hitchhiker // c.h (au)

5. I could punch a monkey for a latte

They had been driving for 3 hours when Iris started to feel the weariness and tiredness seep into her bones, and she tried to stifle a yawn. Calum looked up at her from his book and noticed the vacant look on her face.

"Hey you all good?" He said, putting his bookmark back in the page and shutting the book.

"Uh huh, just kind of jonesing for a coffee, so I might stop at the next shop, and then you can drive for a bit?" The words were a statement, but she phrased it as a question; not knowing whether Calum would even want to drive. Her car wasn't hard to drive, as it was an automatic, and a fairly new model.

"Oh yeah of course, I was wondering how far you'd get before needing a break." Calum grinned across at her and Iris saw him out of the corner of her eye.

"Well I'm at the end of my line, I need a coffee to even function right now." Iris stifled another yawn, that was one thing about Iris that anyone that knew her knows; Iris couldn't function in the morning until she had a coffee. It had even been hard for her in the 3 hours she had been driving. Although the excitement of being on a roadtrip kept her awake, but now the adrenaline was wearing thin, stretched over her body and driving her mind to tiredness.

Calum laughed, and rubbed his eyes with closed fists. His eyes had grown a little tired from all the reading he had done, but he was still very much awake. Iris saw a sign for a locally owned and brewed coffee shop, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she parked in front of the tiny cafe. She had barely rolled to a stop when she turned the car off and sprang out of the car, and by the time Calum was inside the cafe she was already seated with a menu in front of her.

"Wow I've never seen you move so fast." Calum remarked as he took a seat across from her and she only managed to briefly roll her eyes and sarcastically laugh 'ha ha' before sticking her nose back in the menu. Calum couldn't help but laugh at her reaction as he grabbed his own menu.
His eyes scanned it quickly, reading all the sugary concoctions they passed off as drinks and tasty desserts that were featured in the glass cabinet. Everything did look good, and he was wondering why this cafe of seemingly good food and good coffee (at least judging by the way the place was packed and smelled amazing) was in this tiny town off the highway.

His thoughts were interrupted by Iris pulling his menu out of his hands, and he met her eyes. "Are you ready to order because I could punch a monkey for a latte, and I don't care if you're with me or without me."

"Yeah I'm ready, I just want a green tea please, I don't really like coffee," he ignored her shocked and slightly pissed off expression, "oh and a muffin of some kind. I love muffins."

"I'm just going to completely ignore that you said you don't like coffee, and pin it on my sleepiness; that I was just hearing things or something. Because coffee is gods gift to man, if I believed that god was real." Iris finished speaking with a flourishing flip of her hair over her shoulder, and stalked off to the counter to order, her hips swaying with attitude.

Calum watched her for a moment longer, the polite smile she had plastered on her lips as she ordered and made conversation with the man working behind the counter, her hands placed on the counter, and one of her knee's slightly dropped, making her whole body curve more to one side. His lips pulled up into a smile as he watched her carefully study all the treats hidden behind the glass.
Before too long she had chosen what she wanted, paid and not making her way back to the table, her steady gaze fixed on Calum's. She slumped back into her chair and ran her hands through her hair, and then finally, she smiled.

"I feel more alive already, just knowing that coffee's on its way." Iris grinned at him and Calum halfheartedly smiled back, though he was lost in his thoughts. He was thinking about the last time he had been on a roadtrip. He had been younger then, more naive, more offering with his love and with his thoughts. Back then he had a mind full of song lyrics and no one to capture them and spin them into songs, that was until...
He was pulled back into reality by the waitor bringing their drinks and food to the table.

"Where did you go just then?" Iris asked, her hand already on her chocolate brownie, breaking off a piece and putting it in her mouth.

"The past." Calum didn't explain further and besides cocking her head to the side, Iris didn't press him for more information. "Oh hey, thanks for this by the way," he gestured to the drinks in front of them, "I'll buy next time."

"Deal." She said, a smile on her face after taking a long pull of her coffee.

They sat in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, breathing in the smell of coffee beans and chocolate. People bustled around them, knocking into them with bony elbows and soft skin; before hurrying off leaving only a whisper of an apology hanging in the air. But neither Calum nor Iris cared particularly; it was warm in the cafe, it's smells surrounded them in a comforting embrace and they didn't care about the jostling public.

"Okay, so where are we going through first?" Iris said before drinking down another long gulp of her coffee. Calum swallowed his own sip of green tea before placing his chin in his hand.

"Well, I think we're about an hour away from Sioux Falls, in South Dakota. So we should be heading through there pretty soon. And then the next main place we head through after that should be Rapid City, in South Dakota, but even that's another 4 and a bit hours after Sioux Falls. And just between you and me," his voice dropped to a fake whisper and he leaned over the table dramatically, "there's not much in either place. So we won't be site seeing is all I'm saying."

Iris laughed, a breathy and shaky laugh, "I'm sure we'll find something to do."

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A bump in the road shook the car for a jolting second, and Iris sat up sharply, opening her sleep crusted eyes slightly. Calum had been driving for nearly an hour, and they were coming up to Sioux Falls, the largest city in the U.S state of South Dakota. Iris had never been, and she was somewhat excited, to see the falls, and just to look around (especially after sitting in a car for 4 hours already.)

She looked over at Calum with a slightly pissed off expression, after being woken up in such a terrible way. He looked sheepish as he raised his shoulders in a sort of what are you gonna do manner. She reached over and flicked him on the top of the ear, and he yelped in pain.

"That was for driving like a fool, and possibly messing up something in my car." Iris snapped at him playfully, and he stuck his tongue out at her, his eyes still fixed on the road ahead.

"Where are we?" Iris said, running a hand through her tangled hair, only to have it get stuck halfway through. She sighed heavily and got to work trying to untangle the birds nest living on her head.

"We're about 5 to 10 minutes away from Sioux Falls. So actually I timed your wake up perfectly." Calum grinned, and Iris rolled her eyes; even though she knew he couldn't see her.

After exactly 7 minutes (Calum looked over at Iris smugly), they had arrived at Sioux Falls. The pair sighed happily when they found a tiny motel that had two single beds available, and they got to put their bags inside. Iris stretched her leg out in front of her and rolled her shoulders back, the tension slightly relieved after sitting and sleeping uncomfortably in a car seat.

"So what do you want to do?" Calum smiled at her from his place on one bed, his long body taking up the length of the bed as he laced his fingers behind his head and crossed one ankle over the other.

"I'm not sure, I think we should see the Falls, and maybe just wander around until it's time to eat, or just crash out. We can stay here until tomorrow or just nap and then just hit the road again; although you said it's another 4 and a half hours until the next big city." Iris stretched her arms up into the air and leaned her body slightly forward as she did so, her top riding up slightly to show a sliver of her stomach. Calum glanced at her and then pointedly looked away, his cheeks slightly pinker than before.

"Yeah but I'm sure there's smaller towns between here and there, that we could stop at to crash for the night. I don't know, let's go out and explore a bit and then we'll decide what to do later." Calum grinned up at Iris and she smiled back at him, her eyes crinkling as her lips curved upwards.

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such a filler holy shit
but whatever, ehhh I'm on my period, and I don't feel good so publishing this right now, is stopping me from angry writing // which would probably result in calum and iris' deaths tbh.