Route 262

~4~

I'm working on Physics homework that afternoon, as the sky is getting cold and blue, and my phone buzzes. At first I'm annoyed that I haven't put my phone in Do Not Disturb, but then my heart jumps - it's James. 

can u come outside real quick? just 2 ur driveway

I look in a mirror, decide my hair is only mildly disgusting, and then I'm throwing on my Red Converse and trying to look less like the train-wreck that I really am. 

James is sitting there, in his 1989 dark red station wagon. There's a song playing through his cassette-to-phone player, his arm is out the window despite that it's below freezing, and he's tapping his fingers to the beat on the rear-view window. I'm staring through the cold in the air, and my breath is coming out in a cloud: God, he looks so good right now. 

I open the door and get in, as if I'm used to this, as if we were best friends and this was something that could happen on a regular basis. His car smells fresh, like a mixture between something peppermint and his cologne. He doesn't say anything to me even as I close the door. 

"What's up?" I finally ask, not really sure of what else I can say. 

He exhales, turning his head to look at me. "Do you mind if - can we go somewhere to talk for a bit? I just - I know we don't know each other that well - but I just needed to get some perspective." 

"Yeah, of course," I say. 

"Thanks - could we do it somewhere like - not here?" 

"Sure," I say, and he's thrown the car into reverse, his right arm behind my seat, and I can almost pretend that the seat isn't there. 

"Are we getting food?" I ask. 

"Nope," he says. 

"Coffee?" 

"Wrong again." 

"Well, then, where are we going?" 

He takes a deep breath, and now the car is going forward, the wheels turning to take us out of white picket fence suburbia. I can see his upper teeth bite his lower lip, and his long arms lead to his hands, the knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so hard. 

"Route 262," he says, and he whips the car out of our neighborhood, and I'm left with my head twisting at 50 miles an hour now, wondering what the hell could ever come out of this.