On the Road with You?... (Task Two)

He wiped his dripping wet face with his right hand and beads of sweat fell from his face to the ground, immediately evapourating as they touched the hot asphalt-tarred ground beneath him. He heaved a heavy sigh in fatigue and slowly looked around, placing his left hand on his hip as he looked up at the sky above and immediately raised his right hand over his head to shield his face from the scorching sun. Darren couldn’t believe his car had done this to him. In all his four years of driving his car, Clara had never done this to him. Clara had always been a good girl and besides he had just taken her for a check-up with his automobile mechanic a few days ago, so he really wondered what was up with her now. Of course, he hadn’t taken it seriously when Clara had started acting up a few miles back, up until she came to an abrupt halt and refused to move an inch from this spot about an hour ago. Now, here he was trying to fix a car on this deserted road in the middle of nowhere. It had been more than an hour now since he had started trying to fix whatever was wrong with Clara and yet, not a single car had passed by since then. Darren looked back down, his hands still placed on his hips as he caught his breath for a moment or two before turning his focus back to the part of the car he just been working on. Mustering every last ounce of energy within him, he slowly tightened the last nut with the spanner in his hand and then sighed again as he dropped the spanner. Gently, he lowered the cover of the bonnet, careful not to close it fully in case he would need to do further repairs on the car, and looked up with scorn at the lady who was seated in the car with a scowl. Fury burned within him.

Here he was, standing in front of the car and slowly roasting in the hot summer sun while she just sat there, pressing her phone and leaning back in the front passenger seat with her feet crossed and mounted upon the dashboard. His skin was now stinging soreness, his body was filled with pain and his clothes were now sticking to body all because he was trying to fix this stupid car and yet she didn’t seem to give a care in the world or to be the least appreciative of his efforts. He sure as hell wished he could walk right up to her and smack her feet off his freaking dashboard . . . and of course, he would do that right after smashing her stupid phone on the ground. But he didn’t quite know what flustered him more though. Was it the fact that she was busy texting while he was out here trying to fix the car they had both been riding in or the fact that she was placing her dirty shoes on the beautiful and neat dashboard of his beloved car? Perhaps, it was just her presence that annoyed him. After all, he had never ever really liked her. She had always been surly, sullen and rude. Just WHAT in the world did she think she was?

‘Can you please start the car, Tori?’ he hollered at her, trying hard to hide the contempt in his voice.

After a few seconds of hesitation, which really tested his patience, the lady in the car, Tori, looked up at him like he had really disturbed her while she was in the middle of doing something very important. At first, she glared at him for a while with a look that could make Mt. Kilimanjaro come crumbling down, before finally looking away. She then hesitated for a few more seconds, as if thinking whether or not to help him. As he was beginning to think she wouldn’t help him and he would have to walk over and start the car all by himself, she slowly passed her phone from her right hand to the left and letting out a soft grunt, she reluctantly leaned over to the driver’s seat and turned the car key. In those few precious moments, he murmured a silent prayer to God under his breath, desperately hoping that the car would actually start because he really didn’t know what else he could do to make Clara work again. His prayer request was immediately granted and the car revved to life. Grinning from ear to ear like a baby who had just received a bar of chocolate from his mother after hours of whining and crying, he shut the bonnet well and put the spanner and a few other tools he had used into his toolbox. Picking up the toolbox, with that triumphant smile still seated majestically on his handsome face, he walked towards the boot, opened it and dropped the toolbox nonchalantly then shut the boot close.

Within a minute, he was seated on the driver’s seat next to her, driving Clara through this god-damned road. Though utterly irritated by her mere presence, he was glad they were back on the road again and could only hope they would reach their destination without any further hitches because, the sooner they got to Harlton and parted ways, the better for him. His hands on the stirring and his mind trying to shut out the irksome sound of Tori tapping her phone’s screen rather rapidly, he couldn’t believe what a terrible day this had been for him.

