Friday, April 10, 2009

six'm

Kat grimmaced when she noticed the cat in the back window sunning when she sat in the backseat of Archie's car.

"Are you serious?" She said looking at Emily who didn't even look her way.

"About what?" She was in her shades and was wearing something skimpy as if she might use it for lingere at a moment's notice. Kat wanted to mention that too, but knew it would be off to a bad start, entirely.

"The cat. The cat is going?"

"Seriously, um, " Archie mumbled something that sounded like Mom. "He's a great travel cat."

"Really?" Kat shook her head, no. "You just let him roam free in here?"

"Yeah."

That was when she noticed all the cat hair. Eek, she didn't want to be covered in it.

"Mom, do you want to ride with Charlotte and Rosco?" Emily looked at her.

"Maybe." That might not be bad. The car looked new, well, in a clean way. Not like this. "If you don't mind."

"We don't mind at all." Archie looked at her all calm.

She grabbed her huge handbag then and got out to walk over to Charlotte's car who was waiting at the curb. It wasn't until then she noticed someone in the back seat. She looked back at Emily then, giving her a cold look. What was she up too?

It was Parker. Well, she had to put on a smile. She guessed. She couldn't stay mad even though she should.

"Do you mind?" She said to Charlotte.

"No, no, not at all." She was smiling all over. What did she have to do with this? Honestly, she thought. This wasn't exactly spring break. It was a damn working spring break weekend. If it had been a real spring break they'd been headed for the coast. Corpus. Galveston Island. Oh, the things she could tell. She better not. Even a weekend out at the lake. She could rough it out with the best of them. Camping. A cabin. But they were going to clean someone's house. She needed to put on her happy face and be damned with it.

She got in the back seat next to Parker.

"I didn't even know you were coming?" He winced trying to act as indifferent as possible.

"I'm sure you didn't," She hugged her bag then. Kat really hated to admit she liked looking at him. Guessed that would be...silly.

"I'm going to be really careful on the interstate." Charlotte interjected then as if she were the pilot and Rosco was her co-pilot, and they just might crash any second.

She bit her tongue from saying, "Lovely." The possibility of a catastrophy on so many levels. Kat did her best not to hold her breath. It would do no good. She dug through her bag as if she would have done on any field trip.

"Gum anyone?" She smiled.

"Mentos." Parker smirked. That was all he said. He held out his hand. She wondered what was the matter with him. Not the chatty doll, she remembered. Possibly, he was scared too.

"I better not have any," Charlotte shook her head, no. "I have to focus on driving." She lunged the vehicle into the street then and everyone shifted slightly forward. "Sorry." And off she went to follow Archie's grimmy car.

"Well, at least she's serious," Kat whispered.

"Pardon?" Parker leaned in closer, and Kat couldn't help but smile. He smelled well..there was just something overwhelming, kind of. Like nature in a good way, honing in on mating season, perhaps. It made her a bit dizzy. She caught a laugh in her throat and thought she might choke on the gum.

"Nothing." She murmered and looked blankly out of her side window. It was suppose to be a long day, but somehow it didn't feel that way being in the backseat with Parker.

4 comments:

diane said...

Oh, those wonderful, smart, crafty kids! I love how they set that up for Kat & Parker, I didn't see that coming. That was such a fun chapter to read.
Have a nice holiday weekend. xo

Syed said...

Haha this trip will be rather interesting! And I always find people are so weirdly accomodating when it comes to their pets.

ivy said...

This made me smile. I do wonder how it'll pan out.

ellie said...

this should be an interesting road trip.