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Emery looked over at Saffi and sighed, they’d been driving for a good few hours and in a little less than that amount of time they’d be at Bridgemont to pick up Jeremiah. Saffi had fallen asleep just a few moments after lunch. She looked incredibly peaceful, even as her short messy hair made her look completely ragged at times. Emery watched the docile road ahead of her, focusing on just making it to the university before night fell, and hopefully make Jeremiah drive home. But she knew deep down that it wouldn’t happen. Jeremiah would probably just want to sit shot gun and complain the whole way home. It was either that or not say a word. That’s just how he is, and always has been. The only thing that seemed remotely “awesome” about him was the way he looked up to Saffi and respected her more than anyone else in the world. Saffi’s phone began to ring and she stirred awake.
“Hullo?” Saffi asked tiredly into the phone, “MIAH!” she squealed, “we’re almost there!” Saffi pulled her phone away from her ear and covered her phone whilst turning to Emery, “we are almost there right?” Emery nodded, and explained that they’d be there in less than an hour. “Yea, almost there,” she said returning to her brother’s call. “well yea I had to bring her, Dad’s out of town on business and Mom needs my car.” Saffi groaned. “you’re so annoying!” Emery stifled a laugh as she tried to focus on her driving and not on the conversation. Saffi held out the phone to Emery to talk.
Emery turned towards the receiver, “I can’t talk while I’m driving!” she said turning back and forth, her focus on the road and on the phone. She heard muffled speak through the speaker of the phone.
Saffi sighed and hit a button on her phone, and Jeremiah’s voice resounded through the car, “I said thanks!” Jeremiah shouted, not aware that he’d been put on speakerphone. Emery laughed, “your welcome, we’ll be there soon” she said loudly, hoping Jeremiah would hear. “You better be grateful, I gave up a three-day weekend with Jamie to come get you, Miah.”
“I appreciate it Em, I really do.” Emery caught a severe amount of sarcasm through the speaker of her phone and rolled her eyes while scoffing.
“Whoakay” Emery answered, and signaled for Saffi to hang up the phone. Saffi turned off the speaker phone and brought the speaker to her ear, and Emery returned complete focus to her driving.
“I’ll see you in a little bit big brother,” Saffi said sweetly into the receiver of her cell phone. And with that ending statement she hung up her phone. Saffi smiled brightly as she turned to Emery, “eek! I get to see my favorite big brother.”
Emery blinked a few times before turning back to her friend, “he’s your only brother.”
Saffi rolled her eyes, “you know what I mean.”
“Sometimes I wonder how…”
Emery watched the horizon and the road, the clouds rolling in overhead. She was so lost in thoughts of hoping it would rain, that she wasn’t paying attention when Saffi pointed to the entrance to the college campus and almost drove past it.
ooO0Ooo
Jeremiah sat on his trunk as he watched Amy walk to her only other class for the day. It kind of ate away at him that he wouldn’t be able to properly say goodbye and watch his friend as he drove away. He knew he was going to end up fighting this. There was no way he was going to leave school because of Hugh Norrison and because Dean Carlson is obviously blind to one of his professor’s prejudice. He kicked his legs back and forth, his heels hitting his oversized trunk. He looked down and watched his legs swing and was drawn out of his reverie of thinking when he heard a car pull up, “hey hot stuff, fancy a ride?” a familiar voice asked.
“Saffi, I’d appreciate if you’d lay off the incestuous comments, it’s really creeping me out.”
Saffi rolled her eyes, “okay, whatever you say…” she answered, trying to sound somewhat disappointed. Jeremiah rolled his eyes and hugged his baby sister as she jumped out of the car. He smiled for a moment and watched as Emery turned off her car and popped the trunk. Saffi looked at his trunk and groaned, “do you think that’s gunna fit?” she asked turning to Emery.
Emery looked at the trunk, and then at the trunk of her car and placed her hands on her hips while in deep thought about the situation. “ I think I can make it work,” she said and walked over to help Jeremiah carry the oversized trunk to the rear of the car. She looked back and forth between the car and the trunk and shifted some things around and finally got Jeremiah’s stuff into the trunk and they piled back into the car and began the drive home as the sun began to set.
