Take Me Home | ✔

Chapter Sixteen

[ sixteen ] - oh the irony 

                monday night - four days until graduation 

                After we crossed from Clarksville, Arkansas to another small, neighboring town, Elliot scolded me for refusing to go to sleep. After much arguing, I surrendered, figuring out simply that we wouldn't be stopping for the night. It was much too risky. Besides, what would any hotel manager say after seeing the stolen FedEx truck and the companions were obviously not FedEx workers? So, I took Elliot's advice and easily fell asleep, just waiting for my turn to drive (to this, Elliot protested profusely, to which I argued that a girl driver was better than a sleeping driver; not much, but still better.) 

            I didn't know for how long I had dozed off. Two hours, maybe three? All it took for me to surrender to the exhaustion waiting in my limbs was to prop my head on the shaking window of the passenger seat and close my eyes. I wasn't sure either how I had woken up, the familiar feeling of delusion fogging my brain. After what seemed like an hour or two later, I blinked in the darkness, not knowing where I was for two seconds, later instilling a sense of panic that faded away when I saw Elliot. 

           I had looked over at Elliot yawning at the driver's seat, slumped to a degree. He seemed the same as I had left him: quiet, and focused on the road. But as I watched closer, his head kept drooping lower and lower and he yawned twice in the last forty seconds. Suddenly, before my very eyes, his head fell forward and he lost control of the wheel, leaving the truck without a driver. 

        "Elliot!" 

        I quickly lunged for the steering wheel with one hand, swerving us off the wrong side of the road just seconds before an SUV was to crash into ours. I was frozen for a while at the sight of the headlights in my eyes, until I turned the truck away, barely into safety. A symphony of angry horns and honking greeted us as I turned the lurching semi-wheeler onto the right side of the highway, my heart pounding. "Elliot, wake up!" I yelled. 

           "Huh? What?" his head shot upwards, confused. 

            "Hey what are you doing driving?" he blinked at the sight of me, my face in his, and me trying to ignore the close proximity that would've been fatal; just one move and in an inch we would be kissing. 

            I didn't offer a response, but I slowly took command of the steering wheel, leaning over Elliot, and pulled the truck over to the side of the highway. 

            "Why are we stopping? I was fine, I could handle a few more hours," he said, and as if the universe wanted to test this, he yawned loudly, covering his mouth his fist. To re-wake himself, he shook his hand quickly, slapping his cheek and grinning lopsidedly at me. I wasn't fooled. 

               "No you can't," I shook my head, unbuckling my seat belt. "You nearly killed us! Does this sound familiar to you?" 

            He rolled his eyes at the deja vu. A couple of days ago, our positions were reversed. He shrugged, "Sorry, I just dozed off for a bit, but I'm alright, I swear--" 

              "Elliot, don't be difficult. I swear I won't let anything happen to the truck, just get some rest, okay? You've been driving for too long, nearly the whole day." To prove my point, I tilted my head to the clock. It was half past eleven at night, and though cars started to become a rare sight on the highway, Elliot had been driving the truck since this morning, when we had so graciously stolen it. 

              I was obviously right about Elliot's exhaustion because he didn't bother to argue anymore. Honestly, I was expecting a much bigger argument, but he just waved me away like I was a fart, and almost collapsed in the driver's seat then and there if I hadn't caught his slumping body in my arms and gently patted his warm face.