Like Rapunzel, but Not Really ✔

Chapter 1

Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, oh God, oh, God, I need to pee.

Fast.

This. Is. Torture.

Okay, Arianna, breathe in, breathe out. Don’t think about peeing. Don’t think about the ‘P’ word. Don’t think about the P wo-

Oh, my God, which moron decided to make the nickname of urinating sound no different than a stinking letter in the alphabet. Gosh, how I detest everything in the world right now. My bladder feels like it is going to explode and gush out water like a broken dam.

Breathe, breathe, breathe.

Grasses are green, the sky is blue, I don’t need to pee, my car is running out of gas, I don’t need to pee, I have pretty nails, I don’t need to pee, I am not driving at 200 mph, I NEED TO –

Oh. A rest stop.

FINALLY.

***

I swerved the car to the left without even bothering to signal the car behind me.

The car was pretty much drifting when I hit the break to make the sharp bend before entering the rest stop.

The full rest stop.

‘You have got to be kidding me,’ my jaw dropped. This was impossible. The parking lot that stretched for miles and miles were brimming with humans, pets, cars and busses. I cursed the tourists. Of all times.

After going pointlessly round and round, I considered my options:

1.       Maybe I could hold in my pee until I got to school? Actually, no. Not going to happen.

2.       Burst on my leather seat and drive in own – what the hell was I even saying?

3.       Continue this circling ritual until by some miracle a space turns up or eventual bursting on leather seats ugh

4.       Maybe if I could just find a bottle…

And then there it was, a reversing car. Problem was it was on the other side of the lot and I was pretty sure it would be taken the moment said car left. Sure enough, an old, old sedan was slowly chugging its way towards the place. So I did what everybody would do in a rest stop parking lot. I was so going to hell for that .I stepped on the gas and hurtled at 120 mph, knocking a stop sign in the process. The moment the hot pink car’s body left, I swerved in like a maniac, narrowly missing the car parked across by a molecule.

I now realized why I had a total of nine cars in the pound and my parents’ utter horrification when they realized their 16 year old daughter had to drive herself to school alone because Javier, the (stupid, stupid) driver, suddenly won the lottery and quit on short notice while they were away for a UN conference in Malaysia and all the other staff members had the day off except my 73 year old Nanny Rodgers who couldn’t even tell the difference between a cat and a dog if they were placed in front of her.

Which reminded me, damn it, my matron was definitely going to have my head and spike it up somewhere for the world to see for keeping a perfect tardy attendance every time I went out for an outing or went back home for the weekend. I was a legend to my fellow tardy peers. The worst part was I wasn’t even trying.

Right. Peeing. I quickly turned off the engine and exited the car to hear horns being blared behind me. I turned around to really quickly apologize only to have my heart sink when I realized I had stolen from this really old guy who was probably like, 90 or something. He waved his fist at me and I pretty much  deserved that. I was considering backing out and giving it back to him but then the calling of nature made me bow really low in apology to said old man and I ran like a crazed escapee to the toilet.

Spotting the ubiquitous signage, I also saw somebody sprinting towards the sole cubicle available.

‘Oh, no you don’t,’ I thought before sprinting and beating the blondie to the toilet.

And dear, lord, have I never felt pleasure as good as this.

There was a lot of screeching and cussing going on outside followed by a lot of banging while I did the shorter toilet deed. I tried to finish my business as quickly as possible because while she was being a total ‘bitch’, as Penny would call everybody she didn’t fancy (which, for the record, was pretty much everybody), I understood her predicament more than anything.

“Just a sec!” I shouted so she could calm down as I flushed. The banging still persisted and I rolled my eyes while unlocking the cubicle st-

BAM.

Suddenly everything seemed taller.

I realized I had probably lost my nose due to the absence of any sensation at that area. For a second I considered pressing charges but then I remembered that I was so, so, so late already so I just stood up and left after telling the pretty but vile handed blond that the cubicle was all hers.

She didn’t even blink. She just went in for the kill.

Not that I could blame her.

Feeling much more relieved, I walked happily to my car, considering whether or not I should buy myself a cup of coffee for the road only to change my mind quickly after as the five cups of those things were the reason I was getting the evil eye from the grandpa at the moment.

“I hope you and your friend hit a tree!” he shouted as loud as his old, quivering voice could permit.

I pouted. I didn’t know what exactly he meant but ugh, I was really sorry.

Not being able to hold in the shame anymore I rushed back to the car and backed away, forgetting that I was supposed to check the rear view mirror. Consequently, I almost hit a pedestrian.

“Sorry!” I shouted.

Five minutes later, I was finally on the highway again. I just couldn’t drive with all the guilt hanging in the air and turned on the radio. Some pop song I didn’t know was on and since I couldn’t karaoke to it, I nodded my head and bogeyed to the rhythm as it was always boring driving alone.

And that was when I felt something tugging my hair.

The hair on my neck rose as I turned slightly to brush off what I hoped was a loose thread stuck on the seat. Only my hand brushed on something else entirely. It was a hand.

Oh, dear Lord, it was a hand.

A hand was playing with a lock of my hair.

“Did you miss me, Arianna?” the all too familiar gruff voice rasped by my ear, his breathing fanned my neck. My heart just stopped and my eyes widened as fear froze my body. Instinctively, I slammed the break hard and swerved to the left despite the millions of times that Hunter had told me that doing so will be the death of me one day. There was a scream, mine I think, followed by a loud, deafening crash. Everything happened so slowly yet so fast. Glasses and leaves sprayed my face on impact.

I remembered thinking one thing before things went pitch black, though.

Karma sucked.