Barbara had been right about the lack hotels and it getting cold. 

A few hours later, Nari’s truck inhaled the last few vapors of fuel, sputtered, and slowly died in the middle of an empty freeway in the middle of no where. As it slowed to a stop and wheezed one last time, Nari cursed her luck. Of course. She had ignored the warning the last gas stop and figured that she could make it to the next one on half a tank. 

There wasn’t even a town nearby as far as Nari could tell. It was just her, the road, and a cricket that kept chirping in the field at the side of the road. 

The sun was getting low in the sky and Nari really didn’t want to try to walk to the nearest place. She had no idea how long that would take and wandering for who the hell knows how long was the last thing she wanted to do.

Her supposed self discover road trip was just making her more pissed off at the world and sure that someone had it out for her.

After an hour of waiting, bored out of her mind, no cars had passed and Nari was pretty sure she was ed at this point. 

It had gotten to the point where she had broken into the bag of food Dijonae had given her and mindless ate her way through an entire bag of chips. Nari never mindlessly ate. Period. Food was too precious for her to dare waste it just to get rid of boredom. 

When her fingers reached the bottom of the bag and started itching to grab another one, Nari knew it was time for her to find something to occupy herself.

Zipping up the duffle bag and shoving as far away from her as she possibly could, Nari began to dig around her car to try to find something she could do.

Unfortunatly, she came up empty handed.

Inspired by all the road trip films she had grown up watching, Nari figured she’d be spending most of her time having fun at road side attractions and belting out the lyrics to the top 40’s down he highway to her next great adventure. She was quickly learning, however, that a lot of hollywood magic and a bit of editing made the traveling part of it a lot more fun than it actually was. If she heard Adele one more time (it didn’t even matter what song at this point; she had heard them all too many times) she was was going to loose it. And honestly, she was getting lonely.

Out on the open road, Nari had more freedom than she had ever had before. She was no longer held down by responsibilities or obligations to anyone or anything. But she was alone. In the two days she had been traveling, she hadn’t had any meaningful interactions with other people. Sure, she had had conversations, but after spending so many hours in the car by herself, she had run out of things to do when she was alone. 

There was only so many things one could do.

And now she didn’t even have driving to distract her.

Nari put her four way flashers on and laid down on the back seat, stretching herself out as much as she could. If she couldn’t find anything to do, maybe she could sleep it off. Traveling did make one tired. 

That worked for about an hour before she woke up with a stiff neck, back pains, and the blanket fallen on the dirty floor of her truck.

Maybe music would help the time go by? Against her better judgment, she flipped on the radio instead of pulling out a cassette tape and settled down on the backseat again. The almost mindless, overexcited chatter of the DJ encouraged her wandering thoughts. Nari soon found herself thoughtlessly watched the white clouds float lazily across the soft blue sky. 

The radio station’s jingle played before a piano jumped into truck. It seemed to go back and forth and Nari could feel something familiar in it’s tune. But the end of summer heat and the soothing melody made her eyelids grow heavy.

A powerful voice crooned and Nari instantly teared up as it hit her what song it was.

Nari had the day off from work, the first time in a long time, and she was busying herself with the house’s neglected chores while she waited for her boyfriend. He had promised that he would pick her up so they could go on a date. A real one. They would go out to eat and watch a movie at the theater instead of eating ramen and watching torrents online. A proper date. Like one in the movies they watched.

She hummed mindlessly while scrubbing some dishes clean. There was a rhythm to her cleaning and Nari lost herself in it. 

Scrape. Soap. Rinse. Dry. Repeat.

Scrape. Soap. Rinse. Dry. Repeat.

Scrape. Soap. Rinse. Dry. Repeat.

The gentle, yet forceful melody of the piano in a popular ballad was swirling around the kitchen. It sang of looking back on a lost love. Nari was too wrapped up in her current love to even think about loosing it, but the emotions in the singers voice was so powerful made everyone stop and listen to it.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited

But I couldn’t stay away, I couldn’t fight it

I had hoped you’d see my face and that you’d be reminded

That for me, it isn’t over

Suddenly, a pair of warm arms wrapped around her and soft lips kissed her neck. 

She stiffened but relax into the grasp when she heard the familiar chuckle.

“Did I surprise you?” Her boyfriend asked her. 

“You almost gave me a heart attack!” Nari playfully shoved him away and laughed.

“How can you get a heart attack when I have your heart?” 

She may have scoffed at the cheesy sentiment (he was full of them after all), but she still blushed. He never failed to make her feel so loved.

I remembered you said,

“Sometimes it lasts in love and sometimes it hurts instead”

Nari grabbed closest thing to her and flung it at the radio. The heavy book slammed into it, forcing the knob that controlled it to snap off and fall to the ground. The music died with it and Adele sputtered out of existence. 

Jagged sobs ripped out of Nari and with ever spare breath she cursed her ex. She couldn’t even listen to the ing radio without him coming to mind. She was hundreds of miles away from him and he still followed her where ever she went. 

What was the point of traveling if he was still going to haunt her every ing thought?

A/N: I am so glad it’s Thanksgiving break oh my god. You know how teachers have to try to get a bunch of grades before breaks so you end up shouldering like 5 projects at once and have like three tests in one day? Yeah, I’m sure we’re all in the same boat with that. Luckily!! I’m on break now!!! So I can get back to working on my work count *weeps* I’m 6,000 words behind were I should be. Luckily, I’m a pretty fast writer so I can just zoom through it. It’s just a matter of time. Anyways! For my america readers, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you eat lots of good food and are about to spend good time with your family/friends! I hope you all enjoy this chapter and have a good week!!