Road to Fucking Nowhere

Strange Townie

It was fast approaching 3am at the Silver Rocket service station. Hardly anyone came by this way, especially this late at night. The gas station, a tiny roadside building with a novelty giant, silver rocket looming over it, sat just five miles outside of Strangetown, a town that was literally in the middle of nowhere with no other nearby civilisation for miles round. The road wasn't called the Road to Nowhere for nothing. The service station itself was also mostly empty, the lit interior a beam of light amongst the darkness of the outside desert.
Mostly empty, except for the attendant, Ripp Grunt.
Ripp didn't mind the night shift he's just taken up. Hardly anyone would come here to bother him in the day, and even less so at night. It was just him. He had complete range of the snack section, which was nestled next to an aisle of tacky souvenirs and curio items, and another aisle of books and magazines, and he could sit behind the cash register and read said magazines all night since no one came by anyway, something which he was doing right now. He was leaning his head on his hand on the counter with a cigarette in one hand, and strands of his long brown hair fell over his face as he flicked through the pages, his striking blue eyes scanning the pictures, mostly of scantily clad woman. Ripp had several piercings, with a ring on his brow and another on his septum, and black studs in both ears. He wore an open yellow flannel shirt over another shirt with a band name, The Shifting Paradymes on it, and worn ripped jeans. An arm tattoo poked out of one sleeve. Even the strange woman that had hired him, Mambo Loa, often left him to his own devices. It was just him at the gas station on the Road to Nowhere, not a sign of life for miles. The Road to fucking Nowhere.
It was basically like home for him here. The trailer he'd acquired with the money he'd earned from working here so far was just a few minutes away too. And there was Lilith in the other trailer, they'd become good friends. It was a huge improvement to his old home which he had left behind, a year ago now. Something he had no regrets about whatsoever.

Ripp had to leave. The constant torment from his brother Tank, and abuse from his father, the General, in that fucking military barracks they called a home, it had gotten too much. Ever since his mother Lyla disappeared, everything was a whole lot worse. At least his mum had been supportive of his... transition. Now that she was no longer there to defend him, they could do what they wanted to him. He was tired of turning up to school each day, having to explain away the cuts and bruises to Johnny and Ophelia's concerned faces after failing to hide them. Johnny also had issues with Tank, and Johnny's family with Ripp's father, but Ripp had to live with them, day after day. It was absolutely fucking depressing. Ripp had tried continuing his transition in secret, sneaking out for several days once and coming back with long awaited top surgery scars, and his father had given him so much shit for it. He remembered him shouting at him about "deviant transsexuals" and "self-mutilation" well. So one night, he packed his bags, got out that house and left, and never looked back. No one there would miss him anyway, they probably didn't even care. Maybe his little brother Buck, but he had Jill over at the Smiths. They would look after him. His father and older brother hadn't even bothered to search for Ripp in a year, which was proof enough, and according to Johnny, they had even left temporarily on some millitary placement, leaving Buck with Jill at the Smiths. (who the General was reluctant to let Buck stay with, but in his own words, "at least Jill isn't green".)

Ripp was on his own now. He had finally left school, at age 18. He had bigger ambitions than being a gas station attendant of course-ones with singing, and a guitar, and stardom, and a mansion in the Del Sol Valley hills-but for now, he liked his calmer, Silver Rocket Service Station life.

Suddenly, the sound of a door opening broke the silence of the service station, letting a breeze of cold desert air in. Who would come in here this late at night? Ripp put down his magazine, stubbed out the cigarette on the counter and looked up.

A girl about his age had just walked in through the door. She had long red hair, dyed, a beanie hat, a hoodie with the sim state university logo on it, ripped jeans, and a lost expression on her face. Like a lot of sims that caught Ripp's eye, he thought she was very attractive. She looked around with her dark brown coloured eyes until she made eye contact with Ripp.