𝓒𝓸𝓵𝓭 𝓐𝓼 𝓘𝓬𝓮 [𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖓𝖓𝖎𝖊]

20

"I'm hungry," Jennie said.
"I'm happy to hear violence doesn't impair your appetite."
She wanted to slap the snarky son of a bitch, but she was too worn out. Her stomach was twisting, she felt weak and shaky, and she was so hungry she was tempted to sink her teeth into Rosé's leg. She wasn't going to say a thing about her shoulder. She could bleed to death for all she cared, and they could go careening off the freeway head-on into a semi and then she wouldn't have to worry about being hungry ever again.

"He shot you," she said begrudgingly.

"Kind of you to notice. Don't worry, it's just a graze. Stings like crazy but it's already stopped bleeding. I just need a little first aid."

"Don't except it from me. And I'm not worried. I just want to make sure you can still drive."
She smiled, the bitch, and she remembered her mouth all too vividly. She jerked her head away again and closed her eyes. It was the middle of the night and there were people everywhere. The bright lights of a thousand cars all around her, the noise and color of the freeway were an assault on her deprived senses, and part of her wanted to go back into a dark, safe hole and hide.

"What do you want to eat?"
"A cheeseburger," she said dreamily. "The biggest, greasiest cheeseburger in the world, with French fries and Diet Coke."
"No Tab?"
"I think that's beyond you at the moment," she said. "Diet Coke will do in a pinch."
Before she realized what she was doing she'd crossed four lanes and taken the exit, amid screeching tires and honking horns. By the time they'd made it safely off the freeway and she'd caught her breath, she glared at her. "Do you have a death wish?" She demanded.

"I thought we'd established that."
"Well, don't include me. I'm not ready to die."
Again that small smile. "Glad to hear it. Otherwise it would be a waste of time and money to day feed you."
She was pulling into a drive through hamburger place, one of the West Coast chains, and she looked at her suspiciously. "What about McDonald's?"
"This is better. Trust me."
"Trust you? You've got to be kidding me."
She said nothing, merely pulled up to the window and gave her order. She got the food, put it in her lap and drove away, Into the night.

She was too busy wolfing down her food to pay attention to where she was going. She hadn't gotten back on the freeway, and the streets were darker, less busy, with only the occasional car passing on the other direction. She shover the last French fry in her mouth and lifted her head to look around her. She'd managed to find a dirt road somewhere, and even in the midst of such a densely populated area there was no one around.