Ezra looked terrified. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I situated myself behind Kai and with trembling hands tried to buckle myself in. Third time’s the charm, it hit home, and I cinched it tight. I look wildly at my right only to notice Ezra laughing at me.
“This isn’t funny!”
“I beg to differ; it is just that.”
I bit my lip to keep it from noticeably trembling. Ezra’s eyes flicked toward my mouth before his expression softened. “Aww, I’m sorry, Jupiter, but—” he said before his body slid hard into mine with an audible “umph” then back toward his side of the car, “he really is not a bad driver, as strange as that may seem.” He said all this while casually holding his body stiff against the back of his seat to keep from sliding back and forth with each rapid jerk of the car. “Try to relax.”
Deadpan was the look Ezra received. Dead by a pan was the punch I wanted to give Kai. And dead in a pan was what I would be when he finally crashed and we were all flattened like its namesake’s cakes.
“Just wait ’til we get outside the city; it’ll seem normal then,” Kai offered.
“Oh my God!” I screamed. “The shoulder is not a turning lane, Kai!”
“It is in my world,” he explained, one hand perched on the steering wheel as if he was on a leisurely stroll.
For fifteen minutes, we swerved in and out of lanes, round and around traffic, leaving their honking behind us in a blur of furious sound. My hands found the back of the front bench seat and stayed there the entire time. Occasionally I’d let out a small whimper of incredulity, making Ezra smile.
Eventually we found ourselves on the outskirts of the city and stuck between a staunch bit of forest flanking both sides of the highway. Apparently it was a soothing enough sight that it lulled me into a false sense of security. Not without incredible fight, trust me, I found myself drifting off, my forehead finally resting on the seat ahead of me, and that’s the last thing I remembered.
Adrenaline is a sporty punk. She’ll wear you down. I had no fear of becoming a junkie. No, ma’am.
Chapter Fifteen
I was asleep. No, I was awake, but recently asleep, and I was in Ezra’s car. I was awake, but recently asleep, and in Ezra’s car, but I was in the backseat? I was awake, but recently asleep, in Ezra’s car, in the backseat, and snuggled up against something hard and warm, Ezra’s blanket around my shoulders. It smelled exactly like him, so I took a deep breath.
“Peter, you let me in? Even after that one thing?” I asked heaven.
“What one thing?”
“Gah!” I yelled, bolting upright, hitting the top of my head on the car’s ceiling. I rubbed my newly forming bump. “Heh, heh. Uh, thanks for letting me sleep on that,” I said, gesturing to his chest with wild hand movements.
Ezra smiled at me and my heart fell into my stomach.
“So, are you guys, like, together or something?” we heard from the front seat.
We both turned to find a girl, maybe twenty-one, long brown hair, prettiest skin you’d ever seen on a person. A beautiful smile as wide as the Nile. I liked her immediately.
“What? No,” Ezra answered quickly, his words punching me in the gut.
“Cool,” she said, eyeing Ezra as I would a cheeseburger.
An odd feeling struck me in the chest and gut and inexplicably I discovered that, in fact, I didn’t like her at all. She seemed perfectly lovely, yet I didn’t want her in the car with us. I wanted her as far away from us as possible. She with her mature face. She with that chic, iron-straight hair. She with that flawless skin. Ugh. I was suddenly aware of my intense jealousy. I’d been jealous before. I’m not an idiot. I knew the feeling, but this time it was so intense, it felt almost foreign to me.
I shook my head to clear it. “Excuse me, but who are you?”
She smiled and stuck out a sun-kissed, manicured hand. “Hi, I’m Ruby.”
Reluctantly, I took it. “Jupiter.”
Ezra leaned forward. “How—” he began, but she anticipated his question and threw a shoulder toward Kai. “I was thumbing it up north. Kai let me tag along.”
Kai turned toward me, smiled and winked.
“You’re a drifter!” I turned toward Ezra, my eyes wide. In a move I could only explain away as a temporary loss of insanity due to the stress of the situation, I channeled my apparent inner Oscar Wilde. “Dare I say, she could be a vagabond, Ezra!” I whisper-yelled.
