She had barely gotten half way along the I5 when she started to hear the car sputter and cough.

"Oh no, no, no, no," she chanted and pleaded.  "I don't need this right now, please no, anything but this."

It was no use.  She hardly had time to pull over before the car died on her.  Something sparked, and smoke billowed from under the hood.  Jessica hit her head on the steering wheel, honking the horn as she did so.  Cars drove past her, ignorant to her plight.  She popped the hood open and was almost engulfed by the thick cloud that was pushed back towards her.  She sighed, thankful the smoke didn't float out across the freeway and cause an accident, and took out her phone, quietly pleading that her breakdown cover hadn't expired.  Luckily for her, it hadn't.  It seemed like the only good thing to have happened to her since she arrived in the US.  The operator seemed friendly enough and promised to get an engineer out to her as soon as possible and asked her to sit tight.  She stood a few meters away from the smoking vehicle, watching cars and trucks rushing by, even at this time of night.

Nightfall.  Not the best of times for her to be trapped in the middle of nowhere.  But at least she had cell reception, in case she was attacked.

She waited for about 30 minutes before the recovery vehicle arrived, orange lights flashing as it approached.  She watched as the driver parked in front of the distressed vehicle and the door opened.

"Well, what have we got here?" the short female engineer enquired, jumping out of the truck.

Jessica frowned as she saw the mechanic approach her.

"Taeyeon?" she asked, perplexed.

Her friend and bandmate headed to the car, inspecting the damage.  "Woah, that's a mess right there."

"What are you doing here?" Jessica asked.

"Fixing your car, numbnuts," she answered, not once moving her attention from the damage.  "You called for a mechanic, right?"

"Well, yeah, but ..." She looked around, certain she was going mad.  She looked back at Taeyeon.  She sure looked the part, dressed in filthy overalls and with her face covered in grease and sweat.

"Yep, looks like your radiator's blown ... carburettor ... and what the hell is this?" She reached in, yanked out a handful of wires and inspected them.  Electricity sparked as the wires left their housing.

"Hey, watch it!" Jessica shouted.

"Whoops, they look important," she mused before tossing the wires over her shoulder and heading back under the hood.

"What the hell are you doing?" she shouted, standing behind Taeyeon.

"Fixing this hunk-a-junk," her mechanic called, tossing another part from the car - a piece of piping that would have hit Jessica square in the face had she not ducked.

"Stop it!" she ordered. "You're trashing my car!"

"No, I'm fixing it," she corrected the helpless damsel whilst looking at the mess she was causing.  She started removing more parts, more cables, more pipes.  After five minutes of what looked like absolute carnage, she stood back and admired her work.  "Ok, try turning that on now."

"What?"

Taeyeon looked up at Jessica.  "Get in the car," she explained, "put the key in the ignition, and turn it.  You think you can do that, blondie?"  The look of absolute and abject condescension was the last thing Jessica needed, but it seemed to work.  She returned to the car, obediently placed her key in the ignition and turned it.

Nothing.  Not even the whining of an engine trying to start.  Not a sound.

"Well?"

"I'm turning it."

"Turn it harder."

"What?"

"Turn it harder!"

"Turn it ... I can't turn it 'harder'."

Taeyeon sighed and walked to the open car door, signalling for Jessica to get out.  She obeyed as her mechanic took the seat and turned the key as hard as she could.

What little colour Jessica had left in her face at that moment died when the key snapped in her hand.

"Yeah ... there's your problem.  Keys ain't working."  The shorter female jumped out from the car, dropping what was left of the stub into the hand of the dumbstruck victim.

"You ..."

"Nothing I can do, babe," Taeyeon called as she walked away.  "It's a wreck.  Think you might need a mechanic."

"Wait ... did you just say I need A MECHANIC?" Jessica let rip, storming towards her former bandmate.  "I called for a mechanic and you arrived!  I thought you were here to fix this, but you've gone and ruined it!  You really are the Devil's child!"

Taeyeon beamed proudly and curtseyed.  "Thanks!  I try to make Daddy proud," she giggled before twirling on her heel and heading back to the truck.

Jessica looked ahead, exasperated.  "So, what do I do now, hitchhike?"

Taeyeon turned her head.  "I guess I could give you a ride," she offered half-heartedly.

"You 'guess'?"  She could feel her blood boiling in a way she never had before.  "It's God knows what time at night, I'm in the middle of nowhere, you've destroyed my car, and you 'guess' you could give me a ride?"

"Hey, I've got things to do too, you know," Taeyeon argued.

"Like what?"

"Like binge watching American Horror Story on Netflix?" she replied, as though it was the most obvious thing on earth.

"Binge-watch ... are you freaking kidding me?"

Taeyeon sighed.  "Look, do you want a ride or not?"

Jessica looked around.  Her car was totalled, parts were thrown all over the freeway, smoke was still spewing from the hood and she was sure she could see the engine on fire.  If a photographer had passed by then, that one image would have encapsulated her life right now.

"Fine.  Take me home," she replied, walking to the cabin dejectedly.

Taeyeon waited for her passenger to sit and close the door before she pulled off.

"So, how's your day going?" she asked cheerfully, the truck travelling along the sparsely occupied freeway.

