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“And on top of all that, I’m already way behind on uploading this stupid video because I lost the file of the first recording.” Jane’s annoyed muttering accentuated with each heavy click of her mouse. She was switching from her folders on her desktop, reopening the Discord tab for their call that, at one point was meant to be a quick break from her work, had now lasted a little over an hour and a half. The green ring had shifted from around her own profile to the other one present in the call.
“Jeez, how’d that even happen?” Allie’s voice crackled through the speakers of Jane’s computer, tone light and echoey in a way that sounded like she was connected through her phone in her bedroom rather than with the clarity that usually comes with her spit-covered mic.
“I don’t even know. Just having a rough week, I guess.” It was an understatement to how bad she was actually feeling, but she didn’t need to burden Allie with that entire truth. It had really felt like the universe was beating her down every chance it could get, but she couldn’t admit that.
Another moment of silence.
“I miss you. A lot.” Jane rested her head in her hand. She let her eyes linger on Allie’s profile picture, now some random screenshot rather than her typical one (apparently to go along with some kind of group bit from a video she wasn’t in).
She pictured Allie’s face instead, the one she hadn’t seen for a few weeks now, the one she was aching to see again. Pictured her warm cheeks and sloped jawline. Her wide, welcoming eyes framed by her long lashes and bright undereyes. The slow appearance of her smile lines each time her grin grows wider.
“Helloo? Jane?” Allie called out, snapping the other out of her distraction.
“Oh! Sorry, still here- spaced out a second. What'd you say?”
“Well I WAS wishing you would feel better and saying I missed you too and whatnot, but I guess you didn’t want to hear it.” Her playful tone finalized with a dramatic sigh.
“Hah, yeah sure dude.” She gave a quick chuckle before deciding, “Listen, I think I’m just gonna head to bed. At least, after I mess with this video a little more. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”
“Yeah, sounds good. Love you, get some sleep later.”
“Mhm, you too.” Jane hummed, trailing off as she hung up.
…
Allie sighed, letting her head fall back limply against her pillow with a poomf, staring blankly up at her ceiling.
That call was horrible. What was going on with Jane? Was her week that bad? Or was it something else bothering her?
She really tried not to take the abrupt hangup to heart. Especially as Allie thought back through all the inconveniences Jane had mentioned; her accelerator had blown somewhere near the beginning of the week that she still hadn’t fixed, something new was in the ongoing feud with her landlord Allie didn’t remember the specifics of, and she had gotten locked out of her place at least seven separate times over the past two days. All somewhat menial things if they were individual issues, but obviously it had built up to the point of turning into stress that was really starting to get to her.
Something settled into Allie’s gut, a twine of guilt tightening around her bones at the thought of her best friend going through something out of her control. Or worse, within her control and not being able to fix it or be there for her.
Jane hadn’t acknowledged it when Allie said she missed her too, but that didn’t make it any less true. It’s already been forever since she visited last time, so she was itching to see her. And who knows when the next would be with all Jane was fretting over?
Well.
Allie could always… could she?
Would Jane be okay with that?
Should she visit her? Can she just show up like that?
Technically speaking, she definitely could. She had the money for a plane ticket, and she’s gone a few days without posting before and been fine, so what’s a few more? Something something, the perks of her career, and all that.
Since Allie had now convinced herself that it may be possible, she opened a new tab on her phone to check out last-minute flights.
Uh oh.
Yeah, she expected them to be pretty expensive for being so sudden, but sold out entirely?
She supposed could always…drive. To Ohio. To Jane. It’d be a lot of gas, but she could do it. It’s been a while since her last road trip anyway, her car could use the mileage. Allie checked the map.
A little over 15 hours straight. Probably round it to 16 to account for breaks. Allie checked the clock, high on her impulse.
7:13 PM. If she left now, she could get there by 11ish, around when Jane wakes up. She stared off at her wall as she thought, twirling a strand of short auburn hair between her fingers.
