Drive

The alarm rang a couple times, but there was no point. I wondered, with the sheets still over my head, why I even kept alarms on my phone. I was never going to wake up to it anyway.

‘You have work to do..’, the brain beckoned.

‘oh..it’s only Saturday. I have Sunday to catch up on work’, I whispered under my breath.

But that wasn’t going to stop the alarm, now was it? Soon enough my roommate shuffled across the room and turned the alarm off herself. It had always been her job to do so and quaintly she’d often add a kick in return. I needed the kick. “The boys are coming over. We’re going out for dinner”, she said.

*sigh* Now I had to get dressed, which meant I had to look socially acceptable…as a female should. My other roommate had already had her bath and she was getting ready. In a way, I was glad I took that nap, given the fact that after dinner, there was always the beach where we would hang out. It was the drill for every Saturday.

I trudged to the bathroom to freshen up. Soon enough, there was a knock on the door.

‘Hey, open the door’, one of my roommates said. I turned around and pulled the door open and flung my arms into the air and bellowed, “MY BOYS!!”

“You’ve looked better”, they all chuckled. I couldn’t care less. They’d seen me in worst situations, that I was confident that they could handle my ugly face for a while.

“Aren’t you going to come in? We’re nearly ready”, I said. “Nope, we don’t have time...get out. All of you”, one of them said.

This meant I had a minute to get ready. I’d have to be the one to lock up. Should I have honestly taken that nap? Why couldn’t I have saved it for Sunday? Damn it, woman...get your shit together! “You guys go down. I’ll be out in a second.”

‘Second? Really?’ Of course, five minutes later, we’d all settled in the car. I glanced at the time. It was only 9pm. Also, since I was the last one to get in, I got to sit near the window. (FOR THE WIN)

We sped off. Best of all, there wasn’t much traffic. The OMR highway was our weekly trail. Oddly enough, it never got old. Every drive felt like the first time. The windows would be down and along the way we’d always scream at each other different directions. Someone would always get it wrong. We never missed out on the latest gossip and who was dating who. Eventually, we wouldn’t feel hungry; drinking the lights as each post passed by. The boys would turn around and ask us girls about the guys we liked. It would always lead to a line of the worst puns you’ve ever heard, so harsh that suicide was the only way to escape it all. There’d be fist fights and sometimes my roommates would come to my aid, but in vain. We’d all be left in tears and our stomachs torn (you know, due to laughter).

We each came from different stories and life decided to put us in one car. That was probably the most beautiful thing, if you think about it. Choosing to leave the bounds of a stationary room just to be squeezed between people you genuinely care about. If only, diesel didn’t cost as much, we’d still be driving.

Amidst my open – eyed dreaming, one of the boys turned back to look at me. “Turn off that goddamn alarm! “. I stared back at him and put my hand in my pocket to switch it off. The more I looked for it, the louder it got. Slowly, I could see the road dissolve into a black haze, with my phone buzzing in the back of my mind.

“Wait”

“I can hear it ringing, but I can’t seem to find it”

“Wait”

The alarm rang a couple more times, but there was no point. I wondered, with the sheets still over my head, why I even kept alarms on my phone. I was never going to wake up to it anyway.