Spring Fever
Chapter 5: Transportation Hunting
(Un) Important babbling-notes from Cimmy: I’d just like to make this clear; there is no such thing as an ‘obsessive reviewer’. I love getting reviews, so please, Amy, carry on with the feedback and suggestions!
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Notes: From Fred’s point of view.
Charlie had managed to talk the owner of a motel to let them live there for free. They had all been tired, depressed and shaken up from the day, so there was no arguing about roommates.
Fred crawled into bed. If Charlie hadn’t convinced the owner, Fred was rather sure that he would’ve paid twice the price, just to sleep in the lobby. He would’ve happily paid for everyone else too, it really didn’t matter how much it would’ve cost.
“Can I ask you something?” Cecilia mumbled. Charlie had put them in the same room together, because he thought it was for the best. Connie had seemed upset ever since the accident, and Guy had to stay with her for the night.
“Sure,” he answered. No matter how mad he’d been at her earlier, the last thing he wanted now was to make her more upset.
“Do you think we could’ve avoided the accident if Adam had been the one driving?”
“No,” he said firmly. “It wasn’t your fault. Don’t think about it, no one is blaming you.”
“They should. I was the one driving the car. Adam told me not to, but I just did it anyway. It’s entirely my fault. What if something bad would’ve happened to you guys?”
Fred looked at her. “Listen, Cecilia, nothing happened. You did your best, and everyone knows that. You’re a great driver. I should know, I was the one teaching you.”
Cecilia had a faint smile on her face. “Are you still mad at me?”
“No, not so much,” he answered with a smile. “Just go to sleep, okay? We can talk more tomorrow.”
“About the crash...”
“Cecilia, enough thinking about that,” he warned her.
“I just wanted to ask you something. Do you think that it was the other car’s fault entirely?”
Actually, he had no idea what so ever. He’d been sound asleep, up until the moment when they hit that other car. Abrupt awakenings were his least favorite things in the world.
“Of course it was,” he reassured her. “Believe me, it had nothing to do with you.”
He rather told her a white lie, then telling her that he had been sleeping at the moment. A white lie would make her feel better then the image of him sleeping.
Cecilia gave him a grateful smile. “Sorry for waking you up so early.”
“I’ll survive,” he grinned. “How’s the eye?”
“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.”
She was probably lying, but he didn’t want to upset her by accusing her. “How’s your hand, then? Did you get any pain-killers?”
Cecilia hadn’t told them that she’d hurt her hand in the crash. Fred had realized that when he saw the bandage around her wrist when she got back from the ambulance.
“I’ll be fine, Fred. It’s not that bad. I can use my other hand instead.”
Denial, denial.
“Can I sleep in your bed?” she asked. “I don’t wanna be alone.”
She climbed over to his bed and crawled down next to him. She was ice-cold, even though she was wearing two layers of clothes. Fred put an arm around her.
“Where are we going tomorrow?”
Fred closed his eyes. He was glad that she couldn’t see his face. “I guess we’re heading for Florida.”
“Sure?”
“Yeah, I think so. I’ll call my Dad tomorrow.”
Now was not the time to let his friends be in the middle of his fight between him and his Dad. After today, he could even beg for that house. He was good at swallowing his pride. That was the least he could do for Cecilia. She was worth it.
“You don’t have to,” she mumbled, sounding half-asleep.
“But I’m gonna do it anyway.” He pulled her closer, and kissed her cheek. “Sleep now, Cee.”
“I’m sorry for wrecking the car.”
“It wasn’t mine, so don’t worry about it.”
Cecilia giggled. “Maybe you should drive tomorrow.”
“Maybe I should,” he yawned. “Or maybe this is a sign that Ducks shouldn’t travel by car. They should travel by air. Or by bus, which ever is cheapest.”
Another giggling sound. He waited for a response, but she had already fallen asleep.
Travel by bus, huh? What was that phrase ‘Ducks fly together’ good for, if they didn’t have the ability to fly? He had to take that up on the next team meeting. Maybe Charlie would give him a medal for his marvelous idea?
