Finding Friday

by Quell T Fox

  ​“I wish you wouldn’t make jokes about people’s sexuality, it’s a real dickhead move, Maddox.” He turns to look at me, “I’m not gay by the way, but it’s nice to meet you.” His sweet, smooth voice explains to me.

  ​“Yeah, whatever. This is Friday and she’s coming with us.” Maddox hooks a thumb at me, and no one really responds to what he says, which seems weird. Maybe they do this kind of thing often? I’m not sure if that thought makes me feel better or worse about getting into their car.

  ​“Callan, get your ass in the back with the other guys. Friday is sitting in the front, with me. Come on, Beautiful.” He tugs my arm, bringing me to the front of the car, he stands by the door waiting for me to get in and closes it once I’m seated. All the guys in the back are looking at their phones, completely uninterested in the fact that a random girl is joining them to wherever it is that they are going. I probably should have asked that question before agreeing. Though with the way my life is right now, it doesn’t really matter.

  ​Maddox walks around to the driver’s side, gets in and starts the car. He backs up, starting to roll my window down. I look to my right, wondering why he’s opening the window. I see Todd standing by the motel door labelled with the number 7 on it, staring at me with a confused look on his poor freckled face.

  ​“Sorry nerd, not your lucky day!” He yells out the window and flips him off. A small hint of guilt washes over me. I punch Maddox in the arm, making my frustration known.

  ​“That was not nice, Maddox.” This time it’s Lenny that speaks up to chastise Maddox. But he doesn’t take his eyes from his phone. “Funny, but mean,” he chuckles.

  ​“Don’t act like you weren’t thinking the same thing. I just have the balls to say it.”

  ​“We all have balls, thank you very much,” Callan adds. His constant need to reassure that he isn’t gay or unequipped has me wondering if he really is gay…or unequipped.

  ​The guys go back to looking at their phones, except of course Maddox who is driving, and a silence falls over the car. I rest my head back and clothes my eyes, wondering if this really was a good idea. I mean, I don’t even know these guys. This is crazy, right? On the other hand, I literally have nothing. Nothing.

  ​“Where are you guys going?” I ask, to no one in particular, but it’s Maddox that answers. He seems to be the talker of the bunch. He’s the one that’s in charge and I can tell that he likes the attention

  ​“Dunno yet,” he smirks.

  ​“Huh?”

  ​“We do this every year,” Lenny comments. “We get together, drive around aimlessly for three weeks and never know where we will end up.”

  ​“Yeah, we. Not random chicks that we pick up at shitty motels.” I hear Alec’s voice for the first time. Surprised by how deep and rough it is. It suites him.

  ​“Alec, no need to be rude to the lady.”

  ​“Lady? How old do you think I am?”

  ​“I was just, uh, I just—”

  ​“I’m kidding cutie, calm down.” Callan’s cheeks blush a tinge of pink. Poor guy. I’m going to have fun with him. Out of the corner of my eye I catch Maddox sporting another smirk.

  ​Maybe this was a good idea after all.

  CHAPTER 6

  No one says much of anything for the first hour that we’re driving. I think I fell asleep for a bit and I really hope I didn’t fart or anything. Something about being in a car makes me tired. I think it brings me back to the days of being a kid and only ever having quiet and peacefulness when I was in the car. When I was home, it was anything but quiet. My mother was always having parties, the kind that kids shouldn’t be at. Under any circumstances. And when there wasn’t a party, she had some flavor of the week over and when they weren’t fucking loudly, they were fighting. Or more like she was getting her ass beat.

  ​“Did you have a good nap, Gorgeous?” Waking up to the husky voice is kind of nice… “No, not really. Your seats suck. When are we stopping?” I groan. Ignoring his obnoxious pet names.

  ​“Not for a while, so suck it up. Be grateful I didn’t have you squeeze that nice ass of yours in the back between baldy and the fruitcake. I glance over my shoulder, none of the guys reacting over the remark.

