Chapter 8
"Wow, you really do have good taste, huh."
Leo Valdez & Rachel Askar
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Leo V.
What was I thinking when I agreed to this.
Ray was on the wheel, focusing on the road ahead of her, careful for drunks or worse. She occasionally looked over to me once or twice, maybe to make sure I didn't wreck her car maybe. "You comfy Valdez?" Ray asks me, her eyes still glued to the road in front of her, a smirk traveling across her face.
"I'm fine, I'm always fine." I say and she just laughs.
"You didn't seem so fine at the diner." She stated.
I blushed so hard I think I became the son of a tomato. She took a glance at me and just laughed, letting me get frustrated. "Says the one who could only get hot cocoa on a warm day!" He exclaims.
That shut her up.
Or so I thought.
"You know, I think I could go for some iced tea right now." She says, chuckling a bit after her statement. Before I could say anything back, she shushed me. "We're here."
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Rachel A. (Deaththenerd)
Swiftly I parked the car in an old lot near the concert, sliding from the drivers seat I placed my booted foot on the concrete. Leo made it this far without screwing up, maybe we can make it through the night.
An array of hair colors flew past us, most had dyed their hair in bright purple or maroon and then there was Leo. He looked so out of place with his red brown hair, his light brown eyes and that naive smile. He seemed so callow as he cocked his head to one side to gaze up at the dome that held one of the coolest bands ever.
"I guess we'd better head in there." Leo said jerking a thumb towards the dome. "Yeah, we'd better."
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Leo V.
"Yeah, we'd better" Ray says, a big surprising smile on her face. She fits in surprisingly well in the sea of all these Rock n Roll fans. We start walking forward to a booth with a teen, probably 16, with bright red hair you can spot a mile away.
"Hi, we're here for-" I begin to say and the guy cuts me off- "You're early. You can go get some snacks and get to your seats if you want, now let me see your tickets please." He says and I hand in me and Ray's tickets. He looks like he bit his tongue when he punched our tickets and gave them back. "Wow, you guys got good seats, you're lucky to get these! Have a good night now." He says and we wave, getting through the gate then walking to go find our seats. "E7 and E8" Ray says and I nod, finding our seats right away. I go first, then her, and we get ourselves comfortable.
"I'm gonna go get us some sodas, what kind you want?" I ask, almost yelling, trying to talk to her over the mumbles and talking over others. "Yeah, can I get a coke?" She asked and I nodded. "JUST REMEMBER: E7 AND E8!" She yells and I smile mouthing 'I know.' I hope she got the message, because I didn't feel like yelling again. I wormed myself past the crowds until I found where all the sodas were. "Ugh, 7 bucks for a soda? Great there goes my wallet." I start muttering to myself, taking out 14 bucks. I got a root beer for myself because, well, why not. At the same time, me and Ray wanted a soda, so it's worth it. I got the sodas and since they didn't have caps, I was going as fast as possible without spilling. When I got to my seats again, I plopped myself down, relieved that my job's done.
Well it was almost done. Now my job is not to screw up.
I look over to Ray who was just looking out at the stage, smiling. "You look really excited." I state. She just looked at me, laughing. "Leo that had to be the stupidest thing you've ever said to me." He said and I laughed. "No, i'm not that bad" I joked and she just rolled her eyes. At that moment I saw a man, probably in his late 20's, sneak something into Ray's drink. I looked at the guy and glared, kind of like a wolf on it's prey. He isn't getting away with this.
"HEY BUDDY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?!" I yell loud enough for people to turn heads "Leo get yourself settled down!" Ray loudly whispers, and the guy behind her just laughs. "Eh he's just worked up that's all. It's fine I didn't do anything, I swear on me life." He says with a surprisingly thick Irish accent. I tighten my fist as Ray stands up and puts her hand on my shoulder.
"Sit down and relax, I bet you're just seeing things. Nothing went in anything, okay?" She said and I just nodded. "Fine. If she gets high or drunk or something, I'll help her, but I'll just say I told you so." I think to myseld as she looks ahead, unaware that she might be drugged by a jerk at a concert.
