The Road Trip

Pure bliss was running through me as I was once again rubbing my tummy in satisfaction of my latest meal sitting in the car. Muy deliciosa! Go McDonald’s, go McDonald’s! Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought happily, luckily this time Levi was used to it. But, sadly, Eric wasn’t, so he began to tremble almost as bad as Levi did when she first watched me. Well at least now I know not to freak out about his health this time.But I wasn’t comforted by this thought, I mean yeah sure HE’S okay, but I have to go through the uncomfortableness of knowing that someone is laughing at me. Not fun. Hence the reason why my defense mechanism came out.

“Oh my goodnesss, are you okay?” I said to Eric sarcastically and faking a nice tone. He continued to tremble, but managed to get out a few words.

“Just….fine… too… funny…” He said before succumbing to the trembling once again. I rolled my eyes at his lack of acknowledgement to my tone.

“Are you sure? Maybe we should take you to the hospital, just in case, and have them check things out.” I said sweetly, a little bit too sweetly. At the word hospital, Eric shot up with a frantic look on his face that said ‘No, no! Not the hospital!’ After I was done talking and notice he still had that look on his face, I smirked. You see, while at McDonald’s we somehow got on the topic of our greatest fears—with us any topic is fair game— and we all went around the table saying them.

Levi had two that tied for the greatest, being all alone, as in completely isolated, and having everyone hate her. I sympathized with her on both of them, I’m sure that if I were to make a list of 100 fears that I have they would be somewhere on there, probably not the top 50, but still there. Eric had to think about it for a few minutes, but when he told us he had said hospitals. His exact words were:

“Creepy hospitals, with mean doctors who enjoy seeing sick people, and sick people who try to give their sickness to others!” which were said in almost a baby voice.
When he told us that I virtually rolled my eyes and thought, Sooo overdramatic, my gravy!But what I had then said was:

“Oh you poor thing, you must have had some bad experiences there huh?” a little bit too consolingly, but he didn’t catch it, just nodded and looked at his hands in his lap. After he had been staring at his hands for a bit, he looked up with an almost epiphanic expression.

“So, Denny, it’s your turn.” Oh doodles on toast… What to say, what to say…I had to think about my fears for such a long time, Levi and Eric had gone back to eating before I said my top two.

“Well… I’ve deliberated, and I’ve decided that I have two.” I paused before going on to say them. “One is being deathly afraid of spiders, and two…” I paused again, not wanting to admit this to anyone, not even myself. “Uhm heights?” I said in a questioning tone, which was silly since why would I ask them what my two fears were? Because that isn’t my second fear…

That had been an extremely interesting conversation, and yes it might have been cruel to bring up Eric’s worst fear to him, just because I was annoyed, but oh well, there’s no turning back now.

“Denny that’s so wrong! I told you I was afraid of hospitals! Don’t even joke!” Eric said, aghast and scolding. Levi was just watching both of us with wide eyes.

“Then don’t laugh at my tendencies!” I told him defensively. Maybe I had been wrong to use his fear against him, too bad.

“Laughing isn’t as bad as scaring someone to death!”

“Yeah it is, they both hurt just the same!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yes huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yes huh!”

“No, Denny, it isn’t.” Eric’s tone had changed to a stern, yet almost hurt one.

“…” I said nothing in reply, but quirked an eyebrow.

“I trusted you with my fear and then you go and use it against me, it’s not the same as laughing at someone’s actions that they do all the time, especially if they’re friends.”

“I’m…sorry…?” I told him dumbfounded and unsure of what to say. I didn’t mean it…But I couldn’t say those words aloud. Too much pride.

“I can’t talk to you right now, Denelle.” And with that Eric turned away and looked out the window, but I continued to watch him through the rearview mirror. Ouch, he called me Denelle.The only one who EVER called me Denelle, was my mom when she was mad at me. Plus, teachers on the first day of school, but after the first day of school they always called me Denny. What to do what to do… I glanced at Levi who gave me a disapproving look then shrugged, putting the key in my ignition, starting the car, and beginning to drive back to the hospital. I wonder how Eric waited for me that long in the hospital if he’s so afraid of them, he must really care about me…I thought as we drove. The whole ride was in silence except for the low hum of the radio.
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