Five

They were on the road well before noon; the sun trapped behind the steely clouds on the horizon, the sky a grayish white color that hurt their eyes. The weather forecast hadn't specifically called for rain, but had announced that the day would be overcast. A rainstorm was possible for the evening and for that Cody was thankful. At least they'd be inside a hotel at night, not worrying about the back of the car flooding out or being unable to see two feet in front of him. Cody and Sharyn were driving along the empty back roads, still two days away from the show. He stole a glance over at Sharyn; she always looked so serious. He wondered just what it would take to keep a smile on her face. It made him appreciate the times she had smiled in the short time that he had been acquainted with her. He wished there was something he could do to take her mind off of things, to at least lighten her moods a little bit. But he was certain she was one of those people who lived in a constant state of anxiety; he was sure that she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she wasn't stressed out. Peace of mind was something that she just didn't know.

"You ever smile?" he asked. She smirked.

"Subtle."

"I'm just curious. I don't really think I've seen you smile since I met you," he told her, keeping his eyes ahead on the road. He started to fumble around with the radio station, resting on a country station. "Being so stressed out isn't good for your health, you know."

"Neither is smoking."

"Yeah, but you quit that."

"It's a bit different, Cody. You can't just quit being stressed out. It's not that simple," she replied, her gaze going out the window at the world that was passing her by. She didn't really know what else to say. She would have loved to remember what it was like to not be stressed out, just to be happy. But as the time wore on, she never found her peace of mind; just more to be stressed about.

"Do you have any siblings, Sharyn?"

She shook her head. "Not unless my dad and his trophy wife had a child. I doubt it, though. My mom said she's the type of woman who worries that having a kid will kill her figure." Cody chuckled; he knew a few girls like that back home.

"Your mom never had any more kids?" Cody asked, surprised. From what he had inferred about her mother, he was amazed there wasn't a litter of kids running around. Sharyn shook her head.

"She had a difficult birth with me. She wound up getting a hysterectomy afterwards because of all the bleeding or something. I can't really remember what she told me about it, but I know that she had a hysterectomy after me. So she can't have any more kids."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he told her sincerely. She shrugged.

"It doesn't seem to bother Mom much," she confessed, "and if it did, she sure wouldn't let me know about it." The bitterness resonated from her voice.

"Have you ever met your father, Sharyn?" She shook her head.

"No. My mom left him when she got pregnant with me. She told me he was a real deadbeat. A running the streets, not quite ready to be a man kind of thing. She's always been pretty against me meeting him." Cody couldn't understand the logic behind a woman withholding a man from his child, and vice versa.

"How do you know he has a trophy wife?" Cody inquired.

"My mom kept the wedding announcement, and she'd tell me things here and there," Sharyn replied. "It was just in case I wanted to see what he looked like."

"In case you wanted to find him?" She shook her head.

"She told me since he's never come looking for me, what would make me think he wants me all of a sudden?" she said. "I still haven't forgotten that; she said it to me when I was thirteen. I guess she has a point, but I'll find out when I get there." Cody was disgusted; what kind of parent would tell their child that their other parent didn't want them?

"I think that unless you have his side of the story, you'll never really know if she's telling the truth." Sharyn nodded and smiled.

"I know." She turned her gaze out the window. "I like talking to you, Cody. You don't make me feel judged."

"I've been told I make people feel like that," he said, flashing her a reassuring smile. They fell into a comfortable silence for what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality only a few minutes. "I'm actually glad that I have some company on this trip, Sharyn."

She scoffed. "Please. Like you're so happy to be riding with an angst ridden nineteen year-old." Cody smirked; the girl sure had a spark of wit to her. It was starting to show more and more the further and farther they got away from the situation.

"That couldn't be further from the truth. I'm very happy to have the company of a beautiful lady on a three day trip."

She was touched; she had never really heard a guy refer to her as beautiful before. And if anybody had ever thought that, she never would have known. She never paid attention to the men around her, except for the ones who made her paranoid. She blanked her expression, but Cody already knew that she was flattered by his statement. A man would have to be blind to think she was ugly. Porcelain skin, raven hair and emerald eyes, she was like a Gothic Princess. He wasn't about to tell her that, though. "And when I tell my friend Ted I scored the company, he is going to be so jealous."

