"Gracias, Godzilla," she said sarcastically, grinning, as she got
into the car. Her smile faded as she realized that food was at
stake hear. "I mean, uh, your school id toootally didn't look
stupid? I mean-" she buried her face in her hands and mumbled,
"Please don't take the sandwhich."
Walking around and getting in on the driver's side, he laughed.
"Yeah, and I tooootally believe you. Don't worry, I'm well
aware it's not the most becoming photo ever; certainly not
something worth sacrificing Chick-Fil-A for." He turned the keys in
the ignition and backed the car out, driving even more carefully
than he normally would and staying just at the speed limit, not
wanting to jostle her around too much.
Nadia gave a sigh of relief. "That's good. I don't know if you
knew, but I'm starving." She was greatful that he was being more
careful, the doctors had stressed over and over again that morning
that she needed to take it easy and not risk agrravating the wound.
She reached for the seatbelt, clipping it in. "Just in case. Noot
really sure how trustworthy you are behind the wheel," she joked.
"You are? Goodness, I had no idea. And for the record, I am a
very good driver." Under normal circumstances, he would have
deliberately pulled something stupid, like braking suddenly or
making a really quick turn, but he decided that would have to wait
for another time. The Chick-Fil-A was only 5 minutes past the hotel
in the opposite direction, so they drove past the latter on the
way. Colt was struck by normalcy of it; it seemed rather odd to be
driving down a highway only a day after escaping from an island
that was nearly blown up and on which a crazy teacher had tried to
murder you.
Nadia was quiet for most of the ride, drumming her fingers against
the door. When the Chick-Fil-A came in view, she clapped her hands
excitedly. "Yay, real food!"
"Alrighty, so I'm aware that you might not even want to speak to me
after this, but I feel like I should warn you in advance; I like
pickles on my sandwiches," he grinned, pulling into the drive
through. Out of the four members of his family, he was the only one
to ever eat the garnish normally, let alone on a burger or
sandwich, and Cam gave him endless grief about it whenever they
were ordering food.
Nadia turned in the seat, staring him straight in the face. "Colt.
YOU. LIKE. PICKLES?!" She grinned. "I thought I was the only one!"
She loved pickels on just about evreything, and her grandmother
hated taking her to fast food restraunts because she always wanted
lots of pickles. "My grandma always says, ¿Qué te pasa? Nadia,
that's not right."
He gasped and pretended to slam on the brakes, acting as if he had
been thrown forward by the momentum when in reality he'd brought
the car to a gradual stop. "You do, too?!" He feigned wiping a tear
from his eye, grinning. "I never thought I'd see the day." The car
behind them honked, signaling that Colt's antics were holding up
the line. "Some people don't understand the importance of this
moment," he joked, pulling up to the speaker and rolling down the
window to order.
"I'll have a Chick-Fil-A Sandwich with extra pickles and a Cookies
n' Cream milkshake, please, " he called. Turning away from the
window, he nodded to Nadia. "You can order whatever you'd like."
Nadia tapped her chin, considering it. "Hmm..." After a minute, she
spoke again. "Spicy Chicken Sandwhich, extra pickles, and Coca
Cola. How's that?" She leaned forward in the seat, tapping her
fingers on the dashboard.
"Sounds good," he grinned, relaying her order to the worker at the
window. Pulling forwards, he then proceeded to reach out the window
to take their food from a woman in work uniform and hand her his
credit card.
Nadia went back to sitting up straight while the woman swiped the
credit card, and after a minute, handed it back. "There you go sir,
have a nice day." Nadia grinned. "Yes!"
Thanking her, he pulled back to the parking lot to eat. "I admire
your choice of the spicy sandwich," he chuckled, handing the bag to
her. "I can barely handle just regular pepper."
She dug her hand into the bag, pulling out the sandwhich and
pulling the wrapper back with a crinkle. "I love spicy things,
jalepenos, spicy tacos, you name it!" She took a large bite out of
her sandwhich. As she chewed, her eyes moved around the parking
lot, and she stopped mid chew, her eyes wide.
"Ohhh, come on," he sighed, absolutely fed up with all of this.
Setting his sandwich down on the center consul and putting the
milkshake in the cup holder, he moved the car out of park. "You
good to eat while we're driving? That could just be some random
stranger for all I know, but I'm through with taking chances,
especially when both Dan and Mrs. Luswire are still out there
somewhere. My dad's probably waiting for us, anyway."
She nodded, taking another bite out of her sandwhich, slowly
chewing it. Nadia still apeared slightly shaken up, and she shook
her head, blinking her eyes a few times. "Sorry, I guess
evreything's scaring me now. It was probablly nothing, though I
can't say that for sure."
Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he reached over and laid
the other on her shoulder. "I totally understand, don't worry.
It'll probably be like that for awhile, honestly, but we're much
less vulnerable now." Or so I hope, he thought, but he
didn't say so. Merging out into traffic, he prayed that however it
was would lose them in the sea of vehicles, regardless of their
intent.