Consumed (2 page)

“I mean it, put that shit out,” Joel repeated. “You fucking stink.”

“Jesus, deny a man his simple pleasures, Joel...” moaned Michael. He took an extra long drag before flicking the butt out of the van. “Happy?”

“You going to spend the whole weekend smoking?”

“Depends if you’re going to spend the whole weekend being a miserable fuck.”

There was the slightest of pauses before they both started laughing.

“How have you been?” asked Joel as he started to drive the purple vehicle out of the car park.

“Well...I’m better now I’m not going back to that shit-hole. You got my bag?”

Joel nodded, “What did they say when you told them?”

“Told them? I haven’t told them anything.”

“You’re just not going back?” Joel was a little younger than Michael not that you’d think it if you looked at them side by side. Years working in cold garages, training as a mechanic, had ruined his complexion and he always looked as though he hadn’t bothered to wash the various engine greases from his black hair; always knotted and matted.

“Damn straight. I don’t owe them any favours. You finished the van then?”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“Sort of.”

“Well it’s looking good.”

“Yeah, I got that bit fixed up okay.”

The van did look good. A classic VW camper van with a funky sparkling purple paint job which certainly caught the attention of people passing by. The roof rack was a shiny chrome metal. Even the van’s grill was chrome. The insides had been fixed too. The seats, once covered in torn smelly fabric, were now a lush leather - a lush leather Joel was extremely protective of even to the point of asking people to remove any keys from their back pockets before taking a seat for fear of causing a rip.

“So what bit wasn’t fixed up okay?” asked Michael.

“Let’s just say we nearly ended up having to get a taxi...”

“What?”

“It wouldn’t start.”

“But it’s okay now?”

“I guess. I haven’t actually switched the engine off to check if it starts again. I got it started. I figured why rock the boat?”

Michael laughed, “Don’t you think it would have been a better idea to get the engine fixed first?”

“Aren’t you a little old to be working in a cinema?” Joel countered.

“Ah ha! I don’t work there anymore!”

“Touché! Anyway, I don’t have the money to fix the engine at the moment.”

“Where are we picking the others up from?” Michael asked as he made himself comfortable.

“They’re all waiting at Lara’s house.”

“Lara?”

Joel nodded.

“She’s still coming?” asked Michael.

“You know, she never wanted to come on this trip. She was only doing it to please me...”

“And now you’ve broken up?”

“Well now she’s coming on it just to piss me off.” Joel noticed Michael was looking at him with a look of concern on his face. No doubt he was worried about the potential non-stop bickering from the ex-couple.

It wasn’t just jobs Michael drifted between - it was also girlfriends - and he was a firm believer in the impossibilities of remaining friends once you had broken up with someone you’d ejaculated in. ‘Lines had been crossed,’ he always told people who argued that it was possible to remain friends.

“It will be fine,” said Joel with what was supposed to be a reassuring smile, “we’re both adults...”

* * * * *

“Asshole.” Lara was standing at the van’s side door. It was the first time she had seen Joel since he had unceremoniously dumped her via text message; an act brought about by lack of phone credit as opposed to cowardice - not that Lara believed him and certainly not what she told their mutual friends who preferred to simply not get involved.

“Whore.” Joel’s insult was merely a reaction to being called an asshole. He didn’t believe Lara was a whore. He had been her first love and knew she hadn’t seen anyone since they had broken up. As soon as the word escaped his lips he regretted it - not that he wanted her to know.

“Okay, you can sit right at the back,” said Hayley - another of the group - as she pushed Lara into the seats towards the back of the van; the furthest point from Joel.

Hayley and Lara were complete opposites; whilst Hayley was a natural blonde, with
brain cells to match, Lara was dark haired and highly intelligent. Hayley was stunningly attractive whereas you had to look deep to see any beauty in Lara - that’s not saying it wasn’t there, it was just well hidden underneath the shield she continually put up to protect herself from the assholes of the world. A shield which Joel saw straight through after initial, careful navigation. Hayley never left home without a full face of carefully applied make-up - used expertly to enhance her model-like looks - and Lara never left home with make-up. Even when she and Joel were dating she still preferred the natural look as opposed to a look which gave the impression of being too ‘try-hard’.

It would be a safe assumption that neither Hayley nor Lara would have been friends had it not been for their mutual acquaintances.

With Lara tucked into the corner of the back row of seats, Hayley climbed up onto the row of seats behind the driver’s seat.

“They haven’t started already, have they?” asked Dan. He jumped into the seat next to his girlfriend, Hayley, and turned to Lara. “You haven’t started already, have you? You’ll never win him back at that rate...”

“I wouldn’t take him back,” she hissed.

Michael leaned over to Joel and whispered in his ear, “Dude - she hates you...What did you say to her?”