Was she really about to drive the entire night instead of sleeping just to see her again?
…
Yep!
Allie turned up the dial on the radio to blare her music louder, a crude attempt to cover the roar of the engine as she accelerated to merge onto the freeway. She had just stopped to fill up gas, along with getting a quick snack and energy drink to prepare for the drive ahead of her. After doing the math, she really shouldn’t be that tired after staying up driving the whole night. Her sleep schedule’s all kinds of messed up already, so she only woke up several hours before she left anyway.
To motivate her more, she played her and Jane’s shared playlist as her music of choice, shuffled and looped for good measure. She liked to think its absurd length and jumbled order of genres represented how each of them changed over the years, represented the phases that made the both of them who they are now. It makes Allie miss her even more; the Jane of the past and who she was currently on her way to visit.
As late afternoon shifted to evening, sky dimming in hue and headlights flicking on to match, Allie was still feeling pretty good about her decision. She was already an hour past the state line and Floridian drivers hadn’t even annoyed her too bad this time! So it shouldn’t be too horrible from here.
…
Allie spoke entirely too soon.
She forgot about good ol’ Atlanta, Georgia.
Okay, that was on her though. She was in such a rush to leave on time that she chose the quickest route through her phone’s map going up I-75, but she knows it’s not the quickest route because it goes through Atlanta and can easily get backed up by city traffic. The actual quickest route takes 30 minutes longer, but goes around a different way that dodges it. And in hindsight, Allie would’ve happily paid that toll and taken the longer way.
And just her luck, some concert was ending that same night, meaning despite the now-late hour, she was stuck in barely moving cars for at least another two miles, increasingly adding minutes onto her arrival time.
Not as long as it could have been, she reasoned through deep annoyed sighs, an attempt to be grateful as she glanced in her rearview mirror at the stream of headlights honking behind her, could be way back there instead.
After half an hour dragged by, full of pumping her breaks as she inched through the crowd and watching idiots try and cut their way ahead, Allie finally broke through to her exit and followed the line of cars doing the same.
“Should’ve just taken the other route, would’ve been the same amount of time.” She grumbled and swore to herself, speeding up again to change highways and also to vent her annoyance onto the gas pedal rather than the cars around her.
On the bright side, half of her trip was over, and she had only stopped twice already. On the dark side, it was 2 AM, she still had 7 hours of mountain roads through deep forest ahead of her, and she had only stopped for an actual break once. And that last fact was made extremely apparent to her after she took off ahead down the right lane, passing the remaining handful of cars around her. All the noise of the city and bustling cars had trickled out, leaving her ears alone with the waves of some slower song and the hum of the engine. Her shoulders sagged, adrenaline of the traffic wearing off and replacing itself with exhaustion.
With a sigh, she flicked her signal on, telling the empty road behind her that she was pulling off to the side for a nap. If she listened really closely as the gravel crunched to a stop, Allie could almost hear her father’s chastising in his unique drawl, telling her to never drive tired and quoting how it’s “always better to be late than dead”.
She tilted the seat fully back, tucking her bare knees into her red hoodie and knocking out almost immediately after, barely pressing the ‘Set Timer’ button. When it went off half an hour later, loud blaring directly in her ear, it felt like she only blinked before she was back up and on the road. Short bursts of sleep like this probably aren’t great for her health, but what harm will one night do? Besides, it’s probably healthier than being scraped off the road because she dozed off.
Driving at night wasn’t entirely her favorite, but she didn’t think it was nearly as horrible as everybody else seemed to describe. Besides watching out for animals crossing and people driving more obnoxiously than they should be, it was just keeping within the lines on the road and maintaining your speed. And she could do that with her eyes closed (not that she’s going to). Thus far, aside from her Atlantean mishap, this roadtrip thing was a piece of cake. At this rate, she thought with an overconfident huff, that she won’t even need her scheduled rest stops before making it to Jane’s house. In no time.
