Never Saw This Coming

Car Rides.

Maddy

I shut the door to my car and brush my hair off my shoulders. My phone rings on the Bluetooth as soon as I turn on my car. It's Novalee. I pick up, "Hello?" I say, hiding my frustration. The line is full of a bunch of background noise until her voice finally comes through. "Hello? Are you almost here?" she basically yells this out. I lower the volume on my dash and try to calm myself down. I didn't want to drive tonight for a reason. This was supposed to be a night where I got totally wasted. Nevertheless, I hide the anger in my voice.

"I'm just leaving school now, it took forever to do my makeup," I half-lie. I'm still in Chris' driveway. She doesn't say anything again for a couple of seconds. "Okay, because the bouncer doesn't believe that we know you!" she says. I roll my eyes. The guy who owns the place is an old friend of my father's who just so happened to move out to Oak Hill this year. I ran into him at the store and he mentioned how he was opening up a bar and how I could swing by if I wanted to. I noted that I still wasn't 21 but he said to just let him know and he'd let me and anyone I invited in.

"Tell him you want to speak to the person who owns the place and when he comes give him the phone," I tell her. "Okay!" I only hear the loudness of the people I assume wanting to get inside as well for about a minute. The lights in my car turn on from the inside as the door opens. I freeze for a second until I see Xander getting into the passenger side. "What the hell!" I say. He closes the door and fixes his short hair. "Hello?" A male voice fills the car. I glare at the man next to me but don't say anything.

"Hey, Jonathan, it's Maddy! Those people are my friends and I'm on my way now, could you please let them in?" I say. "Oh, yes of course, of course! I'll see you in a bit," he says quickly. "Thank you!" I say before the line goes dead. I put the phone down in one of the cup holders and turn back to the body in the passenger seat. He turns to look at me too. "What? Are we going to this bar or not?" he says easily. I narrow my eyes at him. "I thought you didn't want to go out tonight," I say.

He's fully changed out of his sweats and t-shirt, wearing some better-fitting going out clothes. "I changed my mind," he says, putting on his seatbelt. Actually, my seatbelt. He looks back at me when he clips the buckle in. I'm still glaring at him, but it doesn't phase him at all. "You driving or what?" he adds. "I don't want to show up with you," I say. He rolls his eyes. "We'll just say we got there at the same time, in different cars. Do you actually think they'll believe us if we said you gave me a ride? I'll say I took an Uber." He shrugs his shoulders lightly.

I think about it for a second. "Fine," I say under my breath. He grins and I almost want to say 'never mind'. I stay quiet for the sake of just wanting to get to the bar for a drink. I've had a long two weeks since I told my manager to give me as many hours as possible. I don't want to sound like a brat, I just forgot how working felt. I'm sure I'll get used to it again eventually. I work my schedule around my classes that are all over by at least 1 p.m. every day which adds to recent stress I've been having.

I pull out of the driveway, making sure to check no cars are coming. When I see an empty road, I reverse back quickly and get on the road. Xander lifts his hand to the handle above the car door. I glare at him, "Calm down, I didn't swerve onto upcoming traffic." He only smiles at this and turns his head back onto the road. His hand stays on the grab handle. I begin to drive out of the neighborhood, staying far right since everyone seems to park their cars on the left side of the road.

A car is pulling into the same road as I'm barely coming out causing me to glide more to the right to give them room. I don't realize I'm a little too close to the sidewalk, so my car bumps up onto it. My ass lifts off the seat at the impact. "Shit," I say under my breath. I quickly steer back to the middle of the road. I shift my gaze to the right, realizing Xander is there. His body is closer to the middle console separating us, hand still grabbing the grab handle. He scoffs, "What were you saying?" he says.