The Road Trip
"Got any threes?"
"Go fish."
"Go fish."
Yuya put his hand out to steady the pile of cards on his lap when Yuzu yanked a card from the top with a little too much vigour. He carefully shifted the pile with his fingers so it didn't look like it was about to topple over.
"Got any sevens?"
Yuzu scowled and held a seven of hearts out to Ruri. Yuya leant back slightly so Ruri could take the card without taking his nose off as well.
"Got any spades?"
"Go fish."
"Oh come on!" Yuzu complained, knocking Yuya's knee in her frustration and forcing him to straighten the pile again "How are you people so good at this game?"
"Stop knocking over my pile" Yuya whined "You could've at least had the decency to let me join in."
"You called it a pathetic excuse of a game and not a real card game" Ruri pointed out to him.
"Anything beats being a table" Yuya groaned. He'd been unable to stretch his legs for the past twenty minutes as the completed sets pile was held between his knees, the new cards pile stacked on his thighs.
"Yuzu, can you please pass me my card?" Yuto, sitting in the seat behind them, requested.
Yuzu passed the card over the back of the seat to the third member of the game.
"Yuto, when we get to the halfway point, you are sitting in the middle" Yuya informed him.
Yuto's smile twitched briefly into a smirk, seeing no reason to retort.
"Sweet?"
"What?" Yuya looked to the front to see Reira, sitting in the passenger seat of the Land Rover, holding some sort of plastic-wrapped sweet out to him. "Oh, thank you Reira."
Count on Reira to make this journey from hell survivable.
Yuya reached out to take the sweet from Reira, only for the car to jerk sharply to the left. Playing cards flew everywhere and Yuya landed all but on Ruri's lap.
"Reiji, please, we're in the back, remember" Yuya reminded their driver, as if knowing he had passengers was going to somehow miraculously improve Reiji's sucky driving, to quote Yuzu.
"Ow" Gongenzaka commented from the very back of the car "Yuto, your spiky bracelets are stabbing me."
"Sorry" Yuto, who'd been thrown against Gongenzaka in the very back of the rental car, pushed himself back into a sitting position "What happened to my ace of spades?"
"I'll help you look for it" Gongenzaka offered, bending over to search the floor of the car "But keep those bracelets away from me."
It appeared Yuto had gone all out of the trip – choker, bracelets, eye-liner, piercings. It appeared graduating school had gone to his head and he now felt completely unrestrained by what people thought of his style of dress. It was almost as in-your-face as the summer the year before Masumi transferred, where Yuzu had sent a picture of her with Yuto at Yuya's August birthday party and Masumi asked why Yuzu hadn't dressed up for Halloween.
Oh yeah, this was a graduation trip wasn't it? Yuya had almost forgotten this was supposed to be a time of celebration, what with the tedious card game and Reiji refusing to turn the air con on to ease the heat in the sweat box.
Reiji had managed to rent them a cabin with a private beach a few hours south. He'd hired a Land Rover and a minivan to carry them all there for a long weekend to celebrate them all surviving high school. Everyone had been understandably excited and the biggest perceived problem was who was going to be sharing a room with one another.
Then they all turned up on the day and found Reiji with two manual rental cars and his seven-year-old brother Reira in tow and Yuya started to wonder if they'd made a terrible mistake letting Reiji be in charge of the planning, just like Kaito had warned them. At this point Yuya was full prepared to get to the cabin and find it only had one room and not so much as a mattress. Reiji also had one condition beyond Reira also coming ("So if I catch a single swear even considering coming out of your mouths I'm leaving you at the side of the road, and yes that includes you Serena") which was being able to drive the Land Rover. As only three members of their group were qualified to drive a manual, they didn't have much of an option.
Could be worse. He could be in the minivan Shun was driving. There was a reason Yuto and Ruri had jumped ship to ride with Reiji. If you couldn't make conversation he deemed intelligent, Shun demanded complete silence and if you didn't like heavy metal rock music you were screwed.
