꧁ 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ꧂
𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 stressful 'near death' experience, Teagan wanted to just relax for the rest of the journey to the caravan site and try to get a few hours of sleep on the way.
But of course, as usual, the universe - more so the people around her - just wouldn't allow her to get her own way.
first it was Gerry's radio that was way too loud and keeping her awake, Then Clair decided to mutter every single word she read. Moby Dick was a massive fecking book and Teagan no longer had to read it herself, clare had practically been doing it for her ever since they left the city.
that was half a fecking hour ago!
ever since then Teagan had been lounging horizontally on Jame's knees whilst he was too preoccupied messing around and looking at a random container he found in the back with them. Teagan glanced at him and shook her head, he was a such a weird fella.
instead of taking Jame's attention away from his 'fascinating' box, Teagan begrudgingly took out the sharpie she always carried around with her from her left pocket of her dungaree dress.
without even asking, she took ahold of Jame's left arm and draped it over her knees so that she could draw on it easier.
he opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing but his lips fell into a dazed smile when he saw her take the lid off and delicately started to trace a random pattern of lines on his wrist and upto where his shirt sleeve was scrunched up.
James followed every move her pen made on his skin and tried to see what she was drawing, but it just looked like a tidy bunch of scribbles to him. He knew that Teagan would turn her scribbles into a masterpiece like she usually did.
Teagan focused all her attention on the mini masterpiece she was curating on James, it was slowly forming into a coherent sketch of a mess of lines that formed a hand that was clutching a wreath of dead flowers.
the two sat there for a while, neither of them saying anything, they just enjoyed the close proximity and the peacefulness of the situation, James would occasionally squirm when she drew on a particularly ticklish spot on his arm.
With a satisfied grin, Teagan popped the lid back on her sharpie and placed it back in her pocket.
She gently held James's arm up and closely inspected her piece of art.
It wasn't anything extraordinary but James seemed to be impressed by it because he hadn't taken his eyes off it.
He was actually looking at her, James thought Teagan was the real piece of art worth admiring. If Teagan ever heard him say that she would definitely laugh and call him cheesy, so he decided to keep it to himself and just nod when she asked him if he liked the drawing.
by now Clair's reading out loud had become somewhat of background noise for Teagan and she didn't even care about the high volume of the car radio anymore, Madonna's 'Holiday' was fittingly playing through the speakers but even that wasn't' enough to block out Gerry and Mary's argument about him deserving to be thanked for saving them all back there.
-
Teagan agreed with him, Gerrys quick thinking to pretened to be a Japanese tourist made the order soon let them go, not because they belived his cover story but beacause that just wanted to get on with their march, they must've really buzzed off of marching around to have been dong it alll morning and fecking afternoon.
"No,no,no,no,no,no, Dear god no"
Teagan heard Mary say. She looked over to what Mary was doing and saw her stifling through her handbag roughly like she was trying to find something that wasn't there
Gerry calmly asked her what was wrong but it didn't stop Mary from panicking even more.
"I can't find my purse" she said in a panicked voice but still managed to stay quiet enough not to disturb Anna who was asleep in her car seat.
It soon became evident - because Mary wouldn't stop muttering about it - that Mary had lost her punt purse which was more important than her sterling purse.
Mary rushed to drop her bag on the passenger side floor and put her hand together before rushing into a prayer.
James looked over to Clair as if to ask 'Is this normal?' But she was too busy muttering lines from her book.
He then turned to Teagan who was too busy thumb wrestling herself to even know he was confused.
Mary started to loudly panic and argue back and forth with Gerry.
This brought Teagan's attention back to the situation, she listened as Mary yelled for Gerry to turn back and drive home.
The was the last thing Teagan wanted was to head back into that death trap.
Apparently Gerry agreed because he protested, "there's more of a chance of me and your father eloping to a flip flop shop in Hawaii!"
"Look, okay, fine! But that means we won't be able to buy anything, which means we'll have no food, which means we'll starve to death. So, you know, on your head be it, Gerry" she ranted before suddenly looking up,
"Oh, actually, do you know what?" She muttered quietly, everyone's heads turned to look at her
"I think I left it in the suitcase" she admitted sheepishly
Gerry rolled his eyes and glanced up to the sky, " false alarm there, Saint Anthony. Sorry for disturbing you"
————
Teagan begrudgingly got out of the car and walked over to Erin and the others.
