Drive

Chapter 1

Roman pulled up to the house that matched the address which Patton had given him. Supposedly this was where Remy lived. It was the first time Roman had seen it. It was large, but not as big as his own. Still, it must have taken some amount of money to pay for this house. Outside there was a small garden along the perimeter of the house that had multiple rows of flowering plants that progressively got taller as they got closer to the wall. Their colours were still muted, but starting to grow visible as the sun began to rise, giving the first bit of light into the world. Roman noted lots of pinks, yellows and reds. He wasn't exactly sure what any of then species were, but they still looked beautiful and surprisingly well maintained.

Roman sighed. He really didn't want to do this. He did want to go on the trip with the others but he really didn't want to have to drive Remy all the way there. Pretty flower garden or not, Roman practically hated Remy. Even after knowing them for a while now, Roman still. struggled putting words as to why. Maybe it was their pompous attitude, their disrespect for authority, or anyone really, the way they flirted with everyone they met regardless of intention- Roman could go on and on about how much he disliked Remy.

Still, Remy was part of the group, and had no ride. Janus, another person Roman would not be exactly ecstatic to see but had to tolerate for the sake of his friends, lived too far away to make it convenient, Patton and Virgil didn't drive, Emile, Patton's twin, could drive but didn't have a car, and by the time Logan picked up from houses, and crossed the city to get Remy, it would put them far behind the others. Remus, Roman's identical twin, though the two rarely looked the part, had stayed the night with Janus and would be traveling up with him, so he was also not an option, even if his driving could be considered safe, which it most certainly was not. Patton also had practically begged Roman, and, well, he couldn't say no to those puppy dog eyes. Didn't make him any happier about the situation though.

Roman pulled out his phone and opened the text message conversation between him and Remy. They had only sent two messages between the previous tonight, as if they had mutually decided the less talking the better. The messages consisted of Roman telling him he'd pick them up and when, and a simple "k." in response. Hadn't even questioned if Roman knew their address, what Roman's car looked like, or any other potential question. They hadn't talked since then until now.

"Here."

"k."

Roman sighed and waited. And waited. And waited. Roman groaned. He should've know this was going to happen. Leave it to Remy to screw things up. They had responded to him fifteen minutes ago, and Roman was growing impatient. Remy had probably decided to comb their hair while watching tik tok and forgotten altogether somene was waiting on them. Yes, a part of him was concerned something had happened, but really, Roman was just pissed Remy was wasting his time.

Loosing the little patience he had, on edge without his normal morning coffee, Roman was mumbling to himself as he pushed the door open to his car and stood up. No sooner had he turned to close the car door did the front door to the house open, as if on cue. Knowing what he did of Roman, he wouldn't put it past them to have waited until they saw him get out. Remy slipped out of the door, a large, slightly tattered, backpack slung over one shoulder.

Roman tapped his fingers on the roof of his red car, his nails clicking, as he waited for Remy to lock the door and walk over painfully slowly to the car. Remy was wearing black jeans, a zipped up leather jacket and dark tinted sunglasses that made it to where Roman couldn't really tell where Remy was looking, but he didn't care if they were looking at him or not. They reached out and pulled on the door handle of the passenger side door only to find it locked. They sighed and lifted their chin to face Roman across the roof of the car.

"Babes-"

"Don't you 'babes' me," Roman growled. Another one of Remy's mannerisms that bothered Roman. The way they referred to everyone as 'babes' regardless of their relationship to them. The only way one knew the way Remy felt about them was based on their tone, which most of the time, just sounded annoyed or uninterested, which made communication shoddy at best, especially given the way they always covered their eyes with those damned sunglasses. Right now they sounded annoyed. Good. Roman was annoyed too. "I told you six thirty. It's now almost six fifty."