Contraindication

Seventeen| I Wanted Pizza Not McDonald's

"We must have a pie.
Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie."
—David Mamet

The three of us agreed to leave the next morning. We conferred that using Steve's cottage as an excuse, was better than telling their parents about the trip to a lab. We didn't know if it was just going to be a few hours, so we packed food and clothes, basically treating it as a road trip. Darren was the most hesitant to go, but when his mom overheard us talking about it, she immediately packed him a bag and told him to have fun with his friends. It turns out that he has never been out with friends, so his mom was a little too excited.

I waited outside Darren's house in his jeep. It still had the new car smell and the kilometres were low. It was a fairly new car, making me feel so back for destroying it with my body a while back.

"This is going to be fun!" Felix leaned back in the passenger seat. "A road trip with my besties! I brought some games!" He unzipped his backpack and pulled out some notebooks.

My mind was elsewhere as I typed the address into the GPS. I haven't been on the highway since Steve took me a year ago, so I programmed the GPS to avoid them unless necessary.

By the looks of it, this was going to be a long trip.

Darren's front door pushed open as his mom kissed him on the head one too many times. She had the same dog hair and green eyes as her son but her she carried herself better. Darren twitched but hugged her back.

I laughed when he opened the back door and threw his stuff in, "That was cute."

He rolled his eyes and buckled his seat belt.

Before I pressed start on the GPS, Darren spoke up, "I-is Tracy coming?"

I sighed and lowered my hands from the leather wheel, "Nope."

Darren looked confused, "why not? I thought you told her about it?"

I turned the wheel and looked at Felix. He rubbed his rosary and turned to Darren, "we did... well, not in so many words." He rubbed the back of his neck, "but she said she couldn't come because she was hanging out with Charles," Felix let out.

Darren frowned, "o-ok..." he leaned back, "that's fine."

I knew it wasn't fine. Using some obvious social cues, I knew he had a thing for Tracy. The way he blushed when he spoke to her, the way he called for her the other night and recoiled when he saw me. I knew he wasn't just waiting for Tracy because she had the pills, I'm sure he wanted her to comfort him. "Coolio," I cracked my neck and pulled the car out of his driveway.

Starting route to 87896 Thrifty Way Road. Turn right on Highlighted Ave.

I groaned at the robotic voice. That road would take us out of town and onto the freeway. I guess there was no avoiding that.

I turned off his busy street and gripped onto the wheel. To fill the silence, I turned on the radio.

"Can you turn that off? Its making me nervous." I looked through my mirror and met Darren's eyes.

"Sure!" I flicked the switch and focused on the road. His car, his rules; Driving in silence was totally fine with me.

Felix coughed to get our attention, "Soo if there's no radio how about we talk? Huh?"

Turn right on to Blue Highlighted Road.

Great! The highway. I ignored them and clicked on my indicator to get ready.

Darren's panicked eyes looked at mine through the mirror, "that's the highway!" He freaked.

"Yeah and how else are we supposed to get there?" I groaned.