Me, You

Everything seemed like it was going to work out that morning.

Waking up with barely a hangover, we hit the road early in the morning. The windows were rolled down, something that couldn’t be done often in Arizona without being burnt up, and Sia blasted through the fields and fields of green grass. More natural green grass than I’d seen my entire life. It felt good being away from Arizona and its punishing hot sun rays.

There’s a ‘boom’ from underneath and then our laughter stopped.

We look at each other. John’s eyebrows were furrowed, “... what was that noise?”

The truck suddenly swerved to the left lane. Getting a tight grip of the wheel, he slowed down and stopped on the dirt side of the road.

“What’s happening?” I widened my eyes at him.

He didn’t respond. Swinging the door open, he climbed out. I sat inside the car, anxiously, until I heard John shout, ‘Fuck.’ I scrambled out the truck to see John kick the tire. The tips of his ears were red, a sign that he was about to have a tantrum.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” He balled up his fists.

“John...?”

“Why the fuck am I such an idiot?!” He frantically pulled at his hair and look at me wildly, “Why didn’t I think about bringing an extra tire- fuck.”

He kicked the tire again and stomped up a cloud of dirt as he walked around to sit on the bed of the pickup. I climbed up after him. He sat in the center of the bed, cradling his head with his hands. My heart dropped. John had too much pride to be ashamed, but there were times like these where he snapped.

“John, it’s okay. We can wait for a car to come by and then ask for help,” I rubbed circles into his back.

“I’m sorry, Lou,” His head rested on my shoulder, “I wanted to make this trip awesome for you. I guess I was too excited and forgot a few things.”

“That’s okay,” I smiled, “This trip’s been awesome and we’re only halfway there. Don’t worry about me. The question is are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just-”

A car pulled up and gave a light honk. A middle aged couple stared at us. The woman in the passenger seat rolled her window down, “Hey, you two kids alright?”

We both scrambled up and brushed ourselves off. I waved slightly, “Yeah hi, our car has a flat tire and we’re not from around here-”

“Are you on your way to the reception?” The lady asked, eying my sundress.

John and I glanced at each other.

27. Crash a wedding.

“Yeah,” John called out.

“We’re on our way too,” The man nodded, “There’s a gas station nearby that sells tires for your kind of truck. We can go and get one for you.”

“Really?” I smiled widely, “That’d be wonderful. But, we don’t have any way to pay you in cash...”

“You can pay for our drinks at the reception,” The woman winked and added, “It’s really no trouble.”

John let out a sigh of relief, “Thank you so much...”

“June,” The woman grinned, “This is my husband, Mark.”

“... June and Mark.” He nodded graciously.

“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Mark smiled.

We watched the couple drive away. John nudged me, grinning from ear to ear. Our trip wasn’t ruined after all.

The feeling of giddiness passed and then after thirty minutes, worry settled in. Maybe, the couple decided it wasn’t worth coming back to pick up a bunch of ‘kids.’ Eventually, we lied down in the bed of the truck and watched the clouds streak by.

“I guess it was too good to be true.” I sighed, pointing up at one cloud, “That one looks like a flower.”

John stared up with me, “I guess it was kind of stupid thinking that help could arrive so quickly.”

“Maybe one of us should start walking down to the gas station he mentioned and-”

A car honked and parked up next to us. Lifting our heads up, it was the couple again. Mark heaved a tire out of their car with him.

We jumped out of the bed and walked alongside with him.

“Now, this isn’t supposed to last long, so after the wedding, I recommend you two to find a shop. There’s one a few blocks down from the reception hall.” He knelt down with the tire kit and began switching tires out.

“Thank you so much, sir,” John picked up the popped tire.

“Eh don’t thank me,” Mark shrugged it off, “A friend of Jen and Rich is a friend of ours.” When he stood up, he wiped his hands on his pants and shook John’s hand, “So, we’ll be seeing you both at the reception later?”

“Yeah, of course,” I nodded as he walked back to his car. We waved the couple off and watched as they disappeared into the town again. Turning to John, I smiled, “Number 27?”

He nodded, “Number 27.”


“We look out of place,” John mumbled under his breath.

I didn’t understand what he was saying. He got changed into a dress shirt and vest on the drive to the reception hall, which was actually just an outside patio with signs draped around saying, 'Congrats Jen and Rich.' I was the one slightly underdressed, wearing the same dress I wore during our graduation that had a faint chocolate stain from when John threw cake at me.

But then, I saw it. The age difference. We were relatively younger than everyone else. The other attendees varied from their 60s to no younger than 30s. The newlyweds weren’t young themselves. But, everyone just assumed we were the younger cousins of a distant relative.

“You need a drink,” I whispered, “Follow me.”

