Tripping| Van McCann

3. The Ride

I had never expected this to happen. First, the guy I recruited was unavailable, second, I couldn't get dropped off where I was supposed to, and third I was stuck with this guy. Though he seemed to appear as a nice guy. It just felt weird to be with someone I hardly knew much of, even that we had seen each other for a few times before. And that was quite a long history.

The ride to Llandudno was utterly different from what I thought it would be. This guy sitting next to me kept rattling on everything about himself. Within an hour, I'd known that he's an IVF, has a dog called Mary, he's the frontman in a band called Catfish and the Bottlemen, his best mate is a guy called Larry who's their guitar tech and that he's currently off tour and surely had a lot of time to spend with.

"So how about you, Sammy?" his eyes were fixated on the road before him.

"Erm..." I sat upright, trying to find something of myself to talk about. "I ain't living such a fruitful life as you did," I nervously scratched my head, letting out a few chuckles.

"Tell me about it then. It can be interesting too," he encouraged.

"So basically, I'm kind of a loner. I've got a few friends but we don't meet one another frequently. My everyday life is just attending school, helping out with the chores at home, studying for tests and picking a movie to watch. That's it," I rest my hands on my lap, pretending to be appreciating the scenery along.

"Oh," he commented, clearly he wasn't buying off. "How about the friends of you? Why didn't they go on the trip with you?"

"Actually, they did ask me about it. It's just that I don't want anyone else to know my plan so that my mum can get to find me and bring me back to that hellhole again," I sighed. "They're nice folks. But I'm eager to leave."

"So you're rejecting your friends but coming with a guy who lives next door and you hardly know about?" he chuckled. "That's very nice of you."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I can leave you whenever I get the chance to," I smirked.

"You're very welcome to do that," he mocked.

"Fine," I pouted. "Should we stop by and grab some food?" I asked. My stomach certainly groaned at the point of being empty for more than eight hours.

"Sure," he looked around the place, then slowly stopped the car next to a restaurant. "There's a petrol station over there, we can refuel there afterwards."

We left the car and walked into the restaurant. It was clearly a fast-food one. Anyway, what we needed was to get full, not to get fancy. I followed his lead as he spotted an empty booth. We got our food ordered and sat there waiting quietly.

"You can drop me off anywhere," I mentioned as I grabbed my burger. "You don't have to spend time with someone you mightn't enjoy the company of. By that, I mean me," I shrugged. He didn't have to deal with me. I could deal with myself. It'd be better if he just went back home and still I'd be nobody.

"Nah," he muffled, his mouth was stuffed with the cheeseburger. "I've said that we'd go on the trip together. No worries. I won't tell ya mum about it," he winked at me as he licked his mouth with his tongue to wipe away the cheese.

"Okay," I finished the last bit of my burger and reached out for the drink, which he took it away from my grip.

"Promise me you wouldn't run away until the trip was off," he dragged his long arm up with my drink up high. I definitely couldn't reach out for it without standing up.

"Alright," I nodded half-heartedly. He finally put the cola down on the table and gestured a peace sign.

"Let's go," he finished his milkshake and stood up, he walked over to the cashier as I ran after him.

"You don't have to pay for me," I insisted.

"I'll pay for you this time, and you'll pay it next time," he took a note out from his wallet and handed it to the cashier.

"Thanks."

"No probz. We're mates for two weeks from now on," he looked at me reassuringly and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

I looked at the sky. The typical British weather was no longer in sight. What came to meet us was the crystal blue sky with no clouds above. I pulled my phone out and took a quick snap of it. Van did the same though, instead, he flipped his phone with the camera side to himself and pulled me closer to him that we could take a proper selfie.

"Cheese!" he smiled at the camera, I couldn't help but follow suit. Then we got in the car again.

"The weather is nice, innit?" he raised his eyebrow as he looked past the window when fixing his seatbelt. I nodded my head and he continued. "It wasn't that bad to spend some time with me, huh," he spoke sarcastically.

"Yeah, could've been better if I was all by myself," I teased. To be honest, Van's a nice guy to be around with. Certainly, it was nice to go on a trip with him cause he never ran out of topics to be discussed.

He pouted at me but smiled, deep down he knew that for a loner like I was, having a company was too good to be true.

We then stopped by the petrol station nearby, grabbed some snacks and drinks. To my surprise, he's probably the only guy I knew who'd need a gallon of water every day. It was pretty petrified to see him drinking a litre of water within one minute. He's pretty weird at some point too.

"You're good to go?" he threw the water bottle in the recycle bin and sat upright on his driver seat.

"Sure," I said, smiling at him.

It was honestly the most sincere and happiest smile I'd ever given someone in years.