Vacant Hearts [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Chapter 15 | I Can't Control My Mind

SONG OF THE CHAPTER: breathin' by Ariana Grande

      "Okay, that's never happened before," was the first thing Julian said after his car decided to stop working. He swung open his door and got out of the car, moving to stand in front of the hood. He then proceeded to try and lift up the hood with his bare hands.

      I opened my door and poked my head out, raising my eyebrows at him. "West, what're you doing?"

      "Trying to open the hood. I want to see what the problem is," Julian explained, his brows furrowing in concentration.

      I rolled my eyes. "You know there's a lever for that, right?" Leaning over the centre console, I reached down and pulled the lever, watching the hood pop open.

      Julian shot me a thumbs up before he leant over and peered under the hood intently. A few seconds later, I could see he had no clue what he was doing. Sighing, I got out of the car and shoved him aside. After a quick inspection, I felt confident I'd located the problem. His engine appeared to have overheated if the smoke now billowing from the car was any indication.

      "That looks scary. We should probably stand back just in case something explodes," Julian said warily, taking a step backwards.

      "Nothing's going to explode," I told him, rolling my eyes at him again. I attempted to wave the smoke away so I could get a closer look at the possible cause of the engine overheating. I assumed there was either a leak in one of the pipes or something had disconnected from something else. It was a vague assumption, but the smoke was making it hard to see anything clearly, which meant I couldn't pinpoint the exact problem. "Can you grab me your toolbox?"

      Julian frowned and nodded. "Uh, I'll see what I've got." He disappeared around the side of the car and I heard the trunk open and close. Moments later, Julian appeared beside me. "I found this thing," he said, waving a spanner in front of my face.

      I raised my brows. "That's it? A spanner? You don't have any more tools?" I asked incredulously.

      Julian was wearing a blank look. "Why would I?"

      I groaned. If he had no other tools, there wasn't anything I could do to attempt to fix the problem. I couldn't believe he didn't have a toolbox in the back of his car. I also couldn't believe he didn't know where the lever was to open the hood. I was pretty sure it was something even my older sister Hudson could do, and she knew next to nothing about cars. Julian was an absolute idiot sometimes.

      "Your engine overheated. From the looks of it, your cooling fan is broken. You may also have a leak in one of your pipes but I can't quite see with all this smoke coming out," I explained to him, watching his eyes widen. "Call the AAA. There's nothing I can do right now without any tools."

      Julian nodded, his expression bewildered as he pulled out his phone and called the AAA. I stepped away from the thick smoke. Moving around the car, I closed the driver's side door and stood against it, waiting for Julian to end the call. Once he did, he came around to stand in front of me.

      I huffed in annoyance. "I can't believe you only have a spanner. When was the last time you got your car serviced?"

      He shrugged. "Uh, not sure. Maybe three years ago?"

      I gaped at him. "Three years ago? No wonder you have so many problems!"

      "How often do you have to get it serviced?" he asked, looking taken aback by my reaction.

      "Every six to twelve months!" I shook my head at him in disbelief. "You really are an idiot."

      "How do you know all this stuff?" Julian asked curiously, choosing to ignore the fact I called him an idiot.