3: Adventure (or Take you Somewhere)

He felt a soft breeze touching his shoulder. Then he tasted salt. It was unpolluted, ubiquitous sweat. He turned around and saw white lights that diverged into green and red ones. The bar was full.

He opened his eyes. He was holding his guitar and it was his turn to sing and he opened his mouth and a voice came out, like a machine. It was his cue.

But if he just dropped down his guitar and walked off the stage would someone say something? Would Jesse run after him? And if he did run, would he be able to stop him?

Where would he go anyway? The stage was the only place that made him do anything.

He had no interest in living sometimes. Except when he was singing. But he couldn't sing forever. He had to do something in between. Maybe go on a journey.

Only his maps were torn and stained. Penny had shown him his village once. It had looked good from the map, but in reality maybe it was a sad, glorious dump.

Maybe he needed to go help some people. He couldn't help himself.

Tonight was covers night. They were covering The Doors and a bit of Sparks. The latter was proving difficult to handle, since he just couldn't have fun with the music, or make jokes with his rhymes. He couldn't even not take it seriously.

But after a while, it all fell into place, like a radio was playing in the back and they were just some puppets and it felt like it was just another sleep in his room.

He scratched his head and looked around. The crowd was small and dwindling. It was getting late. But some girls were glued to the scene. One of them looked prettier than the others. She had long slender legs and a black skirt. She was wearing glasses too.

After the gig he thought he might talk to her.

But surprisingly, she walked on stage and started singing with him. Apparently it was a very popular song. He couldn't exactly hear it.

But Jesse and the other guys looked thrilled. And they were giving their best.

At the end he walked out with her and they got in his car.

They started making out, without much enthusiasm, albeit.

He had one hand in her long, ashen hair and another on her collarbone. They stopped for a moment and she took off her glasses. He frowned and blinked at her.

'Why'd you do that?'

'Do what?'

'You took your glasses off. What for?'

'Couldn't get to kiss you silly, they were bothering me,' she explained.

'Huh,' he said and kissed her again.

'But you know, I don't mind. Put them back on,' he said after a while.

'Why?' she asked raising a brow. 'Do you like them or something?'

'Yeah, sure.'

'You have a thing for them?'

'Not necessarily. But there's no need to take them off. I mean, you look cute with them on.'

'Really? I turn you on or something?'

'Did I say that? Maybe you do, I can't always tell. But I like them.'

'Huh, never met a glasses-guy.'

'Glasses-guy? What does that mean?'

'A guy turned on by glasses,' she explained like it was obvious.

'There is like a category for that…?'

'There's a category for everything,' she explained. 'See, I'm into bum rockers. So we fit.'

'Yeah…' he muttered as he kissed her back.

He liked the feel of his nose on the rims of her glasses. And that was sort of what he called romance.

After an hour or two…

'Can I come back to your place? Your car is nice and all that but I'm afraid we're gonna be stuck here all night.'

'Uh…my place? It's…you wouldn't like it.'

'What? Full of booze and vomit?'

'No, I have a little sister.'

'How young are we talking here?' she asked, curious.

Okay, he usually told the ladies Janey was seven. They'd throw a shocked face and he'd say he was raising her alone, they would admire him for it, ask for his number but he would go home alone. This time however, he wanted to try something crazier, maybe shake his night a bit. He'd raise the bar a bit.

'She's about seventeen,' he said.

'Oh, she's already in her teens. Well, it would be nice to meet her.'

'Yeah, it would…but you see, she gets kind of jealous. Like really jealous. Almost…crazy jealous.'

'What are you talking about?'

'Well, I don't bring girls home cuz she gets mental. She can't stand that crap. She'd just want me for herself.'

'For herself? Come on, your sister's in love with you or something?' she asked, laughing.

'No, it's pretty much just undiluted sex. Mostly… and she'd freak out you know, if you were there.'

It didn't take long before she jumped out of his car and was gone.

He smiled to himself and decided to drive home without rushing. Wait, he never really rushed.

He liked to stop the car sometimes, midway. He would park it somewhere on the double line, in the middle of the street and watch out for any movement. If anything moved, he would start the engine. But somehow it took good minutes for a sound to disturb him.

The windows he passed were usually dark, so sometimes, if the lighting in the street was good, he could see a shadow. He once saw a couple doing some gym exercises. They seemed old.

In this eerie place, he felt like a fragment of his mind was being turned into blank matter and he could fill it up with new things, new things he had never tried, a new life he dreamt of.

He got home at about half past three. He knocked on Janey's room but received no answer. Probably sleeping, he thought.

He opened the door slightly. The bed was empty.

So was the entire house, he checked.

He found a note on Janey's easel. It said 'Hey, I'm at Tom's. Don't wait up. Chinese on the kitchen table.'

He went downstairs and sat at the table, head in his hands. Should he be worried?

He wasn't used to this. Nights spent alone with Janey were fine. Nights spent alone without Janey meant madness or something very close to it.

He wanted to call Tom's house, but didn't have the number, or the address.

He walked around the room for a while. Now he wished Janey had one of those crappy cell phones.

He walked out of the house, looking out in the horizon, hoping to see her running figure.

He could have shot a gun in the air, no one would've woken up.

He decided to go to Daria. Something led him there, not his legs, but something did.

He wanted to go see her. It would appease his worries.

But when he found himself in front of her door he realized he couldn't knock. Her parents would flip.

He tried to remember Daria's room. He had lived in this house for about a week, hadn't he? He should figure it out.

After some painful thinking, he found her window.

And he picked up a couple of stones and started hitting the pane.

After some minutes, the window opened.

He saw her ivory skin shine under the brown locks. She seemed blind without her glasses. 'Trent?' she whispered.

He liked the way she looked at the window there, in the middle of the night.

'Trent, what're you doing here?' she asked, in a muffled tone.

'Um, hey, Daria…I can't find Janey. She er…she said she'd be at Tom's, but it's, it's pretty late,' he mumbled.

'At Tom's?' she asked sleepily and looked at the clock. 'Yeah, it's really late. Um why don't you drive there Trent? It's not far.'

'That's just it, I don't know the address.'

'Well…I don't know the name exactly, but I can tell you how to get there. I'll write it down for you,' she said walking back in her room.

Trent waited for a couple of seconds. The window seemed empty without her figure there, he thought.

When she appeared again, she was wearing her glasses.

'Um, here, I'll drop it, catch it.'

Trent looked over the hastily scribbled directions. He couldn't understand anything. He had drunk a bit, but that had nothing to do with it. He was terrible at directions. He had no idea what to make of them. He couldn't follow those signs.

'Um…Daria?'

'Yeah?'

'I really can't understand anything.'

She sighed. 'Trent, I tried to outline it as simple as possible.'

Trent frowned, a feeling of annoyance rising in him.

'Hey, you don't need to dumb it up for me. I'm just…terrible at directions, that's all.'

'And what do you expect me to do?'

'Could you come with me?' he asked hopefully.

'Um…yeah, I'm not so sure about that, Trent. It's almost morning. My parents will notice.'

'But aren't you worried about Janey? I just can't rest without her there.'

'I do Trent…' she sighed again. 'Fine, I'll come. But we'd better be fast. And you'll deal with everything. You'll talk to Tom and Jane, I'm just there as guidance, okay?'

'Fine, I can do that,' he said half-smiling.

'Um, do you want me to catch you or something?' he asked drowsily.

'Say what now?'

'When you jump out the window?'

She slapped her head. 'Trent, I'm going out the back door. But thanks for the offer.'