The Chosen Road

"My girlfriend." Seb answered. "We got into a fight, and my car got wrecked, and... well, I hope I can salvage things before it's too late."

Jill raised an eyebrow but didn't press him for the full story when he didn't volunteer it.

"What about you?" Seb asked.

"My sister is getting married this weekend." Jill explained. "I'm the maid of honor."

"On Thanksgiving?" Seb asked, surprised.

"This Saturday." Jill said. "She wanted to do it when the whole family was already there. So I get to go and pretend to be happy for her."

"Not thrilled about it?" Seb asked, surprised.

"That sounded bad." She admitted. "I am thrilled for her, I guess." She said. "But... to be honest, I think she can do better than the guy she's with. He's a jerk, but they've been together for years, and she's always wanted to settle down and marry. So she's settling." Jill shrugged.

"And you don't want to settle down one day?" Seb asked, surprised. He'd always assumed everyone wanted the American dream of marriage, two-and-a-half children, a house, two cars, and a dog.

"I don't know. Maybe." She admitted. "Not that anyone's offered to marry me." She scoffed. "I just want to be happy. For now, that means finishing my degree and getting a job that pays enough to pay off my student loans."

"What's your major?" Seb asked, curious.

"Chemical engineering." She answered. "And you?"

"Pre-law." Seb said.

"You want to be a big-shot lawyer?" Jillian asked.

Sebastian laughed. "Not really." He admitted. "I think I want to be Daredevil."

"Daredevil?" She asked.

"Yeah. He's a comic book character." Seb explained.

Jill laughed. "I know who he is. I have Netflix."

Seb laughed with her. "Right. Well... yeah. I always wanted to be a lawyer like that. I want to help people and fight crime in the legal way."

"Not dress up in body armor and beat up bad guys at night instead?" Jill asked. "It seems like it'd be less expensive than law school."

"No superpowers." Seb shrugged. "If I'm gonna be a guy in a suit, I'd rather wear a tie than a mask."

Jill laughed and nodded, accepting his answer for what it was. Seb was an idealist but not a dreamer. That was admirable.

The question-and-answer session volleyed back and forth.

"How many siblings do you have?" Both asked the other.

Seb revealed he was the oldest and had five younger siblings, which launched a series of questions about such a large family that he was used to answering. He was closest to Evie, the sister closest to him in age. He and his younger brother had little in common. His youngest sister was still a kid, eight years younger than himself.

Jill revealed she was the youngest of two siblings, with a significant age gap between her and her sister. This launched a series of questions that she was used to answering. With a twelve-year age gap, it was evident that Jill was a surprise to her parents. She looked up to her sister, but they weren't close. However, her sister lived near their parents, so they hung out more in recent years. She looked up to and admired her sister sometimes but didn't always approve of her decisions.

Then Jill wanted to know about Seb's friends, which led to them talking about his ex-girlfriend.

Seb told her about Steph, how they met, and the moments of their relationship that started their romance. Jill told him about her high-school ex, Oliver. They talked of their childhoods, growing up, their families, friends, and experiences that struck them as nostalgic now that they were thinking of homes and holidays.

The hours passed until well after the sun rose, and their stomachs chorused their disgruntled reminders that breakfast was overdue. They stopped at a highway diner for a quick breakfast and split the check 50-50. Seb offered to pay for it as a thank you, but Jill refused and threatened to leave him there if he didn't drop it, so he let it drop.

They hit a Starbucks only a short time later and got coffee. Soon, they were back on the highway for more driving through the rural countryside, facing the rising sun until it climbed to a more comfortable height.

"I like your shades." Seb commented.

Jill looked at him with her sharp, angled, retro, and oversized sunglasses on her nose and snorted. "Thanks." She said. "I bought them to go over my glasses but switched to contacts, and now they look silly."

"Oh, no. I think they're nice." Seb protested. "They've got... style."

"I'm going to assume your girlfriend picks out your clothes." Jill shook her head. "If you think these are stylish, I'd hate to see what you'd pick out for yourself at a store."

"Steph usually did." Seb admitted. "If it were up to me, I'd just wear my boxers everywhere." He shrugged. "Skip the hassle of clothes."

Jill coughed and pushed the sunglasses further up her nose to cover her eyes. Seb might have imagined it, but he could have sworn there was a hint of red blush on her otherwise pale cheeks. He suddenly felt embarrassed about what he said.

