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He had been stuck out here for half an hour.
When Till pulled off to the side of the road, he had to step outside to avoid overheating. This was the last thing he wanted to deal with on a hot summer day while visiting his mother. His car (the worthless piece of shit) had finally broken down. And by broken down, he meant that the old thing was likely to be done for good.
On top of that, his phone had about twenty percent of charge left. That would only be enough for a few calls.
His phone rang a few times before someone answered. He could hear a door shut in the background. “Is this an emergency?”
“Yeah.”
There was a long sigh from the other end. “What happened?” Hyuna muttered.
“Well I’m on the side of the road in the heat and my car won’t even start anymore.” He watched another car fly by him.
“Have you tried calling for a tow truck or insurance?”
“No.”
“Call them first, not me.”
He listened to the ending beeps with a blank expression on his face.
So he tried contacting people who could handle it. Every number he called connected him to an automated system. He didn’t know anyone who would rather deal with a robot than explaining things to a normal person. Either way, he didn’t have a choice. He answered the questions calmly, trying to enunciate the best he could.
“Your call is being disconnected from lack of responses.”
“What, whoa whoa no—”
And as promised, the call was cut off.
Next he texted his mother. He didn’t want to worry her or have her send his stepdad out for him, so he told her he was just going to arrive a little later. He closed their messages before he could see it switch from delivered to read.
By the time he tried Hyuna again, the sky was dark with clouds. She didn’t pick up, but she did send him a few messages.
Hyuna •
———
Can’t call getting busy
Did u get any services on the line?
You •
———
yeah
i just need someone to pick me up
Hyuna •
———
Weren’t u going there to visit family?
You •
———
cant call them
Hyuna •
———
Istg Till
Do u want me to call someone to come get u??
You •
———
that would be great
Hyuna •
———
Are we serious rn
Fine
Just this once
U owe me
Till would buy something for her in the next couple weeks. His battery was down to thirteen percent. He shot Hyuna a few more texts regarding his location and such, then put his phone away with a final thank you, right in time for something wet to hit his face.
The car was still hot on the inside, but at least it was dry. The downpour came out of nowhere. It was meant to start later tonight, not during the afternoon. To be honest, it was the least of his worries at this point. He was going to have to take a few more shifts at the cafe to make up for this. Isaac wouldn’t mind, but Till sure would. He had classes to go to, studying to do, a stupid clay project he wasn’t finished with yet.
He slumped down further into his seat. Till was supposed to spend the night with his mom, make sure she was doing alright, then come home and deal with all of his problems, not create new ones. He couldn’t do this.
Three loud knocks sent him jolting upright. His head snapped over to the window. Someone stood outside with an umbrella. Till rolled his window down half way, allowing rain to pour into the front of the car.
“Till!”
A bright smile shone across Ivan’s face. Till felt like sobbing. Of course he was who Hyuna called to come pick him up.
“How’s it going?” he asked loudly over the rain.
“Just get in the car, you’re gonna get soaked!” Till yelled.
Ivan didn’t object. He closed his umbrella before shutting the passenger door, then set it down by his feet. Neither spoke a word. They both sat in what Till thought was a comfortable silence. All they had to do was wait for the tow truck now, nothing more than that.
“So,” Ivan piped up, “what’s your favorite color?”
He side eyed the other man. “What?”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“What does that have to do with anything.” Till crossed his arms across his chest.
“Well, I want to get to know you better,” Ivan said. “I’d say the minimum requirement of being friends with someone is to at least know their favorite color.”
Till rolled his eyes. “You’re insufferable.”
Ivan was one of Hyuna’s friends. Every now and then, he and two other girls came in and hung out, sometimes past closing. The last couple times they’d been there, Hyuna invited Till to stay and get to know them, but he didn’t always stay long.
Mizi was pretty inside and out. She was practically the embodiment of the sun. She always said hi to Till, she wasn’t ever difficult when she ordered something, and her smile was unlike anyone’s Till had ever seen before.
Her girlfriend, Sua, was much quieter. Till had the suspicion that she only came along because Mizi dragged her there, but she never complained. She was set to graduate next year from what he’d heard.
Then there was Ivan, the annoying bastard sitting beside him. He was always nice to everyone, but sometimes he was a bit much. Till didn’t have the energy to put up with him most of the time. He was at least better than Hyuna’s other friend, Luka, who came to flirt with her a bit, then left without buying much.
“How long have you been waiting?” Ivan asked him.
“For the tow truck? About half an hour, maybe longer.”
“Is it coming from far away?”
“It’s just from around town. Should be here any minute now,” Till sighed.
“Any minute” turned into two more hours.
The rain hardly let up. Till was fed up with everything by now. He should have been preparing to eat dinner with his mom soon, not waiting on the side of the road. His phone was long dead, which left Ivan to be the one making a call to the towing service again. Till rested his hand over his face as he listened to Ivan talk.
“And how far away are they? Your site isn’t updating.” A pause. “Of course, sure. Thanks.” He set his phone back down and turned to Till. “She says that they’re just twenty minutes away.”