  ​“I wouldn’t have minded that, not one bit.” Callan looks up and I stare him dead in the eyes and wink. He instantly turns pink. I see Lenny shaking from the laughter he’s containing all too well, his hand moving to his mouth to wipe some invisible thing away but really, I know he’s trying to hide his smile. Clearly, he’s enjoying my antics as well. Hey, we need some kind of entertainment while on the road. These guys are too grumpy for me.

  ​“Tell me your story, Doll. What were you doing in that shitty motel by yourself, anyway?” Maddox asks.

  ​“Yeah, Friday. Tell us.” Lenny adds, bouncing in his seat.

  ​“You’re a jumpy one, aren’t you?” I say over my shoulder. “I caught my boyfriend in bed with another woman, so I took off.” I state with a shrug, like it’s nothing. Because it will be nothing. I tell them the rest of the story. Everything from my car to Todd- because Maddox seemed curious about him. Lenny looks genuinely sad for me, Callan is wearing a frown on his face but avoiding eye contact, Alec is still stone-faced. I wonder what would pull a reaction from him, if anything.

  ​“Someone cheated on you? You’re too hot to be cheated on.” Thanks Maddox, that totally helps.

  ​“Is that even a thing?” Callan chimes in.

  “I know, hard to believe, right?” I waggle my eyebrows.

  “What I mean is that girls of all levels of ‘hotness’,” he uses the finger quotes, “could get cheated on. I don’t think that is something taken into consideration when someone decides to be unfaithful.”

  “You need to get laid, bro.” I blurt out a bark of a laugh at Maddox’s remark. Looking into the back seat, I see that Lenny’s face is red from holding in laughter. He finally explodes, his laughter so contagious that I can’t help but laugh with him.

  “Fuck him. He can have fun banging that fake blonde. I don’t need him or his dirty dick. Who knows what other broads he was fucking behind my back.” I finally manage to get the words out through laughing.

  ​I was worried about having an STD, because it’s true - I don’t know how many other people he has cheated on me with. Could have been only her or it could have been many others. Luckily, I had my annual exam a month ago and everything was clean. We hadn’t had sex since. Part of me wants to go again, and maybe I will, once I find a place to settle in. If only to ease my mind.

  ​“Broads? I love it,” Lenny snickers, and slaps his leg. He seems so happy-go-lucky. His laughter and happiness are like a breath of fresh air to me. These little conversations alone are already making me feel better about the awful situation I’m in. I guess it really is true, laughter heals the soul.

  ​“What happened, exactly?” Callan asks, as he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose using his pointer finger, somehow making the simple motion really fucking sexy. I find myself biting my bottom lip. My thoughts going somewhere they shouldn’t be…

  ​“I was out shopping, got back home and found him with a blonde attached to his dick. Apparently, he thought he could sneak in a quickie while I was out. Guess he wasn’t quick enough.” I purse my lips for a second, biting the inside of my cheek as I replay the scene in my head. “They worked together for like, a year or something. I always got a weird vibe from her, but it happens a lot with girls, so I ignored it. It took them a while to realize that I was there watching them, ya know, when I found them? It was like a car accident; you don’t want to look but you also can’t look away.

  ​When dickhead realized I was there, he pushed her off him so hard that she bounced off the bed and fell onto the floor. Which, now that I think about it is actually hilarious.” I twist a few loose strands of hair around my fingers as I talk. It’s something that has helped me to relax. “He gets up from the bed, dick flopping all over
the place as he comes up to me apologizing, give me the cliché story of ‘it wasn’t what it looked like’, yada, yada, yada. In the moment I felt nothing, didn’t react at all. I was in shock, I guess. I grabbed an outfit, one that would make my ass look amazing, these skintight jeans and a pair of red heels with a black blouse, he always liked my ass, just apparently not enough. I hopped in the shower, got dressed—"

  ​“Wait, wait… you went in the shower? With the girl still there?” Lenny asks, leaning forward, his eyes wide with disbelief, his jaw dropped open.

  ​“Yep. I wanted him to see what he was missing out on. When I got out of the shower she was gone, though.”

  ​“That’s fucking epic.”