Sebastian searched his mind for a change of subject and landed on the only one he'd been trying not to think about their entire drive. "I'll probably have to pick out my clothes for myself, anyway." He shrugged. "If I can't convince her to take me back."

Jill looked over at him, surprised. "You've been sitting on juicy drama this entire time?" She asked. "Spill boy, spill!" She teased him, but it was all the encouragement Seb needed to unload what he'd been keeping pent up.

"We had a fight right before my car got destroyed, and... I think we broke up." He said. "And she won't return my calls or texts, so I don't know if she blocked me or what."

"Okay, tell me everything. Line by line." Jill said, and she listened as Seb did just that. He recounted his conversation with Steph and its ending. By the time he finished, Jill's expression had turned from teasing curiosity to sympathy for her new, rapidly bonded friend.

"And then I backed out of the parking spot and got T-boned." Seb finished his story.

"Man. This kinda sounds like a Ross and Rachel situation." Jill shook her head.

"Who?" Seb asked.

"Ross and Rachel? They were on a break?" Jill asked it like it was something he should know. But Seb's clueless expression informed her he didn't know. "From Friends? The TV show?"

"Oh. I've seen some of that." Seb nodded. "Ross is the dinosaur guy, right?"

"Right." Jill nodded.

"And Rachel is..." He hesitated.

Jill sighed. "I can't believe this." She said. "You mean to tell me you don't know who the characters are? You said you'd seen it!"

"A few episodes." Seb shrugged. "They'd run the re-runs at the gym, so I'd see bits and pieces of them while I was on the treadmill sometimes." He admitted. "But I don't think I've ever sat down and watched a full episode."

"That is the most offensive thing you've ever said to me." Jill scoffed. "I love that show. I've seen every episode a hundred times. My mom had the box set, and we would watch the DVDs on repeat." She explained. "I've watched the special features, the outtakes, the commentaries... and you've never seen a full episode?"

"I'm sorry." Seb held up his hands. "I never got into it."

Jill sighed and shook her head. "It's okay." She said. She reached over and patted his leg. "I'll see if my mom will let me borrow the DVDs, and I'll introduce you to the show." She assured him.

"Okay." He shrugged. He had nothing against watching it, but he realized they were both comfortable with one another- comfortable enough to assume that this friendship they'd struck would continue after the car ride, not only for the return journey but once they were back on campus. They were friends now and might be friends for years or even the rest of their lives.

Seb liked that idea. He liked Jill. Talking to her was effortless. Jill didn't make him feel nervous or on edge like he might say the wrong thing to send her into a rage at any moment. She was quick to laugh and seemed to want to enjoy life. She sought anything in their conversation or surroundings that might be pleasant rather than pointing out the negatives. Most substantially, she endeavored to lift his spirits when she saw he was sinking.

Jill liked him too. Seb was a little shy but friendly once he got comfortable. He had good taste in music, and if the playlist was anything to judge his sense of humor by, he had a good one. He struck Jill a bit like Chandler, with some of Joey's looks, as if Matt Leblanc had been tall and skinny instead of shorter and broad. One day, she would stop trying to figure out which of the five characters in Friends the people in her life corresponded to, but today was not that day.

"So they were on a break?" Seb prompted.

"Oh, right." Jill nodded. "Ross and Rachel were dating, and they got into a fight. Ross thought they had broken up, so he took comfort in this other girl who was into him, and they ended up sleeping together. Meanwhile, Rachel thought it was only a temporary disagreement, and they were still together, so you can imagine the fight when she found out."

Seb seemed amused. "So, I shouldn't sleep with anyone until I talk to Steph and figure out whether we're broken up."

Jill coughed a little and pushed her sunglasses up her nose once more. "That seems like a good idea." She blurted.

Seb nodded. "You want to listen to some music?" He asked.

Jill nodded, and Seb pulled up his phone to start another playlist. He saw he had some messages on the Messenger app, but he played the music first and switched over afterward. One was from Mike, asking if he was still alive and if everything was going okay. The second was from his younger sister, the closest one to him in age and Steph's best friend.

Evangeline: Hey, you okay?

Seb decided to message her back.

Sebastian: Yeah, why? What's up?

Evangeline: I talked to Steph last night. She seemed pretty pissed off, and she told me you two broke up?