“Aww! Awww!” Allie cut off her thought to coo at the endearing sight she barely caught as she passed by; a mother deer grooming her young fawn, right off on the edge of the forest underneath the rare streetlight. It gave her a sweet feeling of hope for both of their lives ahead of them.
The moment soured a few miles down, where the highway stretch must’ve had some overpopulation, signified by the sheer amount of mangled bodies along the middle and side of the highway. She cringed at the sight, both out of disgust and an empathetic sense of pity. A force out of her control, yes, but a sad one nonetheless. The rest of her drive went similarly, only noticing the slight details in the shoulders of the road that stood out among the vast of pitch black.
Dark, empty, monotonous road.
She wished she could fly sometimes.
Allie stared forward through the glass of her windshield, eyes dead set on the seemingly-infinite white and yellow lines in front of her.
It would be so easy.
Find an open field, a spot with enough distance. Large wings would creak open, feathers stretching out from their base at her back. They would fully extend, baby pink converts gleaming a hot magenta along their surfaces, streaks of vibrant carotenoid red through the lengths that reflect their health and the longest flight feathers along the bottom a deep melanated black.
Lifting the limbs up, up, up, gaining enough height to flap them just one beat downward, just enough to finally let her go.
VVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRR
Allie’s eyes snapped back to attention in terror, jerking her steering wheel quickly back into her lane as the thrum of the rumble strip reminded her to remain present.
Yeah, yeah, I know, stay awake. She told herself.
Even after all of the fantasies of flight had proven fruitless in keeping her attention. It’s hard to focus when all she can picture now is the distant memory of the two of them cuddled close in her bed, high off their heads. And the dull warmth of the car was feeling almost the same as the comfort of the girl’s body heat…
VVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRR
Allie yanked the car back again. She has to stay awake. And more importantly, make it there to her alive.
…
It was nearing 10 AM, the bright shine of the late morning blinding her through the passenger window. Enough so to annoyingly smack the mirror around to try and provide some sort of shade or relief to her tight squint. By this time, she was through all of Kentucky, rich colors of the long sunrise highlighting the dip of the valleys as she had mindlessly driven through the state. Nearing the midst of Ohio had looked largely the same, it just lacked the gorgeous sunset that improved the view over the last few hours.
She had been rationalizing each countdown in her head. Only an hour left, that’s thirty minutes two more times. Her patience has gotten her thus far, she can wait for fifteen minutes four more times.
Thunk.
Damn, she probably hit a pothole. Something she expected, especially with how unkept the roads really become nearing the Midwest. It wasn’t until her car started shaking, the front left corner bouncing further down with each rotation of her tires that she increasingly realized something was wrong.
Shit. Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit.
No way she gets a flat now of all times. Allie's hand was over her mouth in silent denial of the situation she was now in as she pulled off to the shoulder, the shake getting more pronounced as she slowed. Putting her car in park and letting her forehead fall against the wheel, a huff of disbelief left her, half-laughing and half-sobbing at the absurdity of it all.
She. Was. So. Close.
What the hell was she meant to do?
Hitching a ride an hour to Colombus is way too far, she’s still too prideful to ruin the surprise and call Jane to come pick her up.
She could always try and call a tow, but it would probably take way too long for them to reach her spot on the backroads in between her route. She could try and flag someone down, but even the passing cars are just folks late on their way to work or minding their own business that won’t consider taking the chance of being late to help out a poor sad Roblox Youtuber stuck on the side of the freeway.
Might as well check the damage while I'm stuck here. After waiting for the few cars left to zoom by, she climbed out only to have her heart drop to her feet at the sight.
The rim lay flat against the pavement, deflation caused by the large open rips along the sidewalls, leaving pieces now scattered in a trail of rubber shreds behind her. While she supposed that she was lucky there wasn’t any damage past the tire itself, there was no chance it was drivable from there.
