hitchhiker // c.h (au)

4. on the road

Iris was sitting in the drivers seat of her car, humming slightly under her breath until Calum was done in the boot of the car. He slammed it shut and came round to sit in the passenger seat, several things in his hands, including; his book, his phone, an iPod of some generation, and a cord contraption. He smiled happily, but his smile quickly faded when he saw her expression; which was a mix of anger, and 'are you serious'.

"What?" His eyebrows were raised, his expression confused and utterly dumbfounded.

"I can already tell you're going to be amazing company." Iris rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see behind her sunglasses, every word dripping with sarcasm.

Calum fake laughed sarcastically in return and fixed his gaze on her, "ye of little faith in humanity. The book is for after we get to know each other properly, the phone is in case of emergencies, the iPod is for sweet tunes which you'll be thanking me for eventually, and this," he held up the tangle of white cords, "is to connect my iPod to your radio. You have no idea how thankful I am to see that you have a proper radio, by the way." He settled back in the car seat, his arms crossed over his chest, completely satisfied with the surprised look on her face.

"Oh shut up and wipe that smug look off your face, before I smack it off." She laughed at him, and at herself slightly, and he joined in.

--------

After setting up the iPod and cords into the radio, music was softly twinkling through the speakers, their seat belts were firmly fastened, the key was in the ignition, the air conditioner was blasting cool air around the car, and they were finally driving down the main road, away from Iris' apartment.

"Alright, so now that we're officially road trip buddies," Calum started to say, causing Iris to snort out a laugh, "I feel like we need to know each other better. Tell me about you, about your life, about your taste in music, about your hobbies, I don't know. Tell me everything."

Iris' eyebrows shot upwards on her forehead and she glanced at him quickly, "everything?"

Calum wiggled around in his chair to get into a more comfortable position, his temple leaning on the headrest, his gaze fixed onto Iris' face. The corners of her mouth tugged into a smirk, and she inhaled a huge gasp of air, steadying herself to disclose facts about herself.
"Well you know the basics; I'm 23, studying to be a dentist even though I actually want to be a photographer, I'm a feminist and a human rights activist. I'm a vegetarian, I love reading books; mostly fiction but I'm open to try anything. I love to listen to music, but I can't play an instrument to save my life," she laughed and he smiled, not wanting to speak until she was done, "I have my fair share of bad habits, which I'm sure you'll see as the trip progresses. Christmas is my favourite time of year, and I religiously watch Supernatural, Community and The Vampire Diaries; no matter how embarrassing people tell me that is. I love The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and any Marvel movies. And basically that's it, I'm sure there could be more about me, but you can find those out for yourself." She finished speaking with a dramatic raise of her shoulders, and smiled quickly across at him, laughing at his apparent loss for words.

"Wow I'm fascinated to learn more about this creature in front of me."

"Me too, so start talking." Iris laughed, partly wanting the spotlight off of her, partly wanting to learn more about him.

"Well Iris Daniels, I am always happy to talk about myself," Calum giggled and Iris rolled her eyes again under her glasses. Apparently a road trip with Calum meant a lot of eye rolling on her part. "I've already told you before but I'm 24, I barely finished high school, I didn't go to University; but I've always wanted to be in a band. So far, that hasn't happened but I've got a friend in California that is interested in forming one. Music is my life, but it isn't the only thing I like; I like reading, I like having heated debates about things, I like opinions; hearing them and sharing them. I've never really dated anybody, or been in love, and I've never gotten why relationships and falling in love and who you fuck is such a big deal to everyone. I get really philosophical after 1am, I'm not afraid to cry or scream or do anything to show emotions, and I have my fair share of bad habits too. I have a sister, who I haven't seen since my parents kicked me out; but I really, really miss her. We still talk to each other on the phone, and call each other at least once a week. I haven't talked to my parents in 5 years, and I don't plan to talk to them for a long time. And even though it might take a while, I'll eventually tell you why that is." For a split second Calum's face filled with an expression Iris found incredibly hard to read; a mix of sadness, anger, nostalgia, longing, and this was one of the first times his smile hadn't had even a flicker of a smile on it. She only got a glimpse of this painful expression, before she looked back at the road and when she found the time to look back at him, he was smiling again. And she started to doubt whether the expression she saw had even been there to begin with.

"Well Calum Hood, you're very interesting, I'll give you that. I'm looking forward to getting to know you even better, and seeing all these things in action." Iris grinned, her eyes still watching the road, as she put her blinker on and merged into a smaller lane. "So what would you do in this band of yours? Like singing? Playing the drums? Playing the lead guitar? The bass guitar? Keyboard?"

"I play the bass guitar, but I do sing a bit. But definitely not the lead singer, the guy I'm going to be seeing in California actually would be the lead singer, but he can still play the guitar too."

"Okay, that's cool. Except I'm confused, you don't have a guitar with you now...?"

"Yeah well, funny story that, basically it got destroyed, so I'll buy a new one in California after I've worked for a bit." He laughed under his breath and gazed out at the cars whizzing past. Not even checking to see if Iris was still paying attention to him, (she was, her eyes glued to the road but her ears tuned in to him, waiting to hear if he said more) he launched into the story of how his guitar got destroyed, his voice rising and falling in crests of humour and happiness, laughing through the tale as Iris laughed along with him. He had a natural ability in the art of story telling, and Iris couldn't help but smile even though the context didn't demand it. He was glad to finally have someone to talk to, and she was glad to finally find someone worth listening to. With Lola always at work, or away, her parents forcing her into studying something she didn't want to, constantly being around people who had interests she didn't have; she had fallen into a trap of loneliness, sitting on the bottom of a deep, dark well; looking up and seeing only darkness. But now with Calum beside her, the road stretching out in front of them, and music in their ears; she felt like she could finally see light at the top.

---------------------------

yay okay they are ON THE ROAD AND I'M SO EXCITED
even though, it's gonna be a shit tonne of dialogue from here on out, and dialogue ain't my strong suit, but WHATEVER. we learn from experience :-))))