「f r i e s w i t h t h a t?」kris stew au

10

They were in a cab.

Strong smells of tobacco and scented gum filtered through their noses. Jesse and Kirsten left their hotel after a very comfortable night in their memory foam beds, and hailed a taxi to a residential area about two hours away. Trees, pastel coloured buildings and jogger after jogger past their window in flying colours.

The seats were leather, and Kristen felt its cool surface grow warm as she fidget in her seat. She was excited. Although they had not reached Thailand as they should have, Kristen felt a sense of adventure any way.

Switzerland, it may not be the warm tropical Paradise where they wanted to be, but it sure has its charms.

"I think we should stay here."
Jesse said.
Kristen glanced at her friend.
"Hmm?"
"I think we should stay in Suisse, in Europe. Thailand can wait." He paused. "Actually, I don't think we should go to Thailand anyway."
Kristen furrowed her brows. She turned to Jesse.
"What the hell? I thought this was a detour - why don't you wanna go to TL?" She said. "We planned this trip for ages."
"I know. We're here now. Why don't we stay for a while, make some friends. I mean, what were we gonna do there anyway?"
Kristen looked out the window. She wondered. What were they going to do? Money would run out eventually. They would have to go back to the States eventually, or at least somewhere else in Asia.

Just sitting under the sun forever, that sounded great, but only if you had the dosh and the tolerance for mindlessness.

There was a gap between Jesse and Kristen, in the car, a gap made wider as Kristen shuffled closer to the window, so that the glossy leather could be exposed in all its brown glory. The driver's silence and lack of sounds from the radio only made their gap bigger.

There's always been a gap between them, they would never fully know each other, even if they were the closest anyone got to the other.

But maybe that's why their friendship is so strong. Because the further you are from the focus, the less likely you are to be hit by lighting, and there are just too many storms about.

It starts to rain.

"O my god! I can't believe it's you!"
A man quite tall with bushy brows and a large smile opened the door. Jesse and him hugged. He invited them in, and Kristen followed Jesse into the white picket house.

The three walked into the living room, and the tall guy continued to talk to Jesse as he goes into the kitchen to fix them a drink. He walked through the hallway, and Kristen's eyes follows him through his house. The walls are light blue, wooden paneling under that, and above are a scatter of pictures, holiday moments, photos of family and friends.

Kristen looked at one photo, ignoring Jesse talking about some unimportant thing, the picture had a young girl with almost white hair. She had an uneven fringe, her tongue stuck out with her eyes crossed.

She was so cute.

Tall man walks in again. He is smiling, and hands the two friends sprawled on the couch cold cherry drinks. He sits down on the woven seat by the wall. Jesse seems so happy here.

"So, Jesse, I still can't believe it... I mean, you're here!"
"Yes, yes I am." Jesse said. He looked between Kristen and tall man, still smiling.
"Oh, yeah," Jesse realizing he had not introduced them yet. "Uh, this is Kristen, this is Jake." Kristen got off the couch to shake tall man's hand. Jake had never heard of Kristen before. On the other hand, Kristen had heard plenty.

"Omigod, this is so weird - I haven't seen you since your cousin's bar mitzvah, this is incredible." Jake had his chin on his hand, looking so surprised. "When did you get here?"
"Just yesterday actually. We uh, were staying at this great hotel, then I remembered about you." Jesse explained and Kristen nodded.

"Gosh, so tell me about your parents, I can't believe they let you come here mid school year, its crazy."
"Yeah, it is. We are so looking forward to next few weeks."
Tall man looks about, and then at Kristen.
"So, I mean what do your parents say about this?"
"They have no idea."
"Oh." Jake said.

Kristen's impression of Jake so far is how hard he is trying to be a responsible adult in front of these two young people, although from what Jesse has said about him, Kristen knew Jake was anything but responsible.

Jake feels as if he should call Jesse's parents, because that's what a proper grown up would do. But as he mulled the thought over in his head while chatting to the two teenagers in front of him, he decided against it. After all, responsibility wasn't that important, or it was, and Jake just didn't care enough.

The flaming ball retreated back behind mountains as the three catch up on everything.