Sebastian: I've been trying to call her and text her since.

Evangeline: She might have blocked you...

The following message was a screenshot of Steph's Facebook feed. The image had two relationship announcements posted to her timeline. The first was "Now Single," and the second was "In a Relationship" with... Ali.

Seb wanted to scream and throw his phone, but neither would have been a good idea. Instead, he hunkered down in his chair and kept texting back and forth with his sister.

Sebastian: Fuck.

Evangeline: Yeah... I'm sorry bro.

Sebastian: I'm the Rachel.

Evangeline:??

Sebastian: nvm. I guess it's official. It's on Facebook and everything.

Evangeline: Sorry man.

Sebastian: It didn't take her long to move on, did it? Jesus.

Evangeline: I don't know. She might be doing it to piss you off. You know how she is. Or she's been cheating on you all semester.

Sebastian: What?

Evangeline: She and Ali have been close since you left. I didn't think she'd cheat, but with how quickly she jumped into bed with him after you broke up, if she didn't already cheat on you, she definitely wanted to. She spent the night at Ali's last night.

Sebastian didn't respond right away. He stared at his phone in absolute shock and disgust for far too long. Steph was the love of his life. He'd loved her for years, and thinking he might lose her had felt terrible. Yet, now that he lost her for sure, he felt lighter. Relieved, like he'd broken a chokehold from around his throat. He could breathe again. Steph was a bitch sometimes, but he wasn't even angry with her after the initial flare of wrath. She disgusted him, and he felt finally able to breathe.

"You okay?" Jill asked. "You've been making some interesting faces that have me wanting to ask about the latest hot gossip."

"I'm the Rachel." Seb explained.

"Ah." Jill said, understanding. "Want to scream profanities out the window at all the other cars?"

"What?" Seb was so surprised that he looked up from his phone.

"It's cathartic as fuck." Jill explained. "And nobody even questions it because of the Jersey license plates."

Seb laughed- a deep, guttural, honest, and unfettered laugh- as he pictured himself leaning out her passenger window, screaming into the wind, while the other drivers on the highway watched him and thought, "Oh, yeah, he's from Jersey. That makes sense."

"Is that what you do?" He asked when he stopped laughing long enough to get the question out.

"Only once." Jill admitted. "After my ex and I broke up."

"Heh." Seb chuckled. "I think I'm good." He said. "I'm more relieved than angry. She just... proved some of my worst fears about her, but mostly I'm relieved. Being her boyfriend was exhausting."

Jill nodded. "Love is work sometimes, but it shouldn't always be work. Love isn't always easy, but it should make your life easier. It makes your work light and your effort easy."

"Wise words." Seb nodded as he realized that his relationship with Steph hadn't been easy in years. He didn't know when their love had become so toxic, but he could see now that it had grown wrong. Whatever he and Steph had between them at the end wasn't love; it was commitment founded on what used to be love, like so many married couples in sitcoms. He was relieved to be free of it, and apparently, so was Steph.

"Things my mom says." Jill shrugged. "She's a romantic."

"And you're not?" Seb asked.

"I haven't had any opportunities to find out." Jill explained. "Not recently, anyway."

"Really?" He asked, surprised. "Nobody at college has ever struck your fancy? What about Mike?"

Jill laughed. "What about Mike?"

"You two are friends, right? Do you want to go out with him?" He asked. "I could nudge him."

"No, thanks." She shook her head. "Mike is nice, but he and I don't click. Besides, he's more into my roommate."

"Is he?" Seb asked, surprised.

"Everyone is in love with my roommate." Jill sighed. "Three times this semester, some guy has come up to me, gotten me alone, gone quiet and nervous like he's about to ask me out, and then asked me how to best approach her. Like I'm some sort of guide to her pussy."

Seb snorted in laughter this time, not expecting the crude remark from Jill, who had the decency to look embarrassed at having been so frank. It just made her so angry. She was confused the first time because of her surprise and had done her best to be helpful. The second time, she was a little miffed and disappointed but told him what she'd told the first guy. When the third time arrived, it pissed her off. Jill told the guy to fuck off.

"It's one of the hazards of having a hot roommate." Jill shrugged. "I'm sure the same thing happens to Mike." She said it before she realized it and immediately reprimanded herself mentally. She laughed to cover it like it was a joke, but Seb didn't join in the laughter. He appeared thoughtful, then looked at his phone and turned to the passenger window. Jill turned up the music.

