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The car ride had been entirely silent. The roads were mostly vacant other than Izzy's car, which was a quite peaceful sight in Joan's eyes. Los Angeles was what some might call an overwhelming city, but it was beautiful at night. Neon lights flashed in nearly every store's window, it was much quieter than usual, and the radio stations played quite a few hidden gems that at those hours.
Currently, "The Black Widow" by Alice Cooper was playing through the crackling radio and Joan was lightly tapping her slender fingers to the beat of the song on her knee.
One thing that they had discovered when they had first become friends was their shared love for Alice Cooper. There were so many things that they were able to bond over quite quickly in their friendship, which helped them become close in almost no time.
The song soon came to an end, and an advertisement began to broadcast itself over the station. Joan turned her head to look over at her friend, watching as his face became illuminated for a few seconds at a time after driving under the streetlights. His eyes remained focused on the road ahead of him, but she knew that he had noticed her looking at him by the way that his eyes flickered briefly over to her before going back to the road.
"What's up?" He asked her, eyebrows furrowing a bit as the question arose. Knowing that she was somewhat intoxicated, although he admittedly was as well, didn't help the small hint of concern that he felt.
"Nothing," she shrugged, letting her eyes study his face for a moment longer before they slipped down to look at the different knobs and buttons on his stereo, "I just got bored of looking outside, I guess."
The corner of his lips twitched up a bit, and he nodded slowly at her words. "Fair enough." This was all that he needed to say before they slipped back into another comfortable silence. That was one aspect of their friendship that Joan loved - even if no one was talking, they never felt uncomfortable around each other.
As Joan looked back out of the window again, her eyes drifted up to watch the night sky. In many ways, the sky at night in Los Angeles reminded her of Izzy. It was pitch black, almost no sign of light peering through the darkness. There was a lot of pollution within the city, and it all contributed towards the stars not being able to shine as bright as they would in the countryside. But sometimes, a single star would shine through the darkness. And when it did, it could light up the whole sky. Izzy, as Joan had learned, was not an easy person to see through. He was tough to get through, not letting many people get close enough to truly know him. But some people were able to get close to him, as Joan had done with great effort, and find that sparkle that reminded her of the single star in the distant sky. And once Joan had seen that part of him that lit the rest of him up, she never saw him in any other way. The darkness was gone, and all of his stars shone through.
"Can I ask you something?" Joan heard Izzy ask, breaking the silence between them and tearing her away from her thoughts.
She turned in her seat to look at him, nodding her head. "Shoot."
