The Living Will

Chapter 3 - On the Road, Again

We walked back to the apartment from the store, and I began packing a backpack with stuff that I needed. Melanie laid down on the couch for a bit, stretching her legs out over the edge.

"How long do you even want to be down there for? I'm not spending a whole month down there." I said.

"Oh chill out. I wasn't planning on being there for more than a day or two. I just want to hit up the main sightseeing places." she said.

"Like what?" I asked.

"You know, the Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory, Malibu, you know, the big stuff." she said.

"You've never been to Los Angeles?" I asked.

"Nope. After we moved up north, I don't think we ever came back down here," she said.

"Oh." I said, understanding a bit more of why she wanted to go to Los Angeles of all places.

"Have you been down there?" she asked.

I remembered a few things I didn't want to remember, but also the fact that I visited LA alot during high school. My dad would drag me with him during the summers or on weekends to work with him at his construction job, which often took us down there. I hated working with my dad, and I hated him too.

"Yeah. Griffith is nice if you're into the view and stuff." I said.

"Oh, well that's good to know! We can go there first." she said, standing up. "You almost done packing? I feel like we've been here for hours." she added.

"Hey, maybe let me know of your plans more than 15 minutes in advance next time, yeah?" I said. "I don't like to be rushed." I added.

"Maybe let me know next time..." she said, mocking me under her breath. I finished packing my stuff and picked the backpack up, then turned the lights off to my apartment. I grabbed the keys to the car and headed for the door, walking out with Melanie behind me. I locked it up and we went down to the parking lot, where I was awaiting the inevitable teasing I would get for the kind of car that I had.

"Sorry for the shitty car, but it should get us to LA and back... I hope..." I said.

"Dude, this thing is kinda cool. It has a little retro look to it," she said. Of all the things people said about my car, the last thing I expected was for someone to say it had a retro vibe to it. But, ever since that day, I couldn't help but look at the car that way too.

It was a gray 1989 Nissan with the paint faded beyond belief. At this point, a thin layer of rust was starting to form around the edges of the hood and door frames. But it wasn't that big of a deal, given that there were only 2 doors on this car anyway.

We got inside the car and I started the engine up, the now-memorized sputter of the ignition sound echoing throughout the parking lot.

"Do you mind if I play music?" she asked, reaching for her phone.

"Nah go ahead. Aux cord's right there," I said, pointing to it beneath the brake lever. She reached the end of it and plugged it into her phone. I backed out of the parking lot and onto the street, then began to make my way to the freeway. It was about a 3 hour drive, and luckily this freeway that ran through our little town happened to lead all the way to LA. What a coincidence.

She opened some kind of music app on her phone and started browsing for 'the right song'.

"I've got to find the right song," she said to herself.

"Why? Just put whatever on." I said.

"Because. The smallest details make the biggest differences." she said, locked in a gaze with her phone as she scrolled down a list with over a thousand songs. Some people just cared more than others, I guess.