"Jesus, Tyler! Can you at least get up and pull your weight?"
"Nah," he laughed, "You're doing great sticking your thumb in the air"
Joshua sighed. "I don't understand why this has to be a fight"
“Oh, you really think someone will turn up?”
“Yeah,” he warmed his tingling fingers with his breath, “It’s quarter to eight, relax”
Relax... “That’s not making me relax"
And by the looks of it, it wasn't making his friend do so either, jumping, waving, hollering at the ruby red Toyota that, in the end, drove straight past them as well.
“Stop whining, man," he said with a grin, "I told you to bring a jacket”
“I told you to bring a jacket...”
“Well, look at the sunrise over the sea!”
“This isn’t the Caribbean. This is Oregon. It’s forty degrees, Joshua. With our luck we'll be sitting here until tomorrow.”
"If I'm not back again this time tomorrow," sang the car radio, "Carry on... carry on, as if nothing really matters"
Her lithe fingers darted through the winter sun. Heather drummed on the steering wheel, ignoring the two junkies sitting at the side of the road.
To her left the sea - to her right the conifers of Portland. From her belly rang a gorgeous laugh. The new sound system had been worth every penny.
A gust of wind brought the smell of salt. The glittering roads spilled the late sunlight onto her piceous hair. She looked like she had invented the word for beauty. Tomorrow she would be at Nina's place. And then? North or south? Through Montana or...?
She wouldn't finish that thought. A red flash glared her vision. Rapid blinks left woozy stars near the corners. She gripped the steering tight and hit it dead on: Brown fur coming to a rest on her hood. Guts impaled on windshield wipers. Heather heaved a shaky breath as she took the last one out of the deer's hazel eyes with a vermeil fizzle.
“Damn it.”
Thanks for never quitting.
work overview -- next chapter ->