She'd had enough of all the messing around and just wanted to get to the caravan without any other distractions. But knowing the luck the group had, Teagan wasn't so sure it would all be plain sailing for the remainder of the drive.
Gerry and jo argued for e few seconds, nothing out of the blue, just the usual way he would speak too his son-in-law.
Teagan sniggered when James got confused about Japanese tourism in Derry.
She tried to hide her laugh as she sarcastically patted his shoulder "aye, because that was what's most unbelievable about it, James"
"Why have we stopped?" Erin asked, taking her glasses off and putting them on her head.
Mary filled them all in on the purse situation.
Teagan stayed by the boot of the car, leaning on it, her lack of sleep was really getting to her by now and she just wanted to finish this whole detour and fall asleep as soon as they were back in the car.
She caught bits and pieces of Sarah and Mary's conversation about punts and sterling's but couldn't be bothered to listen fully.
Gerry went to open the car boot and silently nodded for Teagan to move out the way, with a heavy sigh she walked over to stand next to James and absentmindedly took his arm and placed it over her shoulder.
He didn't say anything but Erin and Michelle both grimaced at the disgusting display of affection.
Teagan scoffed and opened her mouth to tell them to fuck off, but was cut off by a yell.
"Holy God!" Gerry screamed.
Everyone turned to look at what had caused the reaction - and everyone shared the same shocked face - there was a random fucking man in the boot.
Teagan subconsciously backed away from the car and dragged James with her as the man started to sit up and looked at them.
"Jesus Christ!" Mary gasped, not taking her eyes off the man.
Orla stayed looking at the man too, "did you not pack him in there, aunt Mary?" she asked cluelessly.
Mary shook her head, "no,no, I did not"
Orla smiled and lent towards the stranger, Teagan's hand instinctively shot up to hold her back but lowered it when she knew there was no use
"Alright how are you doing?" She asked with a bemused grin on her face.
"Not too bad. Not too bad. And you?" He asked her,stretching his arms out.
Orla shrugged and smiled at him before Mary pulled her back and stood in front of him.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" She asked, rightfully so.
Teagan thought everyone was being way too calm considering the situation. A man, an actual stranger had somehow smuggled himself into the boot and no one wanted to throw him out yet.
It was fucking madness.
The man sighed and nodded at Mary "ah, Emmett's the name."
He told her before cocking his head to the side, "well, not my real name, like, but it'll have to do" he muttered before glancing back at them and nodding, "anyway, I won't be keeping you" he said and closed the boot on himself.
Mary grabbed the nearly closed boot and lifted it back up, "No, hold on, wait!" Mary shouted.
Emmett looked up at her like she had somehow disturbed him. "Yeah?"
"Do you mind telling us what you're doing in there?" She asked as they all crowded around him, Teagan stood on her tiptoes to get a better look at him, to see if he looked like a creep or not. She was still too small so she huffed and gave up.
Emmett sighed and told them his excuse, "well, during the last 24 hours, crossing the border has become somewhat of a priority for me. So I did a bit of asking around, you know, just in the off chance that someone would be heading that way, and...your name came up, and..they're you have it" he nodded and smiled at them.
Orla seemed to be loving the situation and smiled all whilst encouragingly nodding at him.
Gerry, however, wasn't sharing his nieces excitement, "fantastic!" He sarcastically cheered.
Emmett was content with the conversation and nodded at them firmly before closing the boot once again.
This time no one stopped him and instead the all stood there, in complete disbelief and silence.
Each one of them tried to say something but were too in shock or confused to even comprehend what to say.
Luckily, Teagan had just the right thing to say that was definitely on all of their minds.
"What the actual fuck just happened?"
AN///
Two updates in a month??? Who is she
I hate this so much but I've not really got any motivation to write this episode but have to finally get to the last few chapters of Act 1 of this book.
But this episode is dragging on.
The covid-19 lockdown has forced my college to close so I'll definitely have more time to write when I'm in self isolation 🤷🏻♀️
I hope you're all okay and healthy and definitely following the guidelines about self isolation and staying inside.
Don't be a prick and bulk buy toilet paper because when this is all over you'll just be a nob with a fuckton of toilet paper you'll never get through.
1854 words.
21/3/20
12:18 am