(25)-Truck Stop.
5:40 AM
The taxi drove onto the property of the small gas station-sized truck-stop, stopping soon after, followed by Kyle exiting the cab through the right back door, then turning around-placing his right hand on the door.
"Thanks, i'll be right back." Kyle informed the driver.
"I'll be here." The driver said.
Kyle closed the door and turned and walked up to the truck-stop building, pushing open the glass door, which hit a gold bell at the top, making it *Ding*, followed by Kyle entering inside. The inside of the building's lights were on and it looked just as much like that of a gas station one as it did on the outside. It had all of the familiarities, such as aisles of snacks, display refrigerators fill with drinks, a check-out counter and a clerk behind it-who was a middle-aged man with his back turned and a cap on. There was also a food warmer display-case that contained small-size pizzas next to the counter, with it's lights on, keeping the pizzas warm.
"Excuse me, sir?" Said Kyle as he walked up to the male clerk behind the counter.
"Yes?" The clerk asked in a southern accent as he turned to look at Kyle, revealing himself to have a long brown chest-length beard. "Oh, my lands, what happened to you?"
"Police brutality." Kyle said. While this may have been the first time someone had commented about his battered face, he knew it would not be the last. Chances were everyone he met would likely be asking him about it.
"Great gophers, son, they worked you over." The clerk said.
"Yeah, yeah, enough talk about my face. You got a bathroom in this place?" Kyle said. While it was true that he wanted to get some snacks for the rode, like he had told the driver, he really needed to use the restroom and used the snacks as an excuse.
"It's around...somewhere." The clerk said dryly.
"Thanks a lot." Kyle said sarcastically. Normally he would've protested at such a dry response, but that was dashed by his need to use the bathroom. Holding it for so long had done a number on his blader to where he needed to take a leak. His bladder was so full, it felt like a dam that was about to break and release at any moment.
Wasting no time, Kyle began walking around the small store-with *Swishing* sounds coming from his bladder as he did, searching for the bathroom until he spotted a door down a short hallway on his right. After feeling a sense of relief, the 18-year old boy made his way towards the hall, walking down it once he arrived, and stopped a few feet down at a bathroom door, with a pale blue restroom sign on it. He opened the door and made his way into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
The restroom was lit with flickering lights, old, runt down, dirty and had a urinal and one stall. It looked kind of eerie, to be honest. Horror movie eerie, to be frank. Out of his two choices, Kyle picked the only stall in the room, going over to it as the *Swishing* in his bladder continued and opening it's door, revealing a house toilet filled with dirty brown water, as it's lid was up. Resting on the tank of the toilet was a urinalysis cup with a blue lid, and a paper sign on the wall that read in black marker ink
OUT Of ORDER!
PLEASE USE CUP.
"You be kidding me." Kyle said.
Kyle removed his gloves, put them in his right back pants-pocket, entered the stall, closed the door and locked it, got the cup off the toilet, removed the lid, placing it on the tank, then he turned to the left and got down on his knees, opened his pants, pulled his shirt down over his blue boxer shorts, placed the cup underneath it and pulled the front of his boxers down.
Kyle closed his eyes tight as he pushed and his bladder released into the cup with a *Squirt* sound, his face relaxing afterwards as the sound of him leaking continued. "(Sighs)." Kyle sighed with relief, his eyes half-closed, with only the white parts of them visible as he relieved himself in the silence of the restroom.
That was when he heard the door to the bathroom fly open violently, making Kyle flinch and stop leaking. This was followed by a set of heavy footsteps walking inside. There was a brief pause...and then the footsteps continued.
As Kyle sat on the floor on his knees, with his pants open and the front of his boxers down, holding in the rest of it, the footsteps got closer...and closer. And that was when he saw them stop right outside the stall, revealing a pair of old, brown dirty work-boots with black laces and blue pants. It was slightly concerning that given there was a urinal available in the bathroom, this person decided to stop right outside of the stall Kyle was using. He thought about saying something...but before he could say a word, the person moved away from the stall. The Kansas teenager heard the footsteps moving away from the sink. There was pause before the soundof the door opening aggressively, slamming it shut afterwards.
With the mystery person now gone, Kyle held up the cup and saw it was nearly full to the brim. He placed the cup on the floor on the right side of the toilet, stood up, turned to the toilet and resumed leaking, his face once again relaxing as he continued to relieve himself, his eyes re-half-closed, with only the white parts of them visible.
