The Handsome Guy Stranded at the Side of the Road I
The Handsome Guy Stranded at the Side of the Road
by H.S. Cassie
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Fandom: All Time Low
Pairing: Zack Merrick/Female OC
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Events similar in real life are coincidences. Having that said, you can’t sue me of defamation.
Summary: There’s a handsome guy stranded at the side of the road.
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NOELLE
Ah, Italy!
They have the smallest highways (because their cars are equally small) but the vineyards at either side of the road are a vast stretch of wonder.
I love this place. They have the best scenery, highways, and wines! It’s where the best road trips happen.
I gulped some of the ambrosia straight from the bottle, holding it against my lips with my right hand while my left stayed on the wheel.
I heard a horn from the car on the opposite lane being honked at me. I honked back loud and proud, still drinking from the half empty bottle of genuine vintage Italian wine.
The windows of my cramped European mini-car were rolled down and the air was blowing at my face. This was intensifying the refreshing effects of the wine I was drinking.
I put down the bottle and to my surprise, in the middle of the road was a man with his thumb up hand extended in front of him.
I dropped my bottle and immediately stepped on the breaks. “Shit!” I shouted.
I managed to spare him, his knees an inch from my bumper.
His hand still extended as he looked at me, a bit shaken up.
He just stood there, frozen.
“You shouldn’t be in the middle of the damned road!” I shouted at him.
I feel something wet… Oh, crap! “Look what you did to my wine!” I continued to yell as I looked at my lap. Half of remaining wine spilled on my shorts which leaves me a quarter of the bottle to chug on. Great! It was my last bottle!
He just stared at me as if I was some lunatic.
“What’re you waiting for? Get in!” I said rather crankily.
What the hell was he doing? He kept on staring at me. Maybe I did shake him up with that almost run-over a man incident but it wasn’t my fault! It was his fault! What the hell was he doing in the middle of the road anyways?!
“You’re hitching a ride, aren’t you?” I asked.
“Can I drive?” He asked. Oh, he speaks.
“Why? Don’t you think I can drive? Oh, I can drive, alright! I got my driver’s license when I was sixteen, right at the first try because I’m so talented at driving! I’m a natural!” I started mumbling.
“No, I don’t think you can drive.” He said bluntly. My eyes widened. “I wasn’t at the center of the road; you were just driving at the sides.”
I looked around.
“Oh.” I sighed and started laughing like mad. Isn’t that funny? It turns out the almost run-over a man incident wasn’t his fault after all! It was mine! I can’t stop laughing like mad right now!
He walked towards my open car window, grabbed my bottle of wine and held it up in the air as he looked at me sternly.
“What’s this?” He asked.
“It’s a wine, you imbecile.”
“What I mean is why are you drinking?” He said.
There was a long silence between us and I started to sob.
Okay, it wasn’t a sob, it was a real cry. Tears didn’t cascade my cheeks, it gushed! It was a full heavy emotional breakdown. The kind of drama you see in the soaps.
I was banging my head lightly on the steering wheel.
I was crying so hard it didn’t matter that I got to taste a few strands of my hair. It didn’t matter that an extremely handsome man was seeing me at my worst.
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ZACK
Shit! She’s crying!
What do I do?
How do I react?
Why the hell is she crying anyways?
Was it my fault?
Did I do something?
If I did… it couldn’t have been that bad.
Why is she crying?
What do I do?
Do I walk away? Comfort her? Say sorry?
What the? What do I do?
I looked at the bottle of wine I was holding. What else could I do? I drank up.
“That’s my wine, you noob!” She mumbled.
I stopped drinking and smiled.
This girl was surprising me even more. She looked Italian but her accent was so American.
“Okay. Move over. I’ll drive.” I said.
She looked up at me. She wiped her tears and got out of the car. She was about to get in when I stopped her. “Aren’t you going to change your shorts?”
“No.”
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NOELLE
We just got in and started driving in an Italian countryside highway with him behind the wheel.
“I’m Zack.” He introduced.
“You know, I could almost swear that you look like this dude bassist from this cool band, All Time Low. Your hair even looks alike. He has the same thick glorious blond locks and he’s a really cool bassist from this really cool band, All Time Low. And they’re such a great band…” I mumbled away. Don’t ask me why, I can’t stop myself. I just had a lot of things to say. Then, for some unknown reason, I started to sing my favorite song. “Meet me on Thames Street… I’ll take you out though I’m hardly worth your time…”
“In the cold you look so fierce but I’m warm enough… ‘Cause the tensions like a fire!” He sang along.
I gave him a glance and that was when I stopped singing. He realized this, stopped and looked at me, too.
My jaw dropped. “Are you Zack Merrick?”
“The one and only.” He said smiling and looked back at the road.
“I’m Noelle Blakely and it’s so nice to meet you.”
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ZACK
I laughed. She was so funny, and drunk.
