Status: weekly
Red Lines
Bren
Eli thanks his uncle or cousin or whatever a thousand times with clasped hands around the keys and a huge smile like the guys just permanently given him the Mustang for free. The guy doesn’t seem all that fazed by it, actually, it seems like he likes it as he just nods at Eli’s gratitude and smiles kind of smugly while saying ‘no problem, I haven’t used her since I got my Porsche’ and ‘really, it’s cool, I’ll be in my Porsche all summer’, and ‘I probably won’t even notice she’s gone with my Porsche keeping me busy’. I almost snort, but thank the guy once with a handshake before climbing into the bright red car and waiting for Eli’s giddiness to wear off a bit so he can start the car.
“We didn’t even have time to make a road trip playlist,” Eli narrows his eyes a little; “It’s just like a normal drive, now.” He stops at a red light and takes off his seat belt quickly to dive into the backseat and riffle through a bag.
“Dude, what are you doing?”
He’s jumps back into his seat before the light changes, but takes his time sliding the sunglasses onto his face. I turn my face up and he looks over at me, “It’s called setting the mood, roll down your window, will you? Stick your arm out the window and feel the sun in your hair, Bren.”
The car behind us honks and Eli hits the gas a little too hard as he turns up the radio, and I, while sighing, roll down my window.
As soon as we hit the freeway, the realization of what we are really embarking on hits me. While looking out at the other cars and tapping out the beat of the song playing on the radio on my leg, I kind of start to really believe that I’ll be stuck in a car with Eli for an entire summer. I look over at him, clutching the wheel as he sings over the song loudly and off-key with his window all the way down and whipping his hair into a frenzy. He’s barely focusing on driving, but that’s always been his approach. It’s nice. Like, really nice- the thought of having no obligations for the next two months; the thought of no expectations or deadlines or sense of time, even. I exhale heavily with a relief I barely allow myself to feel during the school year. I think I inhale some of Eli’s excitement and laugh a little
Eli glances over at me when the song ends and he pants while settling back into his seat and smiling, “It’s like living out that high school dream of ours, to go on a road trip.”
“It was your idea then, too.” But it’s true. I never really thought we’d do it like this though.
Looking out at the seemingly never ending highway, it makes me start to get sleepy. I’m out before I know it.
X
I wake to Eli emotionally belting out remixes to old pop songs as if they’re lovelorn ballads. It’d be hilarious, how much he is into ‘my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard’ and how he’s singing it opera-style with breaks for mock gasps as if it’s a seriously heart wrenching song- yeah, it’d be hilarious if only when I pulled myself up from leaning back and rubbed sleep from my eyes, I hadn’t realized that I had no idea where we were.
“Bren!” Eli breaks his singing to call, “Morning! Or night. Whatever.”
“Eli, where the fuck are we?”
“Huh,” he squints at the road signs as if he’s just realized that he’s been driving all this way, “Y’know, I’m not really sure.”
My mouth drops and I look at the clock that reads 9:13PM, I’ve been asleep for almost five hours. And Eli has already gotten us lost.
“My God, Eli, seriously?”
Eli turns his face up at me as if I’m overreacting and he doesn’t understand that within five hours he could’ve driven anywhere. “Yeah, seriously.” It’s a lost cause trying to make him realize something like that though with his stubbornness so I just settle for trying to figure out where the fuck we are.
I pull out my phone and go straight for the GPS.
“Hey, hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Eli swats at my hand.
“Trying to figure out where you’ve gotten us. What the hell?” I swat back at him for a few moments before he realizes that he’s swerving and a car starts honking and he has to pull his hand back quickly jerk the steering wheel over. I drop the phone with the sharp turn.
“What the fuck! Get the fuck off the freeway, Eli. Actually, pull over so I can drive because sitting in that seat for hours on end is obviously driving your ADHD-ass insane.”
“Aww, our first road trip fight,” he mock coos. I punch him in the arm. “Fuck you! I’m driving!” But he starts to get over to pull off the freeway and onto a street lit with lights from shop windows and streetlights. It’s late, but people are still walking up and down the streets and in and out of the places.
“Cool, this must a down town of…somewhere,” Eli says, trying to find a parking spot but cars line the metered street. “We can get food, and figure out where we are without a GPS-which is banned from this road trip, by the way. It, like, defeats the purpose of an adventure, Bren. We’re not following any computer voice or red lines.”
I simply roll my eyes as we stop and wait for a car whose meter has expired to pull off so we can take their spot.
“I don’t like this nonstop driving thing as much as I thought I would,” Eli says as he pulls into the spot. “Which fucking sucks, I don’t know how I’m going to keep this going for a month.”
“Seriously, Eli? A few hours in and you’re already caving?” I shake my head and groan, a constant stream of ‘I told you so’ going through my mind. I grab my phone from the floor and open the car door.
