Remaining Daylight (#Wattys2016)

Track V.

Of course Ryan's piece of shit Corolla chose now to die. After laughing at the irony of the situation and the karma it was giving to Hayden, I settled into annoyance. How could it give us one day and then die in the middle of the woods? The best we had were some jumper cables. No power source. So, we were stuck.

"Pick up, asshole," I growled into the phone while waiting for Ryan. It went to voicemail for the second time. He must have been asleep.

When I got the beep again, I sighed and left an angry voicemail. "Would you please wake up? Your Corolla died in the middle of nowhere and we're stranded. How can we fix it? Please just call me back."

Hayden was looking under the hood. Fortunately, Ryan had left some tools in the trunk. But they wouldn't be any good to us if we needed power or a new part.

"According to Google, the alternator might be dead," I said.

"Well, if that's the case, we are totally fucked," Hayden replied. He turned around and leaned on the front of the car. "I'm getting sick of having to play dead parts. But I guess you get what you pay for, huh?"

"I had no idea his car would do this to us. I'm sorry," I said.

"It's not your fault. I don't think I have a right to be mad at you; you've already bent over backwards to help me out."

"What are good friends for?"

"I feel like we're still more on the musician-fan level."

"After we spent all day talking yesterday, I'm not sure I can agree."

"Well, whatever you want to call it, I appreciate it. You've been here for me more in the past day than my best friends. I owe you a lot."

"You have plenty of time to pay me back. Right now, we need to figure out what to do in regards to the Corolla, or our lives start as forest people now."

"We could probably build a pretty sick tree house."

"I'm not sure I want to live outside in the winter."

"Yeah, you're right. Let's handle the car."

He and I turned around to look over the dirty, metal parts. Some of them were beginning to rust. Nothing was eaten through yet, though. Just a light coating. What had broken?

"Shit," Hayden said. He pulled a couple of frayed wires up. "Something chewed through these."

I scoffed, "Whatever it was, I hope it died from it."

"Harsh."

"I'm gonna try calling Ryan again."

This time, he picked up. His voice was deep and rough, like I had just woken him up. Good. It was about damn time.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Your piece of shit Corolla left us stranded in the middle of nowhere," I spat.

"Any ideas what's wrong with it?"

"Google says it's the alternator, Hayden says there are wires that were chewed through."

A long, hard sigh came from the other end.

"All right, how far from home are you?"

"Somewhere in Maryland."

"Are you willing to stay with it until help can arrive? I know you two were pretty adamant about getting out of there."

I looked towards Hayden.

"Do you want to keep going on foot, or do you want to wait for help to arrive?" I asked him.

"Those are our only two options?"