Chapter eleven
Daria and Eugene were cruising down the highway now in a strained silence. Daria watched the scenery pass by, still dirt and dead plants.
She was angry with Eugene and herself, and confused about the whole fight. She hated that she couldn't have stood up to him about Mikal, but it was Eugene's car and she still needed him. In addition, he was still her friend, a messed up one, but a friend nonetheless.
Daria sighed, grateful that Eugene wasn't talking to her, although now the car was too quiet.
She had liked having Mikal around. She was a nice, normal friend, except for her People In Charge thing, but she was still good company. At least Mikal hadn't been as mean or crazy as Eugene was.
Daria felt ashamed about the way she treated Mikal. It wasn't fair, but Eugene did put her in that position. However, Daria knew that was a weak excuse.
Daria turned to look at Eugene. She just stared at him, because she knew that it would drive him crazy; it worked.
"Why you staring at me?" he asked annoyed.
"Because," was all Daria said.
"What!" he snapped, now looking at her.
Daria narrowed her eyes at him, "Why were you suddenly angry at Mikal?" she asked.
"Don't worry about it," he said sharply, looking back at the road, "Besides we better off without her."
"So you say," Daria said, peeved, and then sighed, "You know Eugene, I like you and all, but you can be a real a**hole sometimes," she said.
He turned to her, "What does that matter? We set out to find Julia, so we're gonna find Julia," he said angrily hitting the steering wheel.
"Yeah, we'll find Julia," Daria said resentfully, and turned to look out her window.
Eugene went quiet once more, and Daria was grateful.
They drove for about four hours before Eugene broke the silence.
"S**t, running low on gas," Eugene swore, tapping the fuel gauge.
"Are we gonna get stuck?" Daria asked indifferently.
"Hope not. We got few miles left," he said, "There better be a place to stop soon, though."
Half an hour later, they found a gas station. They pulled in. Eugene went into pay, and Daria started filling the car.
Daria leant against the car, lost in thought. She was trying to figure out what to do and where to go. There were no leads as to where Jane might be and Daria didn't know how much longer she really wanted to continue.
She knew she wanted to find Jane more then anything, and that she had also promised Trent to bring Jane back, but well, Trent wasn't out here dealing with all this. Moreover, he didn't have to carry around the feelings of guilt and apprehension like she did.
Trent also didn't have to wonder if Jane would be happy to see him. It was a fact that she would. Daria just wasn't sure what to expect when she and Jane finally met up.
"Okay, just calm down," said a female voice interrupting Daria's thoughts.
Daria looked over to her left. A little ways away was Mikal and she was with a police officer. They were standing next to a NO EXIT sign missing the NO.
"If you just comply, everything's gonna be just fine," the officer said.
"On what charges?" Mikal argued.
The officer looked at her incredulously, "Breaking that sign is a clear case of vandalism," he stated.
"Oh, that's absolutely retarded," Mikal said, as the officer took out his cuffs, "You're handcuffing me, too?" she said in disbelief.
"Yes," he said, grabbing her arm.
"Are you serious?" Mikal asked.
"Yes, I'm placing you under arrest; hands behind your back," the cop said, pulling Mikal's arms back and cuffing her hands.
"I was just trying to make this place a little bit less depressing," Mikal explained exasperated, "I don't see what the big deal with that is. This is so dramatic you don't even need to be doing this," she complained as he opened the backdoor of his car.
Daria didn't want to see Mikal in trouble, but she wasn't sure of what she could do.
Daria left the car and headed over to them.
"Hey, officer, wait!" Daria called, approaching them.
Mikal and the officer turned to her.
Mikal seemed surprised to see her.
"What's going on? That's my, uh…sister," Daria tried.
"You're sister?" the officer asked skeptically, as he put Mikal in the back and closed the door.
"Yeah," Daria said more confidently.
"I'm afraid your sister's been arrested," he said, looking at Daria suspiciously.
"Arrested?" Daria asked.
The officer nodded, and headed to get into his car.
"Wait, wait," Daria said, blocking him, "Can I talk to you a minute?" she said.
The officer sighed, "What have you got to say?" he asked impatiently.
Daria paused for a minute. She didn't really know what to say. Mikal looked at her expectantly from inside the car.
