A 30 Minute Drive

“Wake up, pal.”

I slowly opened my eyes and the first thought that came to mind was, This is going to be a bad day.

How could I tell? One, I had gotten a full night’s sleep yet still felt dead tired. Two, I woke up still feeling cross from yesterday even though I had time to sleep it off. And three, Stu Burns was hovering over me.

Still groggy, I got up slowly but chose to rest on the bed. I just wanted a few more minutes before I had to get ready…

“Come on, dude. I let you sleep in; now you got to get ready for classes. Come on, up and at ‘em!”

I groaned as Stu continued his attempts to rouse me. Eventually, I got up and proceeded to stomp towards my closet. Stu, wisely, got out of my way.

“Oh good, you’re up,” Stu said as he began to leave my room, “We’ll be waiting for you in the car when you’re ready. Better hurry up.”

I didn’t bother replying as I changed into a fresh set of clothes. The next half hour moved by rather quickly.

I packed my lunch, put my notes into my backpack, and put on the grey sweater I had left on the floor.

Then I proceeded to leave the house and walk towards my car.

I had hoped my morning routine would improve my mood, but I was still feeling grouchy as I unlocked the car doors. I plopped into the driver’s seat and turned on the engine.

“What took you so long?”

I groaned as I turned to my right. Sure enough, Stu was sitting in the passenger seat again. I was fully awake now so I could see what he was wearing.

He had a black t-shirt with red and purple stripes and ripped blue jeans. His choice of clothing certainly wasn’t appropriate for November weather, but then again, it was very much like him. It certainly complimented his unnaturally bright smile.

That smile of his somewhat aggravated me.

I chose to ignore him and put the car in reverse. Stu simply shrugged and put his feet on the dashboard.

“Okay, you don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to,” Stu said as he turned towards the back, “Do you want to say anything, Pat?”

As I turned my head around to watch for any incoming traffic behind me, I could see Pat Ciene sitting behind me.

Pat was wearing a white hoodie and black sweatpants. He adjusted his glasses as he read a small book open on his lap. I could only assume it was something only smart people would find enjoyable.

Pat stopped reading to meet my gaze.

“Next time, it might be a good idea to set an alarm clock.” He then shifted his eyes towards Stu. “Take your feet off the dashboard. He’s needs to concentrate on driving after all.”

“Alright, alright, fine I will,” Stu promised, though I noticed there was something off about the tone of his voice. Pat, satisfied with his answer, returned to reading his book.

After I got onto the street, I put the car in drive and headed towards the highway. It was only a few blocks away from my house and I only ran into one red light on my way to the on-ramp.

I was actually making good time. That made me feel slightly better. But only slightly.

However, it didn’t last long. As soon as I entered the on-ramp, I saw the line of cars stuck in traffic ahead of me. I sighed as hit my head against the headrest. The little bit of stress that had vanished earlier slowly began to come back.

“Dammit, rush hour.” Stu groaned.

“We would’ve missed it if you hadn’t slept in.” Pat noted as he turned a page. Even though that statement was somewhat true, I tried my best to not let it bother me. So far, I wasn’t doing a very good job at it.

“So, good job on the last exam. Now you don’t have anything due until next week.” Stu shifted slightly on the seat to make himself comfortable. “I wonder if Matt’s coming today?”

I clenched my jaw at the mention of that name. My fingers tightened around the wheel and my foot on the brake began to feel twitchy.

“We’ll find out when we get there.” Pat gave Stu a look before continuing, “Also, he’s still driving, remember?”

“Relax, I’m not distracting him,” Stu said with a smile. Pat rolled his eyes before facing me.

“Ignore the idiot. Look, try turning onto the left lane,” Pat suggested while pointing, “There should be an alternative route up ahead. Make sure not to linger.”

The thought of getting the car moving again helped take my mind off of Matt. And indeed, there was relatively more space between the cars passing by on the left side.

Seeing an opportunity, I turned on my left blinker and slipped in before anyone could block my path.

In a few minutes, I was leaving the line of traffic behind me. I looked for Pat in the rearview mirror, but couldn’t make him out.

After escaping the traffic jam, the drive became a lot smoother. The car glided on the asphalt roads as the sun began to creep over the horizon. A few of its rays hit my eyes, but they weren’t bright enough to blind me.

I could tell Pat was making progress on his reading and Stu hadn’t said a word in the last couple of minutes. My thoughts began to settle, and I could slowly feel myself calming down.

