Secret Rulebook of Cheating

Rule #10: You Can't Hide Forever

“You coming, right?” Rob inquired again.

“I’ll talk to Brandon but, yeah, someone needs to keep your driving in check,” I chaffed.

“Sweet!” Rob cheered and almost immediately his tone changed. “Wait, what’s wrong with my driving?”

“What’s not wrong with your driving?” I heard Dan butt in.

“I’m an excellent driver!” Rob declared.

“Sure you are. When you actually pay attention to the road and not the open bag of chips in my hands.”

I heard some crunching noise and the image of Dan whisking the mentioned bag away from Rob, while the latter was waving his hands desperately, trying to reach it, sprung to my mind. It brought a smile to my face.

“I can drive and chew at the same time!” Rob objected.

“No, you can zigzag and chew at the same time,” Dan corrected.

“Well if you’re so smart, why did you open the bag in the first place?”

“I’m hungry.”

“So am I.”

“You’re always hungry!”

“As fun as this is to listen to, guys, I’m going to hang up now,” I meddled in their bickering. “I don’t want to distract Rob’s driving further by talking on the phone.”

I heard Dan snicker. “Bye, Nikki!”

“Hey, I can drive and talk at the same time!” Rob protested again. “And chew.”

“Okay. Bye now!”

“See you on Thursday, Nikki!” Rob said before I hung up.

---

Thursday morning, my backpack was already on my shoulders when Rob buzzed. Brandon didn’t get up to walk me to the door but I couldn’t blame him. He had come home late last night, going for drinks with a couple of his colleagues after work. He really needed to take some of the steam off. Honestly, I had no idea how he was doing it, without going crazy. I had asked him to come with but he said there was no way he could take so many days off. Yet another boyfriendless trip.

I intentionally inspected the backseat when I was downstairs to make sure it really was just the two guys. To my relief, it was empty. After the usual greetings, we hit the road. We drove for less than ten minutes and just before the city exit, we pulled over.

“Why are we stopping?” I asked, baffled.

“We’re here!” Rob announced and I looked around even more puzzled. I soon realized he was joking. We were at a gas station. “Fill it up, please,” he told an employee when he exited the car and handed him the keys. He headed to the cash register inside.

Dan shifted in the passenger seat to face me. I was sitting diagonally from him, behind Rob’s seat. “Do you want anything from inside?” He was referring to the convenience store the station was combined with.

“Just a coffee.” It was too early for anything else.

Dan nodded and left.

It was no more than five seconds after Dan had hidden behind the automatic doors when the back door opposite from me flew open and someone went to climb in the seat beside me. I was about to start screaming at the stranger, when I realized it was no stranger.

“What are you doing here?” I asked in horror.

“What does it look like?” Jason answered, like it was so obvious. “I’m buckling up.”