"Uh, I mean, she's only been here a couple of months," Daria said, "I mean how long have you been here?"
"Some time," he said dully.
"Okay, but you remember the first time you got here, and those first few months," Daria said, trying to tap into his compassionate side.
The officer thought about it, zoning out for a minute. He then looked at Daria.
"Yeah, I do," he said and then sighed, "Well, I guess I can turn my head away this once."
Daria smiled, relieved, "Thank you," she said.
The officer opened the back door, "Ma'am, you better watch your behavior," he said to Mikal and pulled her out of the backseat.
"You bet officer," Mikal said.
The officer un-cuffed her and gave Mikal back her stuff.
The officer got back into his car and drove away. Daria and Mikal stood together, awkwardly. Daria didn't know what to say to Mikal, but figured she was still angry with her.
Mikal turned to Daria, "You really didn't have to do that," she said.
Daria shrugged, "I didn't want to see you locked up. I mean it sucks here to begin with," Daria said, "Who knows what the prisons look like."
"True. Well, thanks Daria," Mikal said and started for the highway.
Daria followed her. "Mikal, I'm really sorry for what I said, and Eugene," she said.
"No, you're sorry that I heard what you two said," Mikal corrected sharply.
"Okay, that might be more accurate," Daria conceded, "But it's just that Eugene gets weird and to calm him sometimes you have to just agree with whatever he says, otherwise he'll go on forever," she explained.
"Yeah, I get it," Mikal said indifferently, sticking her thumb out to a passing car; it kept going.
"Please, can we still give you a ride?" Daria asked.
Mikal sighed, and looked at Daria, "Daria, it was fun, but I can hardly stand Eugene and I don't need to associate with a two-face like you," she said scathingly. "I thought at least you would be different from everyone else around here," she said lightly disappointed, focused on the road.
Daria was a bit hurt, but didn't want to give up on her. "I'll talk to Eugene, and well, I promise I'm not normally like that," she begged.
"It's okay, but really I think it's just best that we part here. I'll get another ride," Mikal said curtly, "Thanks."
Daria nodded, accepting defeat. She sighed, "All right, well, I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry," she said.
"I accept your apology, Daria," Mikal said sincerely.
"Okay, well, I hope you find your People In Charge then," Daria said solemnly.
Mikal looked at her, "I hope you find Jane," she said earnestly and then focused back on the road.
Daria walked back over to the car. Eugene was already sitting in the driver's seat. Daria got in.
"Where were you?" Eugene asked.
"Mikal was back there," Daria said.
"Oh," Eugene said, "Small world," he shrugged, and started the car.
He drove forward, but not very far before they heard a loud banging noise.
"What the hell was that?" Eugene asked, and looked out the window, "Oh, man. You didn't take out the nozzle!" he complained, glaring at Daria.
"I forgot. I went to deal with Mikal," Daria defended.
"Man, you worse then a guy; trying to get into her pants I bet," Eugene said sneering at her, and then looked up when the gas attendant was walking over to them.
"I wasn't trying to get into her pants," Daria said offended.
"You deal with the guy. I'm not into it," Eugene said trying to avoid looking at the attendant.
Daria got out of the car, annoyed.
"I'm sorry," Daria said, walking over to the attendant.
"It's all right. Could you just come with me?" he said.
Daria nodded and followed him into the office.
The attendant went behind the cash register.
"I'm sorry, really," Daria said.
He waved his hand dismissingly. "It happens at least twice a week, don't worry about it," he said, and pulled out a large folder.
Daria looked at him confused, "Really?"
He opened the folder, "Yeah. See, these are already filled out," he said, flipping through at least a hundred pages.
Daria was still confused.
The man flipped to an empty page, picked up a pen and handed it to Daria, "Here. Sign," he said.
Daria took the pen, and looked at the page; it asked for name, date, time of incident. Daria filled that out with ease, but was puzzled about a part that said "What were you thinking when the incident occurred? Explain in detail."
Daria looked up at the attendant, "Uh, what does this mean, 'What were you thinking when the incident occurred?'" she asked.
He looked at her as if she were slow, "Exactly what it says," he said impatiently.
