by Katie Wright
We decided for drive through but ate in the car. Mickey turned the music down and started talking to Casey. He was still in the back with me, but he had stretched his legs out so I had no room.
I looked up and watched Jane eating her burger quietly. She hadn't spoken at all but just sat there so still. I felt bad for her. This was not my friend. I glared again at Mickey who by now was sipping on his frosty and messing with the radio stations.
I heard a snigger from my side. I looked over and noticed Casey shaking his head. He slurped on his soda. I hope he gets gas, I thought to myself. Yes I know it's not the worse I could ask for but you know gas does suck when you're around people. Maybe he was one of those people that didn't get it a lot though. Oh God! Why was my mind filled with thoughts about flatulence?
"What was that for?" He whispered regarding the glare I had given Mickey. He cocked an eyebrow high.
I raised my own and I was sure my eyes were bulging from my sockets, "None of your business," I snapped at him.
He seemed a little hurt. Maybe it was my imagination. But he was indeed a jackass and after today I hated him more than before.
Finishing the food as fast as we could we drove home. But damn it if Mickey didn't insist we keep the windows down and he left the moon roof open too. What was he sick? I was freezing. I tried to curl in a tight ball to keep my body heat from escaping me. I felt something soft brush my arm. I looked over and Casey was offering me his sweat shirt. I reluctantly took it from him and mouthed a 'thank you.' He didn't say a 'your welcome,' instead he nodded and stared back out the window. I gage we had another half hour till we got home.
I felt the car slow down and turn off as I woke up. I was confused by my position. I looked up at the ceiling. I was also looking at Mickey not Jane. When had I switched seats with Casey? Then I felt it against my back. Or I should say I felt him against my back?
"Mmm, we're home?" I heard his voice which sounded like he had just woken up asked.
Jane turned around and gaped at me and Casey. Then she tried to put on a straight face, "I'm being dropped off first I guess I'll talk to you later?"
For some reason I didn't pull myself off Casey or go screaming for the hills. I must have been really out of it or very comfortable. In any case I finally nodded to Jane. She offered a sly smile and waved goodbye.
Mickey waved a goodbye and we were off back to I supposed my house. I shuffled a little to get a bit more comfortable. I didn't want to move, I just wanted to sleep. Soon enough I was back at my house pulling myself off of the one of the most comfortable places I had ever been. I didn't look back but grabbed my bag and mumbled a goodbye and thanks for driving to Mickey. I guess I was just really tired. And when I finally got ready for bed I told myself that was the only reason why I let myself fall asleep on Casey.
Chapter 6: Things I didn't know
Mickey dropped Casey off at his house. Casey looked at it and slowly made his way up the old steps. The small bungalow where he lived was falling apart and covered with branches and an old recliner. He turned around as he heard Mickey's car drive away.
He took a huge breath as he stepped into the house. The house was dark except the peculiar glow from the television which was on in the family room.
"Hey babe is that you?" Asked the voice who was still lounging on the couch since midday.
"Hey Terry," Casey said.
"Did you bring me home anything to eat?"
Once again the selfish bitch, Terry, also Casey's girlfriend of two years asked. He didn't remember the reason he had decided to move in with her or why he still was going out with her. He didn't want to marry her and he didn't want her living with him anymore.
"Um, no we stopped to get some food at Wendy's," he stated flatly.
Terry turned and looked over the couch, "Why the hell didn't you get me anything while you were there?"
Casey shrugged his shoulders and walked to the back of the house to "their" bedroom. They didn't even have sex that much anymore and he was thankful. He had been planning on breaking up with her a month ago but when she lost her job he decided not to.
Terry could in no way live with her only parent, her dad. Who was an abusive drunk and liked taking everything out on Terry. So Casey couldn't help but feel sorry for her. But after a month she still hadn't gotten a job. She hadn't even applied yet. She picked up applications from numerous stores but they were still sitting on the night table.
He remembered asking her, "When are you going to fill these out?" And she had the nerve to tell him, "Babe, I will I promise I just want to get my life straight again."
Whatever the hell that meant, Casey thought. It was then that he realized she was sponging off his meager salary. Yes, he was a mechanic and not making bad money but he still had a mortgage and car payments. He couldn't entirely pay for another person; especially one that sat around all day and ate all his food.
He removed his clothes and his trunks and took a long hot shower. He was feeling better, a little bit. He laughed to himself recalling the day's events. He really didn't mean to offend or hurt Heather in anyway when he took her top off and threw it further into the ocean. Luckily for her the water covered her up to her neck and he hadn't seen anything. When he saw her face he wanted to go out and return her top but it was no good she swam away from him so fast and angry he knew he shouldn't push his luck.
