Michelle’s Sleeping Bag

“Greg, you’re gonna miss the turn!”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I was…”

“What?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it. We’ll get there before the storm hits.”

Damn she’s hot. How the hell did I end up driving Michelle Stevens up to Hawke’s Point for a weekend camping trip? Fucking Kevin, that’s how. Michelle and her friend Sarah were gonna drive up tonight to meet up with Kevin, Jake, and Lauren, but Sarah got sick last night. Sure enough, who ends up with the short end of the stick?

“Hey Greg, you gotta go pick up Michelle and bring her up to Hawke’s tonight,” Kevin had said on the voice mail I got this afternoon. They’d all been up at the Point drinking today since they didn’t have classes, but Sarah and Michelle were Comm majors, so they were in class ‘til five on Fridays. I was still a senior in high school, had my own ride, and apparently I was the only way she was getting up there. Fuck me. And Sarah too for being too sick to drive up there.

But damn, she’s hot. Being within twenty feet of her would have been enough to get me hard. 5’ 6”, brown hair, and the greenest eyes I’d ever seen. All the seniors at school had dug up info on her as soon as she transferred to State. She had been a cheerleader in high school, prom queen, valedictorian…the list went on. And so did her legs. She was wearing those thermal tights with the Ugg boots and a furry-hooded winter coat. The fashion amongst the college girls had spread down to the high schoolers, and after a week the principal had changed the dress code to prohibit the tights.

We had heard that the reason behind it was because “they were too distracting for the a majority of the student body and teaching staff.” Distracting indeed. I was sneaking glances over at her thighs any chance I could, which was taking my attention away from the road and my current predicament. Kevin. What a dick.

Sure, Kevin’s as decent a older brother as they come, but basically fucking over my weekend so he can have a chance at fucking the hottest girl in town isn’t exactly playing fair. He knew I had shit to do this weekend, but no, here I am, Friday night, driving up to Hawke’s in the middle of a goddamned snowstorm. And then, once I’ve dropped her off, they’ll all tell me to piss off. High school kids are scum compared to the college kids in this town.

The guys would be telling me to make a move on her, but what do I know about that? I’d only made out with a girl once, and that was this past summer. They’d given me shit about that too.

I could see it already, Monday night before practice. “Dude, Jones, did you nail Stevens on the drive up?” “Does she give road head? I bet she does!” “You go down on her?” On and on until I told them nothing happened. Well, nothing is gonna happen. She’s so far out of my league. Hell, she hasn’t even been paying attention to me. I’d win the lottery before even getting to first base with this girl. But hell, I can barely pay attention to the goddamn road, and I should be. It’s starting to ice up.

I swerved violently to avoid a pothole in the road, and apparently that was enough for her to take notice of me.

“You sure you’re ok with this?” she asked me. She had been looking out the window at the valley below. The town and campus would be stretched out below us, smoke coming from dozens of chimneys as the cold night began to settle in. She was looking straight at me now.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” I lied. Jesus, she’s staring right at me. “I really didn’t have anything else to do tonight.” Pure bullshit. The latest season of Scrubs had just come out, and I had been looking forward to relaxing all evening to it since Coach had cancelled practice due to the imminent storm. I was starting to blush with embarrassment: she had looked me square in the eye and asked me a question.

“Oh, ok.” She turned back to the window. Snow was starting to fall, and we still had another thirty miles to go before getting to the campsite Kevin had picked out. He was insane for having me drive up here.

I turned on my iPod and shuffled through some songs. I wonder what she listens to. Probably hip-hop and rap. All the kids in class listened to it, and apparently that was the best kind of music to get drunk to in your parents’ basement when they were out of town for the weekend. At least that’s what I’d been able to gather. I didn’t have anything like that. I mostly had post-punk and alternative. I put on some Arctic Monkeys, and turned the volume down in case she disapproved.

“You listen to Arctic Monkeys?” she asked.

No fucking way. “Yeah, you?”

“Totally, I’ve got all their albums, and I saw them live a few years back when they were on tour.”

“Lucky.”

“Yeah, Alex is fucking sexy as hell.” She giggled to herself.

“Hm. I guess if I were a chick I’d do him,” I murmured.

“What?”

“Nothing. Nothing.” I turned the music up some. Did she hear that? The fuck was I thinking. Stupid. But she likes the music I’m into. Go figure.

The snow was starting to come down heavy now. I hit the windshield wipers and cranked the heat on the dash. Even though we were both bundled up in our heavy winter jackets, we were up high enough that the cold just came right in no matter what you wore.

