me and the devil - kai parker

27

"So what now?"

"I don't know about you, but I really want to try that Baja Blast slushie they have" he pointed his thumb behind to the colorful machines inside the gas station. 

Madelene rolled her eyes slamming the map she was holding into Kai's stomach as she walked away across the parking lot.

It was filled with cars, people, crying toddlers, and too many loud noises for Maddie's liking. As she slowly melted away into the sensory nightmare her eardrums were going through, Kai was making it ten times worse.

Kai only laughed, he put the map into the back pocket of his jeans before jogging towards the girl.

" The jeans are just too tight, right?"

"Can you just focus for once, please" she barely whispered, more to herself than him.

"Where are you even going?"

Before she could answer, they stopped at their destination—a bus stop, or what was left of it, across the street from the gas station. A rusty pole and a bench with a hole in it prevented anyone from sitting down.

Madelene's eyes scanned the old timetable with barely readable numbers before her shoulders dropped.

"The next bus that takes us as far as possible from Virginia is tomorrow at noon"

Kai looked at her confused "A bus? Baby, we need to get a car"

Maddie crossed her arms over her chest, Kai noticed how her breathing grew more and more rapid and how her eyes hardened, she was holding in before an explosion, and he thought it was very cute.

"Where are you gonna get a car? with what money? the three hundred dollars you just stole off that poor old man in front of us in the line? "

"Oh, you're so innocent" he chuckled, his hand reaching to grab her cheek mockingly, but she slapped it away immediately.

"Don't even" she mumbled through her teeth "We are not stealing a car, this is not like our world, people actually own these things, we can't get in trouble or get noticed until we get to Oregon" her hand wrapped around his wrist tightly, and although she was not making much damage, he could tell she could if she wanted to " Understood?" her unwavering gaze was drilling into his skull.

There was silence, Kai didn't really understand why she chose to be righteous and proper this time, getting the ascendant was the goal, and she kept choosing the slowest routes.

"Sooooo...hotel?" he wiggled his eyebrow playfully.

Madelene released Kai's wrist with a sigh, her tension giving way to exhaustion. She turned her back on him, staring out at the chaotic gas station parking lot. "Fine," she muttered. "But we're finding something cheap and quiet. "

Kai grinned, pleased with her reluctant agreement. He pointed to something behind her, and when she turned around, a big billboard was advertising a Hotel nearby.

"There's this place a couple of miles from here," he said. "It's got a 2-star rating, so it's probably a dump. Just how you like it."

In the background a child tripped over his untied shoes, spilling an XXL neon-colored slushie all over the pavement and himself, the scream that escaped his mouth could most likely be heard three states away and it gave Madelene a raging migraine.

"Let's just get there. The sooner we're out of here, the better."

They walked onto the sidewalk and headed toward the hotel, it was not too far and it did look in their budget, or the poor old man's budget, that now belonged to them.