Darren had woken up quite late this morning because some sort of dark magic at work had prevented his alarm clock from waking him up. Well, he wouldn’t say this was the work of dark magic per se. After all, he had slept pretty late last night because he had stayed up watching some MMA fights. However, he had no idea that that would be the cause of a terrible day such as this. Quickly, he had taken his bath, dressed up and rushed to work. It was only when he got to his place and met his department empty that he remembered that his entire department was scheduled to travel to Harlton for some sort of compulsory professional camp.

‘Darren, why are you just coming in?’ his boss, a fat round man with potbelly had yelled.

‘I’m sorry sir’, Darren replied softly.

‘Sorry doesn’t cut it. You, of all people, should know that punctuality is key’ his boss retorted and then sighed ‘Well, the bus that was supposed to convey you all to Harlton has left with the others and you will have to get there yourself’

As Darren turned swiftly to head into his car and hit the road, his boss called from behind ‘That reminds me, Tori came late too. Take her along with you.’

‘Not again!’ Darren muttered to himself and hit the stirring wheels violently as Clara slowly stuttered to a halt.

Darren couldn’t believe she was doing this to him again. Now what was he going to do. He definitely wasn’t going to start fixing the car again, was he? He looked at his side with utter disbelief and watched Tori just sit there nonchalantly, texting away on her phone, like nothing was happening. Aside from the fact that he was starting to wonder how her battery was capable of lasting this long, Darren was pretty flabbergasted with the nonchalant attitude of this woman. How could she sit there and act like nothing was happening. Just as Darren was about to head out of the car to check out what was wrong with it, he looked at the fuel gauge and felt so stupid. He hadn’t bought gas before they set out on the journey.

‘Great!’ Darren thought to himself as he looked at the Omega wristwatch on his wrist.

It was now 5:54pm and with no feasible way of getting to a gas station, there was no way they could make it to Harlton today. As he was still being clouded with the numerous thoughts that flooded his mind like violent tidal waves, Darren’s tummy grumbled in protest, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten a single thing today. But at the moment, that was the least of Darren’s problems as there were even more pressing concerns. Questions like, ‘where would they sleep?’ or ‘how would he survive a whole night in the middle of nowhere with Tori?’ seemed to bother him a lot more than his bellowing belly. He certainly couldn’t bear the thought of having to sleep here in the car next to this beast of a woman, called Tori, all night. Within a split second, he decided he was going to pick up the keg in his car and trek his way to a gas station to get fuel. But the problem was, this was his first time travelling to Harlton and he scarcely knew his way around this road, talk less of knowing how to find a nearby fuel station. His car’s GPS only showed him the routes not landmarks and his phone was dead now so Google maps was not an option. Unless. . . . .

‘Tori’ Darren said heading to the window beside her seat and bending down to look at her.

After a few seconds, she finally looked up from her phone and asked brusquely ‘What?’

‘Please, can you lend me your phone for a moment or two?’ he asked, trying to keep his calm however stunned he was by the brusque edge there was to her reply.

‘For what exactly?’ she asked, looking away and turning her gaze back to her phone.

‘Well, if you have eyes, I’m sure as hell that you can see that we are both stranded here and need a way out’ Darren snapped ‘I guess I’m the only one who cares anyway, so give me your phone and let me do the needful to get us out of here!’

‘Ok boss.’ She mocked.

‘But I really have to ask’ she added ‘Do you want to call somebody to come help or what do you need my phone for?’

‘Well, maybe’ Darren answered, already tired of her seemingly never ending bank of questions.

‘Maybe? Seems to me like you don’t know what you are doing. Besides, there’s no network reception around here’ she said with a smile.

‘Oh really?’ he asked with sarcasm ringing in his tone ‘So how have you been able to keep texting and chatting all these while?’

‘So you’ve been watching me or what?’ she asked, with the smile of a kid who was caught with his hand in a pot of soup.

Darren scoffed, hardly knowing the right response to give her and also trying to avoid any further questions.

‘Fine’ she finally said, breaking the silence as she stretched the phone out to him ‘You can have it’
With a sigh, Darren reached for the phone but just then she drew her hands back and he heard her say something like ‘Say please’.

Hoping he hadn’t heard her well, he asked ‘What did you say?’

‘Say please!’ she said, louder this time.

