Story Battle Thanks To Glitter

Ashley Sullivan gripped the wheel and stared into the endless parallel rows of flickering brake lights. The man in her passenger seat sat pensively, preoccupied. It was completely understandable with all that was on his mind. And now the traffic just sat there, the dashboard clock raced by the hour and then a quarter past eight, and only a mile of roadway in between. What could she say that would help? "You want to hear music?" Ashley asked. She pulled her iPhone out of the black leather Michael Kors mini-bag wedged under the driver's seat. "If you want," Jack replied, noncommittally. "I'm afraid I don't have too much you'd like," she offered apologetically. "No, that's ok. Anything is fine. Emma... I let her pick the music when she rides," he said. Well that's awkward, Ashley mused. I'm sure you just made him feel really old. She had in fact, just felt really young. Her fingers flew in a blur along the number pad to unlock the screen. She popped the Waze app icon and handed Jack the phone. "See if you can figure out why we're stopped. And if you want to look for music, be my guest. Bluetooth is on, so it'll play whatever you want." She watched Jack swipe his way through the virtual highway system, past all of the police and traffic icons until the congestion ended. "Accident ahead about four miles. That's the problem. It says three lanes closed." "Since we have some time. I was wondering," Jack prompted, then waited. "About what?" "A couple things. I have no idea how we got there. To the club, I mean. Do you know?" Ashley laughed, causing Jack’s eyebrow to rise in suspicion. Jack and his buddies had been absolutely adorable, she remembered. The line for the club was relatively short, even for a Thursday night, but her group of eight friends had been waiting four or five minutes on the sidewalk while the bouncer checked IDs. Then three middle-aged men had approached the line, the man in center significantly more uninhibited than the other two. He was obviously drunk but not sloppy-drunk. He was definitely happy-drunk. She remembered thinking he was cute, approaching hot (she had been right about that); at least much more so than the other two guys with "dad bods". The man in the middle had a light complexion but a full head of black hair and a scruffy Ryan Reynolds chin, and had clearly worked his way out of the dad bod category. "You and your friends saw us in line and then you said, 'I'm going with them!' While one of your friends, the tall guy, tried to drag you along, the other one jumped behind us in line. You guys cut off about two dozen people. Then you yelled back to the line, 'We're with them!' The back of the line was not too happy about it. So, I gave you a hug, said 'What took you so long?’, and then settled the mob with 'They're with us.'" "The bouncers eyed you guys kind of funny, but they were not about to turn away such a large group of ladies, not on a weeknight." Ashley added. She watched the memories replay across Jack's face for some indication of recollection. A smile, only in the eyes, flickered across Jack's face. "I think I do remember. Much of the club was a blur, though. God, the music was much louder than I remember from back in the day. Then, how on earth, did I leave it with... forgive me, but I remember thinking and blabbering about you being the hottest girl in there." Ashley blushed a little, then thought back to the previous night, and recalled the exact moment when she found him so charming. "Well, once we entered the club, you three went straight to the bar. Your shorter buddy bought drinks for our whole group and the three of you carried them all to us. As a thank you for getting you in. Then, I’m sorry, we pretty much blew you off." "What?" Jack asked, in surprise. "Well, it was like having three dads around. It made all of us a little, uncomfortable. Guys were avoiding us. So we hit the dance floor hoping you wouldn't follow." "I hope I didn't dance..." "No!" Ashley laughed. "You guys actually settled in at the bar for maybe thirty minutes. You kept looking for me, though. It was pretty obvious. Not creepy or anything, just a nice smile occasionally." “So, you kept looking, too, then,” Jack added. Ashley gave Jack an affectionate smile. “Maybe a little. We exchanged a few smiles. I waved. You tipped your glass. I got thirsty and figured I could flirt another drink or two out of you.” Jack nodded in admiration. “I bet you don’t buy many drinks.” “I plead the fifth,” Ashley replied. She took her hand and affectionately grabbed Jack’s calloused fingers. His hand returned her gesture with a squeeze then retracted to his lap. “So I walked over and we started chatting. You told me about your divorce, a bunch, actually. But then we talked work and school, travel, and food. Your friends disappeared like good wingmen.” “Sounds like a nice time. But still, I have no game, or at least I haven’t played that game in a long time,” Jack said. “Nope. None at all,” Ashley countered. “I’ve seen every