“A vagabond, say you?” he teased with a grin that sank me back into my seat, a little hurt he was making fun of me. I know I sounded ridiculous. I didn’t need the reminder, though.
“You seem cool,” Ezra began, my heart racing, “but what Kai may not have told you is this is my car and I’m not comfortable with hitchhikers.”
I sighed in relief and Ruby noticed. Her eyes narrowed at me so quickly I wasn’t sure if she’d actually done it. She leaned toward Ezra. “I get it. I don’t want to be that girl.” She smiled a disarming grin, one made to devastate boys, and she knew it. “Just drop me off at the next exit?”
The boys lost their sanity for a moment as they ogled her face like morons.
“I’ve been driving with her for two hours while you slept,” Kai explained, “she’s fine.”
Ezra sighed. “I guess.”
You guess?
I frantically looked around me.
“What are you doing?” Ezra asked.
“Looking for the cameras.” I patted my body. “Let’s see, I’m the virgin in this scenario, that’s painfully obvious. Kai’s the moron that ruins any plot progress.”
“Come on,” Kai yelled, offended.
I turned to Ezra, his brow raised, suggesting a “bring it.” “And you’re the hot douche who sleeps with the killer and doesn’t find out until you’re in the throes of passion and she whips out a hatchet.”
Ezra burst out laughing then shook his head. “You’re an idiot.”
“I’m the idiot?” I whispered.
“Who’s the killer?” Ruby asked.
“Uh, you, obviously.” I looked each passenger in the eye. “Everyone clear on their roles? Good. Break!” I said, clapping my hands.
For twenty minutes the femme stranger charmed the boys by recounting borderline inappropriate, if you ask me, stories of her getting stuck in compromising situations. And surprise! She somehow lost an integral piece of clothing in each story! Ugh! Gag me with a spoon.
When we pulled into a gas station, I launched myself over the bench and pushed Kai out of the driver’s seat so I could get out of the car. I wasn’t gonna be the last person in there with her. The virgin is always the first to go. I barreled my way around two vacationing families and their gargantuan vans and bolted for the convenience store door. I was a woman on a mission.
I picked up a few things. “Funyuns, check. Twizzlers, check. Kit Kat, check.” I jogged over to the refrigerators and grabbed a Mountain Dew, ’cause I’m classy like that, then headed toward the register. Just as I set my stuff on the counter, the door opened and in walked Ruby, followed by Ezra. He’d held the door for her. My stomach fell to the floor. I was the idiot.
“Be right back,” the clerk told me and ran off to do something.
I listened as Ruby and Ezra, joined by Kai, meandered around the store. By the time the clerk returned to the front, they stood in line behind me.
“Oh my God, Jupiter!” Kai said, pointing at a trucker hat.
It read Beam me up, Scotty.
I rolled my eyes. “Hilarious.”
“Is that funny?” Ruby asked him.
“Yeah, ’cause Jupiter’s family are conspiracy theorists. They believe,” Kai explained.
“Oh,” Ruby commented, sarcastically, “that explains the name.”
My face flamed hot, but I held my head high as if it didn’t bother me. Fake it ’til you make it, baby.
“That’ll be seven thirty-seven,” the clerk said.
“I don’t know how yo
u can eat all that,” Ruby said, artificial saccharine oozing from every syllable. “I’d be as big as a house in no time at all.” She laughed.
My face grew even hotter. When I get embarrassed, I get a little brazen. It’s a flaw. I know, can you believe it? I have flaws. “You know what,” I told the clerk, “throw this in there,” I said, tossing a pack of Twinkies on the counter with the rest. “And this too,” I said, picking up the trucker hat.
I paid for my crap and turned around, reached into my bag, and grabbed the Twinkies and the cap. I tossed the hat on my head as confidently as possible, fitting it snugly, and while staring at them from underneath the brim, unwrapped a Twinkie and took a gulping bite out of it.
“Mmm, good,” I mumbled around a full mouth.
