In My Hour of Need

Chapter 16

I woke up the next morning with Junior at my left. It fucking scared me. Not because I wasn't aware that he was there, it was just, uh... I slept next to Junior. And God knows what he might have done while I was sleeping. Yeah, I actually slept that night. It had just turned ‪October 3rd‬, which meant that we still had 5 days of doing whatever we wanted to. Yay. What was I supposed to use that time for? Practice my guitar? I did that every day anyway. Sleep? Yeah right. Uh... warm my voice up? I don't think so. Hey, I guess I could spend some time with Junior... We were dating after all. But how do you date Junior? I mean, we had been friends for like forever, were we just going to hang out as usual, or did I have to make big plans? In that case, what the hell kind of plans was that supposed to be? Go out for dinner? Lame.

Just as I thought about it, Junior woke up. He rolled over and put his arm over my stomach. "Morning", I mumbled. It fucking startled him, and it was so funny. I started laughing. "Uh, sorry...", he said, removing his arm, insecure of what to do. "Don't apologize", I laughed, "It's fine". He laughed a little too, but just because he didn't want to feel uncomfortable, I think. "Oh", he said, and slowly put his arm back. "So what do you wanna do today?", I asked him, and pulled him a little closer. "I dunno", he said tiredly, "But I heard there was an amusement park four hours away from here. We could go there if you want". Huh, that didn't sound too bad. A good place to kill time – uh, spend time I mean. You know, with eachother. We could just rent a car or something. "Sure", I said, "But if we're gonna get any time there to do stuff, we'll have to get up. When does it close?" He hesitated. "Uh, I dunno, probably at like ‪six P.M.‬ or something, isn't that like standard or something?" I shrugged and lifted his arm off me to get up. "Get ready, we're leaving in an hour", I said.

An hour later we were on our way to this amusement park. "I hope you brought a map, Junior", I said, "Because I have no idea where this shit is". He picked a map up from the floor and opened it. "Yeah, I bought one in the lobby when you were in the bathroom", he said, and pointed at the address. "God, Junior, why did you have to pick a place so far away?", I asked, waving to Jeff and Chuck, before we left the street our hotel was at. "Sorry", he said, "We don't have to go there". I laughed. "No, it's fine, I don't have any better ideas", I said, driving past them.

About halfway there, we were both sick of driving. "How about you drive now?", I complained, tired as fuck. "Uh, I can't", he said. "What? Why not?", I asked, trying to stay focused on the road. "I don't have a license", he said, "Never took it". I sighed. "Good god", I mumbled, "Well, can we at least stop for a break?" We stopped at a gas station to get something to eat. Geez, we weren't going to do anything at the amusement park anyway, but I didn't exactly have any better ideas, so I just went with it. We went inside the gas station, and looked at all the different hot dogs and burgers. Honestly, I wasn't hungry at all; I just wanted a break from that stupid shit-car we rented. Junior bought a smoothie, so I had an excuse to sit down for a couple of minutes. "Are you OK?", Junior asked me, looking really concerned. "Yeah", I said, resting my chin in my hand, leaning on the dirty gas station table. "Smoothie?" He handed me the cup. "Sure". It tasted like complete shit. I wasn't trying to be all pessimistic; I guess I was just having a bad day or something. At least Junior kept his mood up for my sake. I knew he had stuff to think about too. But, Jesus, I thought the day would never end. Great first date.