Not A Moment Too Soon

"We're going to die at the side of the road," Luke shouted at a car that was driving by, his thumb out turning into the middle finger as the car sped by them. They'd been standing on the side of a stretch of country road in Arizona for what seemed like days. It had really only been a few hours, but on the boring land, time seemed to drag on. Luke let out a sigh and plopped down onto the dirt behind him, leaning back onto his hands. "We're never going to get moving." They'd been dropped off by their last ride at a gas station and had walked for a good two hours down the road. Now they were in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, waiting for someone to come to the rescue. "We're screwed, Tommy."

---

Holly ran a hand through her hair before she began to flip through the radio stations. Her and her best friend, Janessa, had set out on a road trip in her mom's old mini van the day before, and so far Holly was having a blast. They didn't have much, just a mini van with four seats, a few blankets, and a few sets of clothes. They wanted to see the continent, and decided that while they were still young it was the perfect time. They were only one state over so far, and Holly was excited for the month to come. Once she'd found a decent radio station, her hand returned to the steering wheel. "I haven't seen another car in, like, forever," Holly commented, glancing to her right to her friend.

@ fortune teller

Tommy could literally see the heat rising from the ground as a car sped by, leaving them with only a small gust of wind. "Man, that's been the third car to pass us by in the middle of fucking no where!" They had been lucky to see those three cars in the past few hour since no one ever drove cross country through Arizona. Although, it would have been nice to at least get some sort of ride with the cool breeze of the air conditioning... He shook his head not wanting to delve deeper into the thoughts of having something that he wasn't going to happen. Tommy decided to take a seat beside Luke on the ground before letting out a groan as the heat of the desert never ceased, "It feels like my face is going to melt off." Using the back of his hand, he wiped his forehead but it didn't really help that much.

--

Resting her head against her arm as she peered outside of the open window, Janessa let the warm breeze flow through her hair, bringing a smile to her face. She couldn't believe that Holly's mother had let them take her old mini van to go on a trip after graduation. It was only the start and they were still having a blast. "I don't think many cars pass through here with the heat and all that jazz." She said as she glanced back at Holly to respond before resuming her initial position. Janessa doubted that many people would have taken the risk like they had to drive to the other side of the country and back. "Imagine we broke down over here. Actually, I'd rather not think about it."

"Take off your shirt, use it as like a desert head wrap thing. Like Iron Man at the start of that first one," Luke suggested, shrugging. Taking his own advice, he pulled his pretty sweaty shirt off, and put it onto his head like Tony Stark in the first Iron Man. "Might help get us picked up too, man. Show of the bods, y'know." He didn't really think that that particular plan would work, but hey. At least his head was out of the sun for right then. It felt nice, too. His back was heating up very fast, but hey, the top of his head got a break from the rays of the sun. Luke looked down the road, sighing. "Another car's way down there. Maybe it's hot babes. Maybe its hot babes who will see my amazing physique and stop for us."

---

"I'd rather die," Holly said, shaking her head. She let go of the steering wheel, using one knee to keep it straight, and quickly tied up her hair in a messy bun on top of her head. Her hands returned to the wheel, much relieved to have her hair off the back of her neck. Her eyes looked into the distance, where she could see something, probably a couple people, on the side of the road. "D'you think that's what happened to them? Way up there. That like... dot on your side of the road." They were still pretty far away, but Holly was nearly certain that they were people, not a bag of trash or a dead animal. "Should we stop and see if they need a ride or something?" Holly knew if it was her, she'd appreciate someone stopping.

@ fortune teller

Unable to help the scoff that escape his mouth, Tommy pulled his shirt off before proceeding to wipe himself down with it. "Dude, I still don't feel any different whether the shirt is on or off. This is probably what hell feels like." He gave a sigh as he turned to see a car traveling towards them off in the distance. Tommy felt the weight off of his shoulders lift but they would still have to get the car to stop so he started to wave his shirt in the air. This would probably be their only chance for the next hour and he definitely wasn't going to let it pass by him. "Or maybe we should just hope that the car stops for us before hoping they are hot girls." But he really did wish that there were hot girls in that car.

--

She glanced over at her best friend in agreement since there probably couldn't be anything worse than getting stuck in the middle of the Arizona desert. At least that is the state she thought they were in. Averting her attention back outside, Janessa turned her head to squint her eyes to see the two tiny dots in the distance, one waving something in the air and the other standing there with something around his head. Well, it looked like there were two unfortunate souls that were living their nightmare. "That's gotta suck, Hol. I think we should stop cause they must be frying under this heat." She just hoped that they weren't letting two lunatics into the car by doing this. As they got closer, she saw that one was waving his shirt while the other using it as a bandana which also meant that they were shirtless. Awesome.