game in the book. You were not playing any of them.” “That’s good?” he asked. Ashley nodded. “Different. Not bad.” “Then how?” Jack asked, a perplexed look on his face. “You said something kind of charming. You said talking to me was like having a time machine. That you wanted to take a journey back in time to when you were young and stupid… sorry, your words. When you had no idea how to appreciate the company a beautiful woman, again, your words. In any other situation, I might have found that corny as hell.” “Yea, it sounds like a bad line.” Jack added. “But it was sincere, unrehearsed, the way you said it. That you wanted to appreciate me. You didn’t enter the night looking for a piece of a55. You were not feeding me a line of crap. You genuinely wanted to go back in time, experience life, with some perspective.” “And that worked?” Jack asked, a look of disbelief crossed his face. “Not exactly.” Ashley pondered the question for a few minutes. It hadn’t been the line, or even the sincerity, that had lowered her inhibitions, caused her to throw convention to the wind. What was it, then? What had she thought immediately before grabbing her bag and his hand, whispering in his ear, and heading for the exit? “I thought about the time machine,” she said. “I could totally see your perspective, but what really got me was wondering if the time machine traveled into the future, as well as the past. I wonded if I could approach my future, learning from your past. How did you get into your situation? What type of man did I really want to settle down with? And how did things go so wrong?” She watched the range of emotions play across his face as he considered her perspective. “But that wasn’t quite it either. You’re not the only one moving on from a bad relationship. I dumped my boyfriend about a month ago. Last night was the first time in that month my friends had been able to drag me out. Part of me really wanted to do something, I guess, unexpected. Liberating.” “Oh,” Jack said. “Touche.” “Yep. When we left the club, you were still pretty hammered. You started fumbling for your keys so I steered you towards my car. You called it a ‘piss-yellow Delorean’.” “I did? Ha. I guess I watched too many Michael J. Fox movies as a kid. I apologize for insulting your car.” “Thank you! My car accepts your apology,” Ashley laughed. “Yea, it’s a piss-yellow Cavalier,” Jack cracked. Ashley clenched her jaw and slapped the hell out of Jack’s arm. She watched with satisfaction as he cringed defensively and rubbed the spot on his bicep. She refused to let him see her shake out her own hand. It had been like slapping a brick. Police cars and fire truck loomed ahead of the slowly crawling vehicles. Ashley turned her attention towards the merging traffic. Cars jostled for positions as five highway lanes filtered down to two. As she crammed her compact ahead of more tentative or considerate time pilots, she heard her phone buzz emphatically, repeatedly in Jack’s hands for several seconds. “Um,” Jack said, a touch of worry in his voice, “You might want to take a look at this.” He passed the phone to Ashley as multiple texts scrolled passed. Ashley grabbed the phone and held it aloft, along her line of view on the compressing highway. Caps and emojis made the message hard to decipher. Panic was clearly happening on the other line. “What’s it say! Dammit I need to drive.” Ashley tossed the phone, frisbee style back into Jack’s lap. Jack read the lines verbatim. OMG!!!WHERE R U?SAM IS PISSED!! :(HE IS LOOKING FOR U!!R U THERE? “Who is Sam?” Jack asked. “Shjt. Shjt. Shjt. He’s my ex.” Ashley replied. She slammed her hands into the steering wheel. “What does he want?” “I don’t know. Ask her. MOVE, A55HOLE!” Jack typed back. What does he want? Ellipses blinked for a few seconds. Jack recited the response. Tony saw u leave the club with some guy. He told Sam. Sarah saw convo on instagram. Pic of the guy. He looks old. What did you do? ;) Ellipses, again. Hes waiting at club to kick this guys a55. Sam. Tony. Marcus. Maybe others. Figures youll come back with him. “Kick my as5? Really? Didn’t you say it was a month?” Jack looked incredulous. “Shjt. Well maybe more like three weeks. He didn’t take it well.” Ashley rolled past the fire trucks and punched the gas. The car jumped into motion much like the little engine that could. The gears roared as the car jumped past 50 and 60 miles per hour. “Can I take you home? anywhere else?” “No, We only have like an hour now. I still need to get cleaned up. I need all my crap. My documents from the car. What if you dropped me off a few blocks away?” “If they recognize you, he’ll kill you. At least if I’m there, maybe I can talk him out of it.” The phone buzzed again. U there? Hello? “Tell her, we’re on our way.” A couple minutes later, the piss-yellow Cavalier’s tires squealed as it took the highway exit ramp. They pulled into the city center grid and gobbled dotted lines like Pac Man headed towards the cherry prize guarded by the ghosts of Ashley’s past.