“There’s no way they’re still twenty minutes away after all this time,” he groaned. “They probably just sent someone out the second you called.”
Ivan watched the man slump back down again. “Do you need to be here for when they tow your car?” he asked.
“I don’t know, probably.” Till bit down hard on his lip. “Fuck, I never gave my mom a timeframe.”
“Were you heading to her place?” Ivan was trying to do his best with making small talk, and usually, Till would appreciate that the littlest bit. But right now, he couldn’t care for it.
“That was the plan,” he muttered.
“We can start driving there now if you want,” Ivan offered quietly. “I’m sure they’ll be fine with towing it without you here. I can ask.”
Till nodded after a moment of hesitation.
“Okay,” Ivan said as he took his phone out again.
Till’s head ached from everything going on. His mother was going to wonder just how late it was going to take for him to get to her house, he’d have to find a way to pay for everything, now he had to deal with this nuisance next to him, and he knew he didn’t pack his meds, and—
He lifted his head back up when the driver’s side door opened. Ivan stood in front of it holding his umbrella over the opening. “Come on,” he gestured.
Ivan’s car was a lot nicer than Till’s. It wasn’t anything too fancy, but the dashboard was covered with rubber ducks and other trinkets he’d likely collected over time rather than trash and papers. The seats weren’t too dirty either, and the same went for the floor.
Till buckled himself in to the passenger seat. “Your car’s nice,” he mumbled.
“Thanks,” Ivan replied. “My dad, well, sort-of-dad, got it for me a while back as a birthday gift. Spoils me like a baby sometimes, you know?” He switched on his blinker before pulling on to the road.
“Mhm.”
“Mind giving me your mom’s address?”
The windshield wipers created a calm tempo for Till to follow. The radio was on, but Ivan had it lowered to the quietest setting. It was nice background noise. The world outside of the window was still as dark and dreary as before.
“You feeling any better?” Ivan asked out of nowhere.
Till looked back to him. “What?”
“You were stressed. Do you feel any calmer now?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
“Good.”
They went back to being quiet for a while. Till rubbed the back of his neck aimlessly. There wasn’t much else for them to talk about. School was always available as a topic, not to mention that they attended the same university, but that was basic. Nobody wanted to talk about anything money wise, and Till didn’t feel like talking about his family right now.
“You know you can always hang out with us,” Ivan said, interrupting the silence once again.
“What do you mean?”
“At the cafe. I know you’re on the clock most of the time Sua, Mizi and I are there, but if we’re staying late, you can come talk with us too.”
Till thought for a moment. “Why?”
“I dunno. You seem cool,” he said simply.
“I seem cool,” Till repeated with a grin.
“Yeah,” Ivan said, grinning back at him. “You seem cool. And lonely. So come hang with us.”
“I’ll hang with you guys sometime then.”
“That’s what we wanna hear.” He flicked the turn signal on. To the right was a small gas station. “Do you want anything?
“No, I’m good.”
“You sure?” he checked again.
“Yes.”
“Okay then.”
Till watched Ivan as he left the car and messed with the gas pump. He left it in before running over to the small store in front of them. Till’s eyes fell back to his hands. This guy was being awfully nice to him for driving out and waiting with him for a few hours. They barely knew each other.
He was starting to think that was the point of Hyuna sending him out here.
Ivan came back out with a candy bar and two water bottles tucked under his arm. He pulled the nozzle out from the car and then tossed the items inside. Once he sat back down, he handed one of the waters to Till.
“Oh, thanks,” he said awkwardly.
“No problem.”
They took off again. Ivan talked a bit about some random things, like the books he was reading, his roommate, his plans for the weekend. Till didn’t mind him talking. He didn’t have anything mind blowing to say, but he wasn’t just droning on about the economy. Till nodded along to all of it. There wasn’t much for him to say, or anything for him to talk about. It didn’t matter at this point, they were entering his mother’s neighborhood.
He cleared his throat. “Thanks,” he said to Ivan.
Ivan glanced over at him as he parked the car. “It’s nothing,” he said back.
“It’s not ‘nothing,’ I bet you had shit to do.”
“Not really.”
They stared at each other for a moment before Till cleared his throat again.
“Catching a cold?” Ivan joked.
“Shut the hell up.” He opened the side door and stepped outside. The rain had since stopped, and along with that the temperature dropped by a few degrees. “Thank you again for driving me and staying with me and helping handle all of this mess.”
Ivan waved his hand. “Like I said, it’s nothing.”
Till stood there awkwardly. “Can I pay you back?”
“For what?”
“The waters, the gas, going out of your way in general.”
Ivan hummed for a moment, then smirked. “A free coffee?”
Till deadpanned. “You order drinks with so much shit added to it.”
“Please?”
“Fine.”
“Thank you~!”
He waved goodbye and headed up the stairs to the front door. Behind him, Till heard Ivan start to pull out of the driveway. He turned around one last time as the door opened up to see Ivan’s car leaving the neighborhood.