"Yeah, I'm gonna stop," Holly agreed. She slowed the car when they reached them, parking it fifteen or so feet down the road from where they were on the shoulder. She pulled the keys out of the ignition, and gave Janessa a small, hopeful look before climbing out of the car. She closed the door with her hip behind her, and walked around the back. Much to her relief, the two guys they'd stopped for were around their age, and not some creepy old men. And, bonus, they both looked pretty good without a shirt on. "You boys need a lift?" Holly asked, giving them a smile as she pushed her sunglasses up onto her head.

---

"Thank you sweet, merciful Jesus," Luke said as the car slowed and stopped. He stood up, glancing sideways at his friend. "Told you my amazing physique would do its job." He gave his friend a wink, looking over to the van that had stopped for them. Luke couldn't really believe their luck, honestly. They were actually getting picked up by two hot chicks. He didn't think it would happen when he said it. Not by a long shot. "We'd love one," Luke said with a genuine smile. At this point, it wouldn't matter if these two were serial killers and they never saw the light of day again. Anything to get out of the heat.

@ fortune teller

He felt his heart beating as the car started to get closer hoping that it would stop and thought he would die from joy as it pulled over. Giving him a light push, he scoffed at Luke, "Stop taking all the credit. There's also another body here that you're forgetting about."Hot chicks, hot chicks. Tommy started to verse over and over in his head until the two girls got out of the car. Oh, thank the Lord. They were either really lucky or something horrible was going to happen to them soon so they were getting really lucky. "Yeah, we'd thought we would die out here if you guys drove past." Tommy admitted with a sigh as he glanced at both of them.

--

As they pulled over, Janessa got out of the car to be met with a hot breeze and suddenly wished she was back inside of the car in the AC. Although, the view was definitely better than inside of the car. Now all she could hope for was that they were secretly serial killers that were just waiting for two innocent girls to come and pick them up. "Cool. You guys headed somewhere in particular?" She asked since they weren't heading anywhere in particular

[this is just going to be one joint post, easier for this part ]

"No, just going," Luke said, shaking his head. "Actually, maybe somewhere with food. I don't think I've eaten in a day and a half." That was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a good twenty hours since Luke had last eaten.

"Well, if you promise not to murder us, you can come along," Holly offered, smiling. She pushed her sunglasses back onto her face, mostly for the reason that she wanted to check them out without them noticing. Yeah, they could definitely come along. "We can stop for food if you want, I'm kinda hungry too."

"That'd be much appreciated," Luke said, smiling. He picked up his back, putting it over one shoulder. He lifted his other hand and gave a little wave. "I'm Luke, by the way. This is Tommy."

@ fortune teller

[same!]

Tommy gave a short wave to both of the girls as Luke introduced them before picking his backpack off of the ground and swung it back onto his shoulder. They probably ran out of food a good two days ago and hadn't eaten since,"Yeah, food sounds nice about now."

"I'm Janessa and that's Holly." She replied since it would only be fair that they introduced themselves in return. It would nice to have two other guys hitchhike with them. "Let's get back to the car though cause it's hot as hell out here."

He couldn't agreement as he moved towards the car before filing into the backseat with the two girls in the front of the car. "Thanks again for the ride. You're really saving us."

"Don't worry about it," Holly said, closing the door behind her and sticking the keys back into the ignition. "We're driving this way anyways. Might as well have two more people in the van, right? You'd probably be buzzard food if you stayed out there. Besides, we gotta keep up our good deeds count." Holly pulled back onto the road and caught up to the speed limit quickly. "So is everyone of the consensus that we can just stop at the first place we see? I don't think we can be picky." She glanced in the rear view mirror, pursing her lips. "How old are you guys?"

---

Luke dropped his backpack into the back, where the girl's luggage was. He pulled his shirt off of his head and instead put it back where it belonged - on his body. It was a nice temperature in the van, he was very happy to be in a car and not on the side of the road. He buckled up his belt and leaned back, getting comfortable. "Twenty for me," Luke replied. "I'm twenty one in December. Tommy turned twenty one in January." One good thing about having Tommy around, especially since January, is that he could get Luke booze. Before they used to have to beg Luke's older brother to get it for them, and half the time he wouldn't.

@ fortune teller

Janessa got back into her seat of the car before glancing back as the two boys slid into the back two seats. "Same with Holly and I. She turned twenty one back in March and I turned twenty one in April." It instantly felt more lively with two more bodies inside of the car and she reasoned that she liked it. "Where'd you guys come from? Can't imagine that you randomly found yourselves in the middle of the desert." She asked as she brought her feet up to her chest and rolled up the window as the AC came on. Janessa couldn't help but let her eyes wander over to Luke not that Tommy wasn't cute but he just caught her attention.

