Ready To Go (18 page)

“Probably,” he said. “I never clear out my phone contacts. I have the number of everyone I’ve ever met.”

“Except me,” she pointed out.

“Except you,” he agreed. “But you let your phone die again.”

“Took long enough,” she muttered.

He nodded absently, and continued, “You won’t turn on your phone and you won’t give me the number, so you’re not in my phone.”

“Well yeah, that makes sense,” she said. “I’ll give you my number when I get a new phone, because we are definitely still talking after all this.”

“Of course we are,” he said. “Didn’t we just have a big conversation like this last night?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m just trying to keep the conversation going so that I don’t have to think about how long this walk is.”

“Then let’s talk about, I don’t know, flowers,” he said. “Because we just passed a florist’s.”

“I like flowers,” she replied. “I’ve always wanted to have a boyfriend give me a dozen roses, but I’ve kind of dated jerks in the past.”

“No roses?” he asked.

She shook her head. “They haven’t
all
been jerks, but the ones who wanted to get me roses couldn’t afford them. So I’ve never gotten a cliché gift like that.”

Daniel abruptly turned around and headed back to the florist’s shop. Nicole followed him and grabbed the back of his shirt to stop him.

“No,” she said firmly. “I know what you’re thinking, and you can’t afford it right now.”

“But you want them,” he said.

“Send me roses when you’re back in school,” she replied. “Now, let’s get your car.”

The rest of the walk didn’t seem too bad. Daniel only tried to turn around and go to the florist’s one more time. Nicole laughed at him, and he just replied jokingly with, “But I just love you so much.”

She just gave him an awkward smile. He knew that little joke did not go the way he intended, and they ended up silent.

The awkwardness had passed by the time they reached the mechanic. Daniel went to talk to the guy as Nicole hung back, just looking around at the various tools in the shop.

“So, that’ll be three hundred,” the guy said. Daniel had his checkbook out, but paused before writing anything.

“You said two hundred yesterday.”

The guy gave a smile as greasy as his hands. “I did you an oil change. As a favor. Your car needed it. Sorry for you, that does cost extra.”

“I’m pretty sure the car didn’t actually need that.” Daniel raised an eyebrow, staring down the mechanic.

“It’s already done,” the man replied. He glanced at the checkbook in Daniel’s hand. “Cash or debit only.”

Daniel knew he had lost this battle. Even though the man’s business practices were underhanded, he was going to keep the car hostage until Daniel paid. They needed the car back. “Nicole, how much cash do you have?” he called over to the girl.

Nicole looked up from a pile of tools she was idly poking at. “I don’t know exactly. About two hundred. Three hundred with what the guy gave us.”

“So you have enough,” the mechanic said. “I’ll take that now.”

“He doesn’t accept checks,” Daniel explained as he walked to the girl. “I’ll pay you back the money, but we need your cash in order to get out of here.”

“Sounds like a rip-off to me,” she muttered, but she handed the cash in her pocket to him. “That’s the hundred ten from earlier. The rest is in my suitcase, let me get that.”

Daniel just nodded as he watched Nicole kneel down, unzip her suitcase, and rummage her hand inside for another wad of cash. She gave it to him, and he thumbed through, counting it. He separated out a few bills and handed the majority to the mechanic. “Three hundred.”

“Not including tax,” the mechanic said. “And tip.”

“How much is tax?” Daniel asked. His hand holding the remaining bills clenched into a fist, crumpling the bills inside.

“Oh, I’m not good with figures,” the man replied. “Just give me what you got there and we’ll call it even.”

“That’s
all
my money,” Nicole protested.

Daniel just sighed and handed over the money. “I’ll pay you back,” he promised the girl. “I just want the car now.”

“You better pay me back,” she mumbled.

“All yours,” the mechanic said, tossing Daniel the keys. “Thank you for your patronage.”

“Asshole,” he muttered as he walked to the car sitting just outside. Nicole followed him, having to run a bit to keep up with him.

“You just
let
him steal all my money?” she cried. “He had the three hundred! That was enough!”