I took a deep, cavalier breath, overconfident in my badassery, but I guess my bite was too big. I began to choke. Coughing, I grabbed the countertop to steady myself, but the blockage wouldn’t clear. I was starting to panic. I couldn’t breathe! All three stared at me with wide, concerned eyes. I slapped my hands on the countertop several times, attempting to gain control over the situation.
“Jupiter?” Ezra asked, stepping forward.
Coughing like an idiot, I held up a finger for him to stay where he was. He obeyed. Eventually I caught a breath, swallowed whatever I had left of my bite, and with ragged pants, stood upright.
I looked down at Ruby’s hands. Kale chips, a banana, and a bottle of water.
“Oh for Pete’s sake!” I yelled. I sound like James Earl Jones. Great. A hand went to Ezra’s mouth to keep from laughing. “See you in the car,” I crooned.
Dejected, I stood by the car door because I didn’t have the keys, and I refused to go back inside to get them.
I tested out my new rough voice. “Uh.” I cleared my throat. “Uh, hello. Hello, hello. Jeez, I sound like a radio DJ or something.” Two fingers went to an ear. “Jessie J comin’ at ya! You’re listening to ninety-seven-seven, all the hits from the seventies, eighties, and nineties! This segment brought to you by Preparation H. ‘Relax. Your relief is waiting.’”
“Uh, Jupiter?”
I jumped and a hand flew to my chest. I turned around, tried to act cool and casual, leaning an arm against the car. “Oh, hey, Ezra! What’s up, bro?”
He stuck his keys in his door and swung it wide for me. I climbed in and sat in the back, tucking my hat as far over my face as possible. Ezra got in and sat beside me, which surprised me.
“What was all that in there?” he asked.
“What was what?” I asked.
“What prompted chokageddon?”
“I don’t like her.”
Ezra pretended to act shocked. “No!”
I fought a smile.
“You just don’t know her,” he said.
“Neither do you, jackass. We literally woke up three hours ago with her in the car. And Ezra, how come every single one of her stories somehow ended with her without her shirt, or bra, or panties? I mean, come on, man!” I sat up and stuck out my chest, looping the end of my hair over and over. “Like, oh my gosh! Like, I don’t know how, but my shirt was just gone! My panties were just gone! Can you believe it?” I fake giggled. “And Twinkies? How do you eat those? Me? Why only kale chips for me, of course. I’m not a lard ass like you, Jupiter.”
Ezra smiled at me in obvious pity.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
He laughed. “Like what?”
“Like I’m just some silly female who has jealousy issues!”
Ezra shrugged his shoulders. “Well?”
“Oh! Oh my gosh. My gosh, Ezra.”
“What, Jupiter?” he teased. “She seems fine. I think it’s just you.”
“Have you lost your mind? She’s a stranger! Didn’t your folks ever warn you of stranger danger?”
“I’m not ten anymore,” Ezra explained.
I took in his broad shoulders and hands. No, that you are not, I thought.
“Fine. Whatever. It’s your car. I’m just along for the ride,” I huffed, crossing my arms and burying myself deeper into my seat. “I’ll just be over here with common sense, my only friend, it seems.”
I rested my knees on the back of the bench and pulled the bill of my ridiculous trucker hat down, but then remembered what it said and ripped it off, tossing it at my feet. Ezra leaned over and picked it up, dusting off little pieces of grass from the floorboard that had attached itself to the top.
Ezra placed the hat on his head and turned toward the window, mumbling something.
“What?” I asked, pissed.
He turned toward me but didn’t say anything. Eventually the heat of his gaze ate through my resolve and I looked into his eyes.
“You’re not just along for the ride, Jupiter, and you know it,” he said, pinning me with his stare and making my heart pound.
Wisely I said nothing, and not just because all the moisture had left my mouth. There wasn’t a response I could think of that would have thrown me out of the buffoon stage in which I was so deeply entrenched. I felt suddenly immature. I knew I was jealous. I’d always thought I was above such impulses, but I wasn’t. I really wasn’t. Must change that. Grow as a person, Jupiter. Grow.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“Don’t ever be sorry for being you, Jupiter.”