--

"Definitely consenting that we just stop at the first place we see. Although, if that place has tacos that would probably be more preferable. Just putting that out there." Tommy responded as he threw his backpack into the backseats of the car before putting his shirt back on and then buckling up. It seemed like he was the oldest person in the car by two months which didn't really bother him. The only thing that had changed since hitting twenty one was that he could buy booze legally now and go to clubs. Putting that aside, it was the same old life that he had at twenty.

"I'm the baby," Luke said, shaking his head slowly as he turned to look out the window. "I'm always the baby." He was used to be being the youngest. Throught gradeschool, he was the youngest in his grade every year. Having a birthday two days before Christmas did that to a person. He looked over to Janessa as she talked. "I'm from Washington, originally, but Oklahoma. We left home, what, three weeks ago? Neither of us had a car, but we wanted to go see the country. We took a cab from Tulsa to Oklahoma city, then hitched our way here. It's been a long trip so far." They probably sounded crazy. Who would want to hitch across the USA?

---

"That's... that's reallly something," Holly said with a small laugh. "We're just from Phoenix. We haven't been gone for that long. Sounds like we're having a bit less of a struggle than you two, so far." Every so often, Holly would glance in the rear view mirror to peak at Tommy. He was really good looking. She looked back to the road in front of her, looking at a sign that indicated a rest stop was only ten miles down the road. That would mean McDonalds, probably Starbucks, and a washroom.

@ fortune teller

Janessa couldn't help the chuckle the escaped her mouth since he really was the baby of the car. The only one that wasn't able to buy some booze but Tommy would probably end up doing it anyway so that wasn't the problem. "Oh, that's pretty similar to us. We just wanted out of Phoenix so we just took Holly's mom's car and hit the road so we haven't been traveling as long." It was pretty amazing that they had made it all the way to Arizona without driving and merely just hitchhiking. She looked over at Luke before asking,"You guys weren't scared or anything getting rides from random people? Cause we could have been kidnappers for all you know. I can promise you that we're not though."

--

Tommy grinned over at Luke knowing that they were having the time of their lives within those three weeks. Well, except for the little hitch where they were stuck in the desert. "It's been great. I'm sure you guys are going to enjoy where ever you end up going." As he glanced around, he saw that there was a rest stop a little ways away and could already imagine the smell of the food they were selling. Tommy probably would have eaten anything that they were selling.

"Well as long as I'm in air conditioning, I wouldn't really care right now if you were kidnappers, in all honesty," Luke chuckled. He was too hot and probably too sunburned to care. He was in an air conditioned van, and if he looked ahead, he could see a pit stop. All he wanted was some food, now, and he'd be set. He didn't really expect these to girls to want himself and Tommy to stick around after the food place. After all, they didn't really know them. Luke wouldn't be offended if that was the case, either. They'd brought them to food. Thats really all he could ask for.

---

Before long, Holly was pulling into the pit stop parking lot. There were a few food places inside the rather large building, and Holly briefly scanned the sign before pulling into a parking spot. She cut the engine of the car and pulled out the keys once again. She reached down beside her and picked up her purse, then climbed out of the car. She waited for everyone else to unload themselves before locking the van. They didn't have much, but she didn't want them to get robbed. "D'you guys have money?" Holly asked, looking to Tommy and Luke. She figured they would, but she was just making sure.

@ fortune teller

Reaching into his pocket, he knew that he had his wallet somewhere but wasn't sure how much money he had on him. Tommy pulled it out of his pocket before checking the money slot to see a nice twenty dollar bill staring right back at him. "Yeah, we have money, but I think we should buy you ladies lunch for stopping for us. The other jackasses just drove past by without feeling the slightest amount of pity." He really wanted to show how much he appreciated for at least driving them ten miles to get some food. Tommy figured that they would need to find another ride to get them further since the two girls probably weren't comfortable with strangers in the back.

--

She shook her head with a small laugh thinking that he was being ridiculous as they pulled off into one of the rest stops. Although, she reasoned that being stuck in the middle of the desert sucked possibly even more than being with kidnappers. Janessa turned her attention over to Tommy,"Oh, no... You guys don't have to do that." It was really nice of them to want to buy lunch but she didn't want them to feel obligated to do so. She filed out of the car once Holly pulled into the parking lot and closing the door behind her.

@ fortune teller

@ fortune teller

Luke shook his head, "Sure we do. You guys really helped us out." He said as he walked with them inside. He had a little bit of money so he could help a little bit. Luke stood in line and ran his fingers through his hair. "I can't wait to get some food in my stomach and something to finally drink." He said. He looked at Janessa and smiled at her.

---

Holly shook her head, "No you really dont." She said as she walked with them. Seh stood in line and watched Tommy. She didn't want to have them buying them things. "You guys will probably need your money." She told them. She felt bad for taking what ever they had.

[Hope that was okay]

@ Dandy Darling;