It was a good half hour before anyone said anything. Emery turned to Jeremiah, who sat in the front passenger seat as Saffi played cell phone games on her phone in the back seat with Jeremiah’s book bag and pillow. “So what have you been doing?” Emery asked.
Jeremiah gave Emery a confused look, “ What?” he responded with in a baffled tone.
“ You smell like dust, sweat, and…”
“ …Plastic?”
“ Yea…” Emery drew out.
“playing video games,” he answered watching her eyes as they shifted between watching the road and watching him. Jeremiah cracked his knuckles as he casually remembered packing his game console into his trunk.
Emery laughed, “ it’s obvious,” she stated as she noticed his greasy unkempt hair and calloused fingertips. Jeremiah pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and pulled the draw strings closed.
Emery rolled her eyes, “ Saffi, your older brother is a pain.”
Saffi popped her head up from the back seat, “ well if you’d stop flirting with him he wouldn’t be so grumpy, you know he hates flirting.”
Emery groaned and swerved the car onto the exit ramp. “Wasn’t so much flirting as it was trying to have a conversation with him.
Saffi rolled around in the backseat, and grabbed onto the back of the driver’s seat for balance, “ what are you doing!” she shrieked as she struggled to steady herself. Jeremiah untied the drawstrings and peeked his head out as he shifted in his seat with the car’s wild movements.
“I’m hungry” Emery stated, “ I saw a sign for Burger King™.”
Saffi’s eyes widened, “you’re angry” she concluded.
“ Am NOT!” Emery argued back.
“ Are you! You’re angry because I said you were flirting with ‘Miah!”
“You both realize I’m still in the car right?” Jeremiah looked at his sister and then at Emery, his cheeks blushing an obvious pink from a brush with embarrassment from being the topic of the girls’ discussion.
Emery rolled her eyes, “yes we both realize that.”
Saffi laughed to herself and ruffled her brother’s hair through the heavy fabric of his hood. She hugged him from the back seat and he groaned as he tried to escape her grasp. “You’re my favorite brother.” Jeremiah laughed.
“And you’re my favorite sister…”
“And you two are my favorite morons” Emery said, obviously cranky.
Saffi and Jeremiah frowned, “what crawled up your ass and died?” Jeremiah asked as Saffi fell back into the back seat and crossed her arms and pouted.
Emery looked over at him and glared, “nothing, I’m hungry.”
“is stopping on the itinerary?” Saffi asked laughing.
“I wouldn’t know, you threw it out the window and almost got me a fine.”
Jeremiah laughed, “you made an itinerary?”
Emery blushed and flipped on the windshield wipers as rain slowly fell from the sky. “Yes, I made an itinerary,” Emery growled and quickly turned the wheel. The tired squealed as she pulled into the parking lot of Burger King™. “And now I’m breaking it,” she said as she turned off her car and pulled her keys from the ignition before getting out of the car and slamming the driver door shut. Saffi looked at Jeremiah. Jeremiah looked at Saffi and both climbed out of the car and followed Emery into the fast-food joint. Saffi watched as her best friend was obviously throwing a fit. She wanted to laugh, but instead it slowly began to sink in that Emery really was upset and that it had to do with the fact that Jeremiah never seems to treat Emery the way he treats Saffi; who tugged her friend aside.
“What’s with you?” she whispered loudly.
Emery turned to the brunette and glared, “what are you talking about?" Emery averted her eyes to the menu and Saffi tugged her back into the conversation she was attempting to have.
“you know what I’m talking about, you’re getting all moody because Jeremiah snubbed you, he snubs everyone.”
Emery brushed her hair out of her face and looked at her best friend, “well I thought he’d grow up…so sue me.”
Saffi watched as Emery tore herself away from the conversation and walked up to the counter to order her meal. Jeremiah strolled up Saffi, handing her a cup for soda, “I got your usual.” Saffi thanked him while watching Emery. She took a moment to look at her brother, his hood still up, his face hidden deep inside the dark, heavy fabric. “What’s wrong with her?” he asked after noticing her gaze was settled on her friend for a long moment. Saffi shrugged, not intending to tell her brother that her best friend was upset because her brother hadn’t changed his attitude even after he realized where it was getting him.
