Beyond Logic

IV. It Was Already Upside Down

"What are the fucking odds?" Alexandra muttered as she got out of her old beat-up car that she just recently picked up from the body shop. She's three miles away from university when she heard a deafening sound of a balloon popped. She pulled over on the side road to check out the damage.

As she had expected, the rear tire on the passenger side was more of a half-eaten donut than it was a tire. Instead of getting pissed, she smiled despite herself. If her family could see her right now, they would probably laugh their asses off and say, we told you so. If she was in New York right now, just one click on her phone and her dad would not just sent people to fix her car but she wouldn't be driving her beat-up car in the first place. But she loved this car so much since she got it using her salary from her first job as a cashier at a local grocery store. It took her three months to save enough money to buy the car from Craigslist ad and there is no way that she would just abandon it at the side of the road. Never mind getting late for class, she got a car to fix.

She took off her thick coat and scarf, gather her dark brown, wavy and curly hair into a bun. She rolled up her long sleeves as she turned her hazard lights on and made sure that the engine was put on brake. She opened her trunk and took out the tools that she needed to change her tire. She was fourteen when she first successfully changed a tire on her own. Her mom's driver or she called him Uncle Carlos taught her when he was fixing one of the guards' back-up car.

Just as when she was positioning the jack under her car, a red BMW pulled over behind her.

"Hey miss, are you okay? Do you need -"a voice of a guy asked, "Alexandra??"

Alexandra stopped what she was doing and looked up when she heard the voice called her name, "Sebastian, hey!"

Sebastian had a combination of confused and concerned look on his face, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay and obviously I had a flat tire." Alexandra smiled as she continued working on her car. She was kneeling down just as she started pumping the jack to support the car's weight.

Sebastian just stood there frozen as if he could not believe what he was seeing, "Do you need some help with that? I can call someone to get your car and I could just give you a ride to campus."

"It's okay. I've done this before. I'll be done in, give or take, ten to fifteen minutes. You should go; you'll be late for class."

"There is no way in hell I'll leave you here alone."

"Well in that case, make yourself useful and hand me the wrench from the toolbox."

________

Sebastian shouldn't be running late for class considering that he was wide awake since 5 am when he somewhat had a very graphic dream of Alexandra. He had spent the previous day thinking about her. The night he spent with Brianna wasn't even helpful to clear his mind off her. He didn't even spend the night with Brianna and left around midnight. Before, it took them all night just to get enough of each other but after a round of casual fuck, he couldn't help but feel disgusted on himself for using Brianna to get his mind of a girl he had just met. The next morning, he planned on texting Alexandra when he realized that he sent her the text that was meant for Brianna. Needless to say, not only that he got himself fucked but he did fucked up royally. He wanted to call her and explain but his friends advised him not to for he would just make the situation more awkward than it already was.

He was a few miles from university when he saw an old beat-up car parked along the highway. His instinct said to just drive by but his gut told him to stop and see if the person was okay. After all, his parents had taught him to always lend a helping hand.