Intertwined

3 - Is This A Normal Thing For You?

Jai

My evening had gone quite well. Amara had been surprisingly easy to handle, although a little excitable. She's quite a bright contrast to my calm self. Fortunately, she'd agreed to come along with no doubts.

Amara and I exit her apartment building and start walking down the road to my car. It's a small pastel-blue Prius, nothing special. But apparently it is to Amara.

"Your car is the cutest thing ever!" She grins ecstatically, like a little kid in a candy shop.

I roll my eyes. Throughout the entirety of our two minute walk down to my car and most of the evening, Amara had proven to be quite talkative. I have to admit, I prefer when she goes on about random things because it saves me from having to talk myself. But she's a little extra.

"Calm down, Amara. It's just a car."

"It's a gorgeous car!"

"No, it's just a plain old car."

"You suck. You're no fun, dude." Amara groans as she opens the car door and climbs into the driver's seat.

"Please don't ever say that again," I say. "And get out, I'm driving."

"Oh." She crawls over to the passenger side. "I keep forgetting. It's the other way round in London."

I start up the car and reverse it, resting a hand on the back of the passenger seat and turning around to do so."When did you live in London?" I ask, glancing at her.

"I was born and brought up there. How could you not tell from my accent?" She questioned as she examined her nails intently.

"I thought you just spoke weird naturally," I say, smirking as I manoeuvre the car.

She punches my arm playfully. "Hey, don't forget that your ancestors also 'spoke weird'. You do realise that pretty much all white people have British ancestry right?"

"Yeah I was kidding, dude," I say as we start driving towards the highway.

There's an almost-awkward moment of silence before Amara bursts out laughing. I'd almost think it was cute if I wasn't in my current position. "Please don't ever say that again, Jai."

"Okay." I smile.

***

Later into the night, Amara has fallen fast asleep. Slow jazz tunes play through the radio with a slight disturbance here and there as we drive further away from L.A.

Obviously I'm not about to drive the entirety of the distance between Washington D.C and Los Angeles. That would take around 39 hours with no stops. The plan is to drive to San Francisco and then just ... well, you'll see.

The digital clock on the dashboard flashes 23:13 in bright red numbering, and my eyelids start to droop heavily. I jolt awake moments later as the car jerks back onto the centre of the road. I decide that I should probably take some rest after such a long day.

"Do you want me to drive?" Spoke a soft voice.

"Didn't realise you were awake. And no. "

"Come on, Jai." Amara sat up straight, stretching with yawn. "You're gonna get us killed if you fall asleep while driving." She pauses briefly before saying, "You're a pretty bad driver as it is."

Rolling my eyes, I reluctantly agree. "I'll let that remark slide. Only because I'm so tired." I pull over to the side of the road, and I make my way over to the passenger side while Amara moves over to the driver's seat.

The last thing I register is her incoherent mumbling as she changes the radio station, probably complaining about my music taste.

..............................