H-1 UMAN-1

Chapter 7

Well, finally. God, that car ride took absolutely forever. We left school nearly ten hours ago, and we haven't stopped even once. God, I knew it was a stupid idea to both not to stop to use the bathroom and also to drink nearly half a gallon of water before we left for DC. Yet another classic example of Vincent not thinking about the consequences and getting herself into yet another sticky mess. Joy. Oh, and Vincent?

Yes?

Don't think about needing to use the bathroom if the above situation is true.

Oh.

Well, then.

Dang it.

What's that for?

Try looking down.

I did as I told myself, and...

Oh, damn. Yep, I just wet my pants. I, as an almost adult of a sixteen-year-old, just wet myself. Can this day get any more embarrassing? I sure as hell hope not,' cause I'm pretty damn done.Welp, time to tell everyone.

"Um guys?" I said.

"Yes, Vincent?" Mrs Scialdone asked me."

"Um, well, I sorta hate to say this, 'cause it's really embarassing, but I just wet myself. Please don't laugh at me. I've had enough shit going on in my life recently, I don't need to be mocked now."

"Oh. I see. I see. I'll let Matt know. We'll need to stop somewhere."

"There's a rest stop on the way there," he said." I've driven these roads quite a bit, so if I'm referencing the right drawer back there, there should be a rest stop with bathrooms coming up in about ten miles. I didn't pack any clean clothes, and I don't really want to go inside. Cameras and the like, I don't know if Maryland has an active warrant out for our arrest yet. What do you think? What should we do?"

"I can go in and buy some clothes if any of you have any cash on you and then change in one of the stalls. It's no problem to do that, if none of you mind. You'll have to cover up the plates though, so that the security cams don't catch us. You think that'd work?"

"Maybe. But in all honesty, I don't think that it would be safe for us to hang right near the stop, but yes, you could buy new clothes inside, we just wouldn't have time to let you change. If we're going to get where we're going, we'll need to put the pedal to the metal."

"I understand, I can change in the car as we're driving along."

"Sounds fine to me," Doctor Gutierrez interjected. "But sí, we're going to need to run."

"I take it that was Spanish?"

"Sí, por supuesto. Yes, of course. But they're right, this is going to be a tight squeeze."

I hadn't even noticed that we were pulling into the lot of the rest area until Doctor Anderson spoke up again. "All right, Vincent," he said, handing a fifty dollar bill back to me. "This should be enough to buy you a new outfit and some socks. Alright, hop on out and go."

I did as I was told, taking the money from Doctor Anderson's hand, then slamming the car's door open and sprinting for the rest stop's front entrance. As soon as I was inside, I made a beeline for the restrooms, and sprinted for the men's room. Before anyone says anything about that, you all remember how I said that my parents hated my "filthy, stinking guts [their words, not mine]" 'cause they wanted a boy, and as a side effect of their hatred to me, if we ever went out, (which was every few years, and even then, it was only to buy clothes because they were several sizes too small for me), my parents would never allow me to go into the ladies' room. "We wanted a man," they'd say, "so suck it up and act like one." Yeah, real wonderful shit. So I guess now, out of years of never getting my own way, it doesn't occur to me to go to the bathroom that I really probably should have been using. No one notices me, though. More on that later.