“Will you get over the fucking money?” he replied, yanking open the car door. “I told you, I’ll pay you back. Fucking asshole wasn’t going to let us leave if we didn’t give him that. I bet he didn’t even need to order fucking that part he was talking about, either.”

“So you should have called the cops,” she said as she got in the passenger seat. “He
stole
my money!”

Daniel turned on the engine, and immediately turned up the sound of the stereo. The Lady Gaga song that blasted out wasn’t fitting to the situation, but it effectively drowned out conversation.

“What is
wrong
with you?” Nicole shouted over the loud music.

“My parents fucking cut me off!” he yelled back.

She reached over to the stereo controls and turned down the music. “Yeah,” she said. “That sucks. But you’re getting the money back, aren’t you?”

“When I do what
they
want again,” he said. “I thought this was my money. I’m an adult, they shouldn’t control me. But I’m doing one little thing that’s not in their plan, and they have to remind me they’re still in charge.”

“They’re not forcing you to go back now,” she said. “And we made a hundred dollars yesterday. You still have a little money left, even though I don’t. You’ll make it back to Pennsylvania and you’ll resume your life. You have nothing to worry about.” Her voice shook a little bit, and it was clear that she was forcing herself to stay calm.

He glanced at her. They were still sitting in the parking lot of the mechanic’s shop, still so close to the bastard that ripped them off. He wanted to tear the car out of there and speed away, but he saw what he must have looked like to Nicole, fucking swearing and shouting. He took a deep breath. “Yeah. You’re right.”

Nicole didn’t like the person that she saw before her, but she had to force herself to relax and deal with him. Daniel was still her ride. He was usually okay. He’d calm down.

Finally, she smiled. Daniel didn’t actually agree with her, but he knew she wasn’t the problem. He didn’t need to yell at her. Besides, she had a pretty smile. It calmed him down. They were in this together, and he was going to get her to LA without scaring her off.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

She nodded. “I’ve been ready. You’re the one just sitting here.”

He laughed, and the tension in the air melted away. “Okay. Let’s get to LA. Get you to your new home.”

“Where I’ll be a cook,” she said.

He shook his head. “I still say you should be an artist.”

“Let’s just get there, and then I’ll get a job in whatever I can,” she said. “Getting there is more important. So you can get home.”

“Yeah,” he replied. He pulled the car out of the parking lot, not driving as fast as he wanted to, but managing to stay under the speed limit.

“Do you mind if I go to sleep?” she asked. “It’s been a long day already and it’s not even noon.”

“Go ahead,” he replied. He turned down the music even more, so it was just a tiny beat in the background.

An hour passed in relative silence, only the quiet music and Nicole’s snores. The girl then suddenly shifted and woke up. She yawned, stretched her arms over her head, and asked, “Where are we?”

“Still in Nevada,” Daniel replied. “You weren’t sleeping that long.”

“I know,” she sighed. “Hey, did you call your friend yet, let him know we’ll be there?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. He dug his phone out of his pocket and tried to keep his gaze on the road while he scrolled through the list of contacts. He noticed Nicole gripped the edge of her seat as the car swerved slightly. But, when he had the number, he kept the car steady as he held the phone to his ear. “Hey! Ethan! It’s Dan!”

He worked out the details with his former friend, telling him that they’d be arriving that night. He repeated some of the more important points for Nicole’s benefit. “So it’s okay that we’ll be there,” he said. “And I’m staying tonight and heading home in the morning.”

“It all sounds great,” Nicole said after he’d hung up. She sounded a little sad, despite her words. The trip was ending, and it was hitting her that she didn’t know what she’d do next.

The two were driving more than they had any previous day. While before, Daniel would have at least asked Nicole if she wanted to stop at a cheesy tourist attraction, today he kept silent. They didn’t have time today, and he couldn’t afford it anyway. Both of them were completely broke.

Nicole glanced at the oddly quiet Daniel and remarked, “You’re really pissed about your parents, aren’t you?”

“I’m just focusing on getting to LA,” he replied, but then he sighed. “Yeah. Kind of. I just don’t get it. They’ve always been supportive before.”

“But haven’t you always done what they want before?” she asked.

He nodded. “This whole thing, it’s making me reconsider if I even want to be a doctor. Did I ever tell you that I can’t even look at blood?”