"Hey look, there's Yugo and Rin!" Ruri cried, waving out of the window.
Yuya leaned over to her to see as well. In the opposite lane, just behind the minivan (trust Shun to be hogging the outside lane), Rin was on her motorbike. She didn't wave, but looked at them and nodded her head in acknowledgement, probably smiling beneath her helmet. Yugo was right behind her. He lifted his hand off of the handlebar of his bike to wave, before realising he was probably going to crash the bike doing that and putting it back again. Shingo, who was riding on the bike as passenger behind Yugo, looked up at them and Yuya knew, even with the helmet in the way he just knew, that Shingo was sticking his tongue out at him.
"Why does he get to ride the bike?" Yuya so wasn't sulking.
Ruri shrugged. "He called dips."
Yuya would've retorted, but at that moment that felt something that felt suspiciously like a newly restored pile of cards being placed on his lap.
"Got any threes?"
"Oh my god, are you kidding me?!" he complained, glaring at Yuzu who just smiled cheekily at him. Looking at Ruri and Yuto he was met with twin faces of mischief.
"Go fish" Yuto said.
Yuya scowled, throwing his arms up in the air as far as the Land Rover's roof would allow. "I hate you all!"
Reira giggled in the passenger seat.
"It could be worse" Gongenzaka pointed out as Ruri all but climbed over Yuya to take a card from Yuto "We could be in that car."
He pointed out the window at Shun's car that they were trying to overtake. Dennis was squeezed up against the window, waving at them pleasantly, which wouldn't be so bad if Sora wasn't giving him bunny ears. Sayaka in the very back of the minivan was smiling, earplugs in her ears which probably had something to do with the fact Allen appeared to be screaming in the seat next to her. Shun, the driver, looked like he was having an even worse time than Yuya, which was saying something. He appeared frazzled, his hair standing on end like he'd just gotten out of bed, yelling things back to the rabble sitting behind him who he was hurdling up the highway at an excessive – and admittedly rather impressive – rate of speed that Reiji was trying valiantly to match in an absolute death trap of a vehicle that looked ready to fall apart at the seams (apparently Reiji wasn't willing to shell out for decent rental cars). His arms were rigid against the steering wheel and Yuya would've sent him a jibing text to make himself feel better if he didn't think that would get him killed as soon as they stopped at the halfway point.
"Yeah, I suppose."
"I'm telling you, he looks just like Yuto."
"You know, he kinda does."
"He does not! Besides, could you imagine Yuto with a shotgun?"
Shun gripped the wheel tightly and tried to ignore his passengers. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd agreed to drive – maybe it was because he assumed he'd be driving Ruri and Yuto, who played good music and provided witty conversations. Really he should've known better the second he realised he'd be driving a hired minivan and not his car, but Ruri had just batted her eyes up at him and he didn't think anything of it. It was only five minutes before they left that Shun had realised Ruri and Yuto would be riding in the other car and instead he got the Hell Squad.
The first five minutes were even worse than he thought they would be. Sora wanted the window seat but Serena bagsied one and Dennis got carsick and needed to sit next to the other. Allen was sat in the very back with Sayaka and, seeing the bickering match in the middle row, had started complaining about how he couldn't hear the radio and demanding that Shun turn it up as Sayaka tried valiantly to stop him from creating a racket.
Shun had lost his temper pretty quickly and thrown Yuri's iPad into the back to entertain them. It had worked, once they'd decided on watching a subbed version of Battle Royale. The gore and violence worthy of a Quentin Tarentino movie had shut them up for a short time whilst Sayaka opted to listen to her iPod instead. But then someone had made a comment about how Shogo Kawada looked like Yuto and the silence went right out the window.
"I think Yuto would do better with a revolver" Serena commented "I can see him as a cowboy type."
Dennis raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me Yugo wouldn't get the revolver? Really?"
Instantly Serena changed her mind. "Your right, Yugo gets the revolver. Maybe Yuto could have an axe?"
"Maybe Yuto got the revolver from Yugo when he killed him?" Sora suggested.