Of course, Stu had to ruin it by talking.

“Hey, pal.” I heard Stu shift in his seat. “I’ve been meaning to ask you. I know this is kind of a touchy subject right now, but I think we should talk about it. What exactly are you planning to do when you see Matt?”

I took a deep breath while checking my side mirrors.

“Look, I know you guys are friends and all, but that fight yesterday was pretty ugly.” Stu recounted, “Like really ugly. You guys were arguing for 20 minutes straight.”

I tried to ignore him as I turned on my right blinker and gradually shifted to the far right lane.

“I know, I know. You two have always argued about stuff: classes, study sessions, and even favorite food.”

I saw the exit coming up ahead and got ready to move onto the off-ramp.

“But what happened the other day… I’ve never seen you two fight over a girl before.”

Hearing this threw me off so much that I forgot to get off. By the time I regained focus, the exit was already behind me. I swore under my breath as I looked ahead for the nearest exit.

“Stu, look what you did. Now he has to go the long way around,” Pat remarked.

“Sorry, I was just trying to help,” Stu said before turning back to me, “Anyway, that girl. Leslie? Katie? Did she say her name before she left you two to finish your argument?”

Already stressed from missing the exit earlier, I could feel the blood rushing to my head.

“Look, I didn’t mean to upset you. I get it; Matt started it. He shouldn’t have made a move on her after you explicitly said you saw her first. But remember how he walked away acting like he was the victim? That isn’t how a good friend should act in my opinion.”

Stu’s words were not improving my mood. Yet for some reason, his usually grating voice suddenly sounded more reasonable than normal.

His logic did actually make a lot of sense; Matt was definitely at fault for yesterday, not me.

“Stu, that’s enough. You shouldn’t talk about this right now.” I couldn’t tell but Pat’s voice suddenly seemed concerned.

“You know what I think? The next time you see him, you should ask him to apologize,” Stu recommended. “He shouldn’t get away with saying those things to you. Besides, a real friend should never have gone behind your back like that. If he doesn’t apologize, you’re better off just ending your friendship right there.”

Despite how irrational Stu’s “solutions” sounded, his ideas for how to resolve things between Matt and I did interest me. Something inside me was telling me to go through with this plan in order to get back at him.

At best, I would at least make myself feel better.

Yet there was also this part of me that was hesitant; unsure whether this was really the best way to settle things.

“Stu, this isn’t really the time for this. Besides those ideas are really - Buddy, BUDDY! BRAKES! BRAKES!”

Pat’s warning pulled my head out of the clouds just as the car in front of me came to a stop. I slammed my foot on the brakes and I came to a stop just a few inches away from hitting the other car’s bumper.

I took deep breaths as adrenaline rushed through my veins. As I tried to calm myself, Pat spoke up.

“Okay, buddy. Take your time and get to where you’re going first. Then we should talk.”

I nodded dumbly as I fixed my eyes on the highway in front of me. As I found an exit ramp and began navigating the streets toward my college, I occasionally looked into my rearview mirror.

Pat mostly maintained a stoic expression for the rest of the trip, but sometimes he would give a disapproving glare to my right.

Eventually, I pulled the car into one of the college’s parking lots. It was still relatively early in the morning so there were plenty of open spaces.

I pulled into the first available spot, put the lever in park, and turned off the engine of the car. Only then did Pat begin to speak.

“Alright, buddy, can you do me a favor? Turn around.”

It felt like I was just given an order, but after everything that had happened on the way here, I felt that Pat deserved to be heard.

I did what he asked and found myself facing both Stu and Pat. Stu leaned into my line of sight, blocking Pat.

“Pal, are you okay? You really should pay more attention.”

“Stu. Could you move? Please?” Pat said sternly, shooting Stu a glare. Stu was about to say something, but then thought better of it. He crossed his arms and backed off.

“Thank you. Now, buddy,” Pat addressed me gently, “I know that you’re upset with Matt. I know that you feel like he betrayed you and that he’s the one in the wrong not you. But I need you to grow up.”

I frowned at this statement. So far I wasn’t liking the direction of this conversation.

“I’m just saying you should probably recall what really happened before you jump to conclusions. Yes, you saw Matt talking with the girl you liked, but did you know what they were talking about?”

I began to protest then pursed my lips.

“No. Also, do you remember when Matt called you a bossy and selfish asshole? Well, he wasn’t completely wrong when he said that. You can’t keep telling him what to do. He deserves to decide what he wants for himself. Don’t you agree?”

