Name: Chris
Title: Happily Never After
Genre: General/Romance
Rating: T
Summary: Road tripping it to Vegas isn't as cool as you might think.
A/N: Written as a request for Meagan (moirariordan) over at DB.
…0...
"Tell me again how all of this happened."
Craig looked over at Ellie sullenly from his side of the bench. If he were a different kind of guy he would have seriously thought about just leaving her there, but how low would that
be? As nuts as she had been acting the past few days he couldn't very well just abandon her in jail.
"Oh yeah," she said. "I was stupid enough to accept your collect call. I won't make that mistake again."
Craig snorted. "Believe me, you won't be my first call the next time."
Ellie sat up on the moldy old cot and fixed him with a withering stare. "There won't be a next time because when we get out of here, I'm going to kill you. Or never speak to you again. Whichever comes first."
"Whatever. It's your fault we're in here to begin with." He shot back at her.
"We are so done talking now."
Craig snorted. "Whatever you say."
…0...
48 Hours Earlier …
"Wasting away again in Margaritaville …"
"Craig, will you just Shut. Up." Ellie snapped. She stared out the window, the passing of the sporadic cactus-or cacti? Who knew?-along the roadside a pleasant distraction. Yesterday she had been living her nice little normal, relatively normal, life in Toronto consoling Marco about Dylan's recent departure to the chocolate capital of the world, and now she was somewhere in southern Utah having rescued Craig from his rehab center with the help of Spinner and Jay, who for some reason couldn't be persuaded to stay behind.
Jay and Spinner themselves were sound asleep in the backseat of the Civic, Jay snoring away for the sixth consecutive hour.
"How rude would it be if we just pushed him out somewhere?" she asked.
Craig's eyes slid over to her from behind the steering wheel and he smirked behind his hand. If she saw, she would most likely go off on a tirade about his not taking her seriously and mocking her, throwing in a lot of big words she assumed he didn't know for good measure. "Considering it's his car," he told her, "I'd have to go with pretty rude."
"Pft." Jay landed another soft kick against the back of her seat causing her to grit her teeth in order to stop from turning around and killing him.
A pot hole in the road caused the driver's side of the car to dip and Spinner woke, his head having banged against the window. "Ow," he muttered a pout reminiscent of a grumpy three year old on his face. "Couldn't have dodged it, eh?"
"Sorry man. Those are the hazards when you road trip it with Craig Manning," he said in leu of an apology.
"Tell me again why we're doing this? And why he," Spinner jerked his thumb toward Jay, "needs to be here."
"It's his car," Craig replied without missing a beat.
"I have a car." Spinner's pout became more pronounced, and he reached over the consol to change the radio station.
Craig smacked his hand away idly without ever taking his eyes off the road. "There will be no Britney Spears in the car."
"Do I look like Marco?" he asked. Trying once more to latch onto the radio knob, this time his hand was slapped away by Ellie.
"No offensive and/or sexist rap either," she told him.
He sunk back into his seat. "You guys are no fun. If we were in my car, I could change the station all I wanted."
Craig nodded, "True. But being that your car is a particularly nauseating shade of green, and I'm trying to stay off drugs, I don't think it would have been the best idea."
"You never answered my question," he protested.
Ellie turned in her seat, thoroughly disgruntled that her sulking had been interrupted, and glared at Spinner. "You're here because you happened to be there when I asked Jay if I could borrow his car."
"Happened? You guys were at the Dot. I'm always there," he argued. Ellie stuck her tongue out at him in response.
"Kids," Craig interjected, "don't make me turn this car around."
"Okay Mom," Spinner muttered at the same time Ellie said "Please do."
"Do I detect a hint of sarcasm in your tone, Miss Nash?" he asked with a wicked grin.
Spinner eyed Craig as though he'd never seen him before. "Dude, you have met her, right?"
Rolling her eyes, Ellie expanded on her answer to Spinner's question. "You also refused to let me drive all the way to Calgary with Jay by myself."
"Duh," Spinner told her. "You honestly think I'd let any girl confine herself to a car with Jay for days on end? Who knows what he'd do."
"Days on end? Please. It's been three days as Mr. Leadfoot over here refuses to pull over." Ellie resumed her staring out the window, her chin propped up on her hand.
"That would Ellie's way of saying 'Thank you, Spinner, for volunteering to drive all the way across the country with me,'" Craig said.
Spinner laughed discreetly when Ellie glared at Craig like he was a bug she wanted to squish beneath her shoe. He had a feeling that most of Ellie's problem with this trip had to do with the fact that Craig had gone AWOL from his program five weeks early. But when he'd called her and begged her to come pick him up from a pay phone somewhere on the U.S. border she had left right then. But being that she didn't have a car, she had to plead with Jay, who happened to be on the stool beside her, to let her use his car. He had agreed on the condition that he go with her. And having overheard the conversation, Spinner had refused to let them leave without him. He liked Ellie, despite her constant sarcasm, and didn't want Jay to try anything.
"Would you ladies pipe down so I can get some sleep," Jay suddenly demanded from the backseat.
"Dude, you've been sleeping for hours," Spinner snapped.
Craig shook his head, both at their bickering and Ellie's sulkiness as she slumped further down in the passenger seat. He just didn't get why she was acting like this. Sure, she had missed at least a week of class already; with probably a week more to go-but was that any reason to act like a spoiled child? They were on their way to Las Vegas-what was her problem?
…0...
"Uh, Manning," Jay slid his sunglasses down on his nose, "this doesn't look like Vegas to me."
"No, it looks like a tacky tourist trap that wishes it were Vegas," Ellie added.
Near four straight days of driving had taken it's toll on Craig, and when he saw the signs for the Duckwater Hotel and Casino on the highway he had pulled onto the off ramp before the others had even noticed. He needed some sleep in a warm, soft bed, some real food, and a hot shower. As did his travel companions but he kept that to himself.
He moved to stand in front of them, spreading his arms wide and spun around to face the building. "Oh come on guys, it has … character."
"Cartoon character," Ellie muttered. Spinner chuckled under his breath.
Standing four stories high, the casino boasted a Native American theme, complete with totem polls on either side of the welcome sign and a ten foot high wooden headdress on the top of the roof. But the jewel of the architectural crown had to be the door shaped and painted like the stern face of an Indian Chief.
"What do you want to bet," Spinner whispered to Ellie, "that there's a tomahawk at the check in."
"Five bucks?"
He shook his head. "A round in the bar."
"Spin, you do realize you have to be 21 to drink in the states right?" Craig asked. He heaved his duffel bag up onto his shoulder and began walking towards the hotel.
"What?!" He looked at Ellie and Jay who both nodded in confirmation. "Ah man."
Removing his wallet from the inner pocket of his leather jacket, Jay dangled it open under Spinner's nose. "That's why you need one of these." A fake ID glinted in the late afternoon sun.
"Jay, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't get arrested," Craig told him, opening the door and holding it for Ellie to walk through. "I know I for one would feel awful about leaving you here and taking your car all the way to Vegas without you."
Jay shot him a sour look, nearly running into the door when Spinner let it go as he walked through. "Well," he muttered, "that would be bad."
…0...
A/N: The town of Duckwater, Nevada is a real place, however all the places and sights in the town are purely fictional created merely for my own personal use. ;)