He thought she was truly mad at him and he couldn't blame her. But he felt she had started it with her know it all attitude towards him. She wasn't that much of a snob but somehow managed to come off that way towards him. What exactly had he done wrong? He still didn't quite know. She didn't seem to mind falling asleep on him on the way home though. Her warm body covered him nicely on the way back home. Why Mickey liked having the windows down he didn't know but he was damn pissed about it.
He turned the water off and wrapped a towel around his waist. Unfortunately for him Terry had settled into bed and was waiting for him. He quickly threw on a pair of boxers and skirted under the covers. He turned on his side and closed his eyes.
Then he felt Terry's hands move up his back around his shoulder.
"Babe," she tried to whispered seductively.
"Yeah?" He didn't want to do anything with her. He wanted her gone and out of his house. He wanted to go to sleep and think about a short auburn girl he had been playing with at the beach. He wanted to relive it but Terry wouldn't let him.
She started rubbing his chest. He couldn't help but respond to her when she let her fingers travel downwards. Then she started kissing his neck and said, "I missed you."
She turned his head towards her and started kissing him. He knew he shouldn't have kissed her back but his hormones weren't on his side right now. Plus, he thought, he should get something out of her living with him.
Heather
Yes, life sucked for one short week. Then one day my luck changed. The phone rang and when I picked it up I was met with a lady on the other line. She offered me an interview at the Lancaster City Library. I was to interview as an archivist. Not great pay but I needed the money and some work experience. Hopefully I would get the job.
I drove to the library and met a sweet woman in her early 40's. Her name was Meg Clarkson and she was to interview me. I have to say I wasn't as nervous once we started. Luckily I had enough experience within a library and historical papers that I was more than eligible for the job. Go me! I got the job!
I was going to work starting Monday. This wasn't my dream job or the career I wanted to get into but for now it was better than nothing. Just the thought of having something to do and making money for it was enough. I was so excited I needed to call Jane and tell her we needed to go out and celebrate.
I hopped into my car and dialed Jane's number. Damn it if she wasn't there. Damn, voicemail!
"Hey Jane, it's Heath, I got some good news. I got a job and I think we should celebrate this weekend. What do you think, Bernie's? Maybe? I don't know. Give me a call when you get th
is, byes."
I hung up the phone and started the car. It was a good twenty minutes from home depending on traffic and since it was Friday I was positive there would be tons of traffic. Yey, go me lots of traffic. I pulled onto the highway for a good fifteen minutes, not even halfway to my house, when I heard something strange coming from my car. It was a Toyota and I believe them to be pretty reliable, well at least I've heard my dad say that. I knew absolutely nothing about cars. The noise became somewhat loud and I guess 'bangy'? I know not really a word but it sounded like banging to me. The car was trudging even as I pushed the accelerator.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, I was not going to get stuck on the highway broke down. I started to soothe my way over to the shoulder. But of course there were assholes riding it so eventually I just let the car role into neutral on its own while I steered. I put it in park and felt like crying. The traffic was horrible there was no way I could get anyone to pick me up. I could call the AAA, but then I would have to drive to mechanics with some strange person.
What the hell was I going to do? I called my dad, "Dad, I'm stuck on 42 and the car is dead and I don't want to call AAA because no one can pick me up!" I started crying, I don't know why but I was freaking out. I hated when this happened and I was all alone. If a friend had been with me that would have been different but this wasn't the case.
"Calm down," my dad soothed. "I'll call Brian and have him go or one of his mechanics go and pick you up. Remember he has a tow truck now?"
Yes why didn't I remember that? "Thanks dad." I told him sort of where I was, or at least the last exit I passed and waited. It would be another hour till Brian or one of his people from the shop came. Luckily there was less traffic and I didn't feel like I was blocking the road anymore.
Then a miracle happened, well not really a miracle since my dad called. Tune Ups' tow truck pulled up in front of me. I watched as one of Brian's friends, Mac, jumped out of the truck and over to my car. I rolled down the window.
"Hey," I said to him. I was so grateful.
"Hey," he smiled. Mac was a big guy in his 30's with a great smile. He was always nice to me and usually worked on my family's cars when Brian wasn't able to. "I hear you're having some trouble with your car?"
I groaned, "Yes, it was making banging noises and then stopped running."
"Well I guess we'll load it up and get back to the shop. Your dad's already there. Sorry I took so long I had to come this way and then turn around at another exit."
"It's ok." I was just so incredibly happy that he had come to save me.
We finally arrived at the shop and I saw my dad's car there. It felt like such a long day I just wanted to go home and sleep.
"Alright," Mac began, "I'm going to bring this in there. Your dad's in the office, I'll catch you later stinker."
"Thanks," I glared at him. He knew I was joking and laughed. "Thanks again."
"Hey, no problem."
Then I jumped out and walked towards the building where the offices were held. When I got in there I unfortunately saw my dad speaking with Casey. Casey was in typical mechanic apparel, which happened to be blue with a little name tag sewn into it.