God, he was tired.
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No, eight in the morning was not the best time to try and get hold of his Dad on.
Fred was sitting on the floor, trying to convince that stupid secretary at Miller Corporation that he was in fact who he said he was.
Cecilia was still lying in bed on her stomach, mumbling something in her sleep. Fred smiled at the sight of her. Waking up beside her was a great feeling. He shouldn’t have wasted the first couple of days on spring break being annoyed with her.
“Hello?” A voice in the other end of the line woke him up from his thoughts.
“I want to talk to my Dad.”
Once more he was being put on hold. He had to fire that secretary, if he ever became president of that company.
Half an hour later they all met up down in the lobby. Connie still looked anguished, and Luis still looked depressed. This was a great start of their spring break.
“Is everybody alright?” Charlie asked. “Maybe I should ask if everybody’s here first?”
Everybody was there, and they were all pretty much okay.
“Quick consult, what should we use to get our asses away from this place?”
“Let’s fly,” Fred said. Everyone looked at him. Connie snuffled.
“Fly? You mean metaphorically, I hope. None of us have any money to actually fly for,” Charlie said slowly.
“No, I mean fly as in a plane.”
“Still no money,” Charlie explained. “Anyone here with money enough to fly with?”
Connie started to sob again.
“You wanted to go to Florida, so I’m taking you to Florida. I called my Dad, begged for my life, and now I owe him a huge favor. I’ll probably have to work my ass of at MC for the rest of my life now.”
“I thought you said that you didn’t want to ask him for any favors,” Charlie stated.
“Well, I thought that we could need a break from these disastrous circumstances. I bought you all tickets to the next flight away from here. We’ll be in Florida tonight.”
“Well, as much as I love being pampered,” Luis began, “I have to say that this doesn’t seem so bad, does it?”
“It’s not appealing to just take advantage of your Dad,” Guy continued.
“Hey, let’s just pretend that we paid for it ourselves, okay?” Luis suggested.
“I’m fine with that,” Charlie smiled. “Cecilia? Connie?”
“I guess,” Connie said slowly.
“I dunno,” Cecilia answered. “Maybe we should pay you back?”
“It’s free, I didn’t pay for it, MC did. It’s their airline. I think they can lose a couple of dollars on us.”
They all agreed to talk about it later, so they wouldn’t miss the plane. Fred hoped that no one would try to pay him back or anything. Even if they felt uncomfortable with him paying for them, it wasn’t half as uncomfortable as he felt when he had to pay for stuff that Miller Corporation could provide for free.
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Fred rubbed his eyes. He’d been sleeping since the plane took off, and he was still sleepy.
They were all trying to decide how to get to the beach house. Luis was still moping around, and the fact that they were in his hometown didn’t seem to help at all. He was mumbling stuff in Spanish, sounding bitter.
“It’s outside Miami, so maybe we should take a bus. Luis, try and help us, please. You live here, you know where we should go.”
“I suggest that we take the bus,” Luis growled. “I don’t think I can suggest anything else right now.”
“Cheer up, Luis. You’ve been awfully moody since we left L.A. It’s on the other side of the country.”
“I’m not mad because of that. I just don’t like this place.”
“It’s your home,” Connie pointed out. It was the first thing she’d said in a while.
“I know. Can I have a bit of pity here, please?”
Cecilia grabbed his arm. “Please, when we get to the beach house you can be how sad you want. You can be sad in the swimming-pool, the jacuzzi, at the beach or in front of the big-screen TV.”
“It’s this way,” Luis smiled at her. “It takes forty minutes to go there by bus. Let’s just get going, so I can continue on my grieving, all right?
“I’m getting horribly drunk when we get there,” Charlie complained. “My head-ache from yesterday is still not gone.”
“Let’s get going,” Travis said. “Let’s not get stuck here for another couple of hours, okay?”
“Yeah, let’s not.”
Fred slowly followed Luis towards the bus station.
That headache Charlie was talking about seemed to be contagious.
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