Backseat Drivers

Dine and Dash

In the background of the service-station diner was a low hum of ambient music, soft lo-fi jazz. Absent-mindedly, Aika ran her fingers over the cool, tanned leather of the seat she was sat on,  deep in the usual wormholes of thought. Around the table were Roy, Cindy, and Calum deep in some conversation; Sean was arriving back now with a small tray of coffee cups, sugar packets, and a fat sandwich for Calum. 

"Can't remember which one's which," he said, sitting down in the empty chair and tearing the corner off of a light pink sweetener packet before letting the contents cascade and dissolve into his drink in one satisfying motion. This didn't seem to bother anyone as they all took the cup closest to them, and Cindy continued to talk about her perseverance of environmental studies outside college. Upon glancing up, Aika realised Roy too had zoned out, a little bored of the current topic. He caught her eye, and the corner of his mouth upturned in amusement - Calum was listening intently, due to his superficial interest in the girl. 

"And I turned, to this professor, and I said if you're going to be a little bitch about marking my paper, then why should I act like I know what you're talking about when I clearly don't," the half Italian was musing intently, emphasising her irritation through interactive hand gestures and expressions. Sean glanced up at her as he sipped his coffee, catching up on the conversation. 

"Exactly," Calum nodded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Why should you?"

"And that's what I said to him, as if it's going to make a difference!"

Roy had taken out some rolling papers, with small patterned designs printed on them - one with green apples, another red with white squares. He set them out carefully, and began to sprinkle tobacco down the centre of them, intent on precision. This was when Calum announced his retirement to the men's.

"Need a piss, look after my sandwich," he said in his usual cheeky manner, and stood up, sauntering off towards the toilets. Cindy watched him leave, a mysterious smile playing on her lips; once more, Aika found herself in synchronisation with Roy as they both noticed, and wiggled their eyebrows at each other suggestively. Sean had remained relatively quiet - he'd always been a brooder, his brown trench-coat hanging off of the back of his chair, though he was now discreetly grinning at Roy as well. 

"Cindy," Roy started, before licking the tip of his rolling paper to seal it off. "What was it you studied with Sean at college? I saw you a couple times, but never in the same department."

"Psychology," Cindy said, an irony to how flippantly she replied after ten minutes of gushing about her environmental studies. 

"I actually study psychology," Aika said, now interested. "I only like the parts about dreams though. And psyche."

Cindy was a surface-level sort of person, Aika had concluded. This wasn't a problem, it just meant her psyche was a little less fascinating to analyse - she'd already lost interest. Roy, however, was looking at Aika, his eyes pondering.

"You know stuff about lucid dreaming?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's amazing. I love it."

Roy was smiling. 

"You ever done shrooms?" he asked, leaning back in his chair and putting down the zoot he'd rolled in the apple paper. 

"No," Aika replied, a playfulness to her tone. "Are you suggesting I do?"

"I'm imploring you do."

"Oh my God."

At Cindy's quiet exclamation, the other three looked over, confused at her words.

"What?" Sean asked, his voice low. Aika's hand suddenly flew to her mouth. 

"Oh my God."

The two boys looked over to the front of a diner, their eyes widening as they clocked onto what was happening. A man had entered, balaclava under a hood, and was murmuring inaudible instructions to the shopkeeper - the exchange happening quietly. The other customers continued eating, unaware, but now the four teenagers had their eyes on the man, as the soft glint of a silver gun was visible from his waistband.

"He's taking the money," Cindy murmured. 

"Just don't react," Sean replied quietly, his eyes flicking up to her, but she couldn't take her eyes off of the gun.

Now hyper-reactive to noise, all of them turned as the toilet door swung open to reveal Calum, casually shaking his hands dry as he stepped out into the diner - also unaware of the armed robbery taking place. 

"Alright lads?" he acknowledged as he walked up, stopping to pick up his wallet from the table. He thumbed through it, pulling out a tenner and then chucked the wallet back down. "Let's see if these boys ID or not."

He caught sight of their faces, pausing warily.

"What?"

Sean was ever so slightly shaking his head in warning, his eyes darting to the counter to alert Calum of the situation. Calum looked, assessing - and then looked back at Sean. They could only watch in disbelief as he thought for a second and then began to make his way over to the counter, cautiously queuing up behind the robber. Aika watched, her heart thumping at his boldness. 

"The fuck is he doing?" Sean stared, baffled, as Calum tapped his fingers on the counter. He had now garnered the attention of the armed burglar and the terrified shopkeeper.

"Alright mate, could I grab some cigs?"

Visibly trembling, the shopkeeper wasn't quite sure how to react to the presence of a customer, though slowly, he turned and took a packet from the shelf  behind before pushing it across the counter. Calum nodded, in gratitude, using the moment to suddenly charge his head violently at the robber, headbutting him so hard that he staggered backwards, in a daze of spinning stars. 

"Calum, what the fuck?!" Cindy shrieked, leaping to her feet in alarm, as everyone in the diner broke into a momentary freakout. The burglar was slumped on the floor, out of it, and Calum wasted no time in grabbing the gun from his waistband and sliding it across the counter to the shop-keeper. 

"What are you doing! Stupid boy!" 

For some reason, the shop-keeper was entirely dissatisfied with Calum's approach to the situation, yelling at him as customers began to flock around the no-longer-armed robber, some pulling out their phones in frantic bids to call the police. Sean, Roy, and Aika were also up off their chairs now, and breaking into a sprint across the diner, as Calum leapt over a chair to join them, grabbing Cindy's hand to pull her along with him. Roy burst through the exit doors, everyone else fast behind him in a breathless flurry of laughter and shock.

"I can't fucking believe you!" Aika exclaimed, directly addressing the boy for the first time since she'd met him, and he looked amusedly surprised that she'd been so direct as they legged it towards the car. 

"In the car!" Sean was shouting, and they piled in, the vehicle accelerating before Aika had even pulled her door shut. Inhabited with confounded hilarity, they were still debating between laughter and alarm as the car sped down the road, away from the services and the diner.

"Sorry, did I just see that right?" Roy queried, his eyes still wide from the scene, though like the others a shocked smile was creeping onto his face. "Did Calum here just single-handedly stop an armed robbery with his head?"

Calum was back in the passenger seat, his face scrunched up in glee at his success.

"What the fuck!" Cindy shouted at him, smacking him from the seat behind, leaving him to defend himself by leaning forwards. "You're fucking crazy!"

"I'm just curious," Roy said, a little more composed than the shrieking girl. "What compelled you to attempt such a thing."

Calum shrugged, clearly happy with himself. "Couldn't say."

"Well," Sean said, glancing in the rearview mirror at the road and then across at Calum with an anticipating grin. "I think it's safe to say you've established yourself as the nutter of the group."

"Nah," Calum scoffed. "I'll take hero."

From his pocket, he pulled the pack of cigarettes that he'd asked the shop-keeper for, and put one neatly between his lips. Aika smiled at his response. Through all his bravado front and cockiness, he was an incredibly interesting person. Not normal, by any means - nor philosophical. Just wild. Humorously wild.