Miles Away

His first stop was a gas station.

John had gone on a little more than a few late night drives since he had gotten back from tour and didn’t really even consider that his Jeep would eat gas so well. Then again, to be fair, he wasn’t ever paying much attention to the fuel gage. He drove because it gave him a time to think things over - not that he wasn’t always thinking about something. Not that his brain was never on over drive every fucking day. But driving had always gave him a sense of calm that he could appreciate - and even when the dry wind coming through his window wasn’t enough to sweep any thoughts away, he always had his favorite Tom Petty mix that he could scream the lyrics to.

The gas to fill this car costed a lot more than he had expected, not that he ever expected it to be cheap. He let out a small sigh, and reached into his car to grab his wallet that he had sat in the passenger seat. He picked at the cracked leather of it as he walked into the station to pay for the gas, also picking up a chocolate bar on a whim. On reflex, John had thanked the man behind the counter, giving a small wave only to get a strange look in return.

When John got back to his car, he threw his wallet and chocolate bar back onto the passenger seat, taking his phone from his pocket just to check. He hadn’t ever been much of a ‘techie’, if you will, but it was a habit he had acquired. The only text he had was one from his mother, all spelt wrong, but he got the idea of it. He chuckled to himself and typed a quick response to let her know everything was fine, though he had only been driving for around an hour and a half.

John was usually careful. So he couldn’t explain why he had decided to start driving as he pulled up his contact list to look for Audrey’s name (which, obviously, wasn’t very hard to find). Before he had gotten around to clicking on her name, he stole a quick glance to the front of the car, just as he was about to get back onto the road and was shocked to find a girl running in front of the car. He almost couldn’t believe it and if he had stomped on the breaks a second later, he might have had a lawsuit on his hands.

His phone was now on the floor of the passengers side,his breath coming out in shakes. He hadn’t ever been so close to hitting a human being before, and the look on this girls face told him that she hadn’t ever been that close to getting hit.

He wondered, for a brief moment, if it was her intent to run in front of traffic - if only because he might have thought about it a time or two when he was stuck in a construction-induced traffic jam on his way here. Like, he could see himself very vividly playing chicken with cars on the freeway, and nothing freaked him out more.

Except for almost killing a person.

He shook himself from his thoughts and threw his door open, walking over to the girl who’s stuff had been dropped to the ground in fright.

“Holy fuck,” he let out a breath, “I’m sorry. Are you alright?”

He did a once-over of her - strictly because he was observant and he had done it with everyone. Nothing in particular stuck out about this girl other than her shaking fingers and reddened face, as though she had been embarrassed for almost getting run over.

The girl nodded her head rapidly, dropping to her knees to begin picking up her belongings. There wasn’t much to gather up, but he decided he couldn’t just leave. He wasn’t the type. So he got down on one of his knees to help gather her things, but quickly noticed she had shoved most of it into a pillow case. He had also noticed that there was an actual pillow in the case as well and furrowed his brows as he handed her a bunch of stuff, and turned slightly pink when he realized there was a few underwear.

“Thank you,” she said in a small voice, turning a brighter red.

“Yeah…” He trailed off and stood to his feet, and took to observing her. He noticed she had kept looking around and biting her lip as she tried to gather herself. She looked as though she was in complete distress.

So he asked again, “Are you alright?”

This time, it didn’t have the same meaning to it, and he knew she had picked it up because she darted her eyes to look up at him from the floor and bit her lip again. She stood up quickly, cradling all her stuff in her hands and peaked at him from behind her lumpy pillow.

“Uh,” she paused a moment, “I- I guess not?” There wasn’t use in trying to hide it, because she somehow knew that this boy wouldn’t believe her if she had said everything was fine. She looked like a wreck, she knew that. Her shirt was ripped and her hair was in the most awkward bun - a bun that had once sat high on her head, but had slowly fallen to the nape of her neck, sending the shorter layers of her hair to splay across her face. She was even still wearing pajama pants.

Honestly, John hadn’t been expecting her to be honest about it, and he didn’t really know what to do. When she turned away from him to try to take off again, he called out to her.

“Wait!” He shouted, “I can help. Do you need a ride anywhere?”

It was everything his mother had always warned him never to do. Like, he shouldn’t be offering a complete stranger a ride, but the words were out of his mouth before he could really think them through.

Of course, she had similar thoughts in her mind - never get into a car with a stranger.

But he seemed like her only option at the moment, and she knew someone must have been looking for her by now.

“Yeah” - she licked her lips - “Yeah, thank you. I’m Valerie.”

“John,” he nodded. She smiled slightly and muttered ‘I know’, as she walked to the passenger side of the car.

The two of them got into Johns car, and she placed all her things on the passenger floor after John had reached over to retrieve his phone.

“You know?” He laughed lightly, placing his phone in the cup holder, completely pushing Audrey from his mind. He stole a quick glance at her to see her nodding as she played with her hands. “You’re a fan then?”

“Well, if you call memorizing the Maines entire discography being a ‘fan’, then…” She laughed at herself and took a breath, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, that was a bit weird. You must think I’m crazy.”

John couldn’t think of a nice way to agree with her, so he just laughed and turned into the road.