The spark of frustration from it all brought a rush of tears to her eyes, feeling the salt spread over her sticky sclera. Rubbing her screwed shut lids with a groan made her realize just how drained she really was. Which was humiliating, both that she’s brought to tears over this minor hiccup and that she’s this tired and helpless to begin with. At her grown age, can’t stay up for over 24 hours, and can’t even help herself. Her shoulders shook with the arrival of fresh tears, slumping against the hood of her car and burying herself in her ragged hoodie sleeves.
It wasn’t until a loud rumbling filled the silence, slowly approaching somewhere behind her until it paused and someone else’s heavy door slammed that Allie lifted her head from her hands.
“Whaddya doing stuck out here, lil’ lady?”
Allie’s head whipped around until her gaze fell on the source of the voice, landing on a heavy-set middle-aged woman coming up the side of her car. Her bleach-straightened blonde hair sat wrapped in a bun near the top of her head, a few strands falling out of the large scrunchie and contrasting against her sun-freckled shoulders. Further back sat a large semi, idling several feet behind her car. While the load it carried was only a plain white trailer, it contrasted the brilliant teal cab patterned with the simple logo of the energy drink company it belonged to and the self-placed swirled and rhinestone decals surrounding it.
Allie startled as she realized she had just been staring at the woman too long, a thinly drawn eyebrow raised at the silence. She sniffed then responded, “Hit a hole too hard and my tire popped. I don’t know how to fix it. Or have the tools to.”
“Oh, well that’s easy now!” She squatted down towards Allie’s level, pointed towards the metal and asked in her South Atlantic cadence, “You got a spare in there?”
Allie looked off to the side, her wet eyes full of thought before nodding. “..should be in the trunk.”
“I’ll fix that right up for you then, sugar, how about that? No use in sitting out here waiting for someone else to come by.” She lightly smacked the hood, a sign of resolve before heading towards the back of Allie’s SUV.
“Oh! Well, thank you-” She cut herself off, standing up quickly to follow her.
“What’re you doing out here anyway? Your hood’s burning hot, seems like you’ve been driving a long while.” The woman commented, head tilted as she glanced behind her. She could probably see how tired she was, or at least noticing how much she was blinking.
Even through her exhaust, she generally knew not to tell strangers, especially on road trips, where you're from or where you're headed. However, the woman had a kind of energy that made Allie reconsider, something trusting in the way she carefully lifted the tire out of its compartment with a look of concern.
“‘m heading to Columbus, going to see my best friend. I was in the last hour of my trip.” Allie answered, taking the lug wrench from where it was held out for her to hold onto.
“Last hour? Where are you coming up from?”
“Florida. We were friends online first.”
“Really! How about that, now you’re crossing how many state lines to go see this friend? That’s real dedication, right there.” Heading back towards the hood, she propped the tire against Allie’s car frame before starting to walk back towards her truck. There was a second comment that went mostly unheard by Allie, too lost in her own thought.
“...yeah, I suppose it is.” She finally replied, out loud to nobody but herself, a gentle realization that it was solely her compulsion to be with Jane that brought her here. She’s an adult and can handle the struggles of her own life, but Allie wants to be there. For her. And she made the choice to make it there so far. The woman came back shortly after, carrying the car jack and two bricks under one arm and swinging her keychain around her fingers.
“Alright, let’s get this tire swapped so we can getcha to that friend of yours.”
The job itself was basic, or seemed to be now, as Allie stood there and watched the woman toss the bricks behind her front two tires, quickly loosen the bolts on the torn one then jack the car up like she had done it a million times before.
“You make it look so easy.” She almost felt useless not helping, but trying to do anything felt more like getting in the way.
“Fairly simple once you know what you’re doing, it’d do you some good to learn y’know.” And coming from her, Allie really started to consider it. There was something so admirable in her capability, how easily the woman was able to handle herself and be so confident on these roads, enough to make a career of it. And even with the struggles that come with truck driving, she chose to take the time to pause her route and help Allie out. She watched the woman swap the tires out and return her beloved car back to a recognizable state, the metal creak as it was lowered back to the ground covering the sound of rustling keys in Allie’s pocket as she fidgeted with them.
