TCM

Chapter 3

Connie walked towards Leland's car, flanked by Julie. Sonny, Leland and Ana were still inside sorting the bill. 

"Do you think Ana hates me now?" Julie whispered.

"Na, course not. She understands why you're scared." Connie replied, fiddling with the car keys while holding a flask of tea under her arm.

"I'm not scared just worried."

"Do they not equal the same thing anyway? That you're hesitant to go?"

"Well yeah I guess," Julie frowned, "I need to watch what I blurt out huh?"

"Yes you do, I don't think insinuating her sister could be dead and that we would be next was a great move. Between you and me I was also hesitant yesterday, but she's also our good friend and do you really trust the police?"

"Absolutely not."

Connie nodded, "There you go. Faster we go and find her the better for us all; I'm sure she's just with Danny staying somewhere, we'll find her and we can all stop worrying. No chance she's dead."

Connie opened Leland's car and left the keys in the ignition. She couldn't drive, only Leland and Sonny could. She climbed into the back of the Ford, Leland had worked hard to afford it. Subsequently it was his pride and joy, so when she climbed in she took care to not damage anything. She sat behind the front passenger seat, on the right and put her seatbelt on as the rest emerged from the building. Julie yelled shotgun across the carpark at Leland and he nodded at her, despite a disgruntled look from Sonny. Ana got in beside Connie in the middle seat and Sonny after her, shutting the door behind himself. Julie got in the passenger seat and pulled the vanity mirror down, checking herself out quickly before pulling out a tube of mascara and reapplying it; she deemed her eyeshadow excellent still despite the heat and so made no adjustments to that. Leland fiddled with the car before putting his seatbelt on. 

"So Ana, Sonny... what way?"

Sonny checked his map and leant forwards, "Newt so, north for a while and then when we hit this gas station we go east. We can start there..." He pointed to a tiny built up area, presumably the most active part of that small, unheard of town.

"This would of been easier if I sat in the front," He added.

Julie turned around and smiled. "I beat you to it fairly."

He nodded and held his hands up, "so you did. If we get lost this is on you."

She rolled her eyes playfully and faced back towards the front as Leland pulled out of the car-park. He flicked the radio on and got everyone to roll the windows down, creating an aggressive breeze throughout the car. Ana's hair blew in Sonny's face repeatedly as she chatted away with Julie, but he didn't say anything. It was reassuring to Julie that Ana was speaking to her so causally, that she truly understood her taxing concerns. Sonny didn't want to interrupt that. He fiddled with a bracelet on his wrist given to him by his girlfriend and smiled. It was his "prize" for winning a long game of Risk months ago. He loved board games and TV, the likes of Battleship, Executive Decision and Mastermind. Ana, Connie, Julie and Leland refused to play games with him, Danny only sometimes. His girlfriend however, named June, adored playing these with him despite not being very good herself. Her favourite was Risk, deemed so due to it's strategy heavy gameplay that she enjoyed. They'd sit downstairs together for hours playing rule for rule dedicated to the game, until one of them was victorious. She would buy him little gifts often but for the game that lasted hours she deemed that only her favourite bracelet would do for the victor; her sliver bracelet was a comfort to Sonny, so he had worn it everyday since that one game. He hoped to see her later with good news about Maria. 

Trees flew by blurring Sonny's vision as he stared out the window, before being broken by haphazardly built shacks people called home. Many were crumbling, rotting away in the scorching sun, but some held their rickety structure. The owners of these places were often aggressive, wielding assortments of guns; what they were trying to protect always seemed lacklustre for their efforts. Wide stretches of field were littered with sparse flower growth, specks of red and blue plaguing the drier yellow-green grasses. He could see why Maria chose flowers as her favourite subject matter, they had an ability to stand out despite miles of noisy interference, stretching beyond what was trying to hold them down. The sky was a bright blue, with wisps of thin clouds smudged across. Ana and Julie finally went quiet with the radio filling the silence, some shitty guitar solo blaring. Connie took some sunglasses out of her pocket and wore them.

"You scared of the sun?" Leland spoke.

She looked away from the window and at Leland, and Julie spoke.

"Her and the sun aren't great friends."

He tutted, "Curse of being ginger?"

Connie glared half-seriously, "You wanna go there?" She got her flask out the footwell and opened it, holding it over the leather seats.

Leland's eyes widened as he glanced over. "Heyyy, I don't think I do."

"It's not even coffee," Julie laughed.

"I don't want any hot drink split ideally," he replied.

They kept playfully bickering between themselves, Connie leaning forwards the whole time instigating them. Ana smiled, she just hoped they'd keep this energy for the whole day, it helped her keep herself positive. Hopefully they would find Maria quickly, hanging out at some motel of sorts or in town and bring her home.