We drove in silence, occasionally nodding our heads back and forth in time to the music, or humming some lyrics here or there.

It was almost ten now. Kevin had started sending Michelle dirty drunk texts about fifteen minutes ago, and I only asked who it was the one time. She had said, “Your brother,” and left it at that. I knew how Kevin got.

He and Michelle had met on campus a few weeks back when some local bands had played out in the quad for some charity or another. They had apparently hit it off well enough that Kevin had invited her out to his monthly go-camping-and-get-shit-faced-up-in-the-woods-so-I-can-get-into-your-pants. He had partied nonstop since turning twenty-one. My parents had no idea, but I did. He and Michelle seemed a decent couple, but I knew how my brother got sometimes – bored with his current Flavor of the Week.

He’d been through more girlfriends in the last few years than everyone I knew combined. He just likes having options I guess.

“Can you see where the road is?” Michelle asked in between songs. It was dark out, and my 4Runner’s lights were having a bitch of a time cutting through the snow. It had been picking up more and more as the night went on.

“Uh, sorta,” I said.

No, was the truth. I’d been guessing for the last half hour where the road was based on the guide rails on the right, but those were long gone now. We were out in the middle of the forest, and the road was beginning to narrow and climb steeply. The pass would be coming up soon, and then we’d be heading downhill for the long stretch to the camp sites and the end of this stupid drive. Maybe they’d let me stay the night before kicking me out in the morning.

“I can’t see anything in this. You sure you’re ok? I mean, we can take a break up at the pass if you want.” She was trying to help me relax, but it wasn’t going to help. I needed out of the car, out of this fucking weather, and most of all, out from under her beautiful stare.

I blushed again.

“You look hot. Lemme turn the heat down some,” she said.

“No, no, I’m fine really it’s – ” I managed to say before realizing what had happened. We had both reached for the dial at the same time, and our hands had touched. I jumped with shock upon feeling her smooth, cold fingers. The car swerved a bit and I had to use both hands to straighten out. I flushed red with embarrassment. Good thing her attention was on the dial.

She lowered the heat without taking any outward notice of my condition, then pulled her jacket collar down a bit. I doubt she was really hot, judging how her hand felt, but the gesture was nice. I could tell she was making an effort to comfort me.

“Your heater works great for how old this car is,” she said. “How long have you had it?”

“Um, uh, two years now.”

“Is it yours?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool. I’ve never owned a car before. Is it a lot of work?” She was trying to take my mind off what had happened. I wanted to just get back to preventing our deaths on this icy road.

“Um, yeah, you know, I have to keep it maintained and all that. I did some extra work on it over the summer in my free time.”

“Cool.”

There was a long pause. Neither of us really wanted to commit any more to the conversation, so it just died. I turned the music back up and focused in on the road. We were coming up on the pass, and then we’d be heading down hill. I had 4-wheel drive, but the switchbacks would be a pain in the ass to turn on if the roads had iced over.

Sure enough, as we came down the back of the pass, the first switchback nearly threw us off the road.

“Shit!” I heard Michelle whisper. She had straightened up in her seat and grabbed hold of the handle above her head with her right hand.

“Yeah, that was close,” I said. I slowed down even more out of the turn, but by now I was at the mercy of gravity and the ice on the road. Snow was coming down sideways and I could hear the wind shaking the trees around us.

The second switchback was coming up, so I started pumping the brakes to grab as much traction as I could, but it wasn’t enough. It all happened in what seemed like an instant.

“ShitshitshitshitSHIT! NO!” I yelled as I pulled as hard as I could on the wheel to get us out of the skid, but it was too late.

We jumped the bank of the road and flew into the woods out of control, downhill before a snowdrift brought us to an abrupt halt. We both sat there breathing heavily. My knuckles were white on the backs of my hands, and my lip was bleeding from where my teeth had dug in during the whole incident.

Fuck. Fuck. I’m alive. You’re alive, Jones. I made a conscious effort to move my body, and felt that nothing was hurting. I tried to slow my breathing. I turned to check on Michelle. She was in a state of shock.

Her eyes were fixed straight ahead, and they were already tearing up. A small stream had rolled gently down her cheek into the corner of her half open mouth. Her lips were trembling slightly. One hand was clutching her jacket and seatbelt in a firm grip; the other was still on the handle above her head. Her breathing was quick and shallow.

“Are – are you – ok?” I managed in as strong a voice as I could, but it was little more than a whisper.