Road Trip Across the U.S. of Gay (gxg)

Chapter 3: Wilk's Garage, Pennsylvania

Looking at the vehicle in front of me, I tilt my head to the side as if it will force the idea into my head. The rusted piece of junk was left to me by my old neighbor Kathleen when she had passed. It was her husbands before he passed, and when it was in her possession she hated the thing. I always thought the opposite, always asked about its history when I helped her work on her yard and tried to convince her to clean it up, get it running. She knew nothing about cars though, and got very weak towards her last days anyways, so I would do her yard work while she told me stories about her husband with the truck. She never did run out of those. As a thank you, she left the car in my name, paid for the insurance, and none of her kids cared because they got left all of the valuable items. So here it is, taking up space in the garage; my family never fails to remind me of that fact.

This truly is the only option, but I'm not quite sure how. I have money, but nowhere near enough the make it drivable. And where would I even go? I just passed my drivers test a week ago and my parents won't just let me go somewhere. If I'm going to go through the trouble of doing this shitty plan I need to make sure that it is solid.

Taking out my phone, I look up the closest family owned garage near me. I know that I won't have luck with a chain, but maybe a local business will take pity on me. It really isn't far, only about a five minute drive, making it about a 30 minute walk. That's not bad, but I don't live in a place where everyone knows each other. No. If I walk, there is almost certainty that I will either be run down or kidnapped.

I take some pictures of the pick-up, including the inside and under the hood, and call the closest thing that I have to a friend. "Hey Kel, can you do me a favor?"

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"Where am I taking you? And why do you need to go there? I don't mind, but I don't need your parents getting mad at me," the boy next to me asks as he drives me to the garage. He is a family friend, and sort of my friend as well, so he was my only option (there aren't any ubers around here).

"I need you to go to Wilks' Garage. I need to inquire about something." I keep it vague on purpose knowing that he can be a blabber mouth and not wanting him to convince me to do otherwise. I am not going to do it anyway, I don't have the guts. It's nice to do something that is my own idea, though. Even if it is only theoretically.

"What do you want to know? I don't know anything about cars, but if it is about that old Ford you have, you're wasting your time. You are never getting that thing running, even if you had all the money in the world." Turning in my seat, I look at his face. His tan skin and blue eyes are the first thing that anyone notices, but then when you look further he can see just how handsome he is. It's ridiculous that he is able to have such a perfect nose, phenomenal eyebrows, and an easy going smirk while I'm over here looking like garbage. I guess it would help if I wore something other than jeans and a band tee. Well, at least I'm wearing cute booties...oh, wait, I changed into my crocs because I didn't want to get my feet dirty. Damnit, Saylor.

"Kel, you know me. We are friends enough, you are doing me a good favor, I love ya for it. But get off my back, I just want to get some information. I needed to get out of the house."

Sighing, he pulls into the parking lot and puts the car in park. The crappy '02 Volvo sputters a bit as he does, but it's still a car I would love to have. He turns to me and gives me a serious look. I know that I'm not going to want to get into this. "What's going on, Saylor? I'm not going to snitch on you, but I need to make sure that I'm not an accomplice to some crime."

Laughing, I roll my eyes. "I...want to do something, Kel. I don't know if that thing is simply fixing the Ford, or fixing it and then leaving with it...but- I don't know. This is so stupid, but I need to do something that will make stop me from thinking that...thinking that killing myself might be fun and distract me from my shitty life."

Giving me a look, Kel nods as if thinking to himself. I need him to trust me. We aren't exactly close, but we're close enough that when his parents fight he can FaceTime me because all of his other friends are fake. When both of us are having a rough time, we can go to Target and walk around aimlessly together because we don't know what we are doing with our lives. I'm not asking him to do this for me, or even with me, just to give me a ride and not tell me family.

He takes the key out of the ignition and gets out, but I just stare at him not sure what to do. Is that his way of telling me-

"Well are you coming or not?" Scrambling out, I jog after him as he is already to the door and slide in afterwards. The place is dusty and smells like gasoline, but it seems like it does good business. There is a person behind the desk, so I walk up with Kel by my side and he rings the bell. Instead of a burly man like expected, a young girl around our age pops her head up, smiling politely. Lorelai Wilks. I know her, have had passing conversations with her in class and sat at lunch with her when I actually went to school (mostly because she didn't have friends like me either). Does she work here?

She looks at us questionably, still smiling, but she looks a bit more annoyed now. "Hi Saylor, Kel. What do you need? Finally going to fix that Volvo of yours?"

"No, Wilks. This one here has an even bigger challenge for you." She looks at me, waiting for me to speak and I take out my phone. Opening my pictures, I show her the ones that I took of the truck.

"It doesn't run, hasn't in five or more years, but it still has all of its parts. Just needs some tuning to make it safe and driveable. I just want to know how much it would take." Snatching the phone out of my hand, which you should never do to me, she looks more closely at the photos. "Is this yours?"

"Yeah. Someone close to me passed it on when they died, but even when I got it it was useless. I just want to get it running."

"Yeah, so you can run away," Kel comments. Lorelai looks at him, but ignores him as she continues to look at the pictures.

"This a '47?"

"Yeah, has only had one owner, too, which is amazing. He took great care of it, but it went to shit when it was left to his wife who just couldn't keep up with it. What do you think?"

"I think that this is a nice ass pickup, Saylor. I would need to look at it, but by the pictures you took under the hood it shouldn't be too hard. Will just take some scavenging to find the parts because it's so old. I think that I could do it, though."

"You could do it?" I asked, looking at her strangely. "I figured that you just worked the desk here, not that you were a mechanic."

"Of course I'm not a mechanic, Saylor. But this is my uncles garage, he's taught me enough to make me capable of doing this. I'll even do it for free."

Looking at her, me and Kel share a suspicious look. "What's the catch?"

She smirks, leaning on the desk. "You bring me on this little trip that you are planning."

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