Break Down.

Chris’s car had broken down again. Pulled onto the hard shoulder of the motorway, he was staring at the engine as if he knew what he was doing. He hadn’t a clue what he was doing. Nathan had picked that up after being on their road trip around the UK for only two days. Somehow, the car had managed to break down three times already and needless to say, he was not impressed.

Stood against the car on the edge of the motorway, cars sped past Nathan to their destinations without issue. Even with his back to them, the sound was enough to make Nathan grit his teeth. “Did you not check your car before you decided to take it on a road trip across the country?” He asked, snapping his head towards Chris who had dropped the faked confidence in what he was doing and now looked utterly confused. “Just wait until the breakdown company gets here. You’re not helping anything,” he muttered, staring back at the dustling trees in front of him instead.

Chris sighed, closing the lid of the vehicle and walking over to Nathan who had his arms crossed over his chest. “The car was fine last week,” he told him, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead as the sun rose higher in the sky, afternoon fast approaching, “the engine must have messed up somewhere along the way.”

Nathan scoffed, still staring at the abundance of trees. A part of him wanted to disappear into them. That would make for a better holiday than his current one was proving to be.

“They’ll take the car to the garage and we’ll be back on the road by tomorrow,” Chris said, taking a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting the end of one. He offered the packet to Nathan who couldn’t decline one. He needed one, way too stressed for what was supposed to be a fun summer road trip with a boy from his university music course. They barely knew each other and Nathan was starting to reconsider why he ever thought that was going to be a good idea. It’s not like he had many other people to spend his summer with though.

“I don’t know why you’re so pissed,” Chris muttered as he shoved the cigarette packet back into the pocket of his worn-out denim jeans, “it’s a two-week-long road trip, things are bound to go wrong at some point, we’re just getting them over with at the start.”

Nathan didn’t know why he was so pissed either. Perhaps the idea of going on a road trip with an attractive man he hardly knew was better in his mind than in reality. Either way, he had to put up with it now as he blew out a puff of smoke towards the forest. The light summer breeze carried it away.

“Sorry,” Nathan muttered when his cigarette was nearly finished. He didn’t wait for Chris to reply before walking over to a nearby bin which he stubbed the cigarette out on and tossed it into. Chris was staring at him when he walked back over, and Nathan raised an eyebrow, “what?”

“Nothing… just didn’t know you had manners.”

Nathan’s expressions morphed into a glare. Perhaps it was meant to be intimidating, but with him being significantly shorter and way less built than Chris, he couldn’t imagine he was doing a good job. Especially when Chris burst out laughing.

“I’m just kidding. Wow, you’re so sensitive.”

“I’m not,” Nathan mumbled, leaning back against the car. The hot metal burned his back but he didn’t jump away. He wasn’t there for very long anyway, the emergency breakdown service soon pulling up on the side of the road beside them. Nathan waited by the car as Chris rushed over to the man, explaining what had happened. After they were finished talking and the man walked over to the car, Nathan took a few steps away, as if he didn’t want to be anywhere near the stranger. He didn’t want to be near to anyone if he was honest.

Instead of talking to the man, Nathan walked over to the bank on the side of the road and plonked himself down. He rested his head in his hand, glaring at the forest in front of him as if it had offended him in some incredulous way. It wasn’t long before Chris was walking over to him, ruining his peace by crouching beside him.

“He’s going to take the car to the garage. There’s a hotel near it so the car will get fixed for us tonight and we’ll be back on the road in the morning.”

“Great,” Nathan said, already pushing himself to his feet and walking over to the man he’d previously been avoiding. Chris rushed behind him to keep up. “I just want to get this over with.”

-

“This isn’t too bad,” Chris said as he carried his and Nathan’s bags into their twin bed hotel room. They couldn’t afford separate ones if they wanted to eat for the remaining two weeks of their road trip. Nathan had protested to Chris carrying his bag at first, saying he could do it himself, but Chris was a lot stronger than him and carried his heavy bag with much more ease than Nathan would, so in the end, he gave in.

“I would rather be seeing sights around the country,” Nathan muttered as he closed their door behind them, flopping down onto the closest twin bed which Chris placed his bag at the end of. “So far we’ve seen nothing.”

“You’ve seen some lovely roadside hotels,” Chris said with a grin that made Nathan scowl. He tore his eyes away from Chris, staring up at the ceiling above him instead. There was a giant spiderweb across the corner of it. Nathan hated spiders.

“Listen, we’ll be back on the road tomorrow and we’ll make it to all the places you want to see. It’s just taking a while to get on our feet,” Chris said as he sat down on his bed, facing Nathan who was still glaring at the ceiling. “I’m sorry...”

Nathan’s glare melted away. He sat up and spun himself around so he was facing Chris. Deep down, he knew none of this was Chris’s fault and he knew he should try and be a little more polite. He just couldn’t help himself from getting mad at something, or getting mad at anything. “Not your fault,” was all he muttered, looking down at his nails which he’d been picking at all day.

Chris let out a sigh, “yeah, maybe not but perhaps I shouldn’t have even suggested going on this trip in the first place. I mean, we’ve talked like, what? Five times this year? And you’re clearly not having a good time. We could always just go home...”

“I don’t want to go home,” Nathan said quicker than even he expected himself to. He looked up from his nails, dropping his hand to his lap, “I don’t mean to complain all the time. I just...”

“Just what?” Chris asked when Nathan trailed off, staring down at his lap.

