Brandon pulled out his phone and his shoulders fell. “Well, I didn’t see this coming. . . .”
“It’s because we’re so close to the mountains,” Emily said, glancing their way. “Reception is going to be spotty.”
“Or nonexistent,” Ana said as she peered over Emily’s shoulder. “Looks like we should’ve taken that offer for a ride.” She looked pointedly at Brandon.
Brandon was still cursing under his breath as he climbed up on top of Emily’s car and held his cell over his head. Finally, he joined Emily and Ana who had crawled back into the car to wait, and reclined their seats a little. As Brandon slid into the backseat, Emily started to laugh. She couldn’t help it. As she thought of all of the ways that she had planned for this day to go, this ending had never even been a remote possibility.
Ana sat up and looked at her. “You’re freaking me out. Why are you laughing?”
Emily finally got ahold of herself for long enough to speak. “Because this has to be the single most ridiculous day in the history of the world,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I mean, if I’d sat down and tried to make up a bad day, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with this shit in a billion years.”
“Truth is stranger than fiction,” Brandon said.
“So, how much money did we actually leave the pool hall with?” Ana asked as she turned in her seat.
Brandon pulled the wad of bills out of his pocket and counted out $2728, most of it in singles, fives, and twenties. “Not a bad haul for us today,” he said.
“Us?” said Emily. “You earned it. That’s your money.”
“Nah,” said Brandon. “This whole day has been a team effort.”
“Yeah.” Ana laughed. “It takes more than one idiot to mess up a road trip this badly.”
All three of them cracked up at this point, and Emily felt all of the tension and frustration of the past eight hours slip away.
“Oh my God,” she said as the realization set in, “has it only been eight hours since we got on the highway?”
“Jesus,” said Brandon. “It feels like it’s been eight days.”
“We managed to pack a lot of living into this day.” Emily smiled.
“YOLO, bitches,” said Ana. “YOLO.”
“So,” Brandon said as he leaned forward. “What’s the plan?”
“I don’t know,” said Ana. “But we need to come up with something quick.” She rubbed her hand up and down on Pickle’s tummy. “This poor little guy hasn’t had anything to eat for a while. And the last time he had water was at Buck and Blanche’s place. So, what do we do?”
Emily could only shrug. “I’ve got nothin’. I guess we just wait for somebody to drive by and try to flag them down.”
“Are you crazy?” said Ana. “What if it’s some backwoods serial killer?”
Emily laughed. “Oh, c’mon. After our day?”
“After our day, that’s even more likely,” Ana pointed out.
“I guess I’ll have to walk to get some help,” said Brandon.
“Don’t even try it.” Ana was having none of it. “That’s just asking to be kidnapped and killed.”
“So the options are that we’re picked up by a highway killer,” Brandon said, “or I get kidnapped and killed while walking along the side of the road. How is the first option any better?”
“At least then we’ll be together.”
Despite how morbid Ana’s conclusion was, Emily couldn’t help but smile at the comment. Leave it to Ana to somehow turn the potential moment of death into an opportunity for strengthened friendship.
“Hey, Emily, can you pop the hood?” Brandon asked.
“You’re not going to be able to fix the car,” Ana said.
“Obviously. But that way if someone drives by, they’ll know we’re having car trouble.”
“I think it’s pretty obvious,” Emily said as she tried to pop the hood, but no matter how many times she pulled the level, the hood didn’t move. “Looks like that’s not happening.” She sighed and sat back in her seat.
The sun had slipped behind the mountains and the sky had turned a lovely shade of indigo. Through the cracked windshield, Emily could see stars twinkling to life. As the sky grew darker, there were other lights in the sky, too, including three bright, red-carpet style beams that broke through the trees and lit up the sky. Emily knew they had to be coming from the Steins’. Jacob knew how to throw a party, and the setup was always fantastic, from music to drinks to food. There was always something for everyone.
“This sucks,” Ana mumbled.
“Major,” Brandon added.
Emily was about to suggest walking up the hill to the Steins’, when two more lights appeared, this time coming toward them up the highway. Brandon was out of the car in a second and in the middle of the road, jumping and screaming while waving his arms in the air.
“Does he really think they’re not going to see him?” Ana asked. “It’s not like he’s hidden.”
“He’s just trying to help,” Emily said.
“I know.” Emily could hear Ana’s smile as she said it.
As the car got closer, Emily could see that it was a silver sedan. Even when the car started to slow down, Brandon continued to shout and jump like he was flagging down an entire fleet of planes. Emily was impressed by his dedication to saving them, but she couldn’t keep out of her mind the possibility that Big Dog had found them. And no matter how many people laughed at his antics and called him Stanley, she couldn’t get out of her head that he was a real, legit, drug dealer. That still counted for something.
Emily stared out the window, not believing her eyes. Brandon had stopped jumping and was also staring, though probably for a different reason.
“Dios mio,” Ana said. “Talk about fate.”
There, in the car that had just pulled up to rescue them, was Chris.