The Drive to Grand Bend

Me, of all people, Jessie Thompson, was never late. I was always early or right on time, with everything planned out to a Tee. There I was though, sitting in my driveway, legs out basking in the morning sun as I wait for Emily to arrive. The only thing that pissed me off the most was being late, and Emily was two whole hours late.

I lean against my bags, cooler and pillows stacked, as I hold my phone close and wait for the sound of her 1974 super beetle to come around my street. We had gotten really lucky with this trip, Emily had called a week ago to see about booking a hotel room. The minute she had called, the guy that worked there, had just gotten off the phone with a cancellation. The hotel, The Colonial, was booked solid for the May 2-4 weekend in Grand Bend. The weekend that’s starts the Windsor/London people off for the summer. What were the odds that we happen to call at that very moment to get the last room?

A roar sounded in the distance and I knew that it was Emily and her old ass car coming to pick me up. It rumbled its way up and you could see the distress in her face as I grabbed all my shit, hurrying to the beetle.

“Man, what took you?”

“I had to get ready, Jessie. Shower and make up, plus I got the oil changed this morning,” Emily got out and grab the cooler as I made my way back to get the pillows.

“What the hell? Who are you going to impress? We’re driving and getting to the hotel,” I tried not  to sound as mad as I was, I never liked being mad at my friends. “And you figured getting an oil change the day of departure was a good idea?”

“Shut up,” Emily stuffed the cooler as well as she could and hoped back into her beetle. “Let’s go then!”

The old car’s engine roared to life and Emily gripped the wheel and pulled forcefully to turn it around so we could go.

“This damn old car... so fucking hard to turn... Better make it there.”

I crossed my fingers; please let this thing make it to Grand Bend.

During the drive we had our usual discussions, hopes for the weekend and dirty talk.  

“FYI, Luke’s going to try and have sex with me when they come in tomorrow. You can’t let this happen, okay Em?”

(Luke was a guy that I WOULD bang. Even since I met him, I had decided that if I ever became single again, I would in fact have a go with this guy. He was attractive enough and was known for one night hook ups with girls downtown. NOT an ideal thing for me, but I figured he had experience. So if anything were to happen, it'd sorely be for the experience with someone who knew what they were doing... if you know what I mean *wink* ) 

“Yeah, yeah. Do you even want too?”

“Not really. But I’ll be drinking and I know I can make decisions when I’m drunk, but my logic is straight out the window,” I laugh a little at this but at the same time it hurts. Only for the reason of my Ex cheating on me a month prior to this trip. It was the thing that finally ended a falling apart relationship and it sucked that it had to be for that reason.

Back in October, the relationship began to fall apart. The hardest thing I faced was the fact that I tried with all my might to hold it together, but it was like trying to keep sand in my palm during a wind storm. Who would have thought? We had gone on vacation that summer and everything was perfect. But then school started and his friends slowly pulled him away from me, and his parents were adjusting to the change too, so that was added stress. I even got promoted at work and he didn't even support me or cared about it. He was slowly vanishing before my eyes and it just pulled at my heart, breaking all the veins and arteries, one by one.

I stare for a while out the window and watch all the fields speed by, sub consciously counting cows and horses. The music’s on full blast but the engine’s noise over powers the dance beats.

“Just don’t be like that one weekend... you know?”

“What? What do you mean?” I knew what weekend she was referring too.

“Jessie, you can’t just shove your tongue down a boys throat and expect him NOT to want sex,” Emily yanked the wheel a hard left to start on the back roads to Grand Bend.

“It’s not even that. Come on, it’s me. I didn't kiss my boyfriends unless we were dating. I don’t think I can have sex with someone I’m not dating, you know? That guy last week, he was wasted and I didn't have much of a choice in the matter, but at least I didn't let it go to far,” I said, facing the window.

I didn't want to talk about it anymore. About my Ex.

“Yeah, okay. Instead you left the guy at the bar after knowing his friends had left and knowing he wanted to finish the night, if you know what I mean.”

“What was I going to say? ‘Hey, you want to come back to my place...I got a nice couch waiting for me’,” I give her a saucy glance and smirk.

“You were giving him the Fuck Me Eyes!”

I burst out laughing. “No, I wasn't! He was giving me the, I’m So Drunk I’d Fuck Anything eyes and I had to focus to not laugh at him!”

 Emily shakes her head then sharply breaths in, staring at her dashboard.

“What?”

She says nothing.

“Emily, what?”

“Oh my God. What the fuck.”

“Emily! What is wrong?”

“I’m... at...” her lip shakes like she’s going to start crying. “It’s at half a tank... What the fuck.”

I gape at her, disbelieving her reaction. “What do you mean? We’re half way there. You filled up before we left. What? It cost 30$.”

“Go check it! Did I not close it? It was probably leaking this whole time!”

She pulled over and I quickly hop out of the car. The gas cap was located on my side of the beetle at the front. I check, it’s tightly on and Emily’s in the car, bawling her eyes out. I lean into the window and give her a look. She’s over reacting and for me, I wasn’t going to have to deal with any of it for the weekend. I wanted to have fun, do whatever I wanted, be wild and free. So hell if I’m going to console my best friend because she thought her car was better on gas. Fuck that.

“Hey, it’s on and everything.”

“Really? Well, what the hell then? I didn’t think it’d use up that much!”

“Emily,” I look at her seriously but my voice doesn’t match. I do this when I have to be serious but don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. “Would you like me to throw you a pity party?”

She starts laughing and I hop back into the car and we're off again. God forbid if she lost 15$ dollars of gas.

-Jessie