Night-Owl Trucking

Monday, 7:13pm

Luz fired a grin over at the other girl, a gleeful expression lighting up her face, "Icebreakers are the key to building a strong friendship—they tell us all sorts of things about ourselves, mi nueva amiga."

Amity frowned, worry crinkling her eyebrows, "Luz, no."

"Luz, yes," the brown-haired girl countered, pulling a folded piece of paper from her inner jacket pocket with a flourish. "I've got a list of great questions here, and... Amity?" She held it out for a moment but crumpled it into her palm when the green-haired girl crossed her arms over her chest with a darkened frown on her face. Luz faltered, stuttering, "Amit— hey— it's not—"

"I said no, Luz, I don't like— it's—" Amity started, staring down at her knees. "I can't just—"

"No, no, I'm sorry, Amity," Luz quickly interrupted, "I didn't mean to push?" She glanced over at her passenger, but the other girl was still looking down at the floor. "I wanted it to be a fun little thing where we get to know more about each other." She shrugged, "Some silly questions to talk about— but— I was wrong to ignore your first 'no', I'm sorry. I-I get—" Luz sighed, "I get excited a-and take things too far."

The Interstate curved to the right, around a hill out Amity's window that sloped sharply upward, the dense thicket of green trees and vines scattering the evening sunlight into sharp rays painting the pale girl's profile. Hooty's tires hummed around the bend as another old country song strummed out of his speakers. After a minute of thick, uneasy silence, Amity held her hand out. Luz watched it for a moment until the pale girl wiggled her fingers impatiently. The brown-haired girl quickly placed the paper in Amity's hand, then said, "I wrote that list the other night— you can ask me any of those; you don't have to answer unless you—"

"Luz," Amity's voice was soft, and the brown-haired girl closed her mouth with a click. "I am... not used to... people wanting to..." Luz gave her a worried glance before focusing her eyes on the road. A pained silence fell inside the cabin for a long moment before the pale girl sighed. "People who want to talk to me— they're usually trying to steal company information." She turned her golden eyes on Luz as the tanned girl furrowed her eyebrows and muttered, Jerks, what the hell, before Amity spoke again, "So I... I got... defensive." Luz got the impression the other girl had almost said something else. "I'm sorry," Amity added, "You've done nothing to warrant my response." Luz waved a dismissive hand and breathed, s'okay, I'm sorry too, as Amity began to unfold the paper. Abruptly, her shoulders slumped and she hung her head like a deflated balloon. Luz glanced her way, but before she could speak, the pale girl had offered a quiet, "Thank you, Luz. For... for understanding."

"Of course," Luz replied.

The green-haired girl sniffed and wiped under her eye, then she cleared her throat as she unfolded the paper twice. She muttered something under her breath as she finally exposed the list. Luz had ripped a sheet of notebook paper in half, top-to-bottom, then taped the short ends together when she ran out of room; her cramped penmanship covered one full double-length side and most of the other. "Why did you—" Amity covered her mouth with one hand and snorted, turning the paper over to glance at the scribbles marking both sides, rotating it lengthwise.

Luz glanced her way twice, then chuckled, "What?" the third time she looked at the green-haired girl.

"You wrote this?" Amity asked with a laugh, her golden eyes shining, absolutely delighted.

"Yeah?" Luz smiled and breathed out a chuckle, waiting a moment before asking, "Why, what's up?"

"This is— heh," the pale girl flipped the paper over and folded it once, looking over the questions more carefully. "This is your handwriting?"