“Not a lot. I only had enough credit to send the one text.”

“You text her?”

Joel nodded.

Michael couldn’t help but laugh, “That’s awesome.”

Lara called from the back seat, “I can hear you, you know...”

Dan carried on pestering her, “Did you save the text? Can I read it?”

“Fuck off, Dan...” she hissed.

Charlotte, the final member of the group, climbed into the van and took her seat next to Lara, “Please stop arguing,” she urged. The youngest girl of the group, Charlotte hated anything to do with arguments or ill-feelings. Protected from the harsh realities of life, like arguments between friends, by her parents - the others often felt the need to try and protect her too. Anything to stop her from bursting into tears - something she was often prone to doing and often without much cause. “You said everything would be cool between you guys.”

“It will be,” said Lara. She turned to look out of the window, “As soon as he drops dead. Okay. I’m sorry. It’s out of my system now.”

“Look...” Joel went to argue.

“You’re talking to me? You sure you wouldn’t prefer to send me a text? I haven’t changed my number yet,” she retorted, cutting him short.

Michael leaned across and whispered, “Because she’s still hoping you’ll text an apology and go back out with her.”

“Not happening,” Joel whispered back. “Not got any credit, for one.”

“Come on already!” shouted Dan. “Let’s get this show on the fucking road already! We’ll never get there! Come on! Come on! Come on!”

“Okay!” Joel shouted back. “Charlotte, did you tie the bags in properly on the roof-rack?”

Michael turned to look at Charlotte; sitting in the back playing with her dark hair - twiddling her ponytail between her fingers - something she often did when she was nervous. He turned back to Joel. “You seen the way her pony-tail is tied back?”

“What’s wrong with my hair?” asked Charlotte.

Michael turned back to her, “Nothing, it looks lovely. I’m just saying he may want to give the knots a quick check before we set off. Be a shame to get to the site only to find everything has fallen off back where we set off.”

“They’ll be fine,” said Charlotte as she continued playing with her ponytail. Joel gave her a quick glance in the rear-view mirror. Seconds later he jumped from the driver’s seat to give the ropes a quick check. “Jesus Christ, I do know how to fasten things to roof racks properly!”

Michael laughed and gave Charlotte a big, cheesy grin.

“I’ve got a question,” asked Dan - sitting in between them. “Are you two finally going to fuck and get it out of your system on this break, or what?”

“Me and her?” said Michael. “She wishes...”

“Uh huh...okay then, lover-boy,” said Dan with a grin on his face. He knew the constant bullying, from Michael to Charlotte, was nothing more than a playground mentality. He knew because it was exactly what he used to do with Hayley. In the end though Hayley was too slow to notice any kind of signal from Dan so he had resorted to plying her with wine until she was bordering on unconsciousness for their first kiss...and more.

“Oh my God!” said Charlotte. She tried to hide her reddening face behind her hair. Unlike Hayley she wasn’t too slow to notice any signals. She just wasn’t used to receiving them in such a way and so, most of the time, they went over her head. A late starter in the romance department thanks to attending an all girls’ school until the age of eighteen.

“All good!” said Joel as he jumped into the driver’s seat. “Ready or not...Here we go!”

A cheer from Dan and Hayley. Lara was still sulking about having to share a van with Joel. Michael was staying silent hoping his denial of fancying Charlotte was enough to kill the conversation for the rest of the trip. Charlotte was wondering what she had let herself in for by agreeing to come on this trip in the first place.

The plan was simple. Drive through the early hours of the morning when traffic would be minimal and get to the campsite in time for a morning fry-up. The van reached the end of the road, the indicator flashing to all those nearby that they were about to turn left to head off towards the countryside.

Dan piped up from his seat, “Dude, I need to take a piss.”

CHAPTER TWO

‘In 200 yards, turn left’
chirped the female voice on the satellite navigation system, which had been suckered onto the middle of the van’s windscreen.

“Do we have to listen to that the whole way?”
whined Michael - already irritated by the female’s robotic voice, despite only being on the road for five minutes.

“Well that is the whole point of sat navs; turn them on, when you’re ready to leave, put in the destination and - hey presto - follow the instructions until you arrive safely,” said Joel without even taking his eyes off the road.

There was a pause before Michael suddenly burst out with, “Yeah - fuck that.” Before Joel had a chance to realise what Michael was doing, he pulled the sat nav system off the window, switched it off, and threw it in the back of the van, “Head’s up back there!”

“Whoa! What are you doing! I need that!” moaned Joel.

“No, you don’t. You’ve got something better than a crappy little satellite navigation...You’ve got me. I know the way.” said Michael - an air of arrogance in his voice.

“Yeah, thanks but I’d rather have...”

Michael cut him off mid-sentence, “You realise those little machines...They take you miles out of your way.”