"Yuto wouldn't kill anyone!" Allen cried, outraged at the idea of his friend killing somebody, especially Yugo.
"I don't know, trapped on an island and told to kill everyone else or die yourself" Sora pondered, shifting the lollipop he was sucking on to the other side of his mouth with his tongue whilst handing Dennis a fistful of gummy bears from a packet between his knees. "I'd bunk Shun off at the first chance."
Why was Shun not surprised? Why did Shun not care? Big questions, simple answers.
"Yeah, but you don't like Shun" Allen pointed out "Yugo and Yuto have been friends for years."
"Besides, Yuri would kill Yugo before Yuto even got out of the school" Serena pointed out.
"I could so see that happening" Dennis commented with a nod, switching which hand was holding the iPad up so all four of them could see it "He'd do well as Kiriyama."
"That's the psycho mute kid right?" Serena confirmed "Yeah, that's him alright. I'd be the psycho girl with the ice pick."
"You know they fight to the death later on" Dennis told her, receiving a glare from Sora because spoilers man, spoilers!
Serena's face split into a wicked grin. "I'd so beat his scrawny butt."
Shun had to admit, Yuri was currently his favourite person. Having slid into the passenger seat before Shun could point him in Reiji's direction, he'd fallen asleep before they'd even set off without saying anything. He didn't snore, he didn't complain, he didn't switch the track playing on the radio and was basically the best passenger ever.
"Hey look, looks Reiji worked out how to make the car go forward" Dennis commented, looking out the window "Reira looks bored." He stared waving "Hey Ruri!"
"Is she okay?" Shun asked on instinct. He could only see the front of Reiji's car in his wing mirror. Reira did look bored.
Sora leant over Dennis to peer out of the window. "She's licking the window and making obscene gestures."
"WHAT!" Shun nearly crashed the car at that statement.
"God dammit Sora, stop making him do that!" Allen yelled, making Sayaka gasp at the foul language.
"She's just waving" Dennis told him "They'll be passing you in a second." He frowned. "Oh, well, maybe not, they're slowing down."
"Let me guess, there's steam billowing from the engine" Serena guessed.
"No, I think Reiji forgot which one was the clutch again" Dennis said "Why is he driving?"
"Because he and Shun are the only ones who can drive manuals" Serena remind him.
"Wait, what about Sawatari?" Allen interjected "I thought manuals were, like, his whole shtick."
"He wanted to ride on Yugo's bike" Sora told him, taking the iPad from Dennis so he could keep watching the movie.
Serena and Dennis both winced. Shun understood why perfectly well – he was there. The three of them, along with Yuya, Sawatari and Gongenzaka, had taken a little lesson from Yugo about a year ago on motorcycle riding. Gongenzaka had sat on the bike for about two seconds before he fell off. Dennis had gone a few a meters before nearly crashing it into a pole. Serena had not done much better, incapable of not dropping the clutch and nearly running over Dennis as he picked himself up off of the ground. Shun had done a few laps and was rather impressed with himself, until he had to stop that was…
Shun didn't want to think about happened next, but it had resulted in Dennis spending close to a week in hospital.
Because the world was nasty, Sawatari and Yuya had taken to motorcycle riding like fish to water. Sawatari had wanted to get a license but Mr Sawatari had nearly had an aneurysm at the idea of his son riding a motorcycle and instead gave him a fancy car. Yuya had gotten a license but his mother had been so far pretty reluctant to shell out for the actual bike. He too had wanted to ride on the back of one of the motorbikes, but Rin's bike didn't take passengers and Yugo liked Sawatari better. Besides, Reiji actually liked Yuya and was one of the few people he wouldn't object to riding in his car.
"Wonder how that idiot would cope in this" Sora mused, holding up the iPad slightly to accentuate his point.
"Probably try and bribe his way out" Allen decided with a snort.
"Nah, that would be Reiji" Serena corrected him "Sawatari would threaten to call his dad. Then he'd get minced in the classroom for disobedience like that girl who got knifed in the head. Certainly wouldn't cry tears over him dying."
