The Vituperator (NaNoWriMo 2015)

seventeen \\ drive

"SO WEHERE is this place?" Tae asks, lips quirking up slightly. "Or is it top secret so you can lead us to the middle of nowhere so our bodies won't be found when you kill us?"

Nick snickers from behind the wheel, "forgot the name of the town, but it's tiny and by the coast."

"That's a little far," I say, frowning. Sasha looks at me from the passenger seat, her eyes blatantly saying, don't be a dick. I blink back at her.

"It's gonna be a handful of hour, yeah." Nick says with a sheepish wince, I can see him through the rearview mirror. His expression suddenly brightens, it's almost comical. "But hey! That's why I set up this sick playlist!"

He punches a button on the car radio, and the speakers flood the dodge with folk music. Everyone collectively groans. I watch, amused, as Tae and Sasha start to berate Nick on his godawful music taste.

He gloats, leaning his head back in the seat the sings along at the top of his lungs. Now, the folk music I didn't mind — however, Nick can't fucking sing at all.

"Oh my god," Sasha groans, sticking her fingers into her ears. Tae leans forward in the backseat, next to me, to pound on the shoulder of the drivers seat.

"Nick, please, every time you sing a puppy dies!"

"Listen to him, Nick," I say over the music, nudging my head towards Tae. "Every note you sing takes a life!"

"Jesus Christ," Nick says, taken aback. He looks at the both of us from the rear view mirror, obvious horror in his eyes. He turns off the folk music. "What the fuck, guys."

Tae mutters a quiet sorry while I shrug smugly, slumping back in my seat. The peace and quiet was back. At least this time, it was without tension, just a disturbed Nick and Sasha. I want to high five Tae, but I don't think he'd be up for that.

A blur on my left catches my eye, I look out the window to see Bryson on his bike, keeping at a speed where he's next to Nick's window now. Bryson, clad in goggles, a helmet, and gloves, had been following us on his motorbike since we stopped by his house. He claimed that he would get car sick if he rode with the rest of us, smushed in the back seat for that long a time, so he dumped his own duffel in the trunk of the dodge and said that he'd follow us from behind.

Nick rolls down his window, the wind that bursts through the car is loud and staggering. As it flows past Nick's seat I feel the hair hitting the left side of my face and shiver slightly, it's chilly outside.

"What's up?" Nick yells over the wind, poking a bit of his head out the window, but never taking his eyes off the road.

"You guys okay in there?" Bryson shouts back, the volume and strain of his voice overshadowing his concern. "I heard a lot of noise in the car from out here!"

"We're fine!" Nick reassures. With the strained shouts and exaggerated facial expressions, the whole exchange looks rather comical. I make an amused noise that nobody hears over the wind.

"'Kay, I'll still be following!" Bryson nods, then starts pulling back, disappearing from my line of vision as he moves behind the car.

Nick rolls up the window and the car is quiet again. Nick breaks the silence, laughing, laughing, and laughing. Sasha ignores him, but I can see the corners of a smile on her face.

"You okay there, buddy?" Tae asks, uncertain as to whether or not his friend was slipping into some kind of hysteric insanity. A concerned frown on my face, I watch as Nick's shoulders shake up and down violently in front of me.