The Remedy (3 page)

And now here she was, wishing Rob would just shut up and press the gas pedal to the floor so this trip could be over already. Well, at least she had tried.

“Hey, Marshall.” Rob glanced in the rearview mirror. “I’m sick of driving. You about ready to switch?”

Marshall sat next to Alex, behind Rob. Tanned with shaggy, dusty blond hair, Marshall was yet another piece of evidence that proved Alex was all about appearances. They’d been dating since junior year, and it hadn’t taken long for Alex to fall for his surfer physique and “chill” attitude. Marshall was from San Diego. A shark’s-tooth necklace always hung around his neck. Simply put, Marshall was the spitting image of Chris Hemsworth on a surfboard. But to his credit, he wasn’t at all unpleasant to be around, and he was certainly better than many of Alex’s previous boyfriends.

“Dude, I thought we agreed I’d take over after we cross the border.” Marshall leaned between the two front seats.

Eliza turned from the window. “He’s right, Rob. That is what you said.”

Leigh had secretly resented Eliza since the beginning of the school year for introducing Rob into their circle of friends. For the most part, she enjoyed being around Alex’s sister and the accompanying sibling banter and bickering. Eliza and Alex were the yin to each other’s yang. While Eliza dyed her light hair jet-black and wore leather outfits and black eye shadow, the still-blond Alex maintained the plaid-skirted, solidly preppy look. And as far as Leigh could tell, Eliza liked having her around since she usually sided with Eliza during the arguments that arose between the twins.

“What can I say?” Leigh always explained to Alex. “You’re my best friend, but your sister and I are just more like-minded. That’s all.”

Then why had Eliza been so foolish to shack up with the king of all posers? Still, there were times that Eliza stuck to her honest nature, as was the case now, and Leigh was always grateful not to miss these moments.

Rob sighed. “Yeah, I know that’s what I said. It just feels like we’ve been on this road forever.”

“Well, whose bright idea was it not to take the highway?”

Leigh regretted saying the words even as they were leaving her mouth.

Everyone except Rob, who eyed her in the rearview mirror, turned to face Leigh in the van’s rear seat that she shared with no one.

“What was that?” Rob asked, turning down the volume of the van’s stereo.

Leigh darted her eyes out the window. “Nothing.”

“She said you didn’t want to take the interstate,” Marshall said. A mischievous grin spread across his face. Both he and Alex loved to be entertained by the drama of others.

Alex slapped Marshall’s shoulder and gave him a harsh “Shhh!” getting an “Ow! What did I do?” in response.

“Yes, Leigh,” Rob shouted over the squabbling couple. “You’re correct. I didn’t want to take the interstate. Do you know why?”

He didn’t wait for Leigh to reply.

“Because taking the highway would’ve been a stupid fucking idea.”

Marshall grabbed Alex’s wrists. She playfully struggled against him. “And why would that be a stupid fucking idea?” she asked with a giggle.

Rob’s annoyed expression transformed to a genuine smile. He turned to Eliza and said, “Why don’t you tell them again.”

Eliza’s lips parted to expose her bright, white teeth in a large grin. She punched the button on the glove compartment in front of her and reached all the way to the back. Like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, she retrieved a very large plastic baggie, filled to the brim with marijuana.

“Because how the hell would we get this past the border patrol?” She threw the bag over her shoulder to her sister, who caught it eagerly. “Yeah, baby!” she yelled.

Marshall leaned forward, practically suffocating himself with the bag’s clear plastic shell, and inhaled deeply. “Shit, dude.” He nudged Rob. “I still can’t believe you were able to score this much!”

Shrugging, Rob rolled down his window and rested his arm in the cool wind battering the van as they whipped along the backwoods dirt road. “Man, what did I tell you about Canada? Do you know how much that amount of weed would’ve cost me in the States?”

Marshall shook his head. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

Leigh placed her bookmark in the novel. She felt a headache coming on and rubbed her eyes, trying to suppress it. On their last night in Montreal, Rob and Marshall had told the girls to wait in the room while they ran what they referred to as an “errand.” Eliza seemed to know what the boys were up to, but whenever Alex or Leigh asked what was going on, she would only wink and say, “It’s a surprise.” An hour later, the guys returned with the largest quantity of pot Leigh had ever seen in her life. Although she’d bitten her tongue at the time, Leigh found herself with yet another reason to regret joining this escapade: possible jail time.

