to solve a problem (you follow it back to the start)

3- A motel, an Applebee's and a putt-putt course

HEATHER

"Hey, the lights are off," Heather points out intelligently, speaking higher so Veronica can hear her from the kitchen.

"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed," Veronica replies. Heather can practically see her rolling her eyes.

"Are you ok?" Heather asks. She can hear Herny quacking somewhere in the house, and she stays seated on the floor to avoid stepping on him.

"Yeah, I just-" Veronica is interrupted by a loud noise coming from somewhere in the house. "That wasn't me," she says, followed by another loud bang. "Ok, that was..."

"Hold on, I'm coming with my phone," Heather says. Blindly, Heather starts crawling in search of her cell phone, until she finds it on the floor, hooked up to one of the only working outlets in the house. "Damn it, this little fucker jumped from 8% to 5%..." she curses but turns on the flashlight anyway, making her way toward Veronica.

She finds her leaning on the kitchen sink, holding Henry in her arms.

"There has to be some way to charge it," Heather continues. "What about your car?"

"You're kidding, right?" Through the dim light of her cellphone, she sees Veronica raising an eyebrow.

"Come on."

"No, we're not gonna be sitting in my car in the middle of a thunderstorm, forget it."

***

Heather adjusted herself on the seat of Veronica's car. After less than five minutes in the vehicle, Veronica's little ADHD brain decided that it was too weird to sit in a car without going anywhere so they started driving around her old neighborhood. Even the duck comes along because Veronica thought it would be too cruel to leave him alone in the dark, so they put him in the back seat, and from time to time Heather would reach out her hand to give him some cheerios.

"Ok, according to Google the only interesting things nearby are a motel, an Applebees, and a putt-putt course," Heather says, leaning awkwardly in her seat since the charger still connected to her phone didn't leave her with much space to move around.

"Which sounds like the perfect place to be in the middle of a storm," Veronica mumbles, eyes glued on the road.

"We can just continue with the questions here," Heather shrugs.

"It's your turn."

"Right," Heather says. She takes the folded papers out of her pocket and starts reading. "Question 9: for what in life are you most grateful?"

Veronica hummed, thinking about it for a second. "I have a lot to be grateful for. That's the silver lining of having your life blowing up in your face, I guess. You become aware of what you actually have," she says. "I have wonderful parents, and a job that a love, and a duck in my backseat so I think I'm pretty good...."

Heather chuckled. She knew Veronica was not pretty good, she was hurt and it was Heather's fault, but neither of them decided to mention that again.

"I for one am grateful for second chances," Heather says, but instantly cringes at her own answer. "Ugh, I don't know, that sounds cheesy..."

"It's not cheesy, it's honest. That's good," Veronica replies, taking her eyes off the road to look at Heather for a second, giving her a quick smile.

Heather feels her face getting warmer, and hopes she's not blushing.

"Ok, question 10 is to me," Heather continues, trying to distract herself. "You're supposed to read it but I'll do it because you're driving and we're responsible adults."