Project Daddy || a.i

Chapter 75 || "Both at fault."

- Pandora -

The atmosphere in the car was stifling, a thick tension set upon us. The radio played some repetitive pop song that I had never heard of and Harry hummed along, yet stopped once my Mother glared at him. She was reading, attempting to pass the time through a novel that had undoubtedly sat upon our bookcase at home for years, forgotten until chosen in a desperate frenzy of hope and boredom. It had a long title and boring cover, yet it ensconced my Mother with its complicated words and poetic style and she was stolen from reality, lost in a world of fiction.

Evie sat beside me, her body turned away from me in a physical representation of her annoyance. She was frustrated, head held in her palm as she glared out the window, studying the limited wildlife available on the highway. I had forced her to come, dashed all of her hopes of going to Chuck's 'amazing' graduation party, and for that I was truly sorry - but I needed her. The prospect of sitting in a car with Ashton for an hour, silent and tense, had seemed so terrifying to me that I had to drag my best friend along, to suffer the same fate as me. I guess I was selfish in that aspect but I really didn't care, nobody ever said that friendship was fair.

"Are we nearly there yet?"

Harry sighed before glancing through his rear view mirror at the blue haired boy sitting in front of me, rocking back and forth like a child on a rocking horse. He had asked the same question around five times now, each time with a tone more desperate than the last, and each time Harry's answer had been the same.

"No."

"Oh come on!" Michael whined, throwing his head back in frustration "It's been like... An hour."

"There's a lot of traffic, Michael."

"Bullshít! You're just driving slowly so I can suffer."

Harry laughed at Michael's ridiculous accusation yet didn't bother to deny it, returning his attention back to the busy road. Michael groaned beneath his breath and clung to his crotch as though it were about to explode, yet with every alternative option offered he would decline, shaking his head adamantly.

"I'm not peeing in that."

"Oh, come on." Luke sighed, waving the half-empty lucozade bottle around carelessly "What's wrong with it?"

"Literally everything."

"You're just being stubborn now."

"It's not even empty, Luke!"

"Neither is the toilet when you pee in it!"

Michael - clearly frustrated by the situation - studied the lucozade bottle the same way you would study a worm; with disgust yet slight curiosity. His eyebrows were drawn together as he mentally weighed up his options and I found myself becoming increasingly agitated, wishing I could somehow escape from this metallic beast. My usual source of solace was, at present, ignoring me and I was seconds away from screaming.

"How do you even pee in a bottle?"

"You stick your díck in and pee." Harry stated bluntly, shooting a nervous sideways glance towards my Mother afterwards. She didn't react though, either completely ignoring the situation or too caught up in her book to care.

"But what if it doesn't fit?"

"Oh, trust me, it will." Calum answered simply, causing the boys to burst into hysterical laughter. Michael shoved his friend angrily before roughly grabbing the bottle off of Luke and turning away from them all, the distinct sound of a zipper being heard seconds after.

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

Averting my gaze towards the window, I attempted to tune out the sharp sound of the bottle being filled and focused upon the multiple cars passing by, studying the passengers as though they were animals in a zoo; trapped for my own entertainment. Most were nonchalant in nature, glaring at the road ahead with a distinct aura of determination, yet some were far more enthusiastic about their long journey ahead, singing dramatically to some song I could not hear or chatting animatedly to their fellow passengers. It was easy to decipher which ones were the pessimists and which ones were the optimists and I began to wonder which category I would be placed in, for although usually optimistic life seemed to be getting increasingly gloomy.