The Other Side

Chapter 5

Audrey silently in the passenger seat, watching out the window as Tim drove her home. The streets were fairly empty, due to the rain she imagined. Tim's fingers drummed nervously on the steering wheel and she wished she knew what to say to break the awkward silence. It wasn't like Tim and Audrey were strangers. As one of Darry's closest friends, Tim had been around quite a bit when she dated Darry. Well as much as Darry would allow. Though Tim was his friend, he was uneasy hanging out with Tim when he had Audrey along. Tim had teased Darry about being possessive but they both knew, if Audrey had looked twice at Tim, Tim would've been on her like white on rice.

Regardless, Audrey had a soft spot for Tim and always wished he would just settle down. And he had. Somewhat. Holding down a steady job counted for something. From what she had heard, the plant workers had nothing but good things to say about him. He just needed a good girl to smooth out his rough edges. Eyeing him out of the corner of her eye, she tried to picture him with one of her girl friends from college. The mental image nearly made her laugh out loud. They would positively die.

Growing tired of the silence, Tim reached forward to flip the radio dial. Trouble by Elvis came spilling through the speakers. Audrey couldn't hold in her giggles any longer. Tim looked over in surprise.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing really," Audrey laughed.

"You ain't laughing at nothing."

"Ok. Ok. It's just this was your theme song in high school and it struck my funny that it would play now of all times. That's all."

"I wasn't aware that I had a theme song."

"Oh c'mon! You always had this playing, trying to seduce all the girls with your bad boy charm."

Tim grinned and ran his hand over his gelled back curls, "This song never failed. The ladies just couldn't resist. Still can't resist it."

"Glad to see some things never change," Audrey commented with a wry smile.

As Elvis brought the song to a close, Tim reached forward and turned the radio down. Audrey gave him a curious look. Keeping his eyes on the road, Time cleared his throat.

"Audrey," He began, "I have a question to ask and you if don't want to answer that's fine but I really hope you will."

Immediate dread filled Audrey's stomach. She knew exactly what Tim was going to ask her. And she wasn't ready.

"Tim, I really don't want to talk about this."

'You haven't even heard the question yet," he protested.

"I don't need to. I know you well enough to know exactly what you're going to ask me. So I am asking you as a friend, please don't bring it up."

Tim nodded reluctantly. Silence filled the car again but this time there was no Elvis to break the tension. Audrey nearly wept with relief when Tim finally pulled into her parent's driveway. The car had barely come to a complete stop before Audrey was pulling on the handle.

"Thank you so much for the ride Tim," Audrey said in a rush as she gathered her purse and coat. "I really appre-"

"Audrey," Tim interjected. "Can you slow down for a minute?"

Suppressing a sigh, Audrey released the door handle and sat back in her seat.

Reaching for her hand, Tim held it gently in his. "Listen, I know you ended things between you and Darry and yo-"

Audrey jerked her hand away, "Excuse me, but what did you just say?!"

"Um...that you ended things with Darry..."