The Road Trip

Chapter 14
As soon as I entered the restroom, I noticed that there was a long wait. Gosh dang it! I thought, looking at the 8 people waiting in front of me to enter a stall. I scanned the other stalls and noticed that, out of 7, people were only lined up to go into 3 of them. This peaked my curiosity, so I poked the young, light-brown haired woman in front of me. I gave her a shy smile.

“Excuse me, ma’am, I was wondering why there’s only a line for 3 of the stalls?” I asked her politely.

“Oh well it’s because 3 of the other ones are broken and out of order, and the other one has some odd object stuck in it, none of us know what it is, so we didn’t want to go near it enough to flush it.” The woman replied just as politely. Ugh, public bathrooms, what can you do?

“Hmm, that’s pretty gross.” I told her, with disgust all over my face.

“I know right, nice to see where taxpayers’ money is going.”

“Right down the drain if you ask me.” I blushed a little when I realized what I said and then added quickly, “Pardon the pun, of course.”

“Haha, it’s fine, unintentional puns are the funniest, what’s your name?” She asked, while genuinely giggling.

“Denny, you?”

“Ella. It’s nice to meet ya, Denny. What brings you to this fine Floridian rest stop?”

“Well, when your bladder’s full you must relieve it.” I said with a shrug, then noticed her giggling again. I rethought her question. Oooh she meant… wow that was just.. wow of me. I saved myself.

“Unless you meant, what brings me to Florida? In which case, my best friend and I are going on a road trip around the country before college, and right now we’re heading down to Orlando.” I said, slightly quick, being as I was a little embarrassed of my off-handed answer.

“Ah, the beaches, the rides, the boys. ” Ella said the last one with a wink.

“Most definitely. Although, I’m not really hoping for a boyfriend going down there, but they’re certainly easy on the peepers. And my friend and I have never been to Disneyland or Universal Studios, (A/N: I haven’t been to Disneyland either Denny, don’t feel left out… :( ) so we were like ‘it’s now or never’ ya know?” I said/asked her with a shrug of my shoulders. The line was moving a little, so I could finally take another step towards what I now had pictured in my mind as a golden toilet, all sparkly and nice, with rainbows and angelic music surrounding it… Let’s just say that I had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad. These toilets better be worth it, I grumbled in my head, and what in the world could be taking these people so long in the bathroom? Just the thought of it gave me chills.

I noticed that Ella had been replying to my last statement while I had zoned out, thinking about rainbow toilets and odd activities in the stalls. Don’t. Ask. I shook my head firmly, placed a smile on my face, and focused on Ella’s words.

“—been to Disneyland quite a few times with my family when I was younger, their rides are actually okay and fun! The people in the costumes were a little creepy though…” She went off in what seemed like a possibly frightening reverie, then broke out of it and looked at me.

“But once you get past that, it should be a lot of fun! I haven’t been to Universal Studios though, so no yay or nay from me.” Ella finished, after collecting herself.

“Hmm… interesting, thanks! You didn’t have to hug the animals did you?” I asked her a little hesitant. Nice and funny Denny is. A hugger Denny is not. Not that I don’t hug Levi, but that’s only because she broke me after 6 years of attempting to convert me.

As far as she’s gotten is being able to hug her not awkwardly. Which is actually quite an accomplishment, when we first became good enough friends that would make hugging ‘not weird’ (although to me it always is) she told me her plan and even though I was nodding and smiling at her and saying encouraging words. Such as ‘I’m sure you’ll succeed’ or ‘it’s always a possibility’, all the time I was saying that I was thinking ‘good luck with that one chica, I doubt you’ll get past a light handshake’. But Levi was persistent, kept pushing and pushing, until hugging sort of became a routine thing, and routines I can handle. Other than her though, and my family of course, I don’t hug ANYONE, which is odd because people seem to find my presence soothing or comforting or whatever it is enough to want to hug me (Blech!). Which forces me to partially hug them back awkwardly. Not. Fun.