Shun rolled his eyes. In doing so, he noticed Reiji had apparently found the clutch and was overtaking him. Sure enough, Ruri was waving out the window at him with a big grin on her face and past Reiji he could see little Reira in the front seat also waving a small hand. Momentarily forgetting the other occupants of the minivan, Shun waved back at them, his spirits lifting.
Momentarily, of course, before four separate noises of alarm yelped from the back. Sora had dropped the iPad, lollipop almost falling out of his mouth, and was squished up against Dennis, whose face was contorted into a lookalike of that painting The Scream. Sayaka, who'd made the mistake of taking out her headphones to wave at Ruri, was all but on the lap of Allen, who was still screaming. Apparently something either frightening or particularly gory had happened on screen.
Serena used the opportunity to steal Sora's gummy bears, apparently unaffected.
"The dead body's moving" was her only commented.
"Oh my god are you serious!" Sora glared at her, maybe for stealing his gummy bears or perhaps for just plain not being scared whilst he was all but wetting himself. "You're not human!"
"Oh please, you haven't had to sit through four hours of Five Nights At Freddy's with Yuri followed by binge watching the Paranormal Activity movies" Serena scoffed, taking a handful of the gummy bears "Everything since had been so…dull. Even watching the Saw movies with Yugo and Rin was like…well, I fell asleep. This is nothing. This is boring."
"There's something wrong with you" Allen told her, his voice squeaky as he hugged Sayaka's arm, the girl herself apparently traumatised beyond speaking.
Serena rolled her eyes. "You can shut up, sissy boy."
Allen yelled back and soon everyone in the back was dragged into the argument: Sora supporting Serena, Sayaka supporting Allen and Dennis taking pictures on his smartphone.
Shun was about to reach back and strangle them all individually when he was nearly involved in a multi-car pileup. Just as Reiji was about to pull into the lane in front of Shun's car, Yugo and Rin's motorcycles slalomed between the two cars, causing both him and Reiji to slam on the brakes. Little shits didn't even appear apologetic.
Shun smashed his fist down on the horn, screaming at the top of his lungs about what he was going to do to the motorcycle riders when they stopped in great detail. It didn't quite have the effect he wanted – the rental van's horn was about as loud and fearsome as a bicycle bell.
"You call that a horn?"
All the hairs on Shun's arms stuck up as he recognised the voice mumbling from the passenger seat. He swallowed. "I thought you were asleep?"
Yuri didn't say anything after that, head bowed, chin tucked against his neck and eyes closed, leaving Shun to wonder if the boy had ever said anything at all. Maybe he'd just imagined it.
It was at this point Shun noticed that, for the first time forever, the car's interior was completely silent. It appeared his loud and brazen display of language earlier had stunned everyone into silence.
Good. If he knew all he needed to do was swear to make them all shut up, he would've pulled out the big guns much sooner.
Finally, Sora took it upon himself to break the blissful quiet. "Wow Birdbrain, I didn't think you had it in you. You know I think I might borrow-"
"Shut up!" Shun put an end to that sentence immediately, reaching one arm into the back to try and reach one of them but failing "I don't want to hear a word out of any of you! Just sit there and watch your goddamn movie, because I swear to god, if any of you even think of opening your damn mouths, I am dumping you all on the side of the road and you can damn well walk there!"
Determined he'd made his point, Shun slammed his hands on the wheel in the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions, checked each of his mirrors twice and pressed lightly on the accelerator to keep the van going at two miles over the speed limit. A rush of vindication raced through his body and he felt like Batman.
"Shun would be the guy who jumped off the roof with the samurai sword."
"Hell, Shun would win."
"Yeah, you've got a point, he would."
"He'd make a shelter out of the pelts of his victims."
Shun's fingers tightened on the steering wheel, the vindication gone, and he wonder how many of them he would kill if he drove the minivan into that ditch at the side of the road.
