Senior Skip Day

Macey leaned toward the vent until her hair was wafting with the breeze. “Why is the AC blowing hot air?”

Austin put her hands over the side and middle vents in the dash, then turned off the AC. “Maybe if we, you know, give it a break for a little while it’ll work later? I don’t know, I’m not a car expert.”

“Well what are we supposed to do, Austin? It’s a million degrees outside and we’re out of gas and now we are out of AC.” 

“The car says it’s 112 degrees outside, not a million.”

“Yeah, well I say it’s a million. Just look at the road. You can see, like, the heat waves coming up.” 

Austin let out a deep sigh. “My stupid brother, he didn’t fill up the tank last night when he borrowed the car.”

“Woohoo! You said the secret word – fill up!” Macey reached for the bottle of lemonade flavored vodka. With no shot glasses available, they had decided a gulp or two every time was good enough. After each took their turn, they sat in silence for a few moments thinking up a new secret word each.

“Got mine,” said Austin.

“Ha ha.” Macey took a deep swig then handed the bottle back. “I knew you would say that, so I made that my new one. Drink up.” 

Austin looked at the bottle and handed it back without drinking. “I don’t feel too good. And before you say it, it’s not like, throw-up bad, I’m really achy. In my arms and legs.” She checked her phone. “We’ve been sitting here with no gas for over two hours now and I’m really hot and nobody’s been by.”

 “You sure your dad didn’t put extra gas in the trunk?’

Pulling the keys from the ignition, Austin tossed them toward her friend’s lap. Jangling, they bounced off the seat and onto the floor. “You know I looked already Macey. You stayed in the cool AC while I went outside and looked. If you don’t believe me, you go look. This was your dumb idea to go to Vegas for Senior Skip day.”

“What the fuck, Austin? Don’t be such a byotch. Tonopah is no-place. We been there our whole lives and deserve to go someplace fun for Skip. Besides, you’re the driver.”

Squirming in her seat trying to get comfortable, Austin decided that reclining it most of the way might help. “Well, you’re supposed to be the one to guide us there. When I went to Vegas when I was thirteen with my mom, I don’t remember going through Death Valley.”

“I just followed the app ‘til we lost service.” She took a picture of the reclining Austin and then one of the barren landscape outside the car window. “I’ll post these later. Do you think we’ll see anybody famous today?”

“I already told you I don’t know when you asked me that an hour ago.”

“Geez Austin.”

“I’m sorry. I’m just really hot and tired and I don’t feel good. I bet we do see somebody famous. I mean, it’s Vegas, right?”

“Yeah, I hope we do. It’d be cool to post somebody famous on our Skip. I know we were just going for the day, but you think maybe we should get a hotel room? Someplace with a pool, since you’re sick and all?”

“We could’ve stayed home and gone over to Billy’s. He has a pool and both his parents are at work.” Austin closed her eyes and shivered at the goose bumps that ran down her arms.

“That’s all we ever do. Besides, Billy Brandon gets handsy under the water. Oh, and what’s his thing about always asking us if we want to skinny dip?”

“He told me, but I promised I wouldn’t tell.” Starting to sit up, Austin grabbed for, and missed the steering wheel. Flopping down in her seat, she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths until the dizziness and numbness in her tongue passed.

“You okay? What’s wrong?”

“Yeah, I just got up too quick and got dizzy. I feel like I’m gonna pass out or something.”

“You can’t pass out, you gotta tell me why Billy’s always perving for us to swim naked.”

“Promise you won’t say anything about it?”

Macey took a drink from the bottle and scrunched up in her seat closer to her friend. “Cross my heart,” she giggled.

“Ok, but if you tell, I’ll kill ya. He told me that his parents go out late at night on the weekend, when they think he’s asleep, and they skinny dip and then mess around. Sometimes they do it during the week too.”

“Ewww,” Macy backed away scrunching up her face, “they’re like, in their 40s aren’t they?”

“I know!” Austin’s giggle was cut short by a sharp pain in her temple. “Ow! My head is suddenly pounding, you got any aspirin?”

“Let me look.” Macey fished her mom’s knock-off, designer purse from the back seat and dug around in it. “Got em, how many you want, three?”

“Yeah, that should be good.”

Macey handed her the pills and the bottle of vodka. “Maybe you should like, chug as much as you can with the pills. You might need the liquids or something.”

Five big gulps made the girl cough and sputter, but she got the pills down and handed the bottle back to her friend.

Taking a couple swigs too, she placed her hand on Austin’s forehead. “Nurse Macey to the rescue. “

“Nurse Macey my butt.”

“I know, like, why would anybody want to go to more school after graduation? I’m gonna be an influencer. I already got over 500 followers.”

“Yeah, that’s cause you got 600 cousins.” 

They both had a chuckle at that.

“Nurse Macey says your skin doesn’t feel hot. Really, it feels kinda cool.” She put her hand to her own forehead for a few seconds. “Cooler than mine really. So that’s a good thing, right?”

“I guess, but why do I feel so bad? And so tired?”

“Looks like we’re gonna get a hotel when we get to Vegas for sure. Maybe you got the flu or something.”

“Hotels cost a lot of money.”

“Well, my mom gave me her credit card. In case of emergency. I’ll call her when we get someplace where our phones work and I bet she’ll say it’s okay.”

“You think somebody will be by soon? I don’t feel so good.”

“It’s a road. People go down roads all the time. You just close your eyes and try to take a nap. Dream about that big hotel pool we’ll be swimming in soon – and meeting somebody famous.”

“Ok. Thank you for taking care of me Nurse Macey.” She reached out and held the other’s hand.

Ten minutes later, Macey whispered, “Austin, you awake?” After receiving no answer, she uncoupled her hand from the other and took a big gulp from the near-empty bottle.

“You know I love you girl,” Macey muttered softly, “but I think maybe you got me sick too. I’m achy and have a headache now too.”

Four aspirin were counted out and washed down with the last of the lemonade flavored vodka. She tilted her seat back and decided a nap did sound like a great idea.

“Oh wait.” Feeling around on the floorboard, she grabbed the keys. Reaching over to insert the keys into the ignition, Macey grabbed the steering wheel for balance. “Ow! Motherfucker.”

The afternoon sun had been advancing slowly through the windshield, heating the dash and steering wheel to an unbearable degree. Stretching, she inserted the key, turned on the battery power, and cranked the AC.  

Smiling, she took a selfie, nestled on her side in the reclined seat and let the phone fall between the seats. “We gave the AC a rest, Austin,” she whispered. “I bet it will be putting out cold air real soon.”

Then she closed her eyes.