I pondered it for a moment and nodded.

“Exactly. Finally, you guys are fighting over such a dumb reason. That girl clearly wasn’t interested in either of you, yet you made such a big scene in front of so many people. It certainly wasn’t worth calling Matt a lying bastard over, now was it?”

I grimaced as I recalled those exact words.

“Look, I don’t really care what you do. I’m just here to give you the best advice. I just think it might be better to apologize first rather than wait to see if Matt will do it,” Pat gave me a confident smile. “If you want to listen to Stu, I can’t stop you, but I’m hoping you aren’t that stubborn.”

“Hang on,” Stu started, “Pat, are you saying that my advice is stupid?”

“No, I just tend to give rational advice while you don’t.”

As the two began to argue, I sat in the car deliberating what to do if I saw Matt.

I was still upset at him; I wanted him to take responsibility for all the things he called me and just leaving me without so much an apology.

But I was at fault for being controlling and suspicious and not at least admitting it. At the moment, I was not sure whether it was better to be selfish or altruistic.

Eventually, I couldn’t stand being inside the car anymore and got out.

As I exited and began to walk towards campus, I turned around and locked the car behind me. The empty car behind me.

I continued to mull over my decision as I traversed the sidewalk. For someone like me, it was hard to make important choices without a little bit of advice. Sometimes it just helps to have people to talk to about such things.

Even if said people don’t really exist.

My conversations with Stu and Pat were still playing in my head by the time I reached my first class. Even while my professor was talking or I was conversing with other students, I was still weighing my options.

By the time the first class was over, I was still stumped over what I should do. I looked at the ground as if expecting it to give me an answer but of course found none.

Well, it’s not like I’m in a hurry of anything, I mused as I began to head to my next class. Maybe it’ll come to me later.

The second those thoughts entered my head I looked up to see Matt in front of me. Before either of us could react, our eyes met. I couldn’t tell if Matt was angry or surprised to see me, but here we were, standing in each other’s way.

Great, now what? My mind raced as I tried to figure out what to do. The ideas of escaping or ignoring him crossed my mind, but my thoughts kept wandering back to what happened in the car.

I realized that there really was no avoiding this. I weighed whether to apologize or not one more time to see which one would win.

When the results came in, I sighed.

Well, here goes nothing. I walked right up to Matt, leaving only a few feet of space between us. I opened my mouth to speak but Matt beat me to it.

“Hey, man,” Matt greeted me as he scratched his right ear. “Listen, I’m sorry about yesterday. Things shouldn’t have gone the way they did. We both said really hurtful things about each other and I wish I could take them all back. We were both acting stupid; I was acting stupid.”

I was taken a bit off guard by how quick he was to apologize. Of course, that now meant I couldn’t be the one to apologize first.

Oh well, it’s not the worst thing.

I took a deep breath and collected my thoughts. Alright, change of plans.

After finding a cafe on campus, we found a table where we could talk.

For the next half hour, Matt and I spent it trying to reconcile.

I started out by telling Matt that I didn’t appreciate the insults he hurled at me during our argument. Both of us were indignant at first, but I made sure to apologize for the things I had called him as well.

Matt then explained that the girl’s name was actually Patricia and admitted that he had been trying to ask her out when I had confronted him. But he assured me that he wasn’t interested in her anymore.

I took him at his word.

I finally expressed my regrets for my behavior and promised to be better, though I didn’t guarantee that I would never argue with Matt again.

Matt didn’t mind; he knew that we would go back to playfully bickering with each other soon enough.

Before we parted ways, we decided to give each other some personal space to let the remaining tension fade away, but at least there was no more bad blood between us.

By the end of the day, as I walked back to my car, I didn’t feel so weighed down anymore. The stress that had been plaguing me in the morning was now gone.

But there was only one way to make sure of that.

I approached the car and unlocked the doors.

I slid into the driver’s seat and turned on the engine.

I then sat in the chair, waiting to hear any familiar voices.

Nothing happened.

Two minutes passed and I waited for two faces to materialize.

Nothing happened.

Three minutes passed. Then four. Then five.

Smiling to myself, I put the car in reverse and backed out of my parking space.

After pointing the front of the car towards the street, I put the car in drive and pressed on the accelerator.

As I headed home, I couldn’t help but be glad that the drive would be quiet and uneventful for once.