And now, as she eyed the copious amount of marijuana, she couldn’t keep silent any longer. She had to voice her concerns or she’d have only herself to blame later if they faced the consequences of their foolish actions.

Leigh decided to try for a coy approach to voicing her concerns. “Well, maybe,” she said, leaning forward, closer to Marshall’s ear, “what you should be thinking about is what you’re going to do with that big bag of illegal drugs if we discover this road does indeed have a border patrol.”

Eliza responded before anyone else could. “Oh, give us a break, Leigh! Like they’d really bother with a road in the middle of nowhere that gets hardly any traffic.”

Alex spun her head and met Leigh’s eyes with a nervous expression. It seemed that she, at least, was finally starting to come to her senses.

“But what if she’s right?” Alex looked from one passenger to another, searching their faces for signs of agreement. “I can’t get busted, you guys. My parents would fucking kill me!”

“Would you guys quit it with this shit?” Rob said, a hint of doubt in his voice. “Look, I’ve been on this road before. My family used to take it on every vacation to Quebec.”

Leigh scoffed. “Yeah, when you were a kid.”

“Yeah. So what?”

Marshall impressed Leigh by immediately realizing her point. He answered Rob’s question without hesitation. “Dude, that was back in the days before 9/11.”

Even over the whistling wind and the blaring radio, Leigh heard Rob mutter, “Shit,” and saw his hands grip the wheel a little tighter. Despite her awareness that their shared problem was no laughing matter, she could do nothing to stop the smirk that automatically shaped her mouth when she noticed his frustration.

Rob had now completely taken all of his attention off the road as he stared at her through the rearview mirror. Although she’d tried her best to hide her look of satisfaction behind her novel, Rob hadn’t been fooled.

“What?” he said as the van began to drift. “I suppose you have a better idea. Let’s hear it!”

Eliza suddenly gripped her boyfriend’s arm. “Rob…”

“C’mon! She thinks she’s so fucking smart all the time.”

“No, Rob! Look out!”

“
Fuck
!”

Rob slammed on the breaks. Everyone lurched forward as the van violently rocked, throwing its passengers into the seats in front of them. The van fishtailed, turning a complete 180 degrees before screeching to a stop.

Though everyone else moaned as if stepping off a faulty carnival ride, Leigh could only hear her internal alarm system screaming in red alert. Her vision had gone blurry, a common result from severe head trauma. Had she hit her head and was in too much shock to feel it? Was she bleeding? She brought her fingers to her skull, praying they wouldn’t come back red.

Relief replaced panic in an instant. This wasn’t a concussion or something even worse. Her glasses had simply fallen off.

As she found her eyewear resting on the seat beside her, Leigh thanked herself for not voicing her initial concern out loud. She was also grateful for the seatbelt that had kept her securely in place. Her friends hadn’t been so lucky.

Marshall ran his fingers through his mop of hair, gently massaging his scalp. “Damn,” he grumbled. “That sucked. You okay, babe?”

Groaning, Alex gingerly rotated her neck. “Yeah, I’m all right.” Marshall brushed the tangled locks of blond hair from her eyes, but she pushed past him and punched Rob’s right bicep, hard.

“What the
fuck
was that all about?!” she screamed.

Rob ignored the blow and looked straight ahead. With his index finger pointing past the windshield, he said, “Why don’t you ask him?”

Leigh’s eyes followed the direction of Rob’s finger.

Fifteen feet ahead in the middle of the road, a stranger was walking slowly toward them.

Alex’s dainty hand reached for the handle of the van’s sliding door and pulled hard. The door slid open loudly, letting in a cloud of unsettled dirt still hanging in the air after the van’s screeching stop.

The stranger appeared to be their age—his youth evident in his energetic eyes and attractive smile. He sauntered in a relaxed manner, hands resting on the belt loops of his worn-out jeans. An old army jacket covered his upper torso, the solid olive green kind one would expect to find in any vintage clothing store. It was complete with a sewn-in nametag above the right breast that read “TUCKER.” A battered backpack hung from one shoulder and dangled by his waist. Its color matched the old, faded blue Montreal Expos hat that concealed his brown hair, except for a few tufts that peeked out near his ears.

“Hey,” the boy said casually.

