Don't Stand By Me (COMPLETE)

CHAPTER TWO

ELVIS

July 30th: 21:12

"Come on, Vi." Kiara drawled loudly, her voice clear over the struggling engine, limbs sprawled all over the bottom bunk, "You can't tell me it wouldn't be fun."

"It sounds like a horror movie waiting to happen." I chimed in from behind the wheel, not sparing them more than a brief glance, eyes trained on the road and the ugly green camaro in front of me.

"You know what they have at campsites? Gay guys."

I rolled my eyes, "Pass. If I wanted a burly mountain man, I'd go for Brent."

"You'd be so lucky!" Brent chortled and I could hear the slosh of beer in the bottle he was swigging from, "Also no offence but ew. I'm as straight as they come, brother!"

Kiara and I were trying, really genuinely trying to be at peace with this guy. And we were doing well for the most part, until he decided to speak. To be fair, once you put aside the insufferable jock vibe, he was quite placid, if just a little dim. If only he hadn't cheated on Violet.

Well, cheating may have been an overreaction on Kiara's part. He had made a pass at one of Kiara's girlfriends about a month back, before he knew who she was and Kiara went apeshit on him.

That's not the point, Elvis! She had snapped at me, as was the only time she would ever use my full name, when she had a bone to pick with me, which was usually only ever about Violet. She was always so defensive about her, Violet could do very little wrong in her eyes. It was the intent! And I hardly doubt that was the only time he's ever done something like that! He's a perv!

I simply agreed with her, not looking to push the fight. I wasn't denying that he was a pervert, and what he did was completely wrong and unfair to Violet. But I knew, if someone was acting how he was, it meant he wasn't happy in the relationship, which was fine with me. It was the fact that he continued to string her along. If he really wanted to redeem himself, he would break up with her, give her the chance to find someone that would make her truly happy. Maybe it would be worth having a talk with him, man to man. If he'd even give me the time of day.

At this point, I was sick to death of the narrow view of the road ahead of me. Sick of driving and listening to all of them squabble a few feet behind me. The playlist we had curated was blaring from Violet's speaker but it was quiet towards my part of the RV and I struggled to pick up more than a melody. I decided the radio would be better for myself but the signal kept cutting out as we passed through different area codes and I eventually gave up fiddling with the knob, choosing to listen to the static. I truly was feeling like the grumpy father on a family road trip and I was close to pulling the RV over and throttling the lot of them.

I loved the girls, I really did. But God would it have been nice to have someone else along on the trip, someone I could just vent to about everything, someone that would be just for me, not like Kiara and Violet who were glued at the hip. Which was totally fine. I wasn't jealous. At all. Maybe I did need more friends.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a conversation with a guy that wasn't Brent - and that thought alone was horrifying.

We had been on the road for nearly twelve hours and the last three had been Kiara begging for us to stop at some party campsite the next state over. Violet was arguing that we had already lost two hours stopping for dinner and that we needed to keep on the road. I couldn't blame her for wanting to keep on the road; this RV, while amazing, could go only about fifty miles an hour maximum. Some asshole kid on a bike had passed us at one point before we hit the highway, tossing a stone at the windscreen over his shoulder.