‘What?’ Darren uttered in disbelief.

‘I’m not repeating myself again. If you’re deaf, no problems’, Tori spat out and turned back to pressing her phone.

‘Fine! Please!’ he yelled at her, almost at his breaking point now.

‘That’s not how my mama taught me to say please’, Tori smiled at him.

Very frustrated now, Darren managed to swallow his anger in the form of saliva and then inhaled and exhaled deeply.

Why was she acting this way? He wasn’t collecting her phone to watch videos or play games, was he? Here he was, trying to find a solution to their mutual problem and it seemed she could care less. He really wanted to tell her to get the hell out of his car and trek her ass to Harlton but right now, he would do anything to get this car moving and get away from this evil witch. Besides, he couldn’t risk losing his job by doing something that evil to a co-worker. So, he would just have to bear with her rudeness.

‘Please’ he said gently, barely managing to keep himself from bursting out and tongue-lashing her.
Grinning from ear to ear like she just won the world cup, she handed the phone to him.

‘Bitch’ Darren muttered under his breath as he collected the phone.

‘What did you say?’ she asked.

‘I said thanks’ Darren said, faking a smile as he walked away.

He looked at her battery percentage with awe. How could she still have 64% on her battery? Was she using some sort of super phone or something? He swiped his hands on the screen, scrolling, then clicked on Google location and maps.

‘Oh Lord!’ he thought to himself as he looked at the phone.

There was no gas station nearby and since he wasn’t willing to risk losing his precious legs by going in search of fuel for the vehicle, he would probably have to spend the night here in the car, on this road in the middle of nowhere, with this woman. What a way to end a terrible day! But could this day get any worse? Well, Darren should have been careful what he wished for. Just as he turned around to head back into the car, the heel of a shoe rammed into his forehead and Darren hit the ground, writhing in pain and holding his now bleeding forehead.

‘That would teach you no to call any woman a bitch’ Tori yelled, picked up her phone from the ground beside him and headed into the car.

Darren looked at his blood in disbelief, picking himself up and heading towards the car with his hands still on his head. Things were about to get bloody. As Darren looked up, a flood of light coming from behind him caught his attention. He turned around and saw what seemed like a bus heading towards him. Finally, other human beings apart from this psychopath called Tori. The bus ground to a halt as Darren waved at them, yelling stop. A man alighted from the bus and approached him. Something about the man’s gait seemed familiar to Darren and as the man drew nearer, Darren couldn’t believe his eyes. It was one of his colleagues from work.

‘Darren?’ he heard the man ask.

‘Oh my God, Matt!’ Darren screamed excitedly.

If anyone had told him that he would ever be this happy to see Matt in his life, he would have probably disagreed but at the moment his ecstasy knew no bounds.

‘What’s wrong with your forehead?’ Matt asked.

‘Oh’ Darren said and grinned ‘I fell’

‘What are you guys doing here?’ Darren asked, quickly changing the topic ‘I thought you would be in Harlton by now’

‘Well, the camp was cancelled and we’re heading back home’ Matt said ‘I wonder why we weren’t notified of it anyway’

‘What?’ Darren asked ‘So, I travelled all this way in hardship for nothing?’

‘We travelled all the way there, Darren. Thank your stars you didn’t have to reach Harlton and turn back’

Darren just stared at Matt blankly, hardly knowing how to explain everything how much he would have preferred to be in Matt’s shoes and have Matt wear his.

‘Hey Tori’ Matt said as Tori brushed past them both and headed into the bus without even acting like she had noticed them.

As usual, she had her eyes on her phone and Darren, still confused with what sort of person she was, watched her walk away in disbelief.

‘You like her?’ Matt asked, seeing that Darren was still staring at Tori.

Barely resisting the urge to slap Matt, Darren just smiled and changed topics once more ‘My car is out of gas’

‘We can get you some from the bus’ Matt said.

‘Yeah, great idea’ Darren said as he and Matt headed towards the bus.

Darren could hardly believe anything that had happened today, but one thing was sure, he was glad this terrible day was over. Hopefully

With love,
@ajremy (the teen with steam for steam)

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