  ​“Anyway, when I was done getting dressed everything finally hit me. I threw a bunch of my stuff in garbage bags, all the while he was following me around like a lost puppy dog. It became so annoying that I whipped my phone in his direction. Lucky for him, I missed. I hit the wall and shattered my phone to the point of no return. I just got this one,” I wave my new phone in front of me,” yesterday.”

  ​Everyone but Alec are listening intently, or maybe he is but is pretending he isn’t. Callan and Lenny have their eyes glued to me, Alec is still staring down at his phone, and Maddox keeps giving me looks from the corner of his eye. I’m turned in my seat towards Maddox so I can see easily into the backseat.

  ​“I took off with our beater car. It died on the highway like five miles from Ellbrook, so I walked there and that’s when you guys found me.”

  ​“You walked five miles down the highway in heels?” Lenny asks, completely shocked.

  ​“Yeah, my feet were on fire. It was awful. I’m still paying for it.”

  ​“Wow, Friday, I’m sorry to hear that. He does not sound like an upstanding guy.” Callan shakes his head slowly, fixing his glasses once again.

  ​“Nah, he’s an asshat. Wasted four years of my life. He could have broken up with me, ya know? And I would have been fine with it. I don’t think I’ve loved him for a while now. Well, I guess I love him, but I haven’t been in love with him for a long time. But still, walking in on some girl riding my boyfriend is not how I wanted my relationship to end.”

  ​“Ouch, yeah.”

  ​“You want me to kick his ass?” Maddox quips.

  ​“Thanks, but no thanks. My ignoring him is torture, trust me. I know him and the longer I ignore him the worse it is. Especially because I took off and he has no idea where I am. I have no family or anything around. So, he has no idea where I could be, and I know that alone is driving him bat shit crazy. He probably expected me to be back by now.”

  ​“Has he been texting you?”

  ​“Yeah, but not as much recently. When I first got the new phone it was bad, but—” I try to answer Maddox’s question but he cuts me off.

  ​“You tell me if he keeps bothering you and I will take care of it.” His statement should spark some concern, right? I don’t know this guy, why does he care? Is this like, one of those red flags people always talk about? Damn, there were about a million of those with Shithead that I should have paid attention to…the fact that his comment doesn’t spark concern is what concerns me. The fact that it causes my insides to warm with want, now that is just fucked.

  ​Callan’s sweet, honey-like voice pulls me out of my thoughts. I’m loving how much he is suddenly talking, at first, he seemed like he didn’t want me around either, but now he seems to be coming around, seems more interested.

  ​“How far did you live from Ellbrook?”

  ​“I was driving for about ten hours, I think.”

  ​“And you don’t have family there? Where are they?”

  ​“Nope, and not anywhere that I care. I was going to go back home, if that’s what you want to call it, but it’s pointless. My mother is a bigger shithead than my ex, if you can believe that, and she’s really the only family that I have. So, if your plan is to kill me, you’ll probably get away with it.”

  ​Dead silence. Shit, I was at least expecting something from Maddox.

  ​“Guys…I’m kidding. I don’t think you’re trying to kill me. Jeez, lighten up.”

  CHAPTER 7

  ​A few very long and tiring hours later, we pull off the highway with a plan to stop for a night or two. We’ve stopped only once since leaving Ellbrooke and it was to gas up and pee, very quickly mind you. I barely had time to stretch, though my body was grateful for the short walk from the car to the bathroom. I tried to take my time, but Maddox was shouting at me from the car to hurry up, so I didn’t have much of a choice. He’s very bossy and I’m starting to realize that…I kind of like it.

  ​The sign at the end of the exit reads Bradburry, and when we’re stopped at the faded and dented stop sign, I notice that this town looks similar to the last one we were in. It has that small town feel to it. Lots of land, small buildings and not congested with cars or people.

  ​“You guys have a thing for small towns, huh?” I cock an eyebrow at Maddox. The three guys in the back are all passed out. Lenny’s head has fallen back against the headrest, mouth wide open. Is that…is that drool? Nice. Alec and Callan both have their heads resting on their arms that are against the doors. Both sleeping peacefully. This is why they aren’t the ones that drive…and Maddox has control issues. He only admitted the first part of that, the second part I figured out on my own. I’m one smart cookie.

