You Are the Key

Chapter Three:

When we got in the car, the next day, we were both half asleep. Our hair was wet, from taking the quickest showers of our lives, and my stomach was wild. I wanted anything I could get my hands on. Vegemite at this point sounded good.

The only plus of having Jackie in the car, so far, was that she’d handed us each a coffee and a huge-ass muffin before we were on our way to New York. I didn’t necessarily like cream or sugar in my morning Joe, but I couldn’t deny the caffeine, and neither could the rest of us. The muffins were a plus, too. She got off on the right foot with us, but during the long, hot trip she soured pretty quickly.

It started with her saying her butt hurt from sitting too long. Then it was that she was hot. Then she was hungry, so we all stopped at McDonald’s. When Gavin went to smoke a cigarette, she nearly had a heart attack, and that’s when Brandon realized his bag was in the Bronco with Eric.

“Rob, Rob…” He shook my arm. “My shit isn’t in the car. Where’s my bag?” He asked me, panicking. I knew from how much he was shaking, he needed a line. “Gavin, where’s my bag?” He asked.

“It’s probably with Eric, why?”

“Probably?” He shrieked and let out an exasperated, panicked laugh. “I need my shit, now, Gavin.” He rubbed at his eyes while Gavin groaned. Jackie had picked up their swearing.

“That’s disgusting.” She said, and that’s what set Brandon off. It was practically the only time he even spoke during the car ride. “Swearing only makes you look like an idiot.”

“What’s really disgusting is that we all worked our asses off so that we could have fun on this trip, and you didn’t pay shit, you threw a few words around to get your damn way. Okay? And to me, that’d completely bullshit. You screwed all of us over. We all had to pitch in to make this whole thing worthwhile, and you’re still getting your way by complaining about everything.” He was on the edge of his seat, frustrated and scared.

“There’s not one, single reason to swear.” She just had to argue with him.

“Jackie, just... shut up.” Shaun said, and went back to eating his McChicken.

Later on that day we drove past a skate park, that was falling apart, but the bowl and half pipe were in pretty good shape. The grass was browning and riddled with gravel and chunks of cement. “Pull over.” I said and Gavin looked over his shoulder at me.

“Are you nuts? There’s nowhere to ‘pull over’.” He stated, but I kicked his seat.

“I’ve been in this car too damn long, pull over!” After the whole Brandon freak-out, the whole car had gone nuts. Eric was right up our ass for a good ten minutes, Shaun pissed in a bottle semi-secretively and Jackie griped even more about the heat, begging Gavin to pull over when we passed a DQ. He didn’t obey, so we all had to hear about it. Eventually she put her headphones in again and listened to some Kelly Clarkson, or whatever other shit she had on that demon device. Earlier she’d plugged it into the USB port to charge it, and we had to an hour worth of Katy Perry and Rihanna. “I wanna skate.” I said sadly while watching the park pass by in slow motion. With an aggravated grumble, he looked into traffic and hooked a left quickly. In the Jeep, we tore through the ditch and then drove across the bumpy lawn. A big sign read Board Central. It was a shitty name for a skate park, but there were plenty of people here, sitting and watching, some skating.