Rest Easy

Original Edition: v. marie

Dudley parked his battered pick-up outside of Naya's house at half one in the afternoon, on the induction day of the volunteer programme. School was over and summer had officially begun, and this was where he found himself on a blazing hot Arizona day. He sat and waited, checking himself out in the left rear view mirror. His hair was tied up into a loose low bun, and he picked out a new t-shirt to wear. He didn't text Naya to let her know he was outside. Instead, he turned the music in his vehicle up to as loud as it could go before it rattled his brains. Twenty seconds later, she emerged from her front door. She had on the gold-rimmed glasses, and was wearing denim dungarees with an orange turtleneck sweater underneath. Her converses were also orange, and she had sunset-coloured earrings dangling above her shoulders. Everything she wore put Dudley's plain white tee and black jeans to shame.

"You could have called, you know."

"My phone was gonna die," Dudley lied, pulling off of the pavement once Naya was seated. "Didn't want to waste my battery."

Naya was firstly taken aback by the tobacco-filled aroma in the car, along with the ageing smell of the leather seats. It was like it was passed along from his grandfather or something like that. She asked if it was a hand-me-down. He said no, that his brother stole his real car and totalled it, so now he was stuck with whatever hot mess this was. It was okay though, because he liked driving out to the desert sometimes and lying in the back of the pick-up, watching the sun rise or set. She laughed and said that was kind of corny, he said he didn't care. She followed up with, "Also cute." He smirked and kept his eyes on the road.

"God, I wish this thing had an aux cord." Naya said, watching the houses grow more scarce as they left the town. Monumental red rock formations took their place, spreading out ahead in the vista. Arizona was all Dudley knew, but he loved it the way a traveller still yearned for home. There was something so sleepy and free about it, something so wild and tranquil. It was definitely home, and always would be.

"You don't like my music taste?" Dudley huffed.

"No, I love this," Expectation by Tame Impala was filling up the air in the car. "I'm just a bigger fan of their latest project. It's definitely way more my vibe."

"You mean the more corny pop sound they went for this time around?"

"It's not corny, and it's not pop. It's just less Beatles on LSD, and more psychedelic disco, more soul. You should embrace the synthesiser and kiss the Fender goodbye. The future is now."

"Oh, wow. Okay. Well, you're wrong."

"No. You're wrong."

"I'll be wrong while jamming to this," he said, turning the music louder. She watched as Dudley bopped his head to the rhythm. This one's a cool kid, she thought.

She had heard a quite a bit about him when she first arrived. After meeting Amber Harper and Tori Richards in Art class on her second day, she soon found out about Amber's twin brother and his friends. One day, as she sat on the steps outside the library with her new comrades, Tyler approached with his partner-in-crime, and Naya spent the rest of the day trying to figure him out. She got nowhere on the evening of the cinema excursion, either. Still, she had heard all the rumours about how he had cheated on the hottest girl in South Harlow with the third-hottest girl in North Harlow, and sometimes the Girls would throw in their two cents regarding Dudley Warrington, the evasive misguided kid. She wanted to find out everything, straight from the horse's mouth; hearsay was not enough. But it wasn't like she was interested in him, though. Intrigue wasn't interest, of course. Probably not. Right?

Salvation Hill was a gated nursing home, around a mile ahead of the gas station that hung on the edge of Harlow. It was not in the best shape, but it wasn't in the worst either. Dudley pulled up to the intercom and waited for the gates to slide open like blinds.