The Foreigner

14

The wind breezed against my skin on the back of an Opel Corsa 2013. Rafael passed the theory test and the practical on the first try, so his parents bought him a car to go with his driving license.
The vehicle has been used for, more or less, ten years and some scrapes were definitly noticed, but an ideal first car overall.
And to celebrate this achievement, on the election silence day, we decided to drive up to Porto, the closest major city there is to us. Some teachers missed school since they've been on strike for, at most, a month. So, we - teenage students - couldn't bare the thought of only having a class and staying for 5/6 hours in that place.

"Turn this one up!" I said loudly so that Jota could hear me from the back seat, with all that wind.

He locked eyes with me in the mirror, nodded and turned the volume up. 'The Nights' by Avicii was recognized by every passenger of this car, just by the first musical notes.

"Once upon a younger year," Jota screamed the initial lyrics, followed by Lucas, who continues, "when all our shadows disappeared, the animals inside came out to play." Rafa bopped his head to the music, keeping an eye on the road, just with a huge smile on. Lucas was no different, but he lifted his hands, moving it around the tiny car, on the backseat.

I decided to join the moment, "Went face to face with all our fears, learned our lesson through the tears."

"Made memories we knew would never fade..." Now, all four of us in the car were singing with everything we had inside our hearts.

"One day, my father he told me: 'Son, don't let it slip away', " Sofia clapped her hands up in the air.

As we all continued, it was chorus time.
"He said, 'One day, you'll leave this world behind. So live a life you will remember!' My father told me when I was just a child: these are the nights that never die. My father told me-" The beat dropped and we clapped, danced in our seats, hugged each other side by side and screamed in the other's ears, well thats one was more me and Lucas.
Although this song could be the most cliché one, which is so overused, it had this specific energy that is so rare nowadays.

The song faded, but it did its mission! Make everyone in this car raise their spirits to the maximum, keep smiles sewn into faces. The vehicle returned to silence, until there was a topic to comment on the radio that raises conversation in itself.

I turned my body to Lucas, slightly. I crossed my legs, trying to find a good position to stay for the rest of the car ride. He tapped the leg closest to him, leading to me staring at him confused.

He leaned over and took control of my legs, adjusting the seatbelt to make it comfortable. My legs found themselves on his lap, since he moved himself from the left to the centre seat.

"We're entering the city, I think. There it is, the Estádio do Dragão," Jota pointed to the stadium belonging to FCPorto - his football club.

Sofia turned to me and Lucas, directly looking at the boy who held my legs, caressing them. "The tripeiro in him is what makes me most repulsed." She used the nickname given to Porto supporters.

Lucas nodded, agreeing with Sofia's statement. "And you, Annelise? Have you decided what club to cheer for? Red would look good on you." He winked at me.

I kept my mouth shut, a smile forming on my lips, still. Machado tapped my legs, accepting my silence as undecided.
Suddenly, the highway turned into a normal street full of trees and houses.

Through the mirror, I saw Jota face palming with his left hand, keeping the right one on the steering wheel. "Machado, where's the closest IKEA?"

"I'm pretty sure the last time I checked, it was in Matosinhos." Lucas raised an eyebrow, pulling himself up a little bit to look for his phone on his pocket. One of the hands never left my legs, keeping them in place.