Not Out Loud

The Roads We've Traveled

It always starts with my great ideas. That's just how it tends to be. I suppose it's because I have contained so much of my adventurous side for so long, that now that I have such spontaneous friends, I've got a crap load of good ideas to put into action.

Now everyone has bad days. Bad days are a part of life. And without bad days, the good days never seem so good.

Peaches was having a few bad days in a row.

Naturally me, being the amazing person I am, I know exactly the cure, a fork, some beer, and a road trip.

So naturally him, being the person so committed to friendship it makes me feel as though I don't deserve him as a friend, he turns this into a state-wide adventure funded solely by good luck, and a college budget.

Good luck is what carried us most of the way. Good luck and Shitty Shell.

So he was having bad days, and I know the cure and thus I found myself flying down 59, music blaring, and not a care in the world.

A two hour drive of Hamilton, an off brand sports drink, and Pay Days and I make it to our hometown.

Of course I had to call the other one and make sure he remembered that I was going to kidnap him for the weekend, and chances have it he remembered I was coming just ten minutes before I called.

So I grab him and the two of us set off for downtown, going to cheer up our friend after a rough week.

This time, though I was much too tired to be operating machinery, I had a person to talk to and I wasn't just talking to myself. It was a good ride, a little bit of traffic, some damn good conversation, and a few moments of road rage and we pull up to the other one's campus.

Now, I am just going to pause here. Honestly, take a few breaths. Have you peed? Are you going to need to be somewhere in the next five minutes? You are about to embark on a very long literary journey, so I am trying to warn and prepare you.

Seriously, stop and take breaks, this one is long.

We are at his campus, we are going to refer to him as UH and the other guy as Kingwood, just to make this easy. I'll be SFA, because that's the best school ever, and she can be Waco. UH is Trump. Kingwood is dork number two. Waco is Shakira. And SFA? Well I have been your lovely narrator for the last 7 or so chapters, so I would hope we are pretty well acquainted by now.

Anyways, the past few times I have collected UH from his campus, he has told me to park in the same place. However, as the road I take does not allow me easy access to that parking lot, and since I am a highly stubborn individual, I have discovered a side lot that forces him to walk further than he wanted. I park there every time. Perhaps it annoys him, but I don't care. UH needs his exercise.

So I pull in to that parking lot, refusing to leave my car since I do not have a parking pass and I really don't need my car to be towed. Kingwood and I notice the familiar lumbering of a figure in the distance. And we are nice people, of course we are, but we like to mess with each other, so Kingwood and I proceed to ignore UH when he strolls up, laughing at his plight while he messes around.

I finally get out of the car, freedom to stretch my legs after a three hour drive and then I move into the passenger seat, its time for some food. And not just any food. No, we are people who enjoy the unknown. Hence, our discovery of the magical place known as Frenchie's.

Fucking Frenchie's.

This place is like Popeye's and McDonald's had a baby, sprinkled it with unicorn magic, and then had it baptized in the Fountain of Youth. AKA: it's cheap and very good.