*Urinating*
The sound of Kyle's bladder releasing stopped.
"(Grunts)." Kyle grunted as he pushed, his bladder releasing more with a *Squirt*, *Squirt*, *Squirt*. "(Strains)." He strained out the rest of the fluid with one last *Squirt*. "(Groans)." He groaned before pulling up the front of his boxers and closing his pants. The then picked the cup up off the floor, got the lid off the tank, placed it on the cup-screwing it shut, and placing the cup back on the tank. He then turned and un-locked the stall door, exiting the stall and then closing the door. The boy went over to the sink where he turned it on, the water dirty brown, and washed his hands with soap and water, turned off the sink, dried his hands with paper-towel, tossed it in the trash-can, then exited the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
Kyle retrieved his gloves from his back right pants-pocket and put them back on before returning to the front room of the store where he gathered up snacks, such as a small bag of potato chips, a yellow moon pie, green sour straws, gummy bears, gummy worms, green/white gummy apple rings, gummy peach rings and a package of two pink snowball cakes. The last thing he got was a glass-bottled 'FROSTIE' blue cream soda from one of the display fridges.
Now at the check-out counter, Kyle placed the items on it in front of the clerk.
"You gonna pay for all of that?" The clerk asked.
"Of course. I bought it, didn't i?" Kyle said.
"Alright." The clerk said before he began checking out the items with the check-out machine.
"You know, that wasn't very funny what you did. I mean, you could've at least told me the bathroom's toilet wasn't working." Kyle said.
"What are you talkin' about, it works just fine." The clerk said as he stopped checking out the items.
"Then why do you have a sign on the wall in the stall that reads 'Out Of Order'? I had to go half-way in a drug-test cup and finish in the toilet without even being able to flush afterwards. That was so weird." Kyle said.
"Son, we just had our plumber unclog that toilet last week and i can assure you it works just fine." The clerk said.
"So it's not out of order then?" Kyle asked.
"No, it isn't." The clerk said before he finished checking out the last few items.
"Then why did you put up that sign?" Kyle asked.
"Look, son, i've been workin' at this place behind this counter since i was 30 and i can assure you i haven't done anything else here." The clerk said.
"So if you didn't right that sign, then...who did?" Kyle asked. This was really strange. Why would someone put up an out of order sign if the toilet was working perfectly fine? And why would they leave a drug-test cup for someone to go in? Had they meant it as a joke? If so, Kyle must've missed what was so funny because he wasn't laughing.
"Hey, world if i know. But it wasn't me, that's for sure." The clerk said. "Cash only. That'll be 10 bucks, if you don't mind."
Kyle got his black wallet out of his left back pants-pocket to pay for the items, then he looked out the glass door at the taxi and then at the display-case of small pizzas.
"Well?" The clerk asked, getting Kyle's attention. "Are you gonna pay for this or just stand here all day, starin' around?"
"Actually...if it's not too much trouble...i'd like to buy one more thing." Kyle said.
...
Kyle came out of the store, carrying a white bag in his left hand, which was filled with the items he had purchased, and he made his way to the right back door of the taxi, opened it, got inside and closed the door.
"I'm back." Kyle said.
"Well, it's about time, i was get'n ready to dump your stuff out and leave you here. Just how many snacks did you buy in that place?" The driver said, looking at Kyle in the rear-view mirror as the sound the boy un-zipping his duffle-bag was heard.
"Not much. Just a few things i really like. Can we go now?" Kyle said while putting the snacks in his duffle-bag.
"Sure. I'm ready when you are. Next stop, bus station. Would you like to listen to some music the rest of the drive?" The driver said, with the sound of Kyle re-zipping his duffle-bag as he spoke.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Kyle said while putting his seat-belt on. All this driving around in silence had made the trip so dull and boring. Although, he didn't know if that was because he was high on last night's events or if it was because the cab's radio had been off. Either way, the least he could do was have something else to focus on for the time being. And since music was his thing...why not?
The driver turned on the radio and the 80s song, 'MAD WORLD', by Tears For Fears began to play as the taxi drove off, resuming it's trip toward it's previous destination.
All around me are familiar faces
Worn-out places, worn-out places
Bright and early for their daily races
Goin' nowhere, goin nowhere
And their tears are filled up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head, i want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow.
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