Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 74: Dialling...

Seth

Morning comes, bringing with it an end to a long, hellish series of days. I'll admit, waking up in that car as the sunlight streamed through the windows... shining through sparse floating dust moats and over Joshua's warm, sleeping face... I almost forgot all about the institution.

The rain had cleared and the air smelled crisp and fresh. Droplets of dew shone over the hood of the car and the scrap metal all around. His body was warm beneath mine, sprawled out over the backseat with his legs kicked up on one door, and his head resting against the armrest of the other. His arms were draped loosely around my waist, mine slung around his shoulders, and I realised then that I never wanted the moment to end.

I was so proud of Joshua for finding this place for us to sleep, especially when I was pretty much useless and out of it last night.

I woke him up with gentle kisses to his temple and his cheeks, and when he blinked his eyes open groggily, the sun shone in his molten caramel gaze. He laughed when I couldn't help from kissing his mouth, and I kissed him until he almost forgot about the need to get up and get moving.

He sits beside me now on one of the seats of this public bus, his legs tossed over mine as he leans against the armrest of the aisle seat. There's a scowl of concentration over his brow as he focuses on the little flip phone in his hand. His tongue sticks out the corner of his mouth as he presses the little buttons repeatedly, putting in names to match numbers. It's kind of adorable.

He catches me looking, and I immediately dart my gaze away, hiding a smile behind my cheap sandwich which is doubling as my breakfast.

"You looking at me?" Joshua asks, arching a brow.

There's amusement in his tone, and I take a big bite of my sandwich around the smile pulling at my cheeks.

"Whatever are you talking about, babe?" I garble through the mouthful—you know, like a gentleman. Swallowing, I add, "How's it going with the really old keypad?"

Sighing, Joshua flips the phone shut and slides further down in his seat. "Painfully slowly, but at least it's something."

He pauses, looking at the seat ahead of him thoughtfully, before slanting me a look.

"Hey, do you still remember the number I had you memorize?"

I smear the back of my hand across my mouth, to get rid of any leftover bits of egg or crumbs. "Yeah, why?"

"I want to put it into my phone."

Immediately I'm sitting upright, and Joshua winces as I jostle his bad knee.

"Sorry," I apologize quickly, before rushing right into, "But why?"

Pensively, Joshua looks down at the burner phone in his hand, identical to the one now in the pocket of my new shorts. Save for the banana sticker I put on mine, that is. I pulled that off a bunch of bananas from the store in the gas station.

Needless to say... This morning has been interesting. From the backseat of a car in the junkyard to middle seats of a sunbeat, barely-populated public bus.

It started with a quarter-mile hike from the junkyard to its attached nowhere-town, which is apparently on the edge of the Rio Arriba county. Meaning we're still in New Mexico.

Sigh.

During our walk, Joshua briefed me on everything we definitely needed to get before we even thought about focusing on anything else. Food, new clothes, phones, a road map, cash... Food... I was more than a little hungry, so all I really heard was food.