Yuya jumped in his uncomfortable plastic seat as Serena slammed her plate down on the equally plastic table. "What's the point of a damn All-You-Can-Eat buffet if you're not allowed to eat as much as you want?!"
Yuri, who'd been picking at his salad for the past ten minutes, glanced up at her apathetically. He didn't appear completely awake. "I don't think they expected you to go back for a sixth round."
"It's an All-You-Can-Eat buffet!" Serena insisted "They can't just limit how many times you go up there!"
"It's a truck stop, not a luxury restaurant" Yuri reminded her.
"The rate you three are going, you're going to eat them out of business" Yuya joked.
"We're probably going to be living off barbeque and hot dogs for the rest of the week – I need my calories!" Serena insisted, looking around the truck stop for the two others she'd been emptying the buffet with. "Oh come on, there they go again!"
Whilst security had their backs turned, Sora and Dennis had emerged from the mens' bathroom and were making a break for the buffet table.
Yuya groaned. "They're going to get us kicked out. No wonder Reiji and Kurosaki are sitting over there."
Reiji, Gongenzaka and Shun were eating their burgers on the other side of the available seating area, as if they had no connection to Yuya's table what so ever. Ruri, Sayaka and Allen were sat near them, passing Sayaka's phone between them in a competition of who could get the highest score in Bejeweled. Everyone else had disappeared into the shops.
Yuya turned back to Yuri and noticed his head had pitched forwards, glasses sliding down his nose. Before they could end up in his salad, he picked his head back up again and pushed the glasses back up his nose. His eyes blinked wearily, not really able to focus on his plate.
Alright, Yuya was now suspicious. He yanked the sleeve of Serena's shirt so he could whisper to her.
"What did you do to him?" he asked.
"Do what?" Serena raised an eyebrow innocently.
"Why is he so…mellow and sleepy?" Yuya clarified "He all but fell out of the car when we stopped here."
A wicked smile spread across Serena's face. "Well, he and Dennis get pretty carsick. I mean, Dennis is alright if he stays by a window but Yuri? If he'd not driving, he's throwing up. So Dennis gave him some liquid courage."
Yuya's eyebrows shot up. "He's drunk!"
"Shhhh!" Serena quietened him quickly as several heads turned towards their table "No, we just put some sleeping pills in his coffee. With any luck he'll stay just about out of it until we get to wherever this beach house is."
Yuya felt strangely relieved. If Yuri figured out what had happened they were all probably doing to be dead, but at least there was no puking and nor would be there be.
"'Cuse me!"
Yuya yelped when he was knocked out of his chair. Picking himself off of the disgusting truck stop floor, he sighed resignedly when he saw Sora had stolen his chair and was sitting at the table with food piled up on his plate, Dennis having taken the remaining seat at the four-seated table. Serena, far from admonishing them, was stealing food from their plates.
"You know what, I'm going to find the others" Yuya told them "They'll probably be better company."
Sora pouted and held up a corn on the cob towards him. "Want some?"
"No" Yuya replied, turning on his heel and leveling the four most unpleasant people within a hundred-mile radius to their own devices. It wasn't his job to babysit them and he wasn't going to.
Yuya headed over to the other side of the truck stop, in which there was a small shop selling sweets and stationary and tacky souvenirs. By the tacky souvenirs were Rin and Reira, examining the store goods, and Yuto and Yugo, who appeared to be examining Yuto's face.
"But, like, how do they stay on?" Yugo was asking.
Yuto rolled his eyes as if they'd been on this topic for quite a while now. "Yugo, their just like ordinary piercings, like the ones Reiji and Ruri have in their ears." As if emphasising his point, he rolled one of his black stud ear piercings between his finger and thumb. "There's a back on the end to stop them from falling out."
"But where is it?" Yugo all but demanded, playing with the piercings in the skin around Yuto's eye with him thumb. "Like, is it under the skin? How do you get it in there? Is there like a flap you use or something?"
