Sing It for the World

It was much harder for them to stay under the radar than Aurelia had been expecting it to be, she thought to herself. They had stopped staying in hotels after the first night, when there had been a news report about her disappearance. They had been sleeping together in the backseat of the car, and while it might sound somewhat romantic, it only proved to cause sore backs and short tempers between the two of them on the drive to Los Angeles.

During the drive, Aurelia had discovered yet another aspect of relationships that she hadn’t yet known before leaving New Jersey. She might love Frank, she realized, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t to have arguments like every other couple. His most recent problem was the fact that she wouldn’t let Biscuit sleep on the front seat at night. She didn’t see why the dog had to sleep in that small space when she could sleep on the floorboards, so she let him sleep in the back on the floorboards beside them. Frank got annoyed with the dog.

The arguments always passed within an hour or so, however, and then they were back to their normal selves. The driving made her more exhausted than she’d thought it would, considering she was only a passenger. Frank wanted to make it to the west coast as soon as possible, and he spent twelve hours a day behind the steering wheel. They normally only stopped once or twice a day; to go to the bathroom and get something to eat and drink before they got back on the road. They parked in abandoned rest areas at night, and started driving again by sunup. It was a tedious schedule that wore both of them out, but they knew it was necessary.

“We should be there by tomorrow night,” Frank murmured to her, pulling her out of her thoughts. She looked away from the window, and shot him a happy smile before nodding, leaning her head onto his shoulder before kissing his skin there softly. He took one hand off of the steering wheel and wrapped it around her shoulder before he kissed her forehead softly. The sun was just starting to come up, and they’d only been on the road for about a half hour or so.

“Frank, you look tired,” she noted after a few moments, looking up at him with a frown. She knew that he had to be dead exhausted because of how much he had been driving, and the last thing she wanted was for him to get in a wreck. She realized that he wanted to make it to California, but she also didn’t want him getting into a wreck or falling asleep at the wheel. It scared her how determined he was to make it there; not because she didn’t want to be there too, but because she didn’t want them to get hurt while on their way. If they ended up in a hospital, everyone would know who the two of them were, and that wasn’t the kind of way she wanted the world to know who she was. She didn’t want to lose Frank that way.

“I’m fine, baby,” he shook his head, purposely fighting a yawn so that he wouldn’t scare her. Like Aurelia, he too was worried about how fast he was going. But it couldn’t be helped, he reasoned. It wasn’t safe to take their time getting to California. The longer they took, the more chance there was that someone in a gas station or a fast food restaurant would know who they were. And he wasn’t about to let them take Aurelia away from him; not now, after he’d gotten so used to having her in his life on a daily basis. He couldn’t lose her now. Keeping her safe meant getting to California faster, and that was precisely what he was going to do. He knew it wasn’t safe to be going eighty-five miles an hour down the desolate highways that led them to the Golden State, but he also knew that, in the end, everything would work out. It had to, right?

“We could pull over in some rest stop and sleep, Frank. One day won’t matter,” she murmured, trying to convince her boyfriend to take a break. Even if he just took a nap for a few hours, she would feel better. But the heavy, dark bags underneath his eyes and the way their color seemed almost dull because of how exhausted he was worried her.

Frank thought about it for a minute, and then nodded before grabbing her hand over the center console of the vehicle. He knew that she was only worried about him, and that she was only trying to get him to see reason. “Alright,” he nodded, licking over his bottom lip as he took his eyes off the road for just a few seconds to look over at her.

Those few seconds were enough for a series of events to happen that both of them had been dreading. Along with turning his head, Frank was mentally exhausted enough to accidentally lead his hands in the direction his head was going, causing the car to make a sharp turn towards the right. Aurelia let out a scream as Frank lost control of the vehicle, and it was all he could do not to scream as well.

His first priority wasn’t his safety, but Aurelia’s. His hand went out to block her from being propelled forward to hit the dash, and he grimaced as he felt something in his wrist snap from the impact. The car stopped a few minutes later, thankfully not hitting anything except a few fence posts that caused the air bag to release.

The next few minutes were eerily silent. The only sounds in the air were some clunking sounds from the engine, and Aurelia’s heavy breathing and frightened sobs. Frank let out a small groan of pain as he pulled his seatbelt loose to look over at Aurelia, giving her a concerned look.

“Are you okay?” He asked her quietly, causing her to look over at him. She nodded shakily, and then pulled her own seatbelt loose before flinging the passenger side door open, needing to get out of the vehicle.

Frank followed her, calling Biscuit’s name. The dog crawled out from the backseat, obviously more than frightened, and Frank grabbed her collar before walking over to Aurelia, who had sat down beneath a tree they’d narrowly missed. “Baby, we’ll be fine,” he told her, grabbing her hands in his. He knew that his wrist was sprained at the very least, but he didn’t care.

Aurelia looked up at him, and for the first time since he’d lost control of the car, he saw the pure fright in her eyes. She was more frightened than she had ever been in her life, and she wanted nothing more than to just collapse into his arms and cry. Frank knew all of this without needing her to say the words, and so he opened his arms for her. She crawled over to him, tears falling out of her eyes, sobs coming out of her mouth.

She couldn’t find the words to say how she felt. She doubted there was even one single word in the entire dictionary to describe the feelings coursing through her body. She was scared, and at the same time, she was angry. She was relieved that it was over, and yet she couldn’t stop replaying it in her mind. She was happy that they were both alive, but she couldn’t stop thinking that those few seconds could have caused them to die. It was all truly scary for her, and she couldn’t find the words to communicate with Frank.

“Hey, shh,” he whispered into her hair, holding her tightly. The dog could tell that she was upset as well, and wiggled her way to snuggle up on Aurelia’s side. Frank pushed his fingers through her hair, holding her and letting her cry. He couldn’t deny the overwhelming sense of guilt that washed over him when his eyes looked back over at the wrecked Trans Am.

This was all his fault, he told himself. None of this would have happened if he’d been less paranoid. He knew that he needed to get Aurelia to California, but to do that, he had needed a vehicle. He should have known better than to drive while he was that exhausted. He highly doubted that the police were looking this far for them yet, even if they did have newscasts out here about the two of them. If he’d been more careful, Aurelia wouldn’t be scared right now, and he wouldn’t be blaming himself.

He couldn’t say the words he needed to tell her. He just wanted to make her see that everything would be alright. Somehow, someway, he was going to get her to California. And when he did that, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that her voice was heard. He was going to make sure everyone knew who she was. He was just hoping that they could somehow come up with a plan to get there without being found by police or being recognized.