Road Trip- March

                                    

                                          
Linda hits her alarm clock as soon as it starts ringing, having been awake for the last twenty minutes. She's showered and changed into her outfit for the day. She's in her yellow light weight sweater and jeans. She decides to wear her black combat boots. It's spring break, and the beginning of March is still chilly. 
She and Danny are going to grab breakfast before going on there road-trip. They're going to Maine to visit Linda's best friend for spring break. Brie headed up there last Friday. She's going to show them around the place she grew up. Linda's excited and Danny's excited to be with Linda. 
**********
She hugs him as soon as she opens the door for him, then grabs her suitcase and starts to lead him out of the apartment. 
"I like your outfit," Danny says. "You look very cute in it."
"Thank you!" Linda grins, tucking a piece of her short hair behind her ear. "You look cute too."
He's in a smilies outfit- a hoodie, jeans, and his trusty old sneakers. "Thanks."
*********
The trip goes well, until they get stuck in traffic. They're at a complete stand still, and Danny gets annoyed with it very quickly. 
To ease the tension, Linda says, "I spy with me little eye something... pink."
"What?"
"I spy. To distract us from traffic. I spy something pink."
Danny sighs a little as he looks around for something pink. "Is it your lips?"
Linda crosses her eyes, tries to look down her face to see her pink lipstick. "I can barely even see my nose. How am I supposed to see my lips?"
He only laughs, "it's the graffiti on the construction barricades."
"Yeah. Your turn."
He looks around, "I spy with my little eye something that is... cute."
"Cute?" Linda peers out the window and into the cars surrounding them. "What's cute? There aren't any doggies around here."
"Give up?"
"No." A full song starts and ends over the speakers as Linda looks for this cute object. Being stuck in traffic works better for this game. "What cute are you seeing?"
"Give up?"
She sighs grumpily, "fine. What's this cute you see?"
He looks at her, grinning like the devil. "You."
She doesn't really say anything, only blushes and pushes her hair behind her ear. "Not fair."
"It's very fair. You again."
After a few beats, Linda starts the game again, "I spy with my little eye..."
*********
Linda's brought along a lot of cassette tapes, because it's almost a seven hour drive there, not including all this traffic. Out of the goodness of her heart, she doesn't put in the New Kids tape— even though she suspects Danny doesn't dislike them as vehemently as he claims to. 
"What was that one from?" He asks once the slightly drunk lady stops Belting about ladies who lunch. 
"Company."
"Who wrote that?"
"Stephen Sondheim. I think he revolutionized the American theatre."
"Who's that?"
She looks shocked by this, "you don't know who Sondheim is?"
"You thought Shaquille O'Neal was a cop in Miami, of all places!"
She blushes at her stupidity, "Sondheim did West Side Story and Gypsy."
"Do you have more of him? I liked that one."
"Yeah! Actually I think I have a complication tape."
**********
Linda gets out of the car to stretch her legs... and to see what's taking Danny so long. The car had started to make some weird noises, and when they pulled over, it just stopped. 
She stands to the side, her hands clasped behind her back. "What's wrong?"
"Not sure."
She points to something, "is it the alternator?"
Danny stops wiggling the wires, "you know what an alternator is?"
"Sure. It turns over the engine in a car," she shrugs like it's as easy as knowing the ABCs. 
"It converts mechanical energy to electrical energy."
"That's what I said. It turns the engine on."
He chuckles as he shakes his head, "you're something else, babe."
"What?"
He smiles softly, "something special."
She grins and gives him a kiss. 
"Now go sit in the front seat and turn the key when I tell you to."
"Okay," she brushes past him and sits in the front seat. She hums to herself while Danny looks under the lid. 
"Try it now."
She does, and it still doesn't start. They try five more times before Linda says, "hey, babe?"
"What?"
"Would it work better if we had some gas?"
"What?" Danny leans sideways so he can see Linda's face. 
"Wouldn't it help if we had a full tank of gas?"
"We're empty?" He's suddenly beside her, and sure enough, the tank is empty. 
"Didn't you fill it up at the last gas station?"
"I thought I did."
"Maybe there's a leak?"
"I don't think so.... Fancy a walk?"
"Will the car be safe here?"
"Just hide your stuff under the seats. We'll lock the doors."
********
As they walk to the gas station, Linda sings, "once I had a love, and it was a gas. Soon Turned out had a heart of glass."
Danny sighs and interrupts her, "maybe you could sing a different song. You've sung that song three times already."
She thinks for a minute, "I get up in the morning and I see your face girl—"
"Go back to Blondie."
Linda laughs, "this is fun."
"Walking in this chilly air?"
"Well no, not the chilly part. But walking with you. Being with you. We didn't plan it, but what fun would life be if there weren't any surprises?"
He stops for a minute, "what is wrong with you?" And maybe he could've phased that better. 
She stops, a look of hurt on her face. "What do you mean?"
"Just that you're so happy all the time. I mean this trip has turned into a disaster, and you're still singing."
"Life is better if you make the best of a bad deal. And it's okay that we got stuck in traffic for forty minutes and have to walk for twenty minutes to the gas station. We're together, and that's really all that matters right now. Doesn't it?"
"You really are something else," he remarks, with a smile on his face. He keeps walking, and lowly sings, "seemed like the real thing only to find."
"Much-a mistrust, love's gone behind," Linda sings with him. 
********
Thanks to traffic, they arrive almost at four in the afternoon. Linda's roommate hugs them both, and gives them a tour of her teenaged home. Brie takes them to a lobster shack for dinner and shows them the night life later. 
Danny watches as Linda laughs loudly at whatever Brie had whispered to her. He can't help his smile, saying to himself, "she's got what it takes."