She'll Fall in Love With You

Drive at Five

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and I was working. Blech. Work sucks. It is so monotonous. Especially if you work where I do... Target. Sounds kinda fun, right? Wrong. I'm a cashier, it's very boring. My typical day is: Clock in. Go to register. Turn on light. Smile.

"Did you find everything okay?" Grab item. Scan. Put in bag. Repeat until belt is empty.

"Would you like to apply for a Target Visa today and get 10 per-" Get cut off. Smile.

"Your total is [insert random number here]. Will that be cash, check, or charge?" Smile. Wait while credit card gets accepted.

"Here's your receipt. Thank you far shopping at Target. Have a nice day!" Smile. Repeat until shift is up.

Agh! If I had to deal with one more day of this monotony, I was gonna shoot myself. Or at least take a few sleeping pills to sleep through the weekend. My shift was finally over, so I ambled towards the door with the "Team Members Only" sign on it to go punch out, when I heard my name being shouted.

"Emma-Lee!" I turned around to face the direction my name was coming from, "Hold up!"

My best friend Lauren ran over to me from Food Avenue. She had her car keys in her hand and looked very exited. Or nervous. I couldn't tell yet. As she ran up to me she tried to slow down by grabbing my arm.

"Ow! What the heck? Why are you yelling at me? I gotta go clock out."

"Okay, but as soon as you do we have to go. I'm gonna take you to your house so you can get your stuff and then we're leaving. You don't have work on Monday do you?

"No, why? Leaving? Where to? What are you on? I'm going home and I'm gonna eat and then sleep because I've had a long day and I don't want to go anywhere."

"Whatever. Just go clock out or whatever it is that you have to do and meet me at my car. I parked next to the cart thing in front of the store. And hurry!" She wagged her keys at me as she said that last part. She knew I was a dilly-dallier.

I watched her go outside and then turned to go and punch out. I wondered what was up. Did we have plans I had forgotten about? As I punched in my ID number I thought about what we could possibly be doing on a Sunday. Most Sunday afternoons Lauren would still be passed out from partying the night before. Lauren was one of those really nice, down to earth people that you can't help but like. But she also had a wild side. She LOVED to party, especially since she had turned 21. The parties had gotten crazier, but no matter what was going on in her life, she could always just let go and have a good time. I envied that about her. She was pretty too. She had blonde hair, of medium length, with brown sparkly eyes. She wasn't too tall, or short. She was "perfect in every way" as she liked to joke. I jogged out to her car and she gave me a ride home. As we walked up to my apartment I noticed she had a kinda evil smirk on her face.

"What's that for?" I inquired.

"What's what for?" She played dumb.

"You know what I'm talking about…that smile...what is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Whatever…okay what kind of stuff do I need? I don't even know what's going on, so you're gonna have to help me with this." I had walked into my room and grabbed my duffle bag. I shoved the basic stuff like socks, underwear, bras and toiletries in the side pockets. Lauren hesitated, then responded slowly.

"Well, you'll need something comfortable, but cute and not too casual. And pajamas. Oh wait...no...you probably won't need those..." she trailed off, thinking. "Oh! And you'll need a change of clothes. Something that you look really good in, but it doesn't seem like you're trying to impress anyone."

Her instructions were peculiar, but I followed them. Soon I was ready to go and Lauren rushed me out of the door. We got on th 101 and headed south. I had no idea what was going on.

"Will you tell me where we're going yet?"

We had been driving for 2 hours and Lauren had kept her lips sealed. At least about our destination.

"Well, when we get closer, I'm gonna make a stop, and I'll tell you then, because I know you're gonna want to get ready."

"Get ready for what!? I asked in complete exasperation.

"I'll tell you when you need to know!" Now it was Lauren's turn to get irritated. I guess she had a right considering I had been bugging her the whole time we had been driving.

"I'm gonna turn on the radio." I reached forward and pushed the volume dial, making the radio light up and turn on. I flipped through the stations until I found a decent one.

'You're listening to Sly 96. All of today's best music. Coming up next we have some Gwen Stefani, and the new one from the Backstreet Boys. And don't forget to tune in at 5:00 for our "Drive at Five" contest. We're gonna be giving away some tickets to the sold out Simple Plan show that's going down tonight in San Diego. You won't want to miss out. Stay tuned"

I listened passively to the radio announcer. I immediately got depressed when he mentioned Simple Plan. That upcoming Monday I was gonna go to a talk show Simple Plan was appearing on, but it got cancelled. And then when I had tried to get tix to the San Diego show, it was sold out. Lauren glanced over at me.

"Honey, you're not still depressed about that talk show thing are you? I though you had gotten over that."

"I thought so, too. But it just makes me so sad. I don't know why. I'm probably just overreacting."

I looked down at my watch. It was 4:58 in the afternoon. And from what I could tell, we were somewhere just south of Ventura. I did some quick math in my head.

"Hey Lauren?" I asked timidly.

"What's up?" she replied.

"Umm..if we called into that radio show and actually won those SP tickets, we could be in LA in time to pick up the tickets and in San Diego in time to see the show. Would you be willing to ditch what you have planned to go to the concert if we did win?"

"Well, I don't know. I guess I can decide once I've known whether or not we actually have the tickets." she had a slight smile on her face.

I turned up the volume on the radio.

"Okay all you Simple Plan Fans out there! The 1st person who calls with the correct answer to the question I'm about to ask, will win 2 tickets to the SP concert TONIGHT! Okay everybody have your phones ready? Here goes...Which member of Simple Plan worked as a BBQ chicken chef? The first caller through with the right answer gets the tickets....."

That's when I tuned out.

"It's Pierre! Lauren, it's Pierre!!"

"Well then, call! What are you waiting for!?" she shouted right back at me.

I quickly dialed the radio stations number. My hands were shaking and I messed up the number. I pressed 'end' and tried again. I pushed 'send'. It rung once Twice. Three times.

"Hey! This is DJ Mel. You just missed it. The caller right before you won the tickets. Sorry. Would you like to make a reque-"

I hung up the phone and tossed it into my purse.

"Emma-Lee, don't beat yourself up over it. You know you had the right answer, someone just called sooner than we did. Look, it's not the end of the world ya know."

It might as well be. At least if the world was ending I'd have something better to think about than how I screwed up my chance at getting Simple Plan tickets. I didn't want to beat myself up over it, but what else was I supposed to do? It's not like I could watch T.V. or something,

And I was mad at the radio. From what Lauren said, we still had a couple hours to get to our
destination. I needed something to keep my mind off of what had just happened.

"Lauren, do you have any books in here?"

"Just my advanced Physics book. Why?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just looking for something to read to get my mind off...things."

"Sorry. No-can-do."

I leaned back against my seat and reached down to pull the lever that reclined the chair. I fumbled around for a sec and then found it. I slowly lowered myself down. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on the hum of the highway.
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I didn't do much editing on this chapter, so sorry if it is crummy. I basically just made sure the grammar and spelling were correct. I probably missed some stuff. Let me know if you find anything :)

Comments/critiques/questions always welcome :]