Lost & Found.

Newly died hair fluttered into my face and colored contacts itched in my eyes. The bright red color Fox had insisted on me using was sure to draw attention, but, of course, that was the last thing Fox was worried about. I was also wearing make-up, dark eyeliner around my newly acquired silver-grey eyes. The car Fox had gotten was expensive-looking and fast, he said that most people would assume we weren’t some ratty runaways if we rode around in it instead of some rusty beater.

“Don’t pout, Ginger,” Fox murmured with a fake pout of his own as he reached over and smoothly draped his arm around my shoulders. I suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable in clothes I’d reveled in in High School only months ago.

“Don’t call me Ginger,” I shrugged his arm away, trying to ignore the churning in my stomach.

“You got it, Blondie,” he laughed, firmly placing his arm around me again. I made a disdained sort of grunt sound, taking in his new attire. He’d bought a polo and some plaid board shorts, even wearing a hat and hair tie to cover up most of his grungy looking hair cut.

“Shut up,” I whined, crossing my arms over my chest half-heartedly. We weren’t ourselves, I decided, trying to un-tense all of my muscles and find my old preppy routine. It was like searching through your closet for an old outfit you’d grown out of a year ago. It was too late, I think I’d finally buried that skeleton.

My stomach untwisted itself, but I was still tied in a knot. I shook my hand out of a cramp and gathered my hair into my fist, bangs falling in thin, puffed layers in front of my eyes. I picked at a thin hair tie around my wrist, pulling it over my hand and wrapped it around the messy clump of hair several times.

“We’re in Iowa again,” Fox groaned, looking to his left and shoving an arm into the fast moving air, grabbing a hand full of it before pulling his still fisted hand back into the car.

“What’s so bad about Iowa?” I laughed, I’d never had a problem with the state.

“It’s just so,” he leaned farther into the seat, making an uncomfortable face. “It’s just so boring and empty,” he sighed and relaxed his back as the words finally game out seemingly right.

“Then what’s Nebraska?” I was still laughing with a newly relaxed hand hanging itself out the window.

He stayed silent as I glanced lazily over at him, puzzled. “Nebraska’s Nebraska,” he eventually decided, shrugging with a confused wrinkle still firm between his eyebrows.

I nodded slowly to myself, facing the windshield again. “Alright,” I glanced around at the bare scenery, even the golden fields that had been in this place the last time had abandoned us. “I can see that,” I smiled a little, turning towards him and then back out the window.

I felt itchy and I couldn’t sit still. Something just felt wrong here and I couldn’t figure out what. “Fox,” I watched his head slowly turn towards me, only a small flicker of annoyance floating quickly through his green eyes.

“What?” he asked and I tried to ignore how there was a snap in his voice as he stared at me dully, wondering what I could have to complain about now, most likely.

I shifted in my seat, uneasy. “I’m bored,” I blurted. From the angle I was at it was hard to see what his reaction to the simple words were but I could still tell his composure was lost for a minute. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or just laughing. I kept staring at him, itching my elbow and shifting so I was sitting more on my hip.

“Put on some music then,” he mumbled, regaining a stoic expression as he drove down the empty road. To this, I groaned, making him look over at me for a minute. “What?”

Ignoring him, I leaned into the almost nonexistent backseat and unzipped my backpack where I’d managed to stash a few of Kenny’s old CDs. The rest were shoved into the tiny trunk along with our bags. I shoved one of them into the player, not caring that it was probably the oldest CD I had of her’s with me. It was old enough to have a name and playlist on the back of it’s case.

‘In the middle of a gunfight, in the center of a restaurant they say come with your arms raised high. Well, they’re never gonna get me, like a bullet through a flock of doves to wage this war against your faith in me. Your life will never be the same, on your mother’s eyes say a prayer. Say a prayer.’

I smiled, remembering the tune, but not the words. Kenny would go around singing it all the time, dancing like crazy in her own way. That alone led me to admire this song. I turned myself so that I was looking out the window, hand fisted into a tight ball for my head to rest upon. I never believed I would miss her so much after all of the fighting we’d done. But, isn’t that how things normally work?

The phrase, ‘don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’ stands true, I guess.

“Life is but a dream for the dead, and, well, I, I won’t go down by myself, but I’ll go down with my friends,” Fox started singing lowly as he took another sharp turn, making my head bump into the hard glass of my window.

I rubbed my forehead a little. “Ow.”

Fox glanced over at me for a second, a guilty sparkle in his grey eyes. “Oh,” a smile broke out on his face as he turned unnecessarily sharp again, “sorry.”

I slapped him on the arm even though I was laughing too. “Shut up, no you’re not.”

“You’re right,” he muttered after a minute of fake thought, “I’m not.” He then proceeded to turn into a parking lot hard enough for me to sway violently towards him. My head bumped into his shoulder, but I was laughing too hard to care. He turned off the car, but the both of us continued to laugh until our lungs hurt.

It was amazing how we could get along when we weren’t arguing.

I blame the sleep depravation and the nerves.

“Asshole,” I chuckled out, looking up at the moonlit motel we were parked in front of. It was small, only one story with a half circle of about twelve different red-bricked rooms.

“Harsh,” he murmured, still grinning like a fool. The place looked nicer than some of the other places we’d stayed and I hadn’t felt like objecting in the first place.

Fox stared at me for a second before asking my approval of the place, to which I just nodded and watched as he silently got out of the car. Cold air swarmed around me, filling in the last bit of space left behind from the heater, forcing me to get out of the car also. The two of us made our way through the small maze of cars, wondering how such a small town motel could have so many occupants. I crossed my fingers inside my pocket for a vacancy. Fox didn’t look like he could stand having his eyes open for another hour and I felt like dropping and sleeping where we were.

My drowsiness, of course, doubled when we stepped inside. A block of warm air greeted us, sending shivers down my spine and a satisfied grin to my lips. I could hardly keep my eyes open anymore and started swaying on my feet. Out of reflex Fox reached out to steady me, keeping a protective arm around my shoulder.

The desk was small, a single key hanging from a nail on the fake wooded wall behind a depressed looking teenager. I didn’t blame him, having to work late at a place like this. “Please tell me you have a room,” I got out between yawns. He smiled, handing over the key, glancing between the two of us like he could smell something fishy. I smiled, trying to keep my knees from collapsing. “Thank you,” I practically moaned before Fox could drag me away from the office and back into the cold air.

“You gonna survive?” Fox asked lightly, dragging me to our room and unlocking the door as quickly as he could with his freezing fingers. I nodded, mouth open a little as the cold air nipped and ripped at me. “I’ll get our bags,” he sighed, shoving me into the heated area. I nodded at him again, not caring all that much.

Warmth surrounded me, a blanket of security instantly was wrapped around my shoulders, making me shudder just a little before flinging myself onto the bed. “Goodnight,” I muttered to no one.