~Diane's POV~
The rain had stopped, but the night air hung heavy and damp, clinging to my skin like a bad decision. I stood on the shoulder of that godforsaken deserted road, thumb out, feeling like the world's biggest i***t.
My car had sputtered out miles back...some piece-of-s**t transmission failure, and my phone was dead, wallet empty after blowing my last cash on gas that didn't even get me home.
Urban sprawl faded into this stretch of nothing...cracked asphalt flanked by thick woods on one side, endless blacktop on the other. It was late, past midnight, and the occasional headlights whipped by without slowing, their drivers too wrapped up in their own bullshit to notice a stranded woman in a soaked tank top and jeans.
I shivered, arms crossed tight over my chest, frustration b