“That should be good! Might need tightened a bit more though,” she gestured toward the car, pointing her short ducknail around as she explained, “Start’er up and roll forward a bit, just to give it a few test rotations.”
Allie followed the instructions tentatively, braking after several feet and waiting for the woman to walk back up to the side of her car to roll down her window. “How does it look?”
Her lips pursed before answering with a shrug, “Good enough to get you through that last stretch, at least.”
Allie smiled as she rubbed a hand over her face, finally relieved. “I really can’t thank you enough. Are you sure you don’t want me to compensate you for this? Pay for your breakfast or anything?”
“That’s awfully sweet of ya, but don’t be silly. Just go on that girl of yours. And make sure you get a new tire soon, that’ll cost you enough already.” Allie chuckled despite getting waved off, not really worried about the price, but grateful at least somebody was.
After a few more goodbyes and thank-yous, she was off again, not as quick as before so she didn't pop her only spare, but still slowly dragging through the last bit of I-71. Finally getting off at her exit was both the worst part of her trip and the biggest weight off her shoulders.
…
By the time she was pulling down Jane’s street, her street address memorized from sending various letters and packages in the past, an itch of anxiety started to creep back up on her from how real the visit was starting to feel.
What if she’s busy and Allie picked the absolute worst time to come? What if she just adds onto her current stress, making her presence a further burden?
Pulled into one of the parking spots out front, she put the car into park, taking a deep breath before climbing out and making her way to the front door. Her mouth felt way too dry as she pressed the yellowed doorbell and waited. Without time to regret it, the knob twisted and jingled as the door was yanked open. Jane’s eyes were twisted shut in annoyance, answering the door in the same sweats and blue cut-off tee she slept in.
“Listen, it’s too early for whatever you’re selli-“ The complaint fell short as she caught the identity of the girl in front of her.
“Wh- H- Allie?!”
The other smiled nervously in response, tingled with a bright sense of joy she wasn’t expecting at seeing Jane’s face. “..surprise?”
It wasn’t until Allie was grabbed suddenly in a hug that she knew her previous worries were for naught, the pit of anxiety replaced by the same feeling as waking up in the morning right where you’re supposed to be. The hug felt like warm sunshine through her window at dawn, a welcomed contrast to the weighted slump she’s been in the entire drive.
“I can’t believe it, what are you doing here?! How did you even get here?” Before she could answer, Jane’s eyes landed on Allie’s car parked behind her, still loudly buzzing after running for so long. She pulled out of the hug, hands still gripping her shoulders.
“You DROVE here? Did you even stop at all? Did you sleep? You had to have left right when I hung up, how did you- that’s insane! Do you know how dangerous that is?” Allie just smiled through the chastising, enjoying finally seeing her in person again even though Jane was shaking her as she ranted.
“Flights were sold out. I just..really wanted to see you.” For as many jabs as Allie had lined up in response, she couldn’t help but let her actual answer slip through. She had the rest of the trip to be a pain in the ass. Jane sputtered for a moment before letting her arms drop back to her sides, shaking her head in disbelief, smile evident despite.
“I can’t believe you. That’s an entire road trip I’d do with somebody else over like, two days minimum.”
“Yeah, that’s just ‘cause I’m way better than you.” Allie waved her off with a smirk, morphing into a genuine smile after the deflection garnered a scoff and a playful punch from Jane.
“Do you wanna go get breakfast with me and I’ll tell you about the drive?” Allie prompted before the other could argue, securing a bit more time together before she would definitely need to take a nap.
“Sure, but it’s closer to lunchtime by now.”
“I still haven’t slept, jackass, it’s breakfast to me whether you like it or not. C’mon, we’re going to that diner here I like.” Allie grabbed her by the arm, guiding them back down the sidewalk. Through her suppressed laugh, Jane already sounded like she felt tons lighter.
“Fine by me, but I am NOT letting you drive.”