25 Days of Klaroline: Day 12 – Klaroline + Journey

Don't Stop Believing

After a messy break-up, Caroline needs a change, deciding to travel across the country solo. She didn't expect to pick up a hitchhiker along the way.

"Just great," she groaned, attempting to see through her windshield streaked with water. The windscreen wipers were on the highest speed, but they didn't seem to be achieving much.

The rain had started to fall an hour ago, and there had been a steady stream of rain, not to mention loud claps of thunder and sporadic flashes of lightning. When she embarked on this road trip she didn't envision such bad weather, especially given it was supposed to be Summer.

She considered stopping somewhere while the storm passed but Caroline was determined to get to Alabama sooner rather than later. She figured it would be an easy four-hour trip from Jackson in Mississippi to Birmingham, but the weather had slowed her progress considerably.

At first she thought she was imagining things but she could make out a silhouette in her headlights, walking on the side of the road. Her immediate reaction was to keep driving; this person could be an axe murderer after all.

From what she could tell with limited vision, his hands were stuffed in his pockets and his head down. He didn't seem to have a coat or an umbrella to shield him from the rain either. She could hear her mother's voice in her head telling her to keep driving, but she felt a strange gravitational pull to the stranger.

She'd always been so safe and reliable, but where had that got her in life? Tyler had cheated on her and Elena was far too involved in her weird threesome to care.

Against her better judgment she pulled the car over, staring at the stranger in her rearview mirror. She took in some deep breaths, trying to talk herself out of doing something this crazy.

She jumped in fright, hearing a tap on the glass. She could only make out his crimson lips through the rain splattered window. She put down the window slowly as the stranger leaned in, peering in at her curiously.

"Are you alright love?"

"I'm fine," she mumbled, her heart racing. Even saturated this guy was gorgeous. His wet hair stuck to his forehead, his blue eyes as stormy as the weather.

"Well, okay," he murmured. "Now that's settled, I'm going to go." What kind of hitchhiker didn't want a lift?

"Where?" She asked, against her better judgment.

"Birmingham."

"Well you'll be walking for a while," she replied, almost offended that he didn't ask for a ride.

"I don't mind so much," he smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "It gives me time to think."

"A lot of time to think," she murmured. "Well okay, if you want to walk."

"I'd get in your car, but I'm fairly particular when it comes to music."

"You don't even know me and you're already judging my musical taste?" She baulked.

"And I had every right to do so," he shot back, pointing towards the display on her stereo. "Taylor Swift?"

"Oh come on, don't tell me you don't love a bit of Shake it Off?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn't admit it publicly," he joked. "Thanks for stopping though."

"You are the weirdest hitchhiker I've ever met."

"Who said I was a hitchhiker?"

"Well you're walking on the side of the road and…"

"Yes I was, but don't hitchhikers usually use their thumbs?"

"Fine," she conceded. "I suck at this whole picking up hitchhikers thing."

"You know if you wanted to give me a lift, all you needed to do was ask."

"Okay this is not how I saw things going in my head," she muttered. "Just get in."

"Well if you insist," he laughed, sending her a gorgeous grin and climbing into the passenger seat. "But I'll be taking over the playlist."

"Of course you will." She pulled out onto the road to continue her journey. "Just no heavy metal, it does my head in."

"Whatever the lady wants," he agreed. "So where are you going?"

"Nowhere really," she replied, noncommittally. "I'm just seeing where the road takes me."

"Oh I see, what did he do?"

"Why do you assume it's got to do with a guy?"

"Call it a hunch," he answered. Caroline didn't know why she was entertaining this stranger but for some reason she felt the need to explain.

"My boyfriend thought it would be a great idea to cheat on me," she admitted.

"Well I don't know the guy but he seems like an idiot."

"That's an understatement," she muttered, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden. "So what's your story?"

"I like to walk."

"I like walking too, but not that much," she commented. "Let me guess you wronged some girl and she pushed you out of a moving vehicle?"

"Not this time," he laughed. "My sister and I fought then she decided to leave without me."

"What did you do?"

"We don't do well in small enclosed spaces together," he explained. "There was probably a whole host of reasons she decided to abandon me."

"So why didn't you get a bus or a hire car like a normal person?"

"Call me crazy, but I thought the walk would be therapeutic."

"You've got a few things on your mind?"

"Oh you know family drama, just the usual." He replied shrugging his shoulders.

"It must be some drama," she observed. "You know to choose walking in a storm over the creature comforts of a dry vehicle."

"You could say that," he said mysteriously. "I figure we've got a few hours between here and Alabama."

"More than enough time for some more Taylor Swift then?"

"I meant maybe we could talk; you know if you want to."

"I guess I could do that," she smiled, her eyes trained on the road. "I mean I need something to do to pass the time."