"Who is he traveling with?"

"He's flying out with two friends who are total stoners. Brian Kendrick and Paul London."

"Do you smoke pot?" she asked, point blank. Cody shook his head.

"No. I tried it once when I was fifteen, but I didn't like it. Plus, my daddy sure gave me hell." He smiled at the memory. "I have more reasons not to touch than I have to do it. How about you? Were cigarettes your gateway to the ganja?"

She laughed. "No. Believe it or not, outside of the smoking, I'm surprisingly straight edge."

"So why did you start smoking then?"

"Stress. The reason why so many people seem to start doing it. You're stressed out one day, you need something for relief, it's in your mom's nightstand...next thing you know you're puffing away." She fumbled with the radio station and was surprised Cody didn't object. She settled on a station playing Linkin Park's "In The End". She rested her head against the passenger's seat. Cody's heart went out to her. She seemed so confused about so much, and as an outsider in a situation that was less than ideal for her, there was no real way to help her. He knew he was becoming attached to Sharyn at an alarmingly fast pace. She needed a friend; she needed somebody to confide and talk to you. In the last day, he had not heard her talk about her friends, let alone anybody outside of her mother and her boyfriend. This was the most she had spoken of other things, and he was surprised that she was being so candid. But he was glad she was opening up to him; he could see her demeanor with each piece of heavy information that she was getting off of her chest.

"I haven't heard this song in years," Cody told her. The song brought back a lot of memories of his high school years. Sharyn nodded.

"Same here. It's not my favorite song by these guys, but it has its appeal."

"What's your favorite?"

"'The Forgotten'. Have you heard it?" Cody shook his head.

"I catch a few top forty songs here and there," Cody replied, "but I'm a country boy. I'm not a big fan of that metal stuff."

"Metal stuff?"

"Yeah, you know...where all they do is scream and growl."

"I think it's great. That stuff has a lot of angst, a lot of emotion," she replied. "I seem to relate to it more than the whole 'I lost my wife and my dog and my pickup truck'..."

"That's a cheap shot," Cody laughed.

"Am I really wrong about that?"

"That's not the point," he said, laughing. She smiled. "It doesn't surprise me that you listen to that kind of stuff."

"Because I'm so angsty or because I look like a goth?"

"Is that on purpose?"

"No. Believe it or not, I've never dyed my hair. This is just kind of the way I am." Cody smirked. "I think the worst I've done was I tipped my hair purple in the eighth grade."

"I did something like that," Cody replied. Sharyn laughed.

"You?"

"My friends dared me to do it. It was right before grad. My parents had a nervous breakdown about it because they wanted me to look 'normal' for graduation. I tipped it blue. When they took my picture for grad...I don't know how, but they came out purple in the picture. My friends razzed my ass about it for months afterwards." She laughed.

"You don't strike me as the kind of person who would cave in to peer pressure," she replied. Cody shrugged.

"I figured I needed to do something stupid and get it out of my system," he replied. "Anyways, like I told my mom, it's not like I came home with a knocked up girlfriend. It was hair dye, for crying out loud."

"So what were you like in high school?" she asked. He thought about it for a second.

"I was a jock, but I had friends everywhere too. With the stoners, with the drama students, the mathletes, you know, that kind of thing. Everyone found it hard to hate me." She nodded; she definitely agreed with that sentiment. "How about you, Sharyn? What were you like?"

"I was the goody good," she scoffed. "Anything to keep me away from home, I was part of it. Especially when Mom started dating Gene."

"He really creeps you out, doesn't he?"

"You have no idea. Just the way the pig leers at me. And the yellow teeth and the thinning hair..." She visibly shuddered and Cody chuckled. "I always hated having to be alone with him. I always thought he was going to try something." Cody felt a chill run up his spine; he had the same thoughts about Gene when he had met him, and he hated for a second that he would have even considered trying something on Sharyn.

"We have a few hours before we have to call it in for the night," Cody replied, "And we're a little ahead of schedule. I think I saw a place a few miles back. You up for lunch?"

She flashed him a smile. "Sure." He returned her smile with one of his own before pulling off on the side of the road and driving back towards the restaurant.