Chapter 5

I said no

Taylor parked the tow truck in the parking lot of the Topock Motel just across the border of Nevada and Arizona. Apparently the car had died somewhere between the two. Josh had been intelligent and used Drake's cell phone to call the nearest service station to have them pick him up. The motel was just as crappy as the first, only this time the sheets were at least clean.

Drake, Josh, and Taylor all shared a room. The boy's let her sleep on one bed while they slept on the other. Another night of sleeping with Josh is not what Drake wanted to do.

"Taylor, I'd just like to thank you for what you're doing. I mean fixing my car for free is so nice." Drake thanked her as she came out of the bathroom wearing a pair of pajama pants he'd lent her.

"I never said for free, I said for a deal." She explained as she took down her hair and sat on the edge of her bed.

"So how much you want for it? We don't have much. We need to make it to Massachusetts and back to San Diego on a few hundred dollars."

"Take me with you. That's all I want. You could use a mechanic. I've got a few hundred bucks in savings and I don't take up much room. I'll pay my own way." She begged. She needed to get out of Arizona, she needed to get away from the truckers that stopped in the diner every day. She needed to see the rest of the world.

Drake looked at Josh who just looked away.

"It's not my decision, if it was I'd say you could go. It's Josh's." Drake sighed as he lay down on the bed.

"Josh please. I'd do the same for you." Taylor pleaded.

"You know what fine. You can go." Josh stated as he pulled the covers over his head. "Just don't ask me for anything again."

"Thank you so much Drake, you have no idea how much this means to me." Taylor said swinging her feet over the bed. Drake got up and sat down next to her.

"You live here your whole life?" He asked as he lay down, his hands behind his head.

"Yeah. Why are you guys going to Massachusettes from San Diego?" She asked lying down next to him. He was the first attractive guy her age she'd ever been around.

"Taking Josh to Harvard. Now at least I'll have someone to keep me company on the drive home." Drake laughed.

"He's a smart kid, gettin into Harvard." Taylor sighed as she looked over at Josh.

"Yeah, he is."

"You going to college?"

"No, not my thing. Musics my thing. I'm going to be a famous rock star someday." Drake said full of himself.

"I don't know what I want to be." Taylor stated as lay down too.

"So you work in that diner a lot?" Drake asked again. Sleep that normally came so easy to him wasn't comming now.

"Yeah, I learned how to fix a car at a young age. Being an only child I had to."

"Well, I'll let you sleep."

" Night."

"Night."

Drake got up and walked back to the bed he was sharing with Josh. He took his pillow and his comforter, Josh was using his own things agian, and then Drake proceeded to sleep in the bathtub.

Taylor got up around dawn as usual. The sun filtering through the windows was always the first thing that woke her up, the next it was the truckers in the diner that did. Their cursing and fowl sexual talk made her want to puke every time she heard it, but she sucked it up put on clothes and the damn apron and served them. She hated the way they treated her like an object, harrassed and degraded. Who would have ever thought that being called 'Sweet thang' and 'Hunny' would make her so disgusted.

She neatly made the bed, something she did out of habit. After he mother died she kept doing the things her mother had instilled in her, something many children her age tended to forget.

She made sure Josh was asleep and changed back into her grease stained jeans. She walked out onto the tattered balcony of the motel. This place probably failed inspection numerous times, she wondered why it hadn't been condemed yet. Drug sellers, child molesters, and prostitues surrounded the place. This state was gross, she needed to get away, up to the east or west coast, where normal people were, or people she thought were normal.

She walked back into the stark bathroom with mildew growing between the grout lines on the floor. How Drake could bring himself to sleep in the shower was beyond her. The grubby soap scum, that'd probably built up over the decades. Hell it was probably infested with STD's. She used one of the motel toothbrushes to brush her teeth and pulled back her brown hair into a loose pony.