"Yugo" Yuto said the name in the same tone as one may address a five-year-old child threatening to run away from home because you'd refused to turn the television on for them. To give him credit, he was handling the fact that Yugo was all but pressed up against him fully remarkably well. "This piercing here is the back to this one here. They're linked."
Yugo reacted like Yuto had just taught him the secrets of the universe. "Oh my god! Oh my god! Ew!"
Yuto raised an eyebrow. "Ew what?"
"Ew! That means there's like…metal under there!" Yugo pulled a face "Oh that's just weird. How do you get it in there?"
Yuto appeared confused. "You put the sharp end through one hole and feed it through to the other, just like a regular ear piercing. I don't get what the big deal-"
"Ew, so you can feel it moving under there?" Yugo looked ready to vomit "Ew, that's gross!"
Yuya wondered if he should interject. The cashiers were starting to stare at them with concern. But Rin got there first.
"Yugo, stop doing that, people are staring" Rin scolded him and Yugo abruptly stopped complaining about Yuto's 'weird' face piercings.
"How long have I known you?" Yuto levelled the other boy with an unimpressed stare.
Yugo held up a hand, closed his eyes and attempted to walk away dramatically. "Don't talk to me man, you weird me out."
However, because he had his eyes closed, he didn't see the postcard stand until he tripped over it and brought both himself and it crashing to the ground.
"Oh my god, Yugo!" Rin yelped, but it wasn't clear if she was doing it out of concern or embarrassment and anger.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Yugo hastily apologised, who to not entirely obvious, trying to fix the mess he had made, setting the postcard stand right and picking up as many of the scattered postcards as he could. Yuto and Yuya quickly joined in to help, Rin right behind them.
How many postcards were there? Yuya felt like they were trying to pick up snowflakes that fallen in a blizzard. It seemed endless. Next to him, Yuto nearly head-butted Rin as they tried to pick up cards next to each other.
"Yuya?"
Yuya looked up to see Reira looking down at him. The seven-year-old was hugging a teddy bear, staring at Yuya and the other three rooting around amongst the postcards as if he was witnessing a crime scene.
"Hey Reira" Yuya greeted him with a positive smile, knowing that it was probably best to get Reira to leave incase Rin and Yugo got into an argument, or Yugo destroyed the shop further. "Is that a new teddy bear? I thought you had a different one before?"
Reira hugged the clearly new teddy bear to his chest fiercely. "Rin gave it to me."
Yuya couldn't help but smile warmly at Rin's thoughtfulness. He certainly didn't doubt why Yugo loved her.
"Did she buy it at the checkout?" Yuya confirmed, jerking his head towards the checkout to explain what he meant.
Reira nodded solemnly.
"Why don't you show Reiji then?" Yuya suggested.
At the mention of his beloved older brother, Reira's face broke into the most precious grin Yuya was certain he would ever see. The child abruptly ran from the store in the direction of the seating area.
"Has anyone worked out why he wears a hood, even inside?" Rin asked, helping him dig postcards out from underneath the stands.
Yuya shrugged. "Unsociable? Hates sunlight? Think he's the Green Arrow? That's like asking Reiji why he wears a scarf in the middle of summer." He turned his head to look at her. "That was nice of you, to get him the bear."
Rin laughed. "He was staring at it so longing. There was no way I could let Yugo take it."
"You bought a teddy bear your boyfriend wanted and gave it to a child?" Yuya almost laughed himself "If I did that to Yuzu my face wouldn't be recognisable."
"Aw" Rin shrugged "He'll get over it. If he throws a fuss I'll buy him something nice when we get home."
"I can I hear you, people!" Yugo scowled, less than three feet away from them, handing a fistful of postcards up to Yuto, who was putting them back on the stand, but not necessarily in the right order. "There's a human being attached to this name you know! I will not be objectified!"
"Shhh!" Yuto hushed him. Good call; Security, who'd been giving them foul looks already, was starting to get even more antsy at all the yelling.