Dinner at Burger King™ was eaten in silence. That was until Saffi decided to initiate a conversation while in between bites of her fries. “So do you guys remember that time we went to Canterbury Park?” Emery gave Saffi a funny look, “you remember? We were l like five and Miah was like nine, and some kid stomped on our sandcastle…”
Jeremiah groaned, “argh, not this story Saffi…please just let me eat in peace.”
“Oh but you were such the hero,” Emery said sarcastically as she remembered Jeremiah stomping through the sandbox to prevent a young bully from destroying the little girls’ sandcastles. Instead the small dark haired boy ended up causing more damage than hindering it. Jeremiah flushed an angry red and dunk his fry deeply into the small mound of ketchup on his tray and hastily took a bite, glaring as he did it.
Saffi found it hilarious as she watched her brother and best friend pick fights and bicker with each other. They’d always been like that, always. Ever since the day Saffi brought home Emery in an attempt to anoint her into the Carmichael family.
ooO0Ooo
The sound of heavy rain on the roof of the car and the windshield wipers were the only sound as they squeaked across the windshield, wiping away the heavy pouring rain. Emery kept her hands steadily on the wheel, her eyes focused on the dark wet road ahead of them. Jeremiah reached his hand out to turn on the radio. Static and barely audible country music. Jeremiah flipped through the stations and upon finding nothing groaned loudly and flipped off the radio, slamming his body back against the seat.
Saffi sat up in the backseat, “ how far away are we?” she asked sleepily, slowly starting to fall asleep in the car as Emery drove them back to Connecticut.
“What are you ? Like ten?” Jeremiah asked rudely. Saffi stuck out her tongue and caught Emery’s gaze in the rearview mirror. Emery sighed, “ I don’t know, we’re still about a few hours from the Vermont state-line.”
Jeremiah moaned angrily.
Emery’s eyes flashed, “ are you whining?”
“Can’t you drive faster?” he asked, hugging his knees as he pulled them up onto the passenger seat. Emery took a hand of the wheel and dramatically waved her hand, “ are you blind? Do you not see the rain?”
“No I see the rain, it’s water Em, it’s not going to kill you.”
Emery’s eyes returned to the road, growling at Jeremiah’s attitude. Her eyes flashed wide in fright as a deer scampered across the road. Both hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as her foot slammed down on the brakes and the car swerved on the asphalt. Jeremiah’s hands reached forward and he braced himself against the side of the car. Saffi grabbed the back of the driver’s seat tightly as the car spun in circles before the rear passenger side slammed into a tree. The road went dark as the sound of the engine died and the headlights flickered out. Emery turned the key in the ignition and tried to get the car to restart. The car purred slightly before shutting off again. Emery put on her hazards and folded her arms across the wheel and rested her head on her arms and sighed deeply before bringing her head up and again and looking around the car, “ are we all okay?” Emery asked.
“ Yea I’m okay” Saffi responded, the obvious shaking in her voice fading. The girls looked over at Jeremiah who sat, visibly shaking, his hands tightly gripping the side handle on the car door so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
“ Miah?” Emery asked, reaching her hand across the car to gently place a hand on his shoulder when he jerked suddenly.
“ Who the fuck taught you how to drive?” he asked, his eyes flashed a cocktail of anger and fright.
Emery relieved that he was okay but angry with his attitude snapped back, “ you.”
Jeremiah stared and the two just continued to stare each other down before Saffi popped her head between the two. Looking worried while she found humor in light of the situation with the comment about Jeremiah teaching Emery how to drive. Emery looked up in the rearview mirror and her gaze fell on Saffi, “Saff, do you have your cell?” Saffi looked around on the floor of the back seat and found her cell phone and immediately passed it forward. Emery pulled out her wallet and rummaged for her AAA card and called for a tow-truck.
“So…”Jeremiah began, “how are we getting home?”
Emery looked outside, the rain pouring down intensely, “well we can’t call my dad,” she said looking at the time, “he’s in bed.”
