Do both of the previous actions; by ignoring his protests and telling the story to ourselves. No matter how much he protests, just keep talking!
Welp. This is gonna be an uncomfortable drive, at this rate. You feel the urge to fill the air with words. "So... how's your day been?"
"I just need to be somewhere by the end of it. Please hurry."
"Right, I hear ya. I've been having a long day myself. First day on this job. Thought it looked interesting, making my own hours and working at my own pace, but it's been a bit tricky so far..."
You continue on about your recent life, talking more to yourself than the tapping Roger in the back. But as you ramble, you notice his foot tapping gets slower, and then stops. Sounds like he might actually be chilling out a bit. Encouraged, you keep going, right through two green lights. Nice. "...And my other job's not really working out, so getting as much work as I need sounded pretty good. Plus, aside from living I gotta keep this old car from dying on me, or I'm pretty much screwed-"
"Oh, great..."
Your first thought is surprise, as you'd been going for a good 3 minutes and he hadn't interrupted you yet. Your second thought, though, is also surprise, that Roger there noticed before you, who's supposed to have eyes on the road. Damn. The arms swinging down over the railroad crossing. You come to a stop, a small line of other cars doing the same behind you. The train comes into view, and you can see it's got a good chain of freight behind it. The man seems to notice, too, as you hear feet
and fingers start a-tapping. "Hey man, don't worry. We'll still get there on time. You wouldn't believe how much delay taking the freeway past this part of town saves. Trust me, a lesson hard learned at one of my last jobs. Never late to work again, I was, until I got let go for all those other times..."
It doesn't seem to help much this time, as your passenger keeps tapping the whole time the train rolls by, but you keep talking, and once the crossing clears and you start again towards the on-ramp, he seems to calm down again. The sun starts to set as you pull up onto the freeway. "See? Clear traffic. No worries."
"Okay. Okay. Okay..." He trails off. You listen for a bit, hearing him intermittently muttering "okay." Guy's really worked up. Time for more soothing stories.
The sky rapidly darkens, the lights on your radio and dashboard soon the only thing visible inside the car. You tell Roger about all the problems with your car you'd like to fix, like the lining in the trunk, the hinges on the glovebox, the noise in the clutch. "It's pretty impressive it's survived this long, really." You feel pretty good about this story, as Roger doesn't even seem to notice when you hit a bit of traffic just before the offramp.
However, as you pull off the freeway, you hear heavy breathing behind you. "No no no no no GOD DAMNIT!"
"Hey man," you start, "relax, we're almost-" And then you see the pair of yellow eyes glowing in your rear view mirror.
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Topic: Sideliner [SG] - Day 3 (Read 48041 times)