No one in the van seemed to know how to reply to his nonchalant greeting. Just moments before, he’d come perilously close to the same fate as the smashed raccoon they’d passed.

After a rather long, awkward moment of silence, it was Alex who finally asked, “Hey, man. Are you all right?”

The boy just shrugged. “No harm done.”

Marshall leaned over and stuck his head over Alex’s shoulder. “Sorry, dude. We totally didn’t see you.”

The stranger’s eyes scanned the surrounding wilderness. “I do suppose I kind of blend in around here, don’t I?”

“Or maybe you shouldn’t have been standing so close to the road,” Rob grumbled just quietly enough that only those in the van could hear his complaint.

“You hitchin’?” Marshall yelled over to the young man.

“I guess you could call it that,” he answered. “Though you’re the only car I’ve seen all day.”

Eliza rolled down her window. “Where you headed?”

“Burlington, or thereabouts anyway. Back to school.”

“No shit,” Alex spoke up. “What school?”

“JCV.”

Even in the back of the van, Leigh could hear Rob mumble, “What a surprise.” JCV stood for the Junior College of Vermont. Rob, in typical fashion, must have taken one look at their new friend and assumed he wasn’t university material. Leigh wanted to berate Rob for his condescending remark, but Marshall beat her to it.

“Hey, watch your mouth!” Marshall shot Rob a dirty look but it soon changed to his trademark mischievous smile when he added, “I may have an idea.” He turned back to the kid standing outside. “So, are you from this neck of the woods?”

He nodded. “Yeah…more or less.”

“But you know this area, right?”

“I suppose I do.” The boy looked around as if he could confirm that statement by checking the familiarity of the surrounding wilderness.

“Well then,” Marshall said as he extended his hand outward and waved the stranger forward. “Maybe we can help each other.”

“Whoa!” Rob spun in his seat and grabbed Marshall’s arm. “Hold on. What the hell are you talking about?”

Leigh watched as Marshall discreetly lifted up the bag of marijuana and gave Rob a wink. “I think we found the answer to our little import problem.”

Rob’s furrowed brow and frown immediately flipped into a foolish grin.

Alex, too, caught on right away. She whispered, “Ooh, nice thinking, baby.”

Leigh wasn’t exactly certain what her cohorts were plotting, but it was obvious it involved this unknown man. While Leigh wouldn’t have called herself a distrusting person, putting her future in the hands of someone they knew absolutely nothing about seemed to fall short of intelligent.

“Hey, wait!” Leigh tried to call from the backseat, unsure as to what exactly she was objecting to. “We should…think about this.”

But as the words were leaving her mouth, the stranger reached the van and leaned on the sliding door frame. Viewing him from this close up, Leigh had to second-guess herself. Perhaps she had read one too many thriller novels in her life, heard one too many urban legends at the sleepovers of her adolescence. This clearly wasn’t the hitchhiker of campfire tales, dressed all in black and brandishing a hook for a hand. On the contrary, Leigh could only think of one way to describe the college kid who stood against their van:

He seems nice enough
.

As if to further suggest this point, the boy raised the brim of his cap, lifting the heavy shadow from his eyes. “What’d you folks have in mind?”

Alex flashed her perfectly white teeth. “Why don’t you get in and we’ll tell you
allll
about it.”

“Whoa!” Rob raised a hand toward the boy like a Force-wielding Jedi, apparently less trusting than Alex, to Leigh’s relief. “Now just hold up there, pal. We haven’t exactly voted on anything yet.”

Leigh found herself surprised to be siding with Rob for the first time since meeting him. While he and Marshall seemed to have been on the same page before, Rob hadn’t considered that the plan would involve giving something to this outsider in return, even something as mundane as a ride. That, of course, was in direct violation of the “asshole code,” which clearly stated one should never fall victim to the follies of generosity.

“Who says we have to vote on anything?” Alex snarled back.

“Is this your van? I didn’t think so.”

Eliza gently placed a hand on Rob’s bicep in a coaxing manner. “Oh c’mon, Rob. It’s no big deal, we can trust him. There’s plenty of room next to
Leigh
.”

Leigh’s gaze darted to the girl in the front seat. Her eyes widened as she stared daggers at Eliza, her heart rate increasing to a steady, hammering thump. Was her friend trying to play matchmaker…or might there be an ulterior motive?