“And we can’t call Mom, she won’t come get us…” Saffi said.
“because of me,” Jeremiah said frowning as she stared out the window.
“Shut up Miah, seriously this isn’t the time to throw a pity party.” He threw a glare at Saffi and pulled the drawstrings tightly on his hoodie and his face disappeared amongst the heavy sweatshirt fabric. For a while the brother and sister continued to bicker and argue and Emery rolled her eyes and turned to look back out the window and jumped when she noticed a figure knocking on the window just next to her. She rolled down the window and shield herself from the heavy rain that threatened to pour into the car as she talked to the tow-truck driver.
ooO0Ooo
We’re not staying here!” Saffi protested. Jeremiah rolled his eyes and hoisted his sister over his shoulders and carried her kicking and screaming into the musty motel room they were staying in for the evening. Emery followed closely behind laughing for the first time since the accident. As their neared their room Emery took the lead and unlocked the door and held it open as Jeremiah continued to carry a kicking and screaming Saffi over his shoulder and threw her on the bed. “Why do we have to stay here, I mean they don’t even have cable” she pouted as she bounced on the bed.
“Fine go sleep out in the rain,” Jeremiah said walking back to the door and opening. Saffi glared and crossed her arms, “thought you’d stay.”
“Just because I’m staying doesn’t mean I’m happy with this situation.”
“Saffi seriously get a grip, it’s only for the night, we’ll get the D-L on the car in the morning and if we need to grab a rental,” Emery said from the small bathroom as she wrung out her wet shirt in the sink. “Besides,” she continued as she walked out into the room, “I’m sure Maude will be okay.”
“Maude’s always okay,” Saffi said smirking, “she’s a beast”
Jeremiah kept looking back and forth between the two, “who in the hell is Maude?”
Emery rolled her eyes, “my car…Maude?” Jeremiah looked at her as if she were nuts, “Maude is the name of my car!” she shouted angrily as she became frustrated.
“you act like I know,” Jeremiah said angrily.
Emery rolled her eyes and plopped down on the only bed in the room, next to Saffi who tried desperately to get a clear channel on the television. Saffi moved the bunny-ear antennae on the top of the television box and occasionally slapped the side of the television, opened palm, hoping it would help. Though the German way of handling non-working appliances never always helped it only hindered them working, in this case it worked, because shortly have hitting the television for the fifteenth time it flickered from the static to a somewhat clear re-run of Friends. Saffi smirked happily and leaned back on her elbows leaving her legs to dangle off the bed. All of a sudden she jumped and shrieked, “my butt is vibrating!” Jeremiah, who’d been laying on the floor, perked up and his head barely peered over the bed as he looked at his sister, a confused look across his face. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and her cell phone ring resounded through the room. She looked at the caller ID and blushed, “I’ll be right back,” she said before walking just outside the room.
Emery looked at Jeremiah, “who do you think that was?” he asked.
Emery laughed, “Alan Worchester” Emery leaned back on her elbows as Jeremiah jumped to his feet, hands on his hips. He looked like ‘Super Big-Brother’ and she couldn’t help but laugh.
“who is… that stupid prick from next door?” he asked as he realized who ‘Alan’ was.
“if by prick you mean most popular guy at Remmington High, pretty much your sister’s counterpart, and start of the Varsity soccer team, then yea, that’s the prick.”
Jeremiah, in frustration began pacing the room, “why did she need to leave the room?” he asked, as Emery tried to watch the television and frowned as Jeremiah stopped in front of it.
“because she doesn’t want her nosey, over protective, whining older brother listening in on her phone conversation with her boyfriend?”
“WHAT?”
The door slammed, “okay, why are my ears burning?” Saffi asked.
“because I was telling ‘Miah about your golden-haired Adonis.”
Saffi blushed and began laughing hysterically as she looked over at her older brother, who looked undeniably pissed. “You told him about Ally?” she laughed.
“Ally?” Jeremiah said angrily, “you’ve given him a petname?”
Saffi threw her head back and laughed and then pinched his cheek before gently slapping it, “aw that’s so cute,” she turned to Emery, “he’s being all big-brotherish.” Saffi hopped on the bed.
