We Leave At Midnight

prologue

Silence. That's what was between them. The car ride from San Francisco to New York City was going to be a 4.679,42 km car ride. It was going to be 30 days, in this van, with the boy she loved and hated so dear. Though the silence was bothering her. She described it as a comfortable silence, but wondered how he would discribe the silence. Did he find this silence awkward? Peaceful, or just as comfortable as she did? Was it going to be like this for the rest of the trip? She was desperate to find out and the only possible way to do that is by asking him. Or looking into his brain but she had no superpower of some sort. So she asked him.

"How would you describe the silence?" He turned to look at her for a split second before looking back at the road.

"What?" He said. She looked through her window and saw the city skyline at night. It was like a sea of lights, some were moving, like waves. From streetslights, cars and people's homes. She breathed out, condense appeared on the glass. She drew a smiley.

"What were you asking me?" He spoke again. She turned to look at her left, away from the windows sea of lights and cute smiley.

"How would you describe this silence? Between us, I mean." She looked at him. His dark brown sideburns sat messily on the side of his face. His high cheek bones and strong defined jaw reflected the calming and soft light of the moon. He felt her eyes at the side of his face and they made eyecontact. His eyes made her think of the galaxy's edge, which made her think of a song by the band Arctic Monkeys, Arabella. She always took parts of songs and tried to put them into real life, see if they would fit. In this case they did.

He didn't completely understand what she said but still wanted to try his best to answer the question anyway. "It's...different."

She frowned. "Different? Different from what?" He scratched his chin, keeping one hand on the steering wheel. Facial hair was already growing again, even though he had shaved one and a half day ago.

"Just different. We almost never share silences, well in the beginning maybe but you're always talking and when you're not, I'm talking." She thought about what he said. It was true. There were almost never silences between them anymore. It was the first time someone made her speak so much as he did. Normally she was the quiet one. "Yeah, or we're fighting. But do you find this silence uncomfortable? Or awkward?" He licked his lips before answering.

"Not at all, it's quite comfortable." He gave her a side smile. "Like I said, different. Just..different."

She was okay with that.