{ #5 } Eclipse Of The Moon (MxM || 18+)

Chapter 20 - Westbound Headed

Eclipse Of The Moon ~ Book 1 of Aaron
Chapter 20
Westbound Headed

⚠️ Temporary note:
I don't know what's wrong with Wattpad, but as I pasted the chapter from my Word file, it kept skipping entire sentences or paragraphs. Although I double-checked everything, please let me know if you notice incoherent things or paragraphs with missing spaces. Thank you!

Sunday 29 December 2002

"Wake up, Boy. We're in Phoenix."

The man's deep voice and a gentle nudge in my shoulder tear me out of my sleep with a start, and I quickly get aware again of the surrounding noises that have become quite familiar to me over the last two months. Noises that consist in background music, voices coming from the CD radio and the loud roaring of the truck motor. These sounds have been my daily life ever since I left Bellmawr on October 31st, jumping from one truck or car to another, so they don't bother me anymore.

In the beginning, I just couldn't fall asleep in trucks because of these noises, though not only. I was mostly scared of what could happen while I was asleep. Like everyone else, I had heard about how dangerous it can be to hitchhike, because if drivers fear who they might pick up in their car or truck, the reverse is true as well. Hitchhikers never know if the person who allows them in their vehicle doesn't have hidden intentions. You could be mugged, assaulted, raped or even killed, so your mind doesn't really let you rest.

During the first entire month, I always stayed on the alert and never allowed myself to sleep while being trucked, but I have learned to relax a bit more. Judging by appearances is not the best idea, but if I feel comfortable enough around the driver, if the person looks fine, I allow myself to let loose a bit, but I always have my knife in hand, hidden inside the pocket of my coat.

As the big truck exits Interstate 10 to take the frontage road, I completely wake up and take in my surroundings. The dry landscape is certainly a change from New Jersey! The arid roadsides are surprisingly bordered by plants and bushes I wouldn't be able to name, when I thought it would be totally desert. The man beside me lets out a loud yawn as he eventually takes a left and heads south. 

"I'm going to take a nap before I drive the last section to Vegas!" he says, when we approach the giant parking space dedicated to truckers. "This is the furthest I can take you, Boy. It's the last stop before I head up north. You need to stay on this motorway to reach LA, but I'm sure you'll find someone going there in any case!"

"Yes, thank you so much for the ride anyway, George!!" I reply cheerfully.

George is one sort of drivers I would have liked to meet more often since I left the East Coast. For one, he is rather the quiet one, and barely spoke to me at all in the almost thirty-six hours we spent together, he didn't ask the ever-recurrent questions I don't want to answer.

Where are you from? How old are you? You don't look 18, do your parents know where you are? Why did you run away from your home? What are you going to do in Los Angeles? And worst question ever: what do I get in return?

These are some of the questions I have kept getting each time I approach a driver and ask if they are headed toward California and would be willing to accept a passenger in their car or their truck. I always promise that my duffle bag and I will make ourselves small and quiet, and that I just don't have money to pay for the ride, setting things clear from the start.

Most of the time, I get a Go away! plain and simple. Sometimes, there is a yes, but they want a counterpart, in cash or sex, which I always refuse. Often enough, they accept because these people get lonely and they just want to talk – such rides are a pain because I would rather they shut up. And on rarer occasions, I found people like George who just don't mind sharing the truck cabin with someone else as long as the other someone remains quiet.