"I will not be silenced!" Yugo shouted back, Yuya getting strange flashbacks to Shinji Weber's attempt at running for Class President that thankfully Gongenzaka shot down. Maybe because Gongenzaka was actually likeable.
"No, be quiet" Yuto waved him arm at Yugo in a more definitive motion for him to stop talking. "I'm hearing yelling in both ears."
Everyone stopped to listen, the three on the floor standing up to hear better. Three distinct voices could be heard emanating from the shop to their left, all just loud enough to stop anyone from making out any words.
Well, except for one sentence.
"You just wait! I'll tell my Papa about this!"
"That's definitely Sawatari" Rin remarked.
"I thought Yuzu had him under control?" Yuto questioned.
"I thought so too" Yuya shrugged "Never underestimate Sawatari's ability to annoy everyone he comes into contact with."
The distinct sound of something smashing made everyone in the shop – even the bored cashier – wince.
Everyone except Yugo. "See! I'm not the only one! These shops are lethal! They could kill someone!"
As they were ignoring his rant, everyone else was witness to Shingo being manhandled by security towards the doors of the truck stop. Right behind him was Yuzu, being all but frog marched as she insisted she didn't know this crazy guy and she didn't do anything wrong and don't touch me there you pervert!
"Why is it we can't go anywhere without being thrown out?" Rin questioned "The bowling alley, the cinema, the arcade-"
"The popcorn shop" Yugo added.
"The popcorn shop" Rin agreed, not changing her tone of voice.
"Funny, I thought it would be Sora who'd get us kicked out" Yuya remarked.
As if he was summoned by Yuya's words, Reiji appeared at the doorway to the shop, Reira clutching his hand tightly. "Hurry up. We're leaving."
"What, now?!" Yuya exclaimed, suddenly aware of the fact they'd all stopped collecting postcards.
Reiji shot the four of them a look that clearly said he had no pity for them before strutting away, Reira in tow.
"Oh that's just fantastic" Yuya remarked, bending down to try and scoop up as many of the remaining postcards as possible. In doing so, he noticed a pair of legs running away deeper into the shop. "And where do you think you're going?"
"I need to buy something!" Yuto yelled back and Yuya thought that was rather convenient.
He wasn't the only one making a break for it though.
"Yugo, what are you doing?!" Rin called after him.
Rather than retreating further into the shop, Yugo bolted from it all together. "I really need to pee before we leave!"
Rin uttered a very un-lady-like retort before trying to help Yuya with the remaining postcards.
"Guys, come on!" Allen's familiar voice yelled as he ran into the shop, apparently trying to help them himself, for which they were both grateful "Just put them on here and go!"
He was picking up one or two cards at a time and trying to jam them into the slots on the stand without looking at it, but they were just falling out again and he was only making the situation worse.
"Allen, don't!" Yuya insisted, pushing the smaller boy aside to try and get the job done faster "Just go and find Serena and the others. I don't think Reiji would bother warning them."
Allen usually meant well. He also had a habit of making the situation worse that it needed to be.
Allen appeared miffed, but he left none the less.
After about a minute of scrounging on the floor, Yuya and Rin felt pretty confident they were pushing the last few cards into the slots on the stand. Some were upside down or back-to-front and they certainly weren't in their designated slots, but Yuya couldn't bring himself to care.
"Is that them all?" Rin double-checked.
Yuya glanced around the shop floor to check. He couldn't see any postcards left and if there were still any under the stands someone else could get them later.
"Yeah, we're done" Yuya declared and the two of them hurried to leave "Yuto left by the looks of it."
"What did even need to buy?" Rin pondered.
"T-shirts and shorts" supplied a helpful voice. Serena had appeared at their side, all but dragging Yuri who now seemed half-dead. The sleeping pills clearly weren't wearing off any time soon.
"Why does he need t-shirts and shorts?" Rin asked, confused.
"Shun probably forgot to pack stuff suitable for…you know, summer" Yuya guessed.
The four of them started heading towards the cars, being overtaken by Dennis and Sora, who were frantically trying to shove as much food from their plastic plates into their mouths as they possibly could whilst they ran.