“Nope, you didn’t HAVE to, but I did, hence the incident that I refuse to discuss. But I should warn you before you go, if the same person’s in the Donald Duck costume, I’d watch out… (A/N: Like I said before, I haven’t been to Disneyland, so I don’t know if this is true, so this is just complete fiction for comedic purposes, no offense Donald…)” Ella said mysteriously, with an odd glint of something in her eyes, but I didn’t press the subject. Hmm… peculiar, but I guess I’ll still warn Levi about it anyway.

“Thank goodness!” I exclaimed, then leaned in close to her as if I was saying a secret, “I’m not much of a hugger to be honest with ya, I’m more of a fist bumper slash knuckle toucher, ya dig?”

“What’s a knuckle touch or a fist bump?” Ella asked with a confused look on her face. I gaped at her.

“You don’t know what a KNUCKLE TOUCH is?? Then you have not lived my dear Ella!!!” I exclaimed in surprise. I much teach this poor girl a fist bump, what kind of parents or friends doesn’t show someone how to knuckle touch?!?!

“Here, I’ll show ya! We’ve not a moment to waste!” I told her, and then showed her that she needed to put her hand into a fist. I showed her the basic fist bump, just a touch of the knuckles, then pull back. We did this multiple times while the line still slowly moved. Once she had mastered it, she did a happy dance.

“YAY! We’re making good progress here Ella!” I exclaimed, giving her another perfected knuckle touch in celebration! Then I paused, as she was still happy dancing, and pondered what the next step should be. Hmm.. should I teach her a few new tricks, or just let her stay at this stage, and hope that she meets someone who can add on to my fundamental teaching? I thought this over and decided I’d just show her one trick. I waited calmly until she was fully happy danced out.

“So you wanna try something else that sort of adds on to the knuckle touch?” Ella nodded fervently and had a determined look in her eyes. I knew that she was thinking ‘I got this’ just from that look.

“Okay then, it’s called the Jellyfish, and it’s actually pretty simple.” So then, we spent the rest of the time we had of waiting for a stall practicing the movements of it. Adding to the basic one, while pulling your hand back you do it in a jellyfish-like movement.

“Well, guess it’s my turn to go in.” Ella said, being as we had reached the front of the line and someone had just come out.

“Yup, guess so.”

“Thanks for teaching me this stuff; I’ll keep practicing the Jellyfish.” She said.

“Great to hear it, have fun in there.” I told her with a smile, and watched her head in. She’d made some progress on the Jellyfish, but needed to perfect and tweak her pull back just a bit more.

Someone came out of another stall. And I walked into that one without hesitation. I analyzed it. Sadly, I was disappointed… there wasn’t any rainbows or golden. It wasn’t even sparkly! But I guess it was pretty clean as public toilets go, so I used it and washed my hands after leaving the stall.

I turned to get some paper towels, and saw that Ella was waiting for me at the door. I smiled at her while drying my hands. Then walked over to her after throwing them away.

“Well it was nice meeting you.” She said to me with a giggle.

“You too!” I replied.

“Maybe our paths will cross again.”

“Maaaybe.” I said with a smile. We then exchanged phone numbers and she left the restroom first. I leaned against the wall for a minute just thinking. I can’t believe that I made a new friend while waiting in line for the bathroom. Just goes to show you, a friendly face can pop up anywhere, you’ve just got to be looking for them. Even in a public restroom.

I then got off the wall opened the restroom door and began to walk out. But then I noticed a cute little puppy on the ground, looking lost. I jogged over to it and looked for a tag or any sign of ownership. I couldn’t find any so I looked around to see if anyone else had noticed this cute little dog. No one had so I decided to just sit down and keep him/her company (hey, I don’t know him/her well enough to check). A few seconds after I sat down, I felt a sharp kick to the side of me, not too painful, just noticeable, so I paused from my petting to find the cause. I then saw that someone hadn’t seen me and tripped over me. I rushed over to them to see if they were all right. Oh my god! I am sooo sorry, I didn’t mean to, oh my goodness, I hope you won’t sue me! I was about to say to them, but ended up just thinking it as I paused while looking at the person still on the ground, but now facing me.