Kaazu’s number.
I can’t help but feel a little smug. I know that these phone calls that I’ve been orchestrating are driving Kaazu nuts.
“Thanks,” I say, my heartbeat a little quicker than normal. Hearing Kaazu’s voice does that to me.
“Happy to help out a friend,” he says, stressing the word again. “Maybe you can help me out too.”
I whip my head around. “You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?”
“Doing that cheerful, creepy ass perv hinting.”
He cackles, like the very idea is preposterous. “Whoa, whoa, little lady. There you go with slipping down the gutter again! You gotta do somethin’ about that mind grip of yours.”
I narrow my eyes, studying the chirpy motherfuck. I just...I can’t fucking tell. “I’m getting more sleep,” I grumble.
If anything, I’m hoping that if I doze, he’ll at least stop talking to me. All of his questions are bringing up memories and thoughts of Cliff, Kaazu, and my childhood, and I’m just too tired to handle it.
I close my eyes, wondering at the likelihood of getting another hundred miles out of this hitch before I have to hike. I’m not looking forward to more walking. At least Chatty Cathy is putting miles on the odometer.
“Sleepin’ again?” Trucker asks with surprise.
I cross my arms in front of me and rest my head against the window. “Yep.”
He lets out a long crestfallen sigh but doesn’t say anything else. If I were the type to give a fuck, I’d feel a little bad. After all, he has been driving me for over twelve hours, and he’s been nothing but nice. He even called Kaazu with a fake tip for me, thinking that he’s helping throw off a bad ex-boyfriend.
He’s probably just a lonely dude who doesn’t have many people to talk to. Unfortunately for him, I left behind all my fucks to give with Cliff, so I don’t care that I’m disappointing him. If he keeps trying to get me to talk or confusing me with his non-pervy propositioning, I’m going to lose my damn mind.
I’m just beginning to fall into a nice white-noise nod-off when I feel the truck slow down. Cracking one eyelid open, I see that we’ve pulled into a gas station.
“Gotta fill her up,” Trucker tells me with a close-lipped smile as he parks at a pump.
“Okay.” I wait while he gets out and starts the process of gassing up, but then my rumbling stomach takes me outside.
Hopping down from the truck, I land on the balls of my feet and straighten up, looking around. It’s late morning, and there are a few other truckers stopped as well as several cars. I make my way inside the gas station and head over to the counter. “Bathroom?”
The woman behind the desk grabs an obnoxiously large wooden stick with a chain attached at the end of it, a lone bathroom key dangling off it. “Here.”
After three weeks of bumming it, the stick doesn’t even faze me, but seriously, what’s with humans being weirdly obstructive with public bathroom keys? If I’m going to steal it, I’ll do it, stick and all. It’s not even really a deterrent. If anything, she just armed me with a pretty solid weapon. It’s a biohazard at the very least.
I take the stick, refusing to think about all the other people who have touched this thing after...touching their things, and I head outside to the bathroom. I do my business quickly because this single toilet room is rank and has very questionable stains on the walls. I wash my hands before heading back inside and returning the stick to the employee.
With my stomach rumbling again, I search the aisles for the cheapest, most filling thing I can buy, aka a protein bar. Again. I would punch a priest right now to be able to eat a massive plate of pasta. But the last fifty bucks I have feels like an hourglass running out of sand, and I know that I have to be careful.
With a sigh, I choose two bars and head to the counter. I can grab my water bottle from my bag and fill it up in the water fountain outside. It won’t taste the greatest, but it’s free at least.
After paying, I walk out, already tearing into the wrapper, quickly stuffing the first protein bar into my mouth. I eat the whole thing before I even make it to the parking lot. I’m pretty fucking sick of eating protein bars, but at least it’ll help the growling hunger in my gut.
As I’m tearing