The wind blowing through Lea's window drowned out everything, the radio was barely audible over the rush of air, and yet the open road was eerily quiet. He'd long since abandoned the main highway, cruising down the road in the middle of the desert with a full tank of gas and Isa in the passenger seat. Lea never expected Isa to actually join him on this adventure; he'd been talking about this since he first got his driver's license, packing up and driving across the country as soon as he and Isa were both eighteen with their high school years miles behind them in the dust that blew off of Lea's toyota. But Isa had jumped in the car without question and they were off, literally hours after graduation, with a knapsack each full of clothes and toiletries and the money they'd earned over the last two summers from odd jobs around town.
They'd been out for two days now and made it through three states headed east, after a very nice stay in a motel room a few towns back where Lea had been able to maul Isa into his bed without the risk of unfortunate interruptions. Neither of them had slept much the night before, and Isa was more worse for wear than anything. He snoozed in the passenger seat next to Lea, his head back against the seat and a baseball cap pulled down over his eyes to shield him from the midday desert sun.
Lea glanced at Isa quickly before returning his eyes to the road, wrenching with the gear shift to shift down and slow his speed by about ten miles per hour to make the ride as smooth as possible to avoid disturbing him.
He kept to this for about fifteen miles, a cigarette in his hand consistently, and his left arm draped over the car door where the window was rolled all the way down. He adjusted his position on the road to avoid the cracks and holes in the road that would shock his struts and send Isa bouncing in his seat.
Lea shifted gears and slowed down some more, stopping to light a new cigarette once the one in his hands had burned down to the filter. He looked back up to the road, noticing a gigantic pothole in the middle of his lane, a good four inches deep, and more than wide enough to do some damage to his car.
Lea swung his steering wheel to the left, his tires squealing as the car veered to the left, Isa letting out a startled squawk beside him. Lea veered the car back to the right, missing the pothole by a few inches, and Isa was slammed into his door with a thunk and a yelp of pain.
Lea was back on his side of the road, knuckles white he was gripping the steering wheel so tightly, and his heart hammering against his ribcage. Isa fought against his seatbelt to sit back upright, pulling his hat off his head to glare at Lea, his hair sticking up at the side.
"What the hell was that for!?"
Lea glanced over at Isa, quickly bringing his attention back on the road. "What? There was a pothole!"
Isa groaned, slapping his hat back on his head and curling up in his seat, reaching down between the seat and the door for the lever and laid his seat back. He turned onto his side, facing Lea in the driver's seat, and pulled his cap back over his eyes.
"Fuck that. Tomorrow, I'm driving,"