They Could Care Less

56: Road Trip

They finished way later than intended, and Thea was exhausted, but she didn't want to go back to Damon's either.

"Thea? Thea?" Jackson said and waved his hand in front of her face. Thea realized she had zoned out and looked at him.

"Yeah?"

"Dinner," Jackson said and Thea noticed he had two paper bags in his lap and they were in an empty parking lot. A feeling of Deja Vú went through Thea. He handed Thea one of the bags and Thea peaked inside to see a burger, fries and a soda.

"Thanks," she said as her stomach rumbled. They sat in silence and ate, though Thea could sense that Jackson wanted to say something.

"When do you start tomorrow?" he asked and Thea answered without even thinking since she had spent too much time learning her new schedule.

"At eight thirty," she answered and took a bite. "Why?"

"Perfect, we have some time," he said and started the engine again.

"Time for what?"

"A road trip," he answered and smiled like an excited child on Christmas.

"To where?" Thea asked and quickly fastened her seatbelt.

"Washington DC," he answered and drove onto the road.

"Washington is four hours away," Thea argued and checked the time. It was soon nine p.m.

"I know, so let's estimate that the journey to DC and then back to NYC takes eight hours. We'll then have three hours, more or less, to do whatever we want to do in DC," he said and Thea tried to come up with any excuse to get out of this, but she couldn't think of any, not any rational ones at least. Besides, she wanted to see for herself where this would lead and she needed to get away from it all. Thea decided for tonight to put her thoughts aside and just enjoy herself. She turned the car radio on and started to sing along and move around without a care. They ate and moved around to the music. Jackson grinned, and Thea encouraged him to join by singing dramatically and looking directly at him. He eventually gave in to the fun and they drove down the highway singing their hearts out to anything from 1920's jazz to new hits.

Thea laughed hysterically as Jackson lowered the volume to nothing but mumbles and they both caught their breaths.

"That was fun," Jackson said and smiled.

"Definitely," Thea said and laid back with a smile.

"Want to play a game of trivia?" he asked and Thea shrugged.

"Why not? We have at least three more hours," she said and pulled her phone out to search for random trivia questions.

"Ah, here we have some," she said after she found a decent site. "What American state is closest to the former Soviet Union?" she asked and looked at Jackson with a wide grin. He drove quietly as he tried to remember the geography lessons in sixth grade.

"Maine!" he finally exclaimed and looked so confident with his answer.

"Wrong!" Thea said with a sneaky smile. "It's Alaska." Jackson was quiet as he pictured a globe and realized that Thea was indeed right.

"That was a trick question," he claimed and sulked.

"Which reggae star died May 11th 1981?"

"Bob Marley," he said without hesitation, determined to win back his pride.

"How did you know that?" Thea asked, very much impressed. Thea could barely remember the date JFK died.

"My mom is a big reggae fan, and she always used to play it when I was a kid," he answered and kept to the left side of the road to stay on I-278. Thea tried to imagine the neat, professional, gracious Mrs. Meyers dance and sing along to reggae. It was an interesting picture.