helpless (Lams)

No idea is a bad idea

...

MARIA LEWIS

THURSDAY, JUNE 30

Peggy sat in the driver's seat of her car with her free hand clutching mine as she drove. Surprisingly, she's stayed within the speed limit this whole time, much to Alex's delight. In fact, the only thing that's wrong with this trip in his eyes is our music choice, but that's expected from him because all he listens to is Celine Dion.

Peggy's phone rang from its spot in her cup holder. She reached out to pick it up, but Alex held out a hand to stop her.

"Keep your eyes on the road; let Maria answer it!" he whinged. Peggy rolled her eyes but handed it to me nonetheless.

"Who's calling?" she asked.

"Hercules," I answered, answering the call. Not even a second in, I was greeted by the sounds of children (and Laf) screaming. "Hello? Is everyone okay?"

"Um, yeah, we got a problem," Hercules admitted sheepishly. Even though he's not physically here, I can just see him biting his lip in embarrassment.

Peggy poked me in the shoulder. "What's he saying?" she asked. "What is it?"

I shook my head and went back to my conversation with Herc. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Tell me what he's saying," Peggy nagged. She reached over to try and grab the phone from me, but I pulled away. "What is it?" she asked.

I smacked her hand away. "Peg, I'm on the phone. Give me a damn second."

"Well, I wanna know—"

Alex tapped me on the shoulder, scooting up so he was leaning over the seat. "Hey, uh, Peggy, you, uh, you're speeding." He looked at me. "She's speeding."

Peggy tried to push him back. "I'm not speeding." She reached for the phone again. "What's he saying?"

"I don't know," I snapped. "I can't hear a damn thing! Shut the fuck up, both of you. Alex, sit back." I turned in my seat to see Alex. "Do you even have your seatbelt on?"

"Hey, uh, we can just figure it out," Herc said through the phone.

"No, what is it?" I asked. I glared at Peggy, who just rolled her eyes, and set both hands on the steering wheel, speeding up.

"Our car refuses to start, and we thought that since Laf and I and you guys live in New York, we can just carpool down to South Carolina." Herc sighed heavily. "Unless you guys are kinda—"

"No, no, that's fine. Yeah." I moved the phone from my ear and looked at Peggy. "So, Herc and Laf—Alex, sit back. What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm trying to grab my damn iPod, so I don't have to listen to..." He motioned to the radio. "Whatever the fuck this is."

"Excuse you, it's Britney, bitch," Peggy said. She looked at me. "So, what did they say?"

"Herc and Laf apparently had trouble with their car, so they asked if we could—" I started, but was cut off by Peggy turning the steering wheel violently and making a U-turn that caused both Alex and I to scream. Alex slid across the backseat, and I heard him crash into the door.

He sat up and leaned over the seat, panting. "What the fucking fuck was that?" he screeched.

"The consequences to your damn actions," Peggy retorted, flooring the gas pedal. She turned to me. "You were saying?"

"Jesus," I snorted. "Anyways, they need us to pick them up, but it appears we're already on our way."

"Yup," Peggy said, popping the 'p'. I turned around to face Alex, who was slumped in his seat, with his blue (now that I think about it, they look kind of purple in this light) eyes wide open.