounds familiar. I know I've heard that before. Samhain is Halloween right? Listen, you can stay here to wait on your friends. I'll be relaxing here for about 5 more days. You can use the tent. I'll sleep in the backseat."
I eat eggs, while the guy starts fishing in the creepy black lake. "I'm Primrose. What's your name?"
"…it's Sam." He says it grudgingly, like I tricked it out of him.
He fishes for the entire morning, cleans the fish, and pulls off all his clothes but his boxers. He is built more like some kind of rock monster than a human. I start to get nervous, but he just wades into the rocky lake and swims out to the middle. He floats on his back out there for hours, staring at the sky.
I get hungry and snack on his food. He has every kind of junk food available. Eventually, I head to the restroom to freshen up and shower. I have to wash out my clothes while I do it and wear them back wet. Not cool. He is back at camp when I return and cooking fish on a clever set of little pans.
We eat and I thank him. He grunts. I think…he feels nervous of me. He hasn't said anything to me in almost six hours. He pops his big car's trunk and pulls out a guitar case. I see other instruments inside. He sits down and starts playing parts of songs. He is scribbling in a black notebook and muttering.
I'm going to explode of awkwardness if we don't talk. As I'm about to start, he begins to sing. My jaw drops. It's totally different from his speaking voice. Rich. It sounds rich like a good chocolate cake is rich. You want more but it's almost too much. He is playing unfamiliar songs. Really good ones! I listen until he puts the guitar away.
"That was amazing! You should make records."
"That's my plan eventually. In California, maybe."
I nod. That makes sense. "So, where are you from?"
"…I don't know. Get some sleep." He crawls into the car and shuts the door.
What a weird guy.
The next day passes almost identically.
The day after that starts the same way, but I can't handle it anymore. I'm so bored! "Why are you out here? Where did you learn to play the guitar? What's your deal anyway? How old are you?" I'm following him around asking questions and he is trying to ignore me. I try to follow him into the water, but it's way too cold!
Eventually, during a break between songs, I ask, "Why do you float in that cold water so long?" At night, he always sits with his back to the fire. Another strange thing.
He stops and is shaking his head, and then spins around and yells at me, "Quit asking me damn questions! Fuck!" He is looking right into my eyes as he does it. They are usually a soft blue, but when the fire catches them this time, they reflect back a yellow light like an animal's eyes.
I flinched back and fell off the rock I had been sitting on.
He raised a hand and stepped back, "I…damn it." He walked out of the camp and into the darkness.
The next morning he comes back into camp and sits on the ground across from me. "I'm sorry. For yelling at you. As an apology, I'll take you to your gathering, but we have to have a few ground rules. You can ask me one, and only one, question a day. Choose wisely."
You're just doing this because you feel guilty?"
"Yes. That's your one."
I nod quickly. "Deal."
I help him pack the camp site and we leave before noon.