“Noel, like our song?” I asked.
“No.” She said softly.
There was an awkward pause. I shouldn’t have asked that.
“So… What are you doing in Italy?” I asked.
She looked at me ominously and then, she reached over me. My hair stood on end and I felt a tingling feeling run through my veins.
I didn’t even realize that she reached over for the wine beside me; I only realized when she put it against her lips.
She put the bottle down and shot me a menacing look. “You drank the whole bottle!”
“You drank a third of it.” I argued.
“You didn’t even leave a drop for me! You were going to drive! You weren’t supposed to be drinking!”
“I barely drank to get me drunk. On the other hand, you were DUI-ing.”
“That was my last bottle and you emptied it!”
“That’s good news because you should stop drinking!” I shouted. “You’re getting out of control!”
“I can’t”
“Why not?” I asked.
I looked at her waiting for an answer but all she did was stare at me with her green eyes that were starting to get teary.
Silence.
Tears started to fall on her cheeks and soon, she was crying again.
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NOELLE
I’m crying again! I can’t help it!
“Hey. Hey. Don’t cry.” Zack said comforting me.
That’s a first. For a second there, I thought he was going to say the most used comfort phrase the world as ever known, the phrase that have been thrown around haphazardly because they don’t care at a deep emotional level.
But he didn’t. He didn’t say, ‘Are you okay?’
He pulled over at the side of the road.
Just what I wanted to happen.
I got out of the car and ran to a stone ruin by the road.
It must’ve been a house.
It was on a high hill with a view of another majestic array of vineyard but this time, there was the sun, setting.
I sat on the floor facing the fantastic view, my back resting on what was left of a wall.
This place must’ve been a shed dating not more than 50 years.
I continued to cry.
Zack sat beside me.
I wiped my tears. Finally, the well of sadness within me was starting to dry.
He handed me a bottle of red wine. It was corked, forty years old, and a little bit dusty.
“Vintage.” He said.
“Where’d you get this?” I asked with my cloudy voice.
“The cellar over there.” He pointed to a part of the floor where a wooden door was leading to a basement. It had a hole in it. “I stepped on it. The wood was rotten causing my foot to fall. It turned out to be a small compartment of grade-A wine that must’ve cost a fortune.”
He uncorked the bottle and handed it to me.
“What if someone will come back for it?”
“It hasn’t been opened for ages and if ever someone does come back, they’ll never know it was us and we’re just going to get a bottle. Two bottles tops.”
I smiled, got the bottle and drank up.
I handed it over to him. “I’m going to drive, remember?” He said.
“Oh, come on! It doesn’t matter! You’re in Italy! You can’t refuse Italian wine!” I said.
He grinned and took a sip.
“My boyfriend and I moved to Sicily from Baltimore.” I started to narrate.
“I’m from Baltimore too!” Zack said.
Somehow, I am glad that he was there. I’m glad that I was narrating this to someone who’s listening. I’m glad that I didn’t have to be alone. I’m glad that I wasn’t crying by myself.
“It was all perfect. We had a large flat in a really good neighborhood. Our cupboard filled with bottles of good wine and our plates with spaghetti!
“Sicily is just beautiful in its small provincial way. We were planning our marriage to take place at a small chapel and the celebration at a long picnic table where the whole town fits in. The whole town is invited and they’re all helping with the planning. Everyone was just friendly to us.
“Like I said, everything was perfect; until I found out he was gay!”
“Ouch.” I heard Zack murmur.
“Damn right ‘OUCH’!” I snapped and gulped more wine. “It hurts so badly and the humiliation is even greater! So, I dropped everything and went to an Italian road trip believing that it might cheer me up.”
“I bet the wine’s helping too.” He commented.
“Yeah.” I sighed. “How about you? What are you doing hitching a ride at a deserted highway? Where are you headed? Come to think of it, I still don’t know where to drop you.”
“Vacation. I got mugged-”
“In Italy?” I asked him disbelievingly.
“Yes. Hard to believe but yes. I was on a road trip, myself, to Rome where I’ll meet up with my band mates in four days. Some men threw a brick at my window in order to stop me. They carjacked me, took my money, my gadgets for communication, and my car. It all happened right where you found me.”
“In Italy?”
“Yes!” He said with a chuckle.
“Are you talking about this Italy?” I still continued to ask. It can’t be true. I mean, seriously, like, how many people a year gets mugged here? Like, one or none in a year!
“At least they left me my other stuff, like clothes and things.”
“You are one really really extremely unlucky fellow.” I sighed.
Being mugged in America is bad luck but being mugged here, in Italy is a freak thing that takes some serious high intensity bad luck.
“I’m not the only one!” Zack disturbed my thoughts.
“Okay… whatever. You’re a bit lucky for someone who got mugged in Italy because I .” I said gulping more wine.
“Really?” He asked.