Nathan shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“No, what were you going to say?” Chris asked to which Nathan let out an exasperated sigh and flopped back down on his bed, eyes landing on a spider that was now directly above him. Thoughts of it falling onto his face filled his mind and he was fast to flinch back up, a short shriek leaving his lips. When Chris looked up at what he’d seen, he laughed. “Scared of spiders?”

“No.”

Regardless, Chris stood up and walked back into the connected bathroom of his and Nathan’s hotel room. When he returned, he had a roll of toilet paper in his hands. Standing on the end of the bed, he reached up and captured the spider within the paper. He kept it alive though, walking over to their open window and shooing him onto the windowsill before closing it. When he walked back to his bed, chucking the paper in a little bin beside it, Nathan sighed.

“Can I be honest with you?”

“Of course,” Chris nodded.

“I was supposed to go on a road trip with my boyfriend, well, ex-boyfriend this summer,” Nathan admitted, “we’d planned it for months and I’d been looking forward to it since last Christmas but… he broke up with me before that happened so, that’s why I jumped at the opportunity to go on this road trip with you. I’m sorry that I’m so moody about everything. I just keep thinking about all of the things I planned to do with him and how they’re currently not happening.”

“Oh. Well, you still want to do those things?”

Nathan shrugged, eyes on his feet that he was kicking back at forth along the wooden floorboards. “Yeah, but it won’t be the same without him. He was fun and I’m just… boring.”

“Aren’t I fun?” Chris asked. Nathan looked up to see him grinning. He couldn’t help but let a small smile appear on his face too, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I guess you can be.”

“Good because I definitely can be, and I don’t think you’re boring, by the way. Plus, we’re only on our second day of the road trip, we’ve got plenty of time left to do fun things.”

“I don’t even know why you’re still putting up with me at this point,” mumbled Nathan.

“Hey, we’re stuck together for the next two weeks. I’ve got to get used to it,” Chris teased and then held his hand out to Nathan, only his pinky finger raised, “I promise to make this summer road trip just as fun as your ex-boyfriend would have if you promise to try and enjoy it just as much as you would have with him.”

Nathan stared at Chris’s pinky, pressing his lips together to hide his growing smile. After a moment of consideration, he nodded, “ok,” and intertwined his pinky with Chris’s, “deal.”

And thus began the real start of their road trip.

-

The waves crashed over the beach as Nathan sat upon a sand dune. A smile tugged at his lips, the sun setting over the scene warm on his skin. When he moved his foot, grains of sand slipped between his toes. Behind him, he heard someone treading forwards until they plopped themself down beside him.

“Ice cream,” was all Chris said as he passed a tub of the strawberry treat to Nathan, keeping a chocolate tub for himself.

“Thanks,” Nathan’s lips fully curled up into a smile. He used the little wooden spoon to take a mouthful of the ice cream, eyes closing in content, “this is nice.”

“I told you the road trip wouldn’t be bad,” Chris grinned, nudging Nathan’s side. Nathan continued to smile, spooning another mouthful of the pink desert into his mouth. “It’s just a shame it’s almost over now.”

Nathan chuckled, “are you enjoying my company that much?”

“Yes, actually,” Chris admitted after he swallowed a mouthful of chocolate ice cream, seagulls squawking above the two, “you’re so much cooler than you were on the first two days. I thought I was going to have to put up with a spoiled princess the entire two weeks.”

Nathan pulled his lips into a pout, halfway through his ice cream now. The waves of the ocean were rolling closer with every minute they sat on the dunes but they knew they were safe up there. “I wasn’t that bad,” he muttered.

“Eh, I beg to differ,” Chris said to which Nathan elbowed his side. Chris chuckled as he finished his ice cream, placing his pot to the side. “You know… we could just continue to road trip for another week or two. We never did see much of Scotland.”

“We can’t afford another week or two, can we?”

“Well, you can’t but I’ve still got some money left in my savings that I’m not using for anything. That should be enough to take us up to Scotland for a week and then back to Manchester in time for the start of the new term.”

Nathan pondered it, lips pursed as he stared out at the sea. The waves rolled so gently over the shore, relaxing him of any stress he still had in him from the start of the road trip. There wasn’t a lot of that anymore. “I’d have to pay you back,” he decided, “I’ll get a part-time job somewhere next term.”

“That’s not necessary.”

Nathan scoffed, “what, are you secretly rich or something?”

“No,” Chris said as Nathan finished his ice cream, reaching over Chris to place their used tubs beside each other, “I just have some money from my part-time job last year which I haven’t used yet. I might as well spend it on something I actually want to do with someone I want to be with.”

“You want to be with me?” Nathan asked as he straightened up, dusting the sand off his hands and knees.

“Of course. Even when you were grumpy all the time I didn’t dislike being with you… however, I do much prefer you now that you smile more and laugh at my attempted jokes.” Nathan chucked, making Chris do the same before he asked, “so, what do you say? Add another two weeks onto the trip? We can plan it when we get back to the hotel?”

Nathan didn’t have to think about it very long. Chris was the only person he’d ever enjoyed spending so much time with before. He didn’t even think he’d have liked being on a road trip with his boyfriend as much as he liked being on it with Chris, and maybe that was kept him so excited to keep going with it. He was excited to see where being around Chris would take him next and he couldn’t help but think there was something brewing between the two of them so his decision was no brainer.

“Let’s do it.”