“You’re scared of blood?” she asked in disbelief.

“Not scared,” he replied. “It just makes me nauseous and dizzy to see it. It’s a common thing, but not among doctors. I always knew I wasn’t going to be able to handle being a surgeon, but I thought I could be just a regular physician or something. But getting away from my classes made me realize how much I hate it all.”

“I can’t believe you never thought of doing anything else.” She smiled. “I mean, I always wondered what I’d be when I grew up. When you were a kid, you already knew. How was that any fun?”

“I would pretend I was an astronaut or a fireman,” he replied. “I’m pretty sure every little boy does. But I always knew it was pretend. My parents would tell me what life would be like
when
I became a doctor, never
if
. It wasn’t a choice. They even wanted me to play doctor all the time with my friends.”

Nicole raised an eyebrow at him.

“Not like
that
,” he said. “That kind of game didn’t happen till high school.”

She shook her head. “I can’t imagine just knowing your life like that. I mean, I just figured out yesterday what I
maybe
want to do. You should be glad you’ve always known.”

“Except now I don’t know,” he said. “It’s all your fault, you know. You being so sexy and making me change my life for you.”

“I can’t help how sexy I am,” she said with a laugh. “You’re the one who randomly decided to drive me across the country. You didn’t think that would change your life?”

He’d been smiling at her joke, but the smile fell. “I don’t know.”

She nodded slowly. She was silent for a moment, before abruptly changing the subject. “So, do you want to get lunch?”

“Can we afford it?” he muttered.

“Of course,” she said. “You have some money left over, right? You were going to pay for the car before that jerk changed the price.”

“You can call him an asshole,” he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye and smiling. “You don’t swear a lot, do you?”

She shrugged. “I’ve got nothing against it. Curse words just are never the first to come to mind when I’m mad. I don’t know why.”

“Hey, I don’t care what you say as long as you don’t care that I can swear like a motherfucker,” he said. “But anyway, lunch sounds good. Want to get off at the next exit and see what’s there?”

“Sure,” she replied. “I don’t have a preference. Anything edible sounds good.”

They soon arrived at a small restaurant just off the highway. It was a chain diner, somewhere with familiar food. They could relax there, and while they were eating, they could forget about money.

“So, are you going to buy one of those maps to the stars’ homes?” Daniel asked.

Nicole rolled her eyes and laughed. “No way. I’m not that celebrity obsessed. It might be cool to run into someone famous, but I’m not going to stalk them. Besides, if I’m going to live in LA, I can’t act like a tourist.”

“Too bad,” he said. “I kind of wanted to join you on the celebrity stalking.”

“Weren’t you making fun of me for checking out gossip websites?” she teased. “Now who’s the obsessed one?”

“Hey, I hear that Will Smith has an awesome house,” he said. “Fine, I won’t do the cheesy stuff with you. But when you make it big and you have a mansion, you better let me come over and gawk at it.”

“Yeah, if I make it big as a cook-“
“Artist,” he interrupted.

“-I’ll totally do that,” she finished sarcastically. “Speaking of cooking, where’s our food?”

“I think I see it on the counter over there,” he said, craning his neck to look around the girl. “Yeah. Waitress just picked it up.”

They didn’t talk much as they ate. They were beginning to run out of things to talk about. But the silence between them was comfortable, and they were content to just smile at each other as they ate. Nicole glanced over at the next table where a man was loudly complaining about the quality of the food as he shoved large forkfuls of it into his mouth. She looked back to Daniel, and then tilted her head over to the man to bring his attention to that table.

He laughed, and said in a low voice, “He’s going to end up choking.”

As the two waited for the bill for the food to arrive, Nicole couldn’t help but glance over at the man again. He’d stopped eating, and was coughing wildly, trying to get a bit of food out of his throat. Nicole frowned, suddenly concerned. “Is he actually choking now?”

Daniel shook his head. “If he can cough, he can breathe. He’s fine.”

The coughing stopped. The man’s wife, sitting across from him, asked, “Arthur? Are you all right?”

“Okay,
now
he’s really choking,” Nicole said. “You need to help him.”