And that's when the concert starts. Ray cheers with everyone else and I stay silent, still a bit unsettled from the earlier situation. After a song or to I eased into it and I was about as riled up as everyone one else. The concert was great: had great music, great songs, and a good band. At the end, I was kind of sad it ended, but everything has a end and a beginning. When I looked at Ray she was tripping over every thing and had this look in her eye that seemed so... unfocused. Kind of like her old self was thrown out the window and into the streets to get run over. "You okay Ray?" I ask and she laughs, a goofy laugh though. "I'M SPECTACULAR!" She yells, then leans on my shoulder.
I knew it.
She's wasted.
I swore to myself and a part of me wanted to storm right back in there and punch the guy, but at the same time I need to handle Ray now. Since she's tipsy at the moment, she's my responsibility now. It's hard handling a drunk on the road.
"Alright, upsie daisy, we're going home." I say and I pick her up, bridal style, and walk back to the car.
"LEO! LEO I'M FLYING!" She yells as I walked, then I just laugh. This is just ridiculous. "Yeah whatever Rose, we're almost there." I put her down and then get in the drivers side. Ray buckles her seat belt after a few tries then we start driving.
Now, since I had a feeling somebody was going to get high or drunk or something: I brought a barf bag just in case. It's the one thing that is going to keep Ray's car clean, and this is kind of my fault for not punching that guy in the face and not getting her another soda. Whatever, my fault, time to take care of the situation.
That's when she looks at me and laughs as I put a bag quickly her lap. "Hey Leo?" She asks and I keep my eyes on the road.
"Yeah?" I ask and she just laughs.
"Will you b-be my death t-the kid?" Ray asks in between hiccups. Before I answer, she blacks out and I scream my lungs out.
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Rachel A. (Deaththenerd)
I felt so tired... I was being jostled around, until I heard a loud THU-THUMP, and the movement subsided. A small voice beside my ear encouraged me to wake up but I didn't want to, I was much too exhausted to open my eyes.
"RACHEL I'M NOT KIDDING." They hissed.
"GET. UP!" My mind moved sluggishly as I opened one eye. "Leo?" I said, but it didn't sound like Leo, it sounded like a mumbled death threat.
"The car ran out of gas." He said and Leo sounded truly frightened, his face in pure terror. "We've broken down and I pushed us a few feet into a ditch.." I slumped forward and my head hit the horn, jerking me awake. "I'M UP I'M UP!" I yelled, probably louder than I should have. What had Leo said again? The car.... Oh! I didn't turn the keys. But I thought I had? Ever since I finished that coke I hadn't been thinking straight. My hand turned the keys but nothing happened.
"Which way do you turn the keys again?" I inquired. "Righty tighty, wait what's the other one?" I paused before I decided that now would be a good time to sleep again. My head fell forward and hit the steering wheel horn again but even that didn't rouse me.
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Leo V.
"Righty tighty, wait what's the other one?" Ray asked before she put herself into a deep sleep once more, and even though the horn honked loudly, she was still in her slumber. I look at her, almost glaring, and then I just sigh. She's wasted. What do you expect? And that was when I finally decided to just screw it, and try to at least get her car out of the ditch that's one of the two reasons we're stuck here. I got out the car and set my mind towards the rear end of the vehicle.
"Ugh, here we go again." I groaned and started pushing with all my might, trying to get this piece of junk out of the stupid ditch. Around, eh maybe 20 minutes of trying I got the car out. It's a small model, so I didn't have that much trouble getting it out. That's when a faint feeling of uneasiness travels through me and I lay down on the hood of my car, thinking about what I can do. I mean Ray's wasted, and I feel like I'm almost gonna pass out if I don't get some food.
