Chapter Five: Insomnia and Steak

"How much longer?" Caria asked Jeff.

"Not sure, but I think it's necessary if we pull over for the night." the Cameron native told her.

The daylight soon formed into a rainy night. It was pouring so hard, that it seemed it was coming down in buckets. Most of everyone in the van were already asleep but Jeff and Caria. Though Caria did feel tired, but she had an extreme case of Insomnia. Jeff had to stay awake in order to keep his eyes on the road. He searched everywhere for any signs saying 'hotel' at all. Luckily, there was a Holiday Inn just up ahead.

Jeff parked the van in the parking lot and pulled the key out of the ignition. He let the engine die and took off his seat belt. The rain had stopped somewhat, it was now sprinkling. But still, it was time for them all to take a break.

He turned around to see if Caria was still awake. She was. "Hey do you think you can wake up Shannon and X for me? I'll get Matt and Aimes."

Caria nodded. "Sure."

And as they did, little by little, the group began to get out and bring a couple of their bags. Shannon though, was still awake.

Caria gave him a tired, slight shove. "Shan, Shaaaan. UGHH..."

She groaned; but then Jeff came to her aid. "Don't worry about him, I'll get'em."

"Okay, thank you." Caria said sleepily. She felt herself slowly shutting down a bit at a time.

As they all were out, Jeff climbed into the backseat and grabbed Shannon and put his limp body over his shoulder. "Let's go bud. Ha-ha."

"That should do it." The rainbow-haired man said putting Shannon down on the ground. He put his head down on a pillow and covered him up with a blanket. Matt and Amy got to sleep on the bed, while the rest of them slept on the floor. X was by the foot of the bed looking like she was just knocked out and Jeff and Caria were planning on sleeping by her.

"I think that's everone and everything." Jeff said in a hushed tone. He didn't want to wake the others.

"Yep." Caria replied. There was an awkward moment of silence between them.

Jeff managed to break it quickly. "Hey, do you want to go down to the dining room and get some food? You know, since we're already up in all."

Caria shrugged. "Sure."

In the elevator, they stood in silence. Neither of them knew exactly why, but that's the way it was.

Jeff tried some small talk to see if you could spark anything. "I uh, like your boots."

Really, really small talk.

"Oh thanks." Caria responded with a half smile.

"Hot Topic?" he guessed.

Caria shook her head. "No, it's from an underground company on the internet."

"Is that where you get all of your clothes?" Jeff asked.

"Some." she replied simply. Caria knew what he was doing and decided it was her turn. But she dug a little deeper. "So if you don't mind me asking; why did you and X break up?"

Jeff gave a small shrug. "We just got sick of each other -- or that's my guess. We'd fight constantly and just couldn't get along. So the two of us just broke it off."

Caria hoped she wasn't getting too carried away with her curiousity when she asked another question. "Do you think you two will ever get back together?"

The first question didn't bother him so much but the second one made Jeff a little uncomfortable. Thought he wouldn't show it.

Jeff shook his head slightly. "I don't think so, but we're both cool with being friends."

Caria gave a half smile. "Well that's all that matters."

The elevator doors opened and the two of them stepped out onto the floor. In the dining room, they began to have their midnight dinner.

"Mm, they have thee best steak I've ever tasted." Caria said enjoying her food.

"Definitely." Jeff agreed. "I always thought it'd be gross-tasting, you know?"

Caria giggled. "No, that's airplane food."

"Ah, yes." Jeff nodded.

She didn't notice, but when Caria let her guard down, Jeff had a plan. Immediatly, as soon as she cut a piece of her steak off, he stabbed it onto his fork and quickly swiped it into the sauce. "Let me try some!"

Caria gasped. "Jeff! Oh, you're such a weirdo."

"I know." he grinned. He put the steak in his mouth and chewed it up. It wasn't tough at all. "Ooh, it's actually pretty good; you're right."

She slid her plate over to him. "Any more? Haha. And I'm always right. "

"Is that so?" Jeff responded.

"Yes, in fact, it is." she said proudly.

He chuckled softly to himself. Then he thought about the next thing he wanted to say. Would it be too sudden to ask her about what he wanted to know? Jeff decided it was worth a shot, so he did it. "You know Car', I was just wondering but... are you... doing anything later in the week?"

She blinked. "Er well... I don't know. Why?"

"Hmm, well when you do have the time... would you wanna go on a date sometime in the future?" he offered. "You know, may be just like over coffee or somethin'?"

Caria smiled. "I'd love to."

A/N: -.-; Finally I got this damn chapter over with. The next one will be a little more serious. Please review!