"Okay?" Daria said, thinking this world gets crazier everyday.
She contemplated the question. She looked out the window and saw Mikal still by the road.
Daria looked back at the folder and started flipping through the pages, looking at the reasons other people had listed so that she could probably copy one. She wasn't exactly sure of what she had been thinking.
Daria read one, "Here I am again, buried in debt. If killing myself didn't solve my problems, what the hell will?"
Daria flipped to another page, figuring that one was too depressing to try to copy.
Second one, "I was wondering if I was too drunk to drive."
Daria nixed that one, and looked at one last page. It caught her off guard.
She recognized the script and then looked at the name. She saw that it had an address.
"Excuse me?" Daria said to the attendant.
"Yeah?" he said coming over to her.
"This address, do you know where it is?" she asked hopeful.
The guy looked at it, "Parla Copa town, In the middle?" he said and took a moment to think.
"Well?" Daria asked impatiently when he took too long.
"Uh, yeah, just follow the highway south for about six hours," he said.
"Okay, thank you," Daria said, and looked at the page, "Um, can I take this?" she asked.
"Yeah, I don't care," he said waving his hand indifferently.
Daria tore the page out and ran back to Eugene. He was standing with Mikal, talking, or arguing it seemed.
"Whatever," Mikal said annoyed turning away from him.
Daria ignored the fight, "Look at what I found!" she said excitedly to Eugene.
"Calm down," Eugene said, startled.
"It's her! She was here!" Daria said showing him the paper.
"Jane?" Mikal asked looking at her curiously.
"Yeah, it even has an address," Daria said.
"Well, hell, let's go get her!" Eugene said enthusiastically, getting into the car and starting it up.
Daria looked at Mikal, "Are you sure you won't come with us?" she asked.
Mikal took a moment and then sighed, "I'll come. Besides, I don't think I should leave you alone with Eugene," she said, "You might pick up some of his bad habits," she smiled.
Eugene glared at Mikal from the window and flipped her off. Mikal stuck her tongue out at him.
Daria rolled her eyes at their childish ways.
"Don't worry, I'm completely immune, but I'd like your company," Daria said to her.
Mikal nodded and they got into the car.
"Gimme the paper," Eugene said, taking it from Daria, and looking at the address, "Where is this place?" he asked.
"The guy said south, about six hours?" Daria said, taking back the paper.
Eugene nodded and headed back onto the highway.
Daria turned to look at Mikal in the back, "Hey, Mikal, Eugene won't tell me, but what did you do to piss him off earlier?"
"Excuse me?" Mikal said offended, "What did I do?" she said, eyeing Eugene.
Eugene seemed to tense, "Hey, Daria we all getting along now and I told you it's not important, so…" he said nervously.
"Well, I want to know," Daria said, looking at Mikal.
"He grabbed my a** when he was talking to his mother on the phone. So I grabbed the phone, and told him, while speaking into the phone so that his mother would hear, that if he grabbed my a** again, I would tell his mother," Mikal said, glaring Eugene.
Eugene shrugged, but quailed at Daria's glare.
"Oh my god, you idiot!" Daria shouted and started slapping any part she could reach of him, "You are scum!"
"Hey, knock it off," Eugene said fighting back with Daria with one arm, "Don't hit me while I'm driving!" he said swerving into the next lane and trying to right the car.
"Then pull the car over!" Daria said still hitting him, "You made me think Mikal was so horrible, when it was all you!"
"Yeah, but she was rude. Now my mother thinks I'm a pervert," Eugene argued.
"You are!" Mikal and Daria both shouted.
"Yeah, but she didn't need to know," Eugene said, "And stop hitting me. You want us to die?!" he said, having trouble keeping the car steady.
Daria calmed, and sat down in her seat, breathing hard, "Eugene you hit new lows everyday, but I want to live to find Jane," she said, "You're lucky I like your mother and that she really loves you, otherwise, I'd kill you, leave you out here, and take your car."
"Okay, so I'm thankful, and sorry," he said sincerely, steadying the car.
"You better be, because if you do it again, Eugene, I won't be so forgiving," Daria said grumpily, looking out her window.
Eugene nodded. Mikal had been laughing the whole time.