I had never actually seen him working here because he started when I went away to school. If there were any problems with my car my dad would take it to them. This is why I only met him recently and found out he worked with Brian.
I walked up to my dad and Casey.
"Hey," I spoke directly to my dad interrupting their conversation.
My dad turned and looked at me, "Hey sweetie, now what happened with the car?"
He wasn't accusing me because I didn't do anything wrong. He was just generally concerned because my car normally drove fine.
"I don't know," I tried to keep eye contact with my dad and not look at Casey. I could tell he was standing with his arms crossed and watching me. It made me nervous. "I was driving back from Philly after my interview…"
"Oh how'd it go?" My dad liked to cut in and change the subject but he would be back to his original question in no time.
"Oh I got the job."
"Yey, now you can start paying the bills," he laughed at his own joke. And then I heard Casey laughing too. Yes this was really funny. I chuckled in spite of myself.
"And anyway," I tried to finish the story, "I was driving back and there were bangy noises…"
"Bangy noises?" Casey asked. "What's bangy?"
I growled and finally turned to Casey, "You know like it was banging and then the accelerator stopped working and I had to steer the car in neutral to the side of the road." My hands imitated how I steered the car to the side of the road. I guess I was one of those people who spoke with their hands.
Casey nodded and chortled to himself, probably laughing at me, "Yeah I'll look at it tonight and let you know tomorrow."
"Wait, you're working on my car? Where's Brian," now honestly I didn't mean to offend him but I was surprised. I suspected I saw a glint of sorrow in those blue eyes but I felt that he probably thought I considered him a bad mechanic.
Then my dad put in, "Well he's been working on your car anytime we've had to have it tuned."
This I did not know, "Oh." Yeah that sounded great. "Why hasn't Brian been working on it?"
My dad gave me a glare as if to say, 'mind your manners.'
"Okay we'll leave you with the car Casey nice seeing you. And whenever you and Brian want to come over for dinner let me know." My dad shook Casey's hand.
"Sure Mr. Harvey, thanks," Casey shook my dad's hand back. "Bye," Casey muttered to me as he turned around and walked away.
"Bye," why did I feel bad? My dad had no idea what this guy had put me through. No there was definitely no guilt on my side.
The next day I was summoned to go pick the car up. My dad tried to explain the problem to me but I didn't really understand anything about cars so I just gave up and asked him how much it was. Well since Casey had fixed the car for us he lowered the price to somewhere in the ballpark of two hundred dollars. A lot for me but my dad said I only had to pay half of it when I had the money. For now he would pay for it.
Well luckily Tune Ups was only ten minutes from my house via walking. I opted to walk instead of having someone drive me there and dropping me off. I walked down the main street and window shopped. However there wasn't really anything I wanted to buy.
Finally I came to Tune Up. There were a lot of cars in the lot and in the garage from what I could tell. Saturdays during the summer were always very busy for them. I went to the office to pay the bill with me and my dad's credit card. We shared it so he could pay off the bill online. It was convenient and I never really used my card at all.
After I was in the office I was told to go to the garage to pick up my car. As I entered the garage I almost went deaf. The sounds coming from the cars being worked on started to hurt my ears. I walked around and waved at Mac who was working from the underside of a car. He waved back and mouthed a hello.
I looked up and saw my car still sitting on of those lift thingies. I was somewhat curious as to why it was still up there. I hoped my dad was right and they were done the car already. Now the anger started to spread throughout my body. Why the hell wasn't my car ready when I got here?
I looked passed the lift towards the other side of the garage where I saw Casey in a heated discussion with some brunette. She was rather skinny and a bit I don't know scary looking? It was probably another one of his one night stands and she had found him and was bitching him out. After seeing him with the blonde the other week I wasn't surprised.
"Hey." I don't know where Brian came from but suddenly he was in front of me.
I looked up and smiled, "Hey, does someone want to tell me why my car isn't down?"
"Well hello to you too," Brian remarked disdainfully.
"Well I'm sorry I'm not mad at you," I started to explain. I waved my hand towards Casey and his ho. "He was supposed to have my car ready but now he's talking to one of his bimbos
." I was so mad I was barking.
Brian snickered, "Well actually that's his only bimbo, that's his girlfriend.
Girlfriend? No that wasn't possible hadn't he been with a blonde a few weeks ago. "How can that be his girlfriend when he was with that other chick that night at the bar?"
"Wow you remember everything, curious," Brian had this glint in his eye I didn't understand. "Well he didn't cheat on Terry he's allowed to go out and dance with other girls."
"I just thought he was single by the way he acted."
Brian shook his head and looked over at his friend who was now standing alone speaking to himself. He looked up and over at us. Brian looked quickly back at me, "Yeah well hopefully soon." Then he walked away.