She looked back to the boy in the bathtub. She knew she wasn't his type, he went for girls that matched him on a vanity level. Girls she used to go to high school with, that was before she dropped out. Blonde girls who wore the short skirts and skimpy halter tops. Girls with the perfect breasts that filled their shirts just right. Girls with long legs, who practiced cheerleading for the football players. Girls who got pregnant and showcased their perfect pregnant bellies. Girls who were excited when they found out they were pregnant with the quarterbacks child.

She wasn't one of those girls, she'd never be one of those girls. She hated dresses, skirts, skimpy tops, make up, and nail polish. She was the girl who liked to catch snakes in the mud, who wrestled with the boys, who tried out for the football team, she was the girl who at 7 learned how to change a carborator. Who now could diagnose what was wrong with any car and could do an oil change in 20 seconds flat. She was not Drake Parkers type.

She left the motel room quietly going into the cab of the two truck. She pulled out the book she'd been reading. She walked back into their room and sat on the bed reading. She was smarter than all her teachers gave her credit for being. D average, accelling in only one class, English. She loved books anything written down she'd read. She used to read so much that she'd get awful headaches.

Josh woke up about 20 minutes later. He woke Drake up when he got in the bathroom not realizing there was another person there until he started going to the bathroom and Drake asked him to turn off the fountain.

They had a long day ahead of them. Drake was going to drive them to the Grand Canyon, once Taylor fixed his car.

"Drake what the fuck is up with this car?" Taylor laughed as she opened the hood.

"Is something seriously wrong?" Drake asked worried that his baby was really dead.

"Yeah, I'm surprised this car made it past Anaheim. It still has most of it's original parts."

"So it's really vintage then. The dealer wasn't lying."

"How much did you pay for this?" She asked hand on her hip.

"One thousand." Drake responded not knowing if he should have told her.

"I would have paid 500."

"Can you fix it?" Drake paced. He wanted to get out of here. The truckers were starting to worry him and plus he just wanted to get home and relax. None of this traveling junk. He wanted to go to the beach, pick up hott girls, party with them, then play some guitar. Drake Parker was out of the adventure spirit. Then again he was never really in it to begin with.

"Yeah. You're radiator coolant looks like it's never been changed. That's why you saw the smoke. I put more coolant in, changed your oil and transmission fluid. You also badly needed winsheild fluid. As for under the hood you're all set. It's what's under the car I'm worried about." She stated as she pulled the bench off the wall and rolled under the car.

"So you see anything?" Drake asked as he lay down on the floor.

"Well, it's pretty rusted through. I think you locked your rear differential. I might need to order a new part...never mind wasn't that." She said as she pushed herself out from under the car. "It was this that caused it to get all gunked up." She said as she threw a Supersized softdrink cup out from under the car. "That was wedged between your gear shaft. Shifting will be easier now. I think Josh stalled out when he tried to pull over."

"Josh told you that you didn't know how to drive a standard." Drake stated as he placed both his hands on his hips.

"Hey! Calm down the cars fine." Taylor interjected as she sensed a fight brewing. "I'm just going to grab a few things." She said as she lowered the jack.

She walked around to the back of the diner, it was always busy this time of the day, she wondered why her dad wasn't yelling for her. She walked into her tiny room, one shabby bed and a trunk to keep things in. She grabbed 7 pairs of underwear, 3 pants, a few shorts, some shirts and shoved all of what she could into a duffel. She burried a black box with gold letters on it in the depths of the bag.

Taylor climbed into the back seat of the car, she didn't care that it was crowded, she was used to crowded. Drake started the car and she looked back on the diner one last time. She was finally free.

A/N: Okay so I've been trying to update since like Tuesday but the sight wouldn't load it...anyway thank you so much for your reviews! I like where this is going, hopefully you do too. Also, I don't plan on changing Drake too much, I mean he'll have that ahha moment where he realizes he needs to grow up...I just don't know when and It'll be gradual, things are like that. I'll stop ranting now and finish chapter six.

Morgan