Red Chevrolet

A Broken GPS

I can't believe I did this. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid Ben! This was a dumb move, your GPS is probably taking you to Las Vegas and you didn't pack any food! You suck at travel!

Hazel and I had been on the road for hours. I was starving, she was reading her book quietly, and even if she didn't want the awkward silence... It was still there. We had barely spoken a word to one another this entire time! And! She was still playing music from the oldies station! No offense, but it was getting annoying.

As casual as I could, I reached over and was about to change the station when Hazel smacked my hand out of the way.

"Ow! What the heck?" I said sternly.

"You can't change the station! This is a really good song!" Hazel replied defensively.

I rolled my eyes. How could we manage to survive on this trip if we couldn't even get along with music?

"What song is it? I can't hear anything since you turned it down!" I complained, tightening my grip on the steering wheel. It wasn't that I was mad that I did it, it was because I was hungry and starting to feel frustrated.

"It's Hey Jude. You've never heard it?" Hazel asked simply, turning up the volume. The song played at a level that I could actually hear it and it became somewhat familiar to me.

"Okay now I recognize it." I said.

She grinned, "good or else I'd make you listen to it nonstop."

"Sure, whatever you say."

"It's true."

"Okay."

Awkward silence.

Hazel took a deep breath. "Alright, Pepperwhit. Tell me about yourself." She said, closing her book and turning off the radio.

A little taken aback, I looked away from her and out my window before turning back to the road. "No, not until you tell me why you aren't calling me by name." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you call me Pepperwhit. Not Benedict or Ben or even Lucas! It's always Pepperwhit. I want to know why." I replied, raising my voice slightly.

She took a deep breath, "Uh, well I have this thing where I call people I meet by last name until I am comfortable with them and trust them. Then I call them by first name, I've learned that it helps me to not get too attached if something happens." Hazel replied simply, her voice soft and her eyes straight ahead on the road.

There were a few seconds of silence before I spoke again. "Did something happen that caused this?" I asked with hesitation.

When Hazel didn't reply, I glanced at her and saw her biting her lip and narrowing her eyes.

"I'm sorry, it's not my place to ask." I said softly.

She sighed, "it's alright. I'll tell you some other time, not now."

I nodded my head and then we plunged back into awkward silence. The road we were on was very pretty. We were driving on roads with beautiful forests surrounding us. The sun was shining through the trees and dancing past us as we drove along. The silence began to feel a lot more peaceful than awkward when I began to notice the little things. I rolled down my window just a bit and let the warm summer air blow through the vehicle. When Hazel remained silent, I glanced at her and realized that she had closed her eyes and put her head back against the window. I would've most definitely allowed her to stay asleep, but then I realized that the GPS hadn't of spoken to me in a really long time.

Glancing at the device, I saw that it was frozen where we had merged onto the freeway almost two hours ago.

"Um Hazel?" I said with uncertainty in my voice.

She opened her eyes and sat up, "what?"

"I think the GPS is broken."

"What?!" She grabbed the device in her hands and began shaking it and hitting it and basically trying so hard to get it to work but failing.

"Hazel! Haze! Hey Hazel!" I swatted at her until she let go of the GPS and then I placed a protective hand over it. Glaring in annoyance at her, I realized she had a grumpy look on her face too. Before I could say anything, my stomach growled and Hazel burst into a fit of laughter.

I felt my cheeks begin to burn and self consciously placed my hand back on the steering wheel and tightened my grip.

"Awe Pepperwhit. Are you hungry? It's a shame your GPS is broken, isn't it?" She said with so much attitude you could feel it drop onto the seat.

I narrowed my eyes, "I'm sorry I didn't eat a huge breakfast." I grumbled.

"Hah, well if you aren't lost, we could find a town and get something to eat and maybe buy a map." She said without so much attitude.

"I'm not lost, Reddish, I've been going straight for hours. We could just turn around."

She chuckled. "Heck no! Keep going straight until you see a blue sign with food on it. We aren't turning around even if your life depends on it."

___

It was 4:07 pm by the time we were out of the forest and in civilization. Well, sort of. The tiny town we were in wasn't much and didn't deserve to be called "civilized." In fact, it didn't even have a town name! Well, not one that I saw anyway.

"What state are we in?" Hazel asked as we drove slowly through the town and saw zero places to eat. I shrugged. How was I supposed to know? We could be in Nevada for all I knew!

"If you don't know, and I don't know, how are we supposed to figure out where to go?" She asked me, admiring the crumbling houses and dirt roads. "It's not that hard to read signs." I mumbled.

We drove out of the town and I didn't hesitate to step on the gas. I was really hungry. I admit that I sped a few miles over the speed limit. But when your stomach is empty, there's no other choice. Right?

It was another hour before we came to a rest stop with a Chevron, McDonalds, and Subway. "Here's the plan, I'll get gas and you buy us a thousand chicken nuggets or whatever. Just make sure it's not Subway. I hate meat sandwiches, they make me sick. Understand?" I said, parking my truck at the gas station.

"Yes I understand. I'll be quick!" Hazel hopped out of the truck, carrying her little satchel with her.

I filled up the truck and then drove over to the front of McDonalds. Hazel was inside, filling up sodas for us. Not too much later was she next to me in my truck once more.

"I'm not sure what I bought, a variety of things." She said with a funny grin.

"Doesn't matter what you got, I'm starving!"

We ate in the truck. There was some conversation and some silence, none of it awkward though. Once our food was gone we used the restroom and were on our way again.

___

"I got a map."

It was 8:45, the sun was just beginning to touch the horizon, and I was simply following signs that I thought were leading to Idaho. At the moment we were in Utah. The middle of nowhere Utah.

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, look." Hazel took the map off the ground by her feet and opened it up. "I forgot I even grabbed it, haha!"

"Wonderful."