Wednesday, August 30, 2023
11:41 PM
Ryder's Durango
Having to drive people home was one thing Ryder wasn't a fan of, but driving a bunch of drunk people home was a whole different story. Like, sure, he's been able to tolerate a drunk Maya in the passenger seat, but the rest of her drunk friends occupying the rest of the car just felt like too much. But hey, he volunteered to stay sober for Maya at least, how bad could four extra people be?
The answer: Worse than he thought.
"Hey, we're still on for the CNE on the weekend right?" Cleo asked the group from the back seat.
"Of course I am, I ain't missing that for anything," Maya responded from the passenger seat.
"You know I'm still down, we just gotta get our tickets, right?" Laura asked, leaning on the window.
"No shit, we wouldn't just walk in without 'em," Nikki responded.
"But like, that would be crazy if we did," Maya suggested, maybe intentionally, or maybe as a throwaway joke.
"Right? Less money spent for entry, more money for buying shit!" Cleo replied ecstatically.
Ryder scoffed to himself. They couldn't be serious, right? Stuff like that seemed like the type of stuff him and the guys would get into. But hey, fuck around and find out, he thought.
"What about you, dude? You down to go?" Maya then asked Ryder, interrupting his train of thought.
"Oh, uh, I'm already going with the guys." He responded.
"Oh, cool. You guys going on the weekend though?" She asked in return.
"Actually, I think we are."
"Sick, if we catch you guys, it's on sight." Maya joked.
"Wait, what do you even mean by that?" Ryder asked as he stopped at an incoming red light.
"I dunno. Figure it out." Maya chuckled.
"Oh, that's great, even I don't get it." He shrugged.
As the traffic light transitioned to a verdant hue, Ryder pressed his foot on the pedal, propelling them forward into the mostly empty suburban street. The car speakers were blasting some Kali Uchis track that was on one of their playlists. For Ryder, it felt like the party never ended, it just got prolonged to the confines of his Durango. Maybe that's what the others wanted, who knows. And while he could just put his earphones in and play something else over the bass-pounding audio in the car, he'd rather NOT blow his ears out right now. And just like with Maya's friends, he could tolerate Kali Uchis, at least he could understand what she was saying compared to the others. Except for Maya, probably, she knows Spanish.
He made a sharp left upon reaching another neighbourhood. Nikki lived around here, and Laura was going to crash at her place, so Ryder was planning to drop them both off here and then get everyone else back afterwards.
"Yo Nikki, where was your house again?" Ryder asked, looking into the rearview mirror to eye the others.
"Oh, it's like, two lefts from here," she replied.
YOU ARE READING
Gap Year
Teen Fiction"Why did we ever stop talking?" Sometimes, College Application doesn't go your way. Maybe your dream school didn't accept you, or the program you were applying to was full of applicants. That is now the case for Damian Walker and his friend group, o...