Then that's when I look up and the green sign in front of me makes my face beam. I haven't smiled in a while, and this finally got me: A gas station was only 3/4 miles away from here. I cheered, fist pumped the air, then looked at my wasted, sleeping friend, who looked like nothing could wake her up. Then my grin faded. The one time I had a real smile to, for once in a life time. She's not gonna be able to walk. She'll be tripping everywhere and stumbling over air.
That's when I had an idea that I knew Ray was going to hate completely.
I opened the car door to find her slumped onto the wheel, on the verge of hitting the horn directly. Before I did anything, I took the keys out and put them in my pockets, just to make sure nothing will happen. Then, I carefully leaned her body back, took her seat belt off, then put my hands underneath her and near her shoulder. "She's gonna hate me." I thought to myself and I picked her up, bridal style. I close the door with my foot, practically slamming it, then began the walk ahead with a drunk 28 year old in my arms.
...
After a little while I got to a hess station that looked decent for once. I walked towards a guy who had oil grease all over his face and clothes, and by the look of his face, he didn't seem so dandy himself.
"Oh god it's another one... okay what you want punk?" He asked, almost spitting in my face as he talked. I just glared at him, taking a deep breath.
I'm not going to tolerate this at the moment, I just want to go home for gods sake.
"Listen to me pal, I got a drunk friend in my arms and a broken down car 3/4 of a mile down, so can you please just get some gas and walk with me? It's 10 bucks regular by the way." I say and he just smirks at me. After filling up the container with gas, he walks down with me to fill it up and walks down with me back to Ray's beat up car.
...
Finally after the dingbat decided to stop being rude and disrespectful to me, he filled it up. That's when I got my wallet, paid him his money, then I looked at him and smiled as he started walking away. "I'm not that mean, I'll give you a ride back to the station don't worry." I say and he smiles and hops in the back. I get Ray back in the passenger side and I drop the gangster/gas station guy back to his station. I wave and I keep driving. It's half way full, perfectly enough to get home.
I smile as i see Ray fast asleep, like nothings bothering her whatsoever. "Yup, never telling her about the bridal style experience." I say and I hear Ray murmur something, and I instantly regret talking to myself. That's when I look over to my left, the bright green, stupid sign that weirdly makes me smile anytime I pass it:
"Welcome to Westedge!"
We're home. Finally. That's when I park in Ray's apartment complex, where Alexander lives except a few apartments down, and checked her pockets for a key. Hallelujah, there was one.
Before I got out I thought to myself: "How am I supposed to get her out of the car and into the house?" Oh no. Not again. She may see me this time. I decide to shrug it off and once again hold her close to my chest. This time I hold her more tightly, afraid I'm going to lose her, or even worse: drop her. That's when I look towards her apartment window to see Kyle staring at me, wait no not staring- laughing.
"I KNEW IT! THAT'S IT, I SHIP YOU BOTH!" He yells and my face turns bright red. Why. There's so many other times, but you pick now. That, and what's shipping?
Thanks Kyle, you jerk.
Finally I shook off my feelings, dropped Ray, carefully, on the couch, and just looked at Kyle. "Hit a nerve?" He asked when he saw my face and I laughed. "No, no big deal. See you later okay?" I say as I put Ray's keys on the table. Kyle gives a slight chuckle and looks at a peaceful Ray just laying there. "Before you go, what happened to her?" He asks and I just look down. "Some jerk put something in Ray's drink, getting her wasted, causing some bad results.. I'll tell you later." I say and he nods, and since he's a party geek, it looks like he completely understands. "I'm gonna go, just call me tomorrow okay? Alright, bye." I say as I speed walk, almost sprinting out of the Askars home. When I was finally alone, I remembered something...
"Will you b-be my death t-the kid?" Ray asks in between hiccups. Before I answer, she blacks out and I scream my lungs out.
Her words are like a broken record in my head, they keep repeating over and over, making me blush madly. Well, she said this Death the Kid fellow was her boyfriend, back in the iced tea incident, even though she was joking. That and he's from an anime called Soul eater if I recall.
"Time to have an anime spree." I think to myself as I walk home, wondering what going on with Ruby back home.