“I’m not. I’m just sorry for not giving her a proper chance. You’re right. I’ll just chill.”
He smiled, removed the cap from his head, and stuck it back on mine.
Kai and Ruby started walking back toward the car. Kai stuck his head through the open driver’s window. “You okay there, Mama Cass?”
I laughed. “Shut up and drive.”
They both got in and buckled up.
We set out on the road, and I was on a mission to be cool to Ruby.
“So, Ruby, where did you grow up?” I asked.
“In Cincinnati,” she replied without turning around.
“That’s cool,” Ezra said. “I’ve never been to Cincinnati.”
She turned around with a large, bright smile on her face. “You should! You and Kai should come visit me when you’re on break, you know, when I get back that way. I’ll take you all around. Show you the sights,” she offered.
I bit my lip. You should come too, Jupiter! I would love to show you around as well!
“That’d be nice,” Kai replied, smiling at Ruby as if she hung the moon.
Thank the Lord, Ezra didn’t say anything.
Ruby looked ahead of her at a passing sign.
“You know what might be fun?” she asked.
Ritual sacrifice? I thought.
“There’s this little swimming hole with a ten-foot waterfall about half an hour east of here. Not a whole lot of people know about it. If you’re game, we could make a little detour and check it out?”
I began to panic a little. I was eager to get to Chicago, to settle in somewhere, even if it was only for a few days. And, to be honest, to get rid of Ruby and her mysteriously disappearing clothes.
“I’m down if you are,” Kai said, looking back at Ezra.
“Sounds fun,” Ezra chimed in, disappointing me. He turned my way. “What about you?” he asked.
I took a deep breath to control my anxiety. “Uh, yeah, that’s fine,” I answered, trying for breezy, but failing miserably if Ezra’s furrowed brow was any indication.
“It’s only a few exits up, Kai,” Ruby told him.
We drove half an hour away from the interstate toward this supposed waterfall then turned onto a winding, admittedly gorgeous, pebbled drive past a sign that read Muscatatuck Park. Our tires crunched against the rock. The trees still held their summer leaves, green and rich and utterly different from Florida. They canopied over the drive, protecting us from the sun and the elements.
“Pretty,” I said absently. “How do you know about it?” I asked her.
“Oh, it’s a funny story,” she squawked before falling into yet another story about her
losing her clothes on some random skinny-dipping trip with a bunch of random friends. She mentioned these friends’ first names so casually, as if to imply we should know them, or to lend them some believability, I wasn’t sure. Her intentions were strange. I knew it. I knew girls. I knew something was desperate about her, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.
She led us to some random little offshoot of road and we followed the somewhat rocky terrain until our car could go no farther. Eventually, and much to my relief, we were forced to exit the car.
“It’s this way.” Ruby indicated with a hand.
“Just a minute,” Ezra said, heading back to the trunk. He popped the hatch and disappeared through its open frame, rummaging for something. His head emerged and he closed the trunk then locked it, bright yellow plastic ribbons hanging from his hands.
“I’ll just mark the trees,” he said.
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” she said. “I know this place like the back of my hand.”
Ezra smiled. “I don’t doubt you do, but if it’s all the same, I’d feel better.”
“Whatever you like,” she said, but her forced smile held a tinge of pissed-off girl. She’s up to something, I thought.
Ruby set off at a brisk pace, easy for her tall frame, and Kai followed along like a lost puppy. Ezra fell behind them to stay with me.
“You can go on,” I said, as he tied a ribbon around a tree trunk. “My legs are short.” I giggled. “I’ll just follow the ribbons.”
“Uh, no,” Ezra said. I waited but he offered nothing else.
We walked for at least ten minutes in silence before I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Bets on what piece of clothing Ruby loses first?”
“Stop,” Ezra said, but laughed anyway. He opened his mouth, then shut it, only to open it again. “Cash? Or favors?”
I smiled. “I was gonna say cash, but a favor seems a much more fascinating prospect now.“
“All right, Corey, spill. What do you want from me?” he asked.