The rest of the ride until lunch was uneventful. They had a little chatter. Seb texted back and forth with his sister, letting her know he was okay and still on his way home for the Holiday. It was too late to turn around. They got their lunch at a gas station convenience store. They ate on the road, with Seb opening Jill's sandwich for her and her water, handing her things, and taking them away when she finished.

"Do you want me to drive?" Seb asked. "You've been driving all morning."

"Oh, I'm okay." Jill assured him. "I prefer driving. I get carsick sometimes as a passenger."

"Oh." Seb remarked. "Okay. But... you'll have to let me drive at some point, right? Or do you plan on driving the entire time?" He asked, incredulous. He supposed it was possible with enough caffeine, but it didn't seem advisable.

"It's only another few hours until we reach the hotel." Jill pointed out.

"Right." Seb nodded until the words caught up in his brain. "Wait. Hotel?"

"Yeah, hotel." Jill gave him a funny look. "Didn't Mike tell you about it?"

"He mentioned nothing about a hotel." Seb shook his head. "Should he have?"

"Well, yeah. I told Mike to have you call ahead and book a room for yourself." She said. "I wanted to stop at this little Christmas village on the way home. It's seasonal, but they've got all these little shops I planned to stop at. We should get there about two hours after dinner. We can crash for a few hours and get on the road early enough to make it home by noon. We're making fantastic time."

The brake lights ahead flared as if Murphy had a set of laws specific to highway driving. Traffic slowed and stopped.

"Oh." Seb said, then shrugged. "Okay. I guess I'll book a room once we get there." He thought about it and realized he'd have to get his parents to Venmo him some money or use his emergency credit card. This... probably qualified. "What was the name of the hotel?" He asked as he pulled out his phone. He could probably book the room while she drove.

She told him, and he attempted to do so until he hit an unfortunate yet foreseeable snag. It was booked solid. After all, having no rooms left at the inn has been a holiday tradition going back to the very first.

"Well... crap." He sighed. "That's okay." He shook his head. "I'll grab a few Zs in the car."

Jillian looked at him and shook her head. "Don't be silly. The room I got has two double beds. You can take one of them. It'll be cheaper, anyway."

"Are you sure?" Seb asked, surprised. "You'd be sharing a hotel room with a stranger."

"You're not a stranger. I know more about you than half the people I've met at school." Jill chuckled. "And it's fine. Just don't think I'm going to give you pity sex because you broke up with your girlfriend."

"Ha." Seb chuckled. "Wouldn't dream of it." He shook his head. "If I fuck someone, I don't want it to be because they pity me. I'd rather they like me." He announced. "Loved me would be nicer, but I'll settle for like if I have to."

Jill didn't answer. She pushed her sunglasses up and kept driving.

With music playing, the world sped by them. Seb spent most of the afternoon writing a paper. He'd already read the books and had his notebook with notes from the books he wanted to cite. He didn't enjoy underlining or highlighting in his textbooks. So, he kept a notebook for each class and hand-copied any passages that suited his purposes with proper citations.

He had most of a paper drafted between that and his MacBook when they got to their dinner stop. It was a rest stop off the highway with something like a food court. There was the burger place, the pizza place, the donut place, and the convenience store. Not much in the way of healthy options, but they could make do.

Seb used the bathroom first, and when he came out, he wasn't sure where Jill was, so he got in line for a burger. Standing in line, he heard a loud exclamation from behind him. Seb turned with everyone else to peer toward the pizza line, where a man stood with his head back, clutching his nose.

Jill stood in the center of the chaos. Three guys were around her, one of which she had struck with the butt of her palm right in the nose. Another had his hand on Jill's wrist, and Seb didn't have the time to take in much else before he reached them. It wasn't even a conscious decision to duck under the line's barricade and run across the tables to Jill. He was there before he'd had time to think.

His face as he arrived made Jill pale for a moment, but he obviously wasn't angry with her. There was someone between Sebastian and the man with Jill by the wrist, but he wasn't standing there for long. Seb punched him across the face so hard he spun. Sebastian pushed his hip and whole body into the blow like a professional boxer giving a knock-out punch. It didn't knock the man out, but it spun him around and threw him to the ground before he could give off an angry retort.