Turn Around

Johnathan scratches his head in frustration, the cars behind them honking loudly at 30 second intervals, which they had been doing for the last two hours. He rolls down his window, "We're all stuck you idiots!" 

"That's right, scream at strangers in traffic so they come and shoot us!" The woman in the passenger's seat growls, "and roll up that window it's a blizzard and its freezing!"

 Johnathan huffs rolls up his window. He looks over at Scarlet, bundled up in two coats and a blanket, facing the door and away from him, he laughs a little bit.

"What?" Scarlet asks.

"I just remembered the first time I brought you out here, remember how you fell on those stairs?"

"Oh yeah that was so funny! Except for the fact that I was pregnant and would have lost my baby!" Scarlet snaps.

"Sorry" Johnathan says blandly, rolling his eyes.

"The court should be in the next two exits, lets just continue sit in silence until then." Scarlet suggests.

"Fine by me," Johnathan breathes, he turns on the radio, playing Danza Kuduro by Don Omar. A soft smile spreads across Scarlet's face, Johnathan notices this.

"Do you remember why we chose this song for our wedding?" he asks her.

She grooves a little bit in her seat, "This was the song that was playing when we first met."

"When I caught you as you fell off the bar" Johnathan finishes, Scarlet playfully hits his leg, "We said we would never bring that up again as long as we're married!"

"Yeah well, looks like I only got about another 30 minutes until I can bring it up then..." They sit in silence after this. Scarlet fiddles with the ring in her pocket.

"Remember our first date after that?" she brings up softly, "the song played at the restaurant?"

Johnathan smirks, "It also played at the bowling alley the first time you met my parents,"

"And in the lobby at the movie theater we went to for our 2 year anniversary"

"And in the background at the hotel I proposed to you at."

"And in the hospital when Julia was born."

"And at the taco place when you had explosive diarrhea"

They both laugh loudly, "I-I remember you had to give me your pants!" Scarlet cries. They laugh hard and for a long time, sharing the memories their song brings.

"This song plays every time something good happens to us" Johnathan says as he wipes a tear from his eye.

"Except today right?" Scarlet adds, the lighthearted nature of the car slowly dwindling. Johnathan places a soft hand on her thigh, which is now facing him. "I still love you."

"Don't..." Scarlet shakes her head, "We said we would make this quick and painless, don't make this harder than it has to be."

"Seven years Scar? Seven years and we throw it away like this?"

"Ten if you count the time we were dating."

"Scar..."

"Johnathan we both saw this coming. Things haven't been the same since... Julia-"

"Not right now, do not do that right now" Johnathan warns.

"When is the time then John? When is the time! Julia is gone John! A storm like this took our baby, it's only fitting it takes our marriage too!" Scarlet argues.

Johnathan falls silent, gripping the steering wheel extra hard. He honks his horn, matching the intensity around them.

"Stop that! I hate when you do that!" Scarlet shouts, "you never talk to me anymore! You always just fly off the handle- JOHN STOP THAT!"

"You wanna talk? Fine let's talk. I hate when you do this! Every time we fight you bring up Julia as if that's some sort of reasoning for everything bad that's ever happened to us. You think I don't miss her too? You think I wanted everything to turn out like this! I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, with our daughter, with possibly more kids!"

Scarlet stares at him, "After she died you told me you hated me. You said you could never trust me again. Isn't that the reason you're driving to the divorce court John, huh? Because I can't be trusted to drive in snow storms, because the accident was my fault?"

"I never meant that... I was just so worked up, my world was falling apart... You know I would never-"

"No, I don't know that, because you won't talk to me! Every time I want to talk about her you rage out and shut me down."

"I just... I can't handle it, things were never supposed to be this way. This was never apart of the plan...This is the most we've ever talked about this" Johnathan realizes.

"We never had a chance to talk before, we were too busy screaming at each other" Scarlet reminds him, "plus we're stuck in this stupid traffic, what else is there to do? Besides sit in silence like we were and like I said we should do."

Scarlet takes a deep breath, arms folded. Johnathan stops talking, although the look on his face made it clear he was thinking hard about something.

"Remember during our honeymoon, when we sat in the Jacuzzi too long and could barely make it back to our bedroom?" Johnathan says.

"What's that got to do with-"

"I carried you, at my weakest moment I still wanted to carry you, I wanted you to know that no matter what, I would always make sure you were safe... And I failed at that after Julia, and Scarlet I'm so sorry. You must've been hurting far worse than I was and I should've carried you."

Soft quiet tears start to fall down Scarlet's cheek, "I'm sorry too" she whispers.

"I always said we could get through anything, we used to be so good at conversation before... everything," Johnathan goes on, they start to creep towards their exit, "This chat we're having, I feel like it's saving us Scar, if only we had more time... Its this exit, what do you wanna do?"

Scarlet had shaken the blanket off of her and was sitting up straight, wiping the tears from her face. "Take the exit," she says. Johnathan sighs heavily, and inches off the freeway.

"Now turn around, back into the traffic, and let's try again," she adds, reaching over to grab Johnathan's warm hand. He hooks a left at the stoplight and gets back onto the freeway, headed back to where they came from, facing the storm together, again.