"Why do we associated with them again?" Serena pondered.
Rin shrugged. "Ask Ruri. She dated one of them."
They emerged into the car park to be greeted with sunlight and a fresh breeze blowing into their faces…
And the back of Reiji's car as it headed for the highway.
"Hey!" Yuya yelled, chasing after the Land Rover as if he actually thought he was going to catch it "Wait! You forgot someone! You've got my bag! Hey!"
"Actually, I don't think they have" Serena commented, pointing out two large duffle bags sitting of the asphalt that clearly belonged to Yuya and Gongenzaka.
"They totally left him behind" Sora agreed.
Yuya eventually returned to the group. It wasn't often Yuya's negative emotions rose above vague irritation, but on this occasion it was clear that he was fuming.
"Looks like Allen and Sayaka jumped ship" Dennis remarked, obviously trying to stir up trouble.
"Argh, I can't believe they did this to me!" Yuya yelled, his eyes appeared more red than usual "Where's Yugo, I'll ride with him!"
The sound of a motorcycle leaving the car park echoed between the truck stop and the group of people milling around outside it.
"Yes, that's definitely Sawatari with him" Dennis stirred the pot some more.
Yuya was frantically trying to calm himself down from an all-out berserk mode. "Fine, you know, I'll go with Rin. Rin? Where did you go? Rin?"
Under the shade of some trees and few yards away, Rin started her motorcycle up.
"Sorry Yuya, mine only takes one" Rin informed him before pulling the visor of her helmet down in front of her face.
"I don't care! I'll sit on the back of it anyway!" Yuya insisted as she peeled away "Please, don't leave me here! I can't stand punk rock!"
But Rin was already gone.
"Tough luck pal, looks like you're riding with us!" Sora laughed.
Gongenzaka approached him, looking sheepish. "Don't worry. They left me behind too."
"That makes me feel so much better" Yuya groaned. It didn't.
Shun, who was already in the driver's seat and would've already reversed out of the bay had they not been standing behind his car, beeped his horn anxiously.
"Alright, fine! Geez!" Serena complained, getting in the middle row again.
"I'm taking the front" Yuya decided, shouldering his duffle bag and walking towards the passenger's door, hoping that way he could control the volume level in the car.
"Don't bother, Yuri's there" Serena told him after Yuya could already see that. Yuri himself was dead to the world, albeit not snoring, which was probably the reason Shun was letting him sit there.
With a miserable sigh, Yuya climbed into the back row with Gongenzaka.
"We could play Go Fish if you want, Yuya" Gongenzaka suggested.
"You'd better be joking" Yuya remarked, really not in the mood for anyone to pick up Yuzu and Ruri's teasing.
"Of course I was" Gongenzaka said in that way that left Yuya wondering if he'd actually be joking or serious the whole time. The way he was squished up against the window also left Yuya wondering how a guy who exercised more than he did managed to take up so much room.
With everyone in the minivan, Shun began to reverse out of the bay, and Yuya swore he could hear the base guitar spilling from the speakers even when the radio wasn't on.
"Hey, can we put the movie back on?" Serena asked "I wanna see if the sissy boy and that girl die in each other arms or not."
A savage grin crawled across Dennis' face. "Oh the money I would pay to see that happen."
And Dennis was being disturbing; wonderful.
This was going to be Yuya's whole weekend, wasn't it? Friends abandoning him to the mercy of Shun Kurosaki's terrible taste in music and Sora's gory slasher movies.
"How long until we get there?" Yuya groaned, slumping in his seat.
"An hour" Gongenzaka offered.
Yuya almost cried. The only reason he didn't was because a green lollipop appeared to the side of the middle headrest.
"Wanna lollipop?" Sora offered.
Now the base guitar did start up, the screaming lyrics soon to follow.
Yuya's "Thanks, buddy" was about as dry as the Atacama Desert.
The rest of this trip better turn out greater than this, or Yuya was rollerblading home.