[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/s5el74t.gif[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/rKLlkvt.png[/img] [sub][color=#9e0b0f]▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃[/color][/sub] [sub][color=dimgray][b][color=a0410d]Location |[/color][/b] In-N-Out Burger [b][color=a0410d]Los Angeles Time |[/color][/b] 11:50 AM / [b][color=a0410d]London Time |[/color][/b] 6:50 PM / [b][color=a0410d]Moscow Time |[/color][/b] 9:50 PM [b][color=a0410d]Interacting with |[/color][/b] AJ [@TootsiePop] / Yessi [@Hoekage][/color][/sub] [sub][color=#9e0b0f]▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃[/color][/sub][/center] [center][sub][color=a0410d][i]or, all that for a drop of açai[/i][/color][/sub][/center] [right][sub]Leksi [color=a0410d][i]thought i mentioned it. i'm with the mates. seeing america for summer[/i][/color][/sub][/right] [center][sub]Mum [color=39b54a][i]Wtf???! why? !? America[/i] 🤢🤢😂[/color][/sub][/center] [color=a0410d][i]You said it, queen[/i][/color], thought Aleks Belikov. [right][sub]Leksi [color=a0410d][i]lol. told aj that. but everyone will need me[/i][/color][/sub][/right] [center][sub]Mum [color=39b54a][i]is Yessi coming??[/i][/color][/sub][/center] [color=a0410d]"Hmmph."[/color] Aleksandr Belikov looked to his right, staring daggers into the spoiled thot that had halved the free space he'd originally imagined having in his Elise. Even though the planning for their road trip had hardly been haphazard, it seemed like they were constantly running into issues that threatened to derail the whole thing. Chris was rendered unavailable, putting the work into his career - which apparently amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors in the eyes of AJ. AJ, who would fistfight a fucking school bus if he thought Jamie and his new boyfriend had once ridden it to a fourth grade field trip. Dumb, naive AJ and his dumb, perfect ass. And then there was that greatest of existential questions - [i]is Yessi coming??[/i] The answer was a complete crapshoot. She'd had her heart set on taking her Tesla across country with them, probably so she could trick herself into thinking she was a better racer than Aleks, Monica, or Ellie. Meanwhile, what would she be doing? Enjoying the open road? The sights and smells of America? [color=a0410d][i](Such as they are.)[/i][/color] Nope. She would be be using the Roadster's vaunted autopilot, cruising along with minimal direct involvement while she spent the whole trip on Snapchat. When that was the plan, he couldn't have given a fuck less. It meant he could put the Elise through its paces without any distractions. But it seemed that overnight, a dilemma had struck her - charging the damn thing. Suddenly, she was in an uproar, a tornado of high-pitched panicking and broken Spanish that was fretting over her entire availability. She had gotten so keyed up that she had even started to rip open her bags, unpacking things and repacking them as she waffled over whether she would be able to join the rest of their friends. For a while he had let her do it; he knew what she wanted him to ask, but he wasn't about to cave in. He only did so when it looked like she was going to fling herself from her Calabasas water slide to an early grave that he surrendered. At the time, he thought he was being a good best friend. Now Aleks realized what a fucking imbecile he truly was. One morning into the trip - they hadn't even left the Los Angeles metropolitan area! - and what was she complaining about? They had gone to Starbucks that morning, and she wanted a sip of Aleks' Strawberry Açai Refresher. Even though she had a [i]perfectly[/i] serviceable iced Blonde Americano. With her stupid coconut milk and everything. [i]Coconut[/i] milk. Coconut water he could understand; it was the perfect hangover cure, but good luck explaining that to her. She wanted coconut milk. Oh, and [i]cupholders.[/i] She was tired of holding her own [i]fucking drink,[/i] and didn't know why Aleks' Lotus had no [i]cupholders.[/i] Because it was a Lotus Elise 260 Cup, a fucking British cruise missile, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Colin Chapman's original racecar of the future. Because it was a car he had been desired since he was five years old in London, watching them rip up the streets from the building-length glass window of his family's condo. Because it was his [i]dream car,[/i] and Aleks Belikov didn't waste time dreaming of [i]fucking cupholders.[/i] Was Yessi coming?? Jesus Christ, was she ever. But to text his mom the affirmative - just to type out the letters [color=a0410d]'Y,' 'E,' 'S'[/color] would have felt like a defeat. Instead, he parked the Lotus beside AJ's car and stepped out with his Refresher (considerably lighter, he noticed) in hand. He took a long, deep breath of the 'fresh' air and tilted his head back, eyes half-lidded and lazy, to offer his face to the California sun. He would actually miss the weather. He had never lived in a place with so much sun before. Once he had learned to keep his skin protected from it, he'd found himself growing fond of it. He would miss the 3x3s, too. He had no idea what other regional burger chains there were in America, but the thought of them filled him with trepidation. Not quite as much trepidation as he felt when he took a single look at AJ, but it was there. AJ. He had his sunglasses on, and he sat alone atop one of the bench's. The combination meant his eyes were almost certainly clouded with thoughts of gossip columnists gone by and sex techniques that he'd heard described in [i]excruciating[/i] detail that were probably being practiced in Greece as they spoke. [i]Greece.[/i] [color=a0410d][i]Have [b]you[/b] ever been to Greece? The only thing they should be practicing is a route back to the airport,[/i][/color] he'd tried telling AJ, but AJ had a habit of ignoring good advice about terrible boys. The mirror universe of Instagram was filling his head with sweet nothings and murder fantasies, and no amount of sage counsel communicated with a sexy foreign drawl would ever change AJ's mind. He'd learned to live with it, temper his expectations a little, and offer advice that was so manageable even an idiot would have to follow through. [color=a0410d]"You have lettuce in your teeth,"[/color] Aleks warned the idiot, sitting at the bench and rattling his near-empty Starbucks cup. Baby steps.