My Brother's Roommate

t w e n t y o n e

Chapter 21 : Roadtrip

I need somebody
(Help!) not just anybody
(Help!) you know I need someone
He-

Jay quickly turns the radio off when the ill-timed song came on.

"This is not good, this is not good." Jay mumbles to himself.

"Way to state the obvious." I remark, rolling my eyes.

"No, you don't understand." He says raising his voice.

"We're stuck on the side of the road, two hours away from home, in the snow. Oh yeah, and the sun set so it should be getting colder. I think I understand the situation, or am I missing something?" I'm a bit irritated now.

I feel like this is partially my fault, since I suggested we pull over in the first place, but who knows we could've slipped on ice and crashed. Being temporarily stuck is better than being in a crash.

Jay shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair, ruffling it. He then places his wrists over the steering wheel and waves his hands as he spoke. "It's fine, we'll just call someone to tow the car onto the road."

I nod at his idea. I was going to suggest getting out and pushing the car but his made more sense.

The car was silent, neither one of us talking, and the radio was off. I reach for the radio and put it back on, and thankfully another song was on. I kept it at a pretty low volume.

The aroma of our dinner reaches my nose, and I remember we never ate. "Let's eat out dinner for now, and once we've calmed down, we can figure out what to do."

"The longer we sit here the more we'll get stuck." He mumbles. I ignored his negative comment and hand him his box of chow mein. I take out my box of Mongolian chicken and we eat in peace.

Since we were in a small space, noise carries easily, and hearing people eat is weird to me. I decide to counteract this by turning up the volume of the radio.

Jay either didn't notice or care, because he was still eating away at his noodles - quite loudly if you ask me - but I wouldn't dare try and say something right now.

You should probably tell Mom, you're going to be late.

I take out my phone and was going to send a text, but she would probably panic and call, so I settle on calling first.

"Hi, Sweetie, how is the drive? Are you getting close to home?"

"Hey, Mom, uh the drive is fine. It started to snow a bit, so I wanted to call and let you know that we may be home a little later than we thought. We don't want to slip or anything, so we're driving slow."

"Oh, good thinking. How far are you out?"

"About two hours still. Oh yeah, we stopped for dinner as well, so don't wait up to eat."

"Aw, I miss my Aubrey. Well, okay, stay safe out there. If anything happens or changes let me know."

"Of course, Mom, see you soon."

"I love you, Sweetie."

"Love you too." I finish and hang up the phone.

"You didn't tell her we're stranded on the side of the road?" Jay says immediately.

"Are you insane? She'd freak out and send the whole family on a rescue mission. It's not that big of a deal, we'll get out of here."

He just rolls his eyes and scoffs.