Chapter Three: Hittin' the Road

It was nearly three in the afternoon when Jo pulled up in front of the driveway of Blair's house. She honked her horn loudly to make her presence known. As soon as the garage door opened, Jo's jaw dropped.

Blair stood, surrounded by things. In one hand, she held a suitcase bursting to boot with all types of fishing equipment, a cooler and a lantern at her feet.

Blair wore an expensive white designer strapless sundress with white leather sandals. She had a flowing white scarf wrapped around her head along with dark black Ray Bans covering her eyes and dark red lipstick on her lips complemented the look.

Jo wore a simple white blouse with black buttons, black jeans and black boots and barely any makeup on except for dark eyeliner around her eyelids and an almost clear shade of pink lipgloss on her lips. She had put her long brown hair up into a ponytail and had let some of her hair flow freely in the front as bangs.

Jo got out of the car to help assist Blair. "Blair, what the hell? I said to pack reasonably," she protested. "Why'd ya bring the lantern? The place already has electricity."

"Yeah but we have to be prepared, Jo. I want to take it anyway...just in case," Blair replied.

Jo stared at Blair in confusion. "In case of what?" She asked.

"Jo, there might be some crazed killer out there somewhere that cuts off the electricity and then tries to kill us all or something."

Jo only stared incredulously at her friend. She's really serious about this.

She only rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. OK, Blair. Sure. The lantern will really come in handy then," she said sarcastically, trying her best not to laugh. "Maybe we could tow Casey's crappy car over there and the killer could use the spark plugs." She motioned with her head to the used, beat-up Toyota Corolla Casey had left behind in the garage.

Blair bit back a chuckle. "You know, we just might have to. That hunk of junk barely even makes it down the driveway." She shook her head in disbelief. Bastard took my car. Damn him.

Jo shook her head. "Well, since the day's almost shot, we'd better hurry up and get out of here. C'mon!"

Blair and Jo lugged all of Blair's belongings into the backseat and trunk of Jo's car together. After Jo had closed the trunk, she went into the front seat and pulled out a Polaroid camera.

"Wait! Before we go, I just wanna, ya know, make some memories. So let's take a picture together, 'kay?"

Blair grinned. "Jo, that's so sweet! Good idea! OK! Let me just fix my hair and makeup first!"

Jo gave Blair an annoyed look. "Blair, ya look fine! C'mon! Let's be in the moment without it looking so contrived."

Blair huffed. "Fine. If you must…"

Jo held up her camera in front of her and her friend and smiled widely.

"Smile!" Jo exclaimed. Blair rested her chin on her friend's shoulder and gave the camera a megawatt smile.

"Let's do this!" Jo exclaimed after she had taken the picture. Blair grinned widely, throwing her arms in the air in excitement.

Two days on the road with your best friend. What could be better? Blair thought happily.

The two women had been driving down the interstate for nearly two hours when it dawned on Blair that she had packed her partner's gun in her purse. Guess Jo has a right to know it's there.

"Uh, Jo? Do you mind taking care of the gun?" She asked, pulling it out of her purse.

Jo's eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets when she saw it.

"A gun? A gun?! Blair, why the hell would ya bring that with us?" She asked in disbelief.

Blair gave her friend a incredulous look. "Really, Jo? I brought it to protect ourselves! We could come up against anything in the woods, especially at night. Snakes, bears, psycho killers." She paused, biting her lip before continuing. "I don't really know how to use it. I figured you did. Didn't that dodo club of yours teach you how to handle firearms?"

Jo rolled her eyes at Blair's deliberate mispronunciation of her former childhood gang's name; the Young Diablos. She was too engrossed in thinking about the gun to correct her or give her a snide wisecrack.

"Ugh. Just give me the damn thing," she said, holding out her hand.

Blair handed it to her carefully along with the bullets. "I don't think we'll ever need to use this thing anyway but I'm not turnin' back around to put it back so let's just keep goin'," Jo admonished.

Jo quickly placed the gun and bullets under her seat and continued driving. To ease their boredom, she turned on the radio. A pop music station playing current hits filled the car.

"So, who's place is this again?" Blair asked Jo curiously as she bopped along to the music.

"Oh, it's Mary Ellen's, the day secretary's," Jo informed her. "She's gettin' a divorce and she gets the vacation house. She's lettin' all her friends use the place, bein' nice, I suppose. So she let me use it for the weekend."

Blair only nodded. "Well, that sounds nice of her," she remarked. "At least she and her husband had a vacation home together. Casey never wants to go anywhere and do anything and we're not even married!"

"Speakin' of Casey, what'd he say when ya told him you were leavin'?" Jo asked curiously.

Blair only shrugged nonchalantly. "Never even told him," she admitted.

Jo's jaw flew open in shock. "Oh, shit. Blair, he's gonna kill ya," she replied.

Blair made a face. "Well, it's true, Jo!" she exclaimed indignantly. She crossed her arms like a petulant child. "As soon as I agreed to live with him and be his partner, he changed! He never lets me do anything fun. All he wants me to do is loaf around the house all damn day while he's…"

She paused, glancing at Jo, swallowing hard and looking slightly teary. Probably out fucking some other girl, Blair thought sadly.

"Doing God knows what," she finished, frowning.

Jo also frowned. She reached out to squeeze Blair's shoulder to comfort her. Lousy son of a bitch, Jo thought, silently gritting her teeth. Blair deserves better.

"But I left him a note and some food for him to microwave so he should be fine," Blair said flippantly, waving her hand. She paused again, glancing awkwardly at Jo.

"So…guess you haven't heard anything from Rick, have you?" She asked, wanting so badly to change the topic.

She watched as Jo's knuckles rapidly turned white from gripping the steering wheel too tightly. Her jaw began to tighten and she only glared at Blair, her green eyes flashing. Hearing her husband's name had reminded Jo how angry she was with him. She didn't say a word to Blair.

Guess not, Blair thought. Maybe she'll tell me when she's ready.

"Never mind," she said quickly, turning the opposite way, instead turning her attention to staring at herself in the side mirror.

She began pouting her lips and making kissy faces in the mirror.

Jo stared at her friend in amusement. "Blair, whaddya doin'?" She asked in mock exasperation. She giggled.

Blair also giggled. "Trying to ease my boredom," she answered.

At that moment, the two girls spotted a rather large semi-tanker truck on the right side of the road honking at them. Blair stared at the mud flaps on the bottoms of the truck near the tires. They had silhouettes of naked girls on them and a bumper sticker that read I LOVE TITS in capital letters. Blair grimaced.

What a scumbag, she thought in disgust.

"Friend of yours?" Jo asked teasingly, nudging Blair.

"Oh, shut up, Jo," she replied, rolling her eyes. She playfully gave Jo the finger.

Jo gasped in mock horror. "OMIGOD! Blair Warner just flipped me off! Somebody call the presses! Little Miss Society Darlin', herself, just fuckin' flipped me off! If only Monica Warner could see her daughter now!" She teased, bursting out laughing hysterically.

Blair happily joined in, clutching her belly from laughing so hard. Her head fell on Jo's shoulder as she tried to contain her raucous laughter to no avail.

She couldn't remember when she'd laughed harder.