Leaves [gxg]

6

6

The tailback came to an end after a long, long crawl through countryside lanes and then the journey continued in earnest. The music had helped. It had helped so much and River had almost started to feel comfortable in Celeste's presence. They had sung, River badly, Celeste with a high voice that River found surprising, and they had laughed. It felt good.

As soon as the traffic jam had ended, however, Celeste had lowered the volume of the music and returned to concentrating upon the roads, that had become twisty and turny. Other traffic dwindled as Celeste changed the route to a slightly shorter, but meandering one that took them through some strange areas that looked as though they had not seen humans in decades.

Soon, River started to see signs for Truro and she began to feel better about the whole thing. She still wished she hadn't agreed to the trip, though now they had nearly reached their destination, it began to feel as though it had a purpose, at last. Yet Celeste still remained largely silent and River had difficulty starting conversations at the best of times.

She heard a beep from her phone in her little backpack and scrambled to open the bag to get to it. Everything inside threatened to spill out into the passenger footwell, but she managed to use one hand to keep things inside while scraping her phone out into her hand. A text notification appeared on the screen, from Erisa, with one word for content. "Well?".

Trying to ensure Celeste couldn't see the screen, she tapped out a reply, sent it and fought to return the phone into her bag. She made an honest reply. Short. Pithy. Descriptive. "Practically disastrous". She didn't want Celeste to see that and ignored the follow-up beeps as she squeezed the top of the little backpack closed to zip it up.

"Your friend?" With a quick flicker of the eyes, Celeste glanced at River's bag. River clutched it even tighter, worried that Celeste could see her reply even now. "She seemed ... a little excited for you. I take it you don't get out much?"

"Ha! Not at all!" She turned her head to the side, cringing and biting her lip. She didn't need to sound so enthusiastic about not having a life. "Well, with the shop and all and with my personality and things are so expensive and ... No. I mean, no. I don't get out much, really. Sometimes. The trials and tribulations of running a twee little tea shop. It's a monster! Grawwh!"

She raised her hands, making her fingers into claws, and made a little laugh that drifted away at the end. Lowering her hands, she dug her fingernails into her bag, wishing she had a button on her head that could stop her talking. It wasn't even as though over-talking was a sign of nerves. The nervousness she felt only made her natural talkativeness worse.

"I understand that. Work takes over everything, if you let it." Leaning an elbow on the frame of her door's window, Celeste sighed, rubbing her forehead. "It gets in the way of important ... things. This is the first bit of free time I've enjoyed in years. Not since ... well, for a while."

River caught that pause and it made her wonder. She liked to think she had good observation skills. Skills that she used in the tea shop. Celeste had a sadness to her and that pause, those two pauses, really, said a lot in between those words. There was a history there which River desperately wanted to ask about, but held her tongue. They hardly knew each other for that kind of conversation.

"Enjoyed? You're enjoying this? Me? I mean, this drive ... with me?" Were she alone, talking like that on the phone to someone, she would have slapped her own head. Just a little control over her words. Was that too much to ask? "Can I be honest? I'm going to be honest. It's really awkward. I mean, so awkward. I don't know what to talk about. What interests you, whether we have any interests that match? I feel like I'm intruding."