Backseat Drivers

The Analyst

Through blurred, sleepy eyes, Aika had managed to gather that Calum was now driving the car, with Sean and Roy asleep next to her in the back. If Sean had managed to get to sleep, then there was no way she could wake him up. Cindy was probably asleep too, for Calum seemed to be deep in thought, his contemplative gaze visible through the rearview mirror. It was nighttime - though his face was dimly lit by the glow radiating from the streetlights outside. As she tried to force her eyes open, Aika found herself on an incredible tangent of thought, all within the first few seconds of establishing her surroundings.

'How did I get here? I jumped out of the window - then we went to a 7/11. Then what? Did we take anything? Jesus Christ, my mind feels like a blank slate. I've turned 'tabula rasa', I may as well forget university. All my worldly knowledge is gone. Perhaps I'm just panicking. Perhaps things will clear up if I re-adjust to my surroundings. I'm stuck between sleep and waking, I need to get my mind working again.' 

Before even registering in her mind, the words tumbled out of Aika's mouth in a messy, sleep-slur. 

"How do you know Sean?"

Calum's eyes flicked up and he grinned as he saw her through the mirror. The dark thoughtfulness that had occupied his face before was now gone at the presence of another.

"Alright, sleeping beauty?"

"Did you go to school with him?"

Her words sounded like unintelligible garble thanks to her half-sleeping state, though Calum managed to translate what she'd said. He glanced at her, before answering.

"Yeah, for a bit. We were friends when we were younger, but that was a while ago. Didn't expect him to call me up to be honest, but here we are. All's good and well."

He flicked the indicator on as the car advanced towards a turning in the road. Gentle splatters from the beginning of a rainfall decorated the windshield, occasionally catching the fluorescent beam from other cars' headlights. 

"Did you fight?"

Calum paused briefly, concentrating on driving, though as the forever-analytical conversationalist, Aika could tell this was a stalling device so he could plot out an answer.

"I don't know about a fight." He caught Aika's eye again in the mirror, and she smiled sleepily. "What about you, dozey? How do you know Sean-o?"

"Don't call me dozey," Aika grumbled. Too comfortable slouched against the seat, she declined to sit up - using the potential of disturbing the sleeping insomniac as a mental excuse. She didn't like Calum's enigmatic answer to her previous question but tiredness outweighed the desire to press. "I worked with him. At the cinema. We used to sneak into the films together and smoke weed at the back. I tried it myself once and got fired."

Calum let out a laugh at this, grinning at her through the mirror again, and she returned it, amused at how much the story tickled him. 

"You're funny, man. That's a good one."

Aika mused for a moment.

"Do you have a licence?"

"I have a natural skill."

Aika sent him a wry smile, somehow lacking concern that Calum was at the wheel. Now she thought about it, she probably had had more shrooms; the psyche analytics she kept logged in her mind were starting to spill out.

"You know, you're a fast liver."

"A what?"

"I don't know. You just seem to live fast."

"What does that mean?" Calum asked, his eyes back on the road as he dimmed the headlights for an oncoming car, though his interest was piqued at her observation.

"In the diner, on the first day, you head-butted that guy. You follow your instincts. You're always moving, entertaining, just living. It's like you don't want to waste any time."

This prompted a chuckle from Calum, as if she'd hit the nail bang on the head of something he hadn't really thought about before. 

"S'pose so."

"Your mind moves fast and you have to keep up with it. Life bores you. So you make it exciting for yourself."

Calum was starting to look a little unnerved by the accuracy of the psychoanalyst in the back, but the confused amusement stayed on his face as he drove; the rain was starting to splatter a little more fiercely now. 

"People like Sean like to dwell on life, and contemplate every inch of it. He's like earth - he wants to discover. You're like fire. Intensified."

Calum scoffed, turning another bend in the road but he couldn't deny that the rambling, shroomed-up girl seemed to be onto something.

"I think it's time for you to sleep," he droned comically, but she just tilted her head.

"Maybe the others can't see through your facade, but I know -" Aika spoke with mocking sincerity. "I know you care a lot more than you pretend to. How couldn't you, with all that pent up emotion?"

"Okay, Ai -"

"I mean, I don't know your life - or maybe you were born with a thirst to live, but I can just tell. I can see how much you love Sean and I know you like Cindy. You should give her a break, she's just acting on the emotion you're too proud to show. You have a good heart."

When Aika had finished her spiel of almost incoherent speaking, the corner of Calum's mouth turned up from perplexed thought into a wry smile. There was a silence as he scrutinised Aika through the rearview mirror, then he let the levity wash over his face.

"Shut up," he grinned. 

Smiling sleepily, and happy with her spontaneous analysis, Aika settled back down into her seat, and let tiredness consume her.