The Disenfranchised Friend

"I'm bored," Rachel whined from the back seat.

They were in a dead stop on the 101 North Route, the windshield whippers uselessly swiping at the densely falling snow. Visibility was next to zero. They could barely see the hazy red taillights of the car stopped in front of them.

"Whining about it isn't going to get us home any sooner," Jared mumbled under his breath from the drivers seat so only Alexis could hear.

Alexis resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The very last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a car with two groan adults sniping like children. Especially when the grown adults were none other than her best friend and her fiance, and while she loved them both dearly, she also had a low tolerance for their childlike antics when at odds.

The windshield whippers were still running, the steady tunk-tonk on the glass seeming to amplify in the tense silence.

"I wonder how much longer we'll be stuck here," Rachel pondered, glaring at the back of Jared's head as if he were responsible for the blizzard.

Jared flipped on the radio.

"...estimates that the storm linger for several more hours. Expect extreme delays-" Alexis turned the radio off.

"Looks like we are in for a long night," she said as she unbuckled her seat-belt and sat sideways to better see both her car companions. "Might as well get comfortable," she continued, as she unlaced her shoes and kicked them to the floor of the Bronco. Rachel followed suit almost immediately, reaching into the back of the vehicle for the camping gear that always seemed to be floating around in the back of Jared's truck. She produced a sleeping bag and one of Jared's large thermal sweaters. It was stained with engine oil, but smelled of Gain laundry detergent. Rachel passed it to Alexis, who pulled it over her head with a grin at Jared, who hadn't even asked for the sweater- wouldn't ask for it, even if he were cold, because, of course he would have made sure Alexis was warm enough first.

He gave her a half smile in return, attempting to match her positive attitude, even though he was still feeling a bit disgruntled about being stuck. He did not take off his seat belt and he continued to stare straight ahead, but he put the truck in park and adjusted down in his seat ever so slightly.

Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Does he ever just relax," Rachel asked Alexis. Alexis saw Jared's jaw flex and he sat back up in his chair, ruffled. Rachel made a motion like Vanna White presenting a letter on Wheel of Fortune, and the solved puzzle said "You see?"

Alexis sighed. Rachel had many redeeming qualities. That was why Alexis had been her friend for so long. But Rachel had a tendancy to be rude at times and never seemed to quite know when to engage her verbal filter.

"He's sitting right there," Alexis said pointedly.

"I know," Rachel clipped. "He may respond."

Jared was sitting so still, he could pass for a wax statue. His posture was rigid. His neck was reddening. His jaw was still flexed. And, then, it began to quiver.

Alexis Knew that rigidity. She had seen it during many an argument. Jared was trying to remain calm, and was quickly losing control.

So much for getting comfortable, Alexis thought bleakly.

"I hate this truck," Rachel said, as she made a huge show of shifting around to look for a comfortable spot while she wrapped the sleeping bag around her shoulders. And Jared snapped.

"I'm *so sorry* my truck isn't up to your standards," Jared sneered, "I didn't realize that someone without their own car had room to make a comment on the state of someone else's vintage Bronco!"

"Vintage? Ha! Don't make me laugh," Rachel said, waving her arms around wildly. "This thing is a piece of junk! The passenger side door can only be opened from the outside," Rachel exclaimed. "You keep a full tool box in your trunk in case you need to fix something," she went on.

Alexis had a momentary flash of the image of a tire iron and thought perhaps it wasn't Rachel's best idea to be picking a fight in an enclosed vehicle while reminding the person she is fighting with that there is a trunk full of potential murder weapons.

She shook the thought away. Sometimes her brain was such a dark place.

Returning her attention to the argument now in full swing, she heard Jared reply "...Or the time we came and picked you up when your ex, what was his name, oh, right- Dom- left you drunk and high at a party without a ride home, or when you had kidney stones and thought you were dying and needed a ride to the ER, or how about the time the bookshelf in your dorm collapsed and the maintenance guy said he wouldn't get to it for a week, but I had the tools in the truck and fixed it that day," Jared ticked off. "I didn't see you hating on me or the truck those times," Jared said sharply.

"So what is it," Jared asked, throwing off his seat-belt, so he could see Rachel now. "Why do you hate me now? What did I do?"

"You asked her to marry you and now everything has changed," cried Rachel! Then her eyes became wide and her mouth dropped into an 'O', before she covered her mouth with her hands. And then she began to sob.

Jared's anger transformed into alarm as Rachel's wails intensified. Alexis watched him grapple with what to do, before he simply turned back to the windshield and watched the whippers uselessly trying to clear away snowflakes in the blizzard.

"You didn't even tell me you were going to ask," came Rachel's voice through the sniffles and tears. "You could have at least included me," she was saying, but Alexis finally interceded.

"No, he couldn't have," she said with a note of outrage. Rachel's head snapped up from her hands. Her face was soaked and shocked. She opened her mouth to argue

"Yes, he could ha-"

"No," snapped Alexis. "Because it had nothing to do with you. Him and me, getting married, starting a life- a family- that's between him and me! Some things are only meant to be shared between two people. No one should have to explain that to you, Rach!"

"But-" Rachel began.

"No buts, Rachel!" Alexis cut her off, holding up a hand. she then pinched the bridge of her nose.

She took a deep breath.

Then another.

"Rachel," she began with deliberate calm. "We have been best friends since we were freshman in college. We lived together for six years. I get that things are changing, but you don't get to hate Jared for that. We need change in order to grow." Jesus, I shouldn't have explain this, Alexis thought. "You don't have to find a way to be happy for us, but you do need to find a way to deal."

"I'm happy for you," Rachel said in a tiny voice. Alexis raised a doubtful eyebrow at her. "ok, I want to be happy for you, but I just can't stop feeling so sorry for myself!" Rachel began to wail again.

Alexis, like Jared, simply turned back to face to windshield whippers. She was flabbergasted. Jared reached his right hand and took Alexis's left. She stared blankly as the whippers went back and forth, back and forth. Rachel, still blubbering in the back seat, began to quiet.

"Sometimes the people we love go a little nuts when they have to let go," Jared murmured from the drivers seat when he managed to catch Alexis's eye.

She felt a rush of affection for Jared and give his hand a squeeze. He gave her a small smile. She returned it.

Jared turned the radio back on.

"...Initial reports have the roads at at standstill for at least thirty miles. No one is going anywhere for a while! Meanwhile weather conditions as a whole across the North East are becoming worse-"

Alexis changed the station. Change was good, after all.

"Walkin' round in winter wonderl-" Jared cut off the radio and they listened again to the steady metronome of the windshield whippers.