Jessica scowled, turning her head slightly and glaring at her driver.  "You know very well how my day is going," she growled.

"Hey, I'm giving you a ride home, aren't I?" she asked defensively.

"You trashed my car."

Taeyeon shook her head.  "You want to know what your problem was?"

Jessica steeled her ice-cold glare.

"Your radiator was totalled.  Even if I hadn't trashed it, you wouldn't have a car for two weeks."

"How is this supposed to make me feel better?"

"Listen, babe, you'll get a new car, alright?  I'll make sure of it."

Jessica groaned in anger.

"I'll make sure of it," her mechanic insisted.  "Car, repaired, fully working, outside your building, tomorrow morning.  Just trust me."

"Trust you?"

"Yes.  Face it: right now, I'm all you've got."

Jessica scowled, but she realised that Taeyeon was right.  Right now, in this truck, at this moment, all she could rely on was her friend.

An explosion behind them brought the question of trust and the promise of a fully functioning vehicle under further scrutiny.

"Look, you know you can fix all of this," Taeyeon continued nonchalantly, her traveller staring ahead.  "All you need to do is agree to give me your soul."

"Oh, for the love of God."

"Nah, never had much love for God really," her face screwed up in disgust.

"Will you stop with this?"

"Babe, listen ..."

"No, you listen to me ..."

"How about you shut your hole and let me speak, ok?" Taeyeon spat.  "I can help you.  Every problem you've ever had, gone.  Every wish you've ever wanted is yours.  Money, fame, investors, you'll have it all."

"You really expect me to believe that you're the Devil?"

"Well, his daughter," she quibbled.

"Does that make a difference?"

Taeyeon thought for a moment.  "I guess it doesn't make a difference for you," she chuckled.  "Either way, Daddy's still getting your soul."

Jessica turned and stared out of the window, ignoring her driver.

"Tell you what," she proposed.  "Make a wish, right now.  Totally free."

"What?" Jessica questioned, bored with the games.

"One wish.  Free of charge.  No biggies though," she raised a finger in warning.  "I don't want you cheating me out of my prize."

Jessica sighed.

"Worst case scenario, I'm yanking your chain and you get nothing.  So, you're no better off than you are now.  What do you have to lose?"

Jessica pondered the offer as the pair drove ahead a few more miles.  Again, Taeyeon was right.  Given everything that had happened, there was little that she could do to make things worse if anything.  She didn't believe in Taeyeon's self-professed 'powers', but she wanted the games to stop.  Maybe making one small wish would keep her entertained.  All she stood to lose was her pride, and that mattered very little right now.

She felt her stomach growling a little and realised that she hadn't eaten since morning.

"Fine.  I wish for a Whopper meal and a Diet Coke," Jessica declared non-committedly.

"Your wish is my command," Taeyeon smiled.

Jessica shook her head, watching the cars passing the truck, and the truck passing the cars along the freeway.  She was bored, but at least her companion had been silenced, so that was good.  After a few minutes, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She turned around to find herself in a fast-food Drive-Thru.

"Huh?"

"I said, have you got $14.08?"

"What for?"

"Your Whopper meal and Diet Coke.  It's fourteen dollars and eight cents.  Well, I ordered a large Double Whopper meal for me too, but still."

The expectant and pleased look on Taeyeon's face tore at the last shred of Jessica's faith.  She shook off the troubles of the evening, reached into her handbag and took the last $20 from her purse, handing it over to her driver.  As she returned to staring mindlessly at the cars passing in the night, she didn't even register Taeyeon wishing the cashier to keep the change, adding one more insult to her injury-laden evening.

 

"You know, Burger King has the best burgers I've ever tasted," Taeyeon cooed, tucking into her meal.

"Especially when you con someone else into paying for it for you," Jessica spat.  Unlike her driver's, her meal was left untouched, despite her hunger.  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring herself to eat this ill-begotten meal.

"Hey, it was just a bit of fun."

"Yeah, well I've officially had it with your idea of 'fun'."

Taeyeon rolled her eyes, making the final stretch to Jessica's city apartment.  "You'll see," she promised, "everything will be alright."

Her passenger didn't care.  The world could have ended right at this moment and she still wouldn't have cared.  She continued to watch the nighttime traffic passing as the truck sped along the roads, over bridges and around corners.

The journey from the Drive-Thru had been almost silent.  Occasionally Taeyeon would make noise when she ate or belched when she drank, but there was no real conversation between the two.  When she was part of SNSD, Jessica and Taeyeon had been more than civil.  They were best friends at one point.  But now?  Something had changed.  If she didn’t know better, she would have guessed Taeyeon was out to break her.

The truck pulled up outside the apartment complex and the perturbed passenger leapt out from the cabin no sooner than the driver had stopped the engine.

"Jess," she called out.

Jessica sighed as she continued walking.

"Your food."

"Keep it."

Taeyeon jumped from the cabin, bag in hand.  "No, you ordered this," she called back.  “You paid for it.  Take it.”

Right now, Jessica had no strength to fight back.  She turned, snatched the bag from her outstretched hand and continued on her way.

"You'll see, babe," Taeyeon shouted.  "Every single one of your problems will disappear."

There wasn't even the strength for an eye roll as Jessica almost fell into the complex and ascended to her suite.