  ​“We’re from a big city. Part of the vacation excitement is getting away from it.” Callan answers in a sleepy voice, adding to the sexiness of it. I shoot him a look and his eyes are still closed. I look to Maddox and mouth the words sleep talking? He shrugs in response. We drive for roughly ten more minutes until we reach the motel. We would have been there quicker but the GPS was lagging do the lack of signal. Normally being off the grid would stress me out, but now? I am looking forward to my phone not blowing up.

  ​The motel is small and in the shape of an L. It has only one floor, the seemingly once bright green paint is now dark, dull and faded. The open sign above the office reads “pen”, the O not working and no one seems to care enough to fix it, or anything else around this place. We pull into a parking spot by the office door and Maddox kills the engine. He gets out of the car and maybe I checked his ass out as he stepped out…maybe I didn’t. He pops his head back in before shutting the door. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

  ​Where the fuck would I go? Would any of us go?

  ​I turn in my seat to face the guys in the back. Lenny and Alec are still passed out, Callan is now playing a game on his phone. It’s not something I recognize but it looks like a bunch of little spaceships flying around. Then again, I’ve never been much of a gamer, especially on my phone.

  ​“Why so quiet?

  ​“I’m claustrophobic and being stuffed back here is bothersome. Normally, I’m quite talkative.” His voice lacking emotion.

  ​“Not when it comes to girls,” Lenny mumbles under his breath, so quiet that I barely hear it. Is he awake or talking in his sleep? Cause if he’s insulting him in his sleep that is funny on an entirely new level.

  ​“I’m sorry, why didn’t you tell me? I would have sat back there.” I ask, really feeling bad about this. Maddox is a dick, I’m sure he knew. He should have said something.

  ​“Maddox’s orders, besides I was trying to be a gentleman. I’m fine,” he waves his hand at me, dismissing my guilt.

  ​I turn back around and put the volume up on the radio, I flip through stations while waiting for Maddox to come out. There aren’t many working stations which doesn’t surprise me after the cell was barely working. Maddox returns a few minutes later, two key rings dangling from his fingers. Great, I wonder who I’ll be sharing a room with. Knowing the little bit that I know about these guys so far, I know it won’t be Alec, probably not Callan either. Most likely Maddox and Lenny. The thought of spending the night in the same room with both of them sends heat pooling to my belly. These guys
are hot, and they all seem really cool, well, besides Alec who doesn’t seem like anything more than a log, really. I’m sure he is cool, though. I don’t think these guys would be with him if he was like this all the time…would they?

  ​Maddox gets back into the car and drives towards the very end of the lot, parking it in the last spot. He gets out of the car first and comes around to open the door for me, but this time I beat him too it. I like him trying to be all gentleman like, but I can’t let it get to his head. He offers me his hand to help me out and I give in, mostly because I want to feel his hands. He’s a right cocky asshole, be he really is a gentleman, it’s frustrating. I want to punch him and fuck him at the same time. Maybe he’s into that? A girl can dream, right?

  ​That’s it, I must have truly lost my mind. That Fuckwad messed me up more than I thought. What am I doing right now? I get into a car with four guys, four random guys that I have never met before, ever. Now, here I am talking about fucking them? Well, only one, maybe two…but fuck, still! That’s not right. I need to kick it back a bit, tone it down a notch. Take some time to think about what happened, obviously I’m upset, and it hasn’t hit me yet…but why is it taking so long? Why don’t I feel sad? I feel…fine. Like, nothing ever happened, like I didn’t walk in on my boyfriend fucking someone else. Like this is where I belong, this is where I am supposed to be. That’s weird, right? I guess it’s because I really didn’t love him, so it doesn’t bother me. That’s a possibility. I was angry at first, but more so of him being a dick, not because I was sad. But the fact that life has royally kicked my ass and left me on the ground with nothing but skinned knees should be upsetting me. But it’s not.