I grabbed a hold of John’s wrist and took him to the bar. I didn’t want make eye contact with the bartender, hoping he wouldn’t notice that we didn’t look old enough to drink. But, when I did, he only smiled and poured me two glasses of red wine.

Handing one to John, he made a face when the drink touched his lips, “This shit is disgusting.”

“It’s wine; of course you don’t like it,” I took a sip from my glass, “But, it’s alcohol and it'll calm your nerves."

He huffed and then chugged the rest of it down, making a face when it was all gone.

"Better?"

"Yeah, a little," He loosened his tie.

"You didn't exactly think this goal through when you wrote it down, did you?"

"No," He scowled, "But you didn't think this entire trip through either."

"Never said I did," I threw my hands up in surrender.

We sat down in our seats for a little, watching people float around. But, then Mark and June came up to us.

“Hey, you guys made it!” June grinned, “Although, it may seem like for nothing. This reception is kind of boring.”

“I thought I was the only one thinking that,” John muttered.

“Well, I talked to the bride and she says the DJ should be playing some music that won’t bore us to sleep. No more of this classical music bullshit,” Mark gestured his wine glass to the man with headphones on.

And Mark was right, the Red Hot Chili Peppers began playing over the speakers.

“Well, that’s our queue,” June tugged on Mark’s arm, “Time for us to get onto the dance floor.”

The couple waved goodbye, little knowing that’d be the last time we’d see them.

We decided to sit down until a song we really liked came on, not from the Top 100 bullshit.

The Middle began playing and John’s eyes lit up. He jumped out of his seat and pulled me onto the dance floor as Jim Adkins began singing. It had a steady drumbeat with a quick guitar part. A perfect pace for us.

“Didn’t think you could dance,” I grinned up at him as he slides hand to my waist and intertwined my fingers with the other.

“Mom took a dancing class with Dad and taught me a few things.” He twirled me around as I laughed, “Turns out Dad couldn’t dance for shit, but I could.”

“Impressive,” I raised an eyebrow and nodded.

We watched the newlyweds, dancing and laughing with wine glasses in their hands. For once in my life, I began thinking about being married. I never thought much about finding that one to spend the rest of my life with. But suddenly, I did. I hope it’d last longer than my parent’s relationship, who didn’t even get married at all.

Lightly, John asked, “What will our wedding be like, Lou?”

A giggle escaped my lips, “In the winter time, where it’s not hot as hell, but still decently warm. Where would you want it?”

“Outside, I hope.” He smiled, “I can’t stand stuffy churches.”

“Exactly, what’s the point of having a wedding inside a church when we’ve barely gone as kids? We could hang fairy lights all around the place.” I grinned, “Could you imagine our parents?”

“My dad would walk you down the aisle as our mothers sit at the bar, sobbing over how drunk they are and how their two babies ended up getting married like they said they would,” John chuckled, “They’d be complete messes.”

“Imagine what’d happen to them during our first dance,” The air changed between us and when I looked up at John again, it suddenly didn’t feel like a joke anymore. A little too personal for comfort, even for me and John. I whispered, “What would our first dance be to?”

“I’m in Love with a Stripper.”

Immediately, whatever was happening between us disappeared and we both howled, bringing a little too much attention. Slapping his chest, I giggled, “Alright, man. Whatever the bride wants.”

“Good,” Looking to the newlyweds again, he added, “I can only hope I’ll look as fucking hot in my wedding gown.” Leaning down to my ear, he whispered, “We should get out of here.”

My chest tightened at his words and I looked up at him, he just had a lopsided smile on his face. I realized we were only inches away and his hand rested on my waist and any lower, he could’ve been touching my butt. I took a step back,

“Are you sure you’re BAC level is under legal limit? If it’s over, we can get a fine of-”

“Somebody’s been studying their permit book,” He laughed and grabbed my hand. I flinched at his touch. His eyes flickered to our touch and let his arm fall limp, “Come on, Lou. I’ve had barely one glass of shitty wine, we’ll be fine. Unless you really are worried, then we can sit around for a little.”

“No, no... it’s fine... it’s just-” My voice faltered.

Why didn’t I want to leave? I had no idea. But, the thought of being alone in the back of John’s truck or a hotel room made something in my gut stir. I was being stupid, this was only John. There was nothing to worry about.

I didn’t realized John was watching me mentally think it through, “Seriously, if you’re uncomfortable with me driving, we can always wait it out.”

I shook my head, “No, I’m okay. Let’s get going.”

We left the wedding reception and drove for a little. John yawned and called it a night. We parked on the side of the road. Bringing out the sleeping bags, we made the back of the pickup our bed for the night.

John fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow. No talk. No ‘goodnights.’ Nothing.

I pulled my blanket up to chin and shivered. Not because I was cold, but because I was here, a few hundred miles from someone who calls himself my dad, next to my best friend who just travelled across the United States with me.

We were almost there.