“Of course not, I can’t let you off that easily. I’m just saying, you’ll be driving most of the time.” He scans the collection of fast food restaurants and small businesses as I scowl and put money in the parking meter.
“I think that’s better for both of us, anyways.”
“We didn’t even have time to make a road trip playlist,” Eli narrows his eyes a little; “It’s just like a normal drive, now.” He stops at a red light and takes off his seat belt quickly to dive into the backseat and riffle through a bag.
“Dude, what are you doing?”
He’s jumps back into his seat before the light changes, but takes his time sliding the sunglasses onto his face. I turn my face up and he looks over at me, “It’s called setting the mood, roll down your window, will you? Stick your arm out the window and feel the sun in your hair, Bren.”
The car behind us honks and Eli hits the gas a little too hard as he turns up the radio, and I, while sighing, roll down my window.
As soon as we hit the freeway, the realization of what we are really embarking on hits me. While looking out at the other cars and tapping out the beat of the song playing on the radio on my leg, I kind of start to really believe that I’ll be stuck in a car with Eli for an entire summer. I look over at him, clutching the wheel as he sings over the song loudly and off-key with his window all the way down and whipping his hair into a frenzy. He’s barely focusing on driving, but that’s always been his approach. It’s nice. Like, really nice- the thought of having no obligations for the next two months; the thought of no expectations or deadlines or sense of time, even. I exhale heavily with a relief I barely allow myself to feel during the school year. I think I inhale some of Eli’s excitement and laugh a little
Eli glances over at me when the song ends and he pants while settling back into his seat and smiling, “It’s like living out that high school dream of ours, to go on a road trip.”
“It was your idea then, too.” But it’s true. I never really thought we’d do it like this though.
Looking out at the seemingly never ending highway, it makes me start to get sleepy. I’m out before I know it.
X
I wake to Eli emotionally belting out remixes to old pop songs as if they’re lovelorn ballads. It’d be hilarious, how much he is into ‘my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard’ and how he’s singing it opera-style with breaks for mock gasps as if it’s a seriously heart wrenching song- yeah, it’d be hilarious if only when I pulled myself up from leaning back and rubbed sleep from my eyes, I hadn’t realized that I had no idea where we were.
“Bren!” Eli breaks his singing to call, “Morning! Or night. Whatever.”
“Eli, where the fuck are we?”
“Huh,” he squints at the road signs as if he’s just realized that he’s been driving all this way, “Y’know, I’m not really sure.”
My mouth drops and I look at the clock that reads 9:13PM, I’ve been asleep for almost five hours. And Eli has already gotten us lost.
“My God, Eli, seriously?”
Eli turns his face up at me as if I’m overreacting and he doesn’t understand that within five hours he could’ve driven anywhere. “Yeah, seriously.” It’s a lost cause trying to make him realize something like that though with his stubbornness so I just settle for trying to figure out where the fuck we are.
I pull out my phone and go straight for the GPS.
“Hey, hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Eli swats at my hand.
“Trying to figure out where you’ve gotten us. What the hell?” I swat back at him for a few moments before he realizes that he’s swerving and a car starts honking and he has to pull his hand back quickly jerk the steering wheel over. I drop the phone with the sharp turn.
“What the fuck! Get the fuck off the freeway, Eli. Actually, pull over so I can drive because sitting in that seat for hours on end is obviously driving your ADHD-ass insane.”
“Aww, our first road trip fight,” he mock coos. I punch him in the arm. “Fuck you! I’m driving!” But he starts to get over to pull off the freeway and onto a street lit with lights from shop windows and streetlights. It’s late, but people are still walking up and down the streets and in and out of the places.
“Cool, this must a down town of…somewhere,” Eli says, trying to find a parking spot but cars line the metered street. “We can get food, and figure out where we are without a GPS-which is banned from this road trip, by the way. It, like, defeats the purpose of an adventure, Bren. We’re not following any computer voice or red lines.”
I simply roll my eyes as we stop and wait for a car whose meter has expired to pull off so we can take their spot.
“I don’t like this nonstop driving thing as much as I thought I would,” Eli says as he pulls into the spot. “Which fucking sucks, I don’t know how I’m going to keep this going for a month.”
“Seriously, Eli? A few hours in and you’re already caving?” I shake my head and groan, a constant stream of ‘I told you so’ going through my mind. I grab my phone from the floor and open the car door.
“Of course not, I can’t let you off that easily. I’m just saying, you’ll be driving most of the time.” He scans the collection of fast food restaurants and small businesses as I scowl and put money in the parking meter.
“I think that’s better for both of us, anyways.”
♠ ♠ ♠
/terrible coauthor hiatus