“No. I’m headed to this place an hour outside Rome but bringing you to Rome’s an adventure.” I said.
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ZACK
Noelle handed me the wine and I took another sip.
Arg! Why does this Italian vintage wine made of grapes picked from the best vineyard in the world taste so good?!
I must stop soon before I end up DUI-ing like Noelle here.
Usually, I hate people driving under influence but Noelle here had an acceptable reason.
But me, I can’t DUI because I might kill us both.
The sun was long gone. Noelle was a bit attractive on the orange light. I did not just say that.
I put the bottle on the ground and stood up. “Come on. It’s getting dark.” I said and extended my hand. She took it and I felt the same thing I did when she reached for the wine in the car.
I pulled her up and when she stood up, she lost her balance and fell into my arms, her head on my chest. My heart beat became louder.
Oh my God, I think I’m getting a boner. Hold it in. That did not just happen.
She regained her balance, stood by herself and headed to the car. I picked up the bottle, put the cork in place and followed Noelle.
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NOELLE
It’s a wonder how you get to know someone by just talking to them.
There was this restaurant on a rooftop with balustrades made of marble. It was a very cheap restaurant, not the high class kind with cocktail dresses and such. Just a casual restaurant with a view of the whole town we first visited.
He has been driving all night. So, the morning the next day, I took the wheels. We stopped by the town during lunch time and hired a small room to take a bath. After baths, we headed to that restaurant and had lunch.
We had lunch there and ended up staying until dinner. We just talked and talked and after, we talked more. We just spent the whole afternoon talking.
I learned a lot about him. He loves taking pictures.
He had this tattoo on his back that said, ‘Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial.’
He loves skateboarding and he had these really cute purple shoes that I took lots of pictures of using his camera that I grabbed from him and when he grabbed it back he took lots of photos of my face to annoy me.
It’s a wonder how you can waste your whole afternoon just talking. It’s a wonder that when you were in that moment, it didn’t seem as if it actually took time. It’s a wonder how you were enjoying yourself so much that you didn’t even notice time pass.
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ZACK
It’s a wonder how you get to know someone by spending time alone with them.
You notice the little things about a person that makes them them.
Like, Noelle and I were eating gelato at the next town we stopped by at. It was a sunny morning and we sat at the steps of the town hall.
I noticed how she whisks her arms when she tells a story and how she makes these funny sounds for effects. Baboom. Kaboom. Boomboom. Onomatopoeias like that.
I noticed how she purses her lips and bows down as she tucks her hair behind her left ear when she blushes.
I noticed how she nods every now and then with a bright smile on her face whenever she is really interested on what you are saying.
I noticed how soft her hands are and how her hair smells like those kind of white flowers thing.
I noticed how she does these random stuffs to make people smile. Like, when she helped an old lady go down the steps of the city hall. Like, when she gave her hat to a female child who was complaining of the heat. Like, when she clapped for a street mime that didn’t have an audience. Or, when she offered a ride to me.
This trip is giving me more fun than I expected. I’m doing all I can to stall it. I mean, there’s so much to see in a road trip like this. So much scenery that you’d just want to take in and spend time with.
It’s a wonder how I’m afraid that this trip I am taking will come to an end. I’m afraid that the next day, we will see Rome in the horizon.
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NOELLE
It’s a wonder how care can be manifested in the smallest of ways.
It was a cool night with the moonlight reflecting on the river. There was this stone bridge across it and I sat at the rails. It was a really peaceful night. It was so quiet you could hear the rustling of the water below.
It was a shallow river that had a soft current and lots of pebbles at the banks.
Zack was right beside me standing up and leaning at the rails.
“Let’s get going?” Zack said.
“Okay.” I said standing up on the rails.
Suddenly, I lost balance and fell off the rails to be caught in my doom by the pebbles of the river.
I thought I was going to hit the banks but instead, Zack got a hold of my arms. He held it so tightly yet gently, I knew he would never let go. I knew he would never let me get hurt.
He pulled me up to my safety. The gravity of the pull caused him to fall on his back and I ended up landing on top of him.
I felt my cheeks heat up. It was a good thing it was dark but a bad thing that it was so silent. It was a bad thing because I felt like he could hear my heart beat thumping loud and fast.
It’s a wonder how much the least romantic things can be romantic once you show you care.
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ZACK
It’s a wonder how alcohol is the best drink in celebration or gratitude.
We were nearing Rome, this was probably the last town we’d pass by and so, I felt obliged to give Noelle my thanks.
I found a small fountain in a solemn part of the town. It was made of smooth white marble with water that dazzled in the moonlight. It was right in front of a cathedral and the moon was shining down on the fountain like a divine spotlight.
The only thing this place lacked was a soft tune of the violin echoing in the streets.
I brought out a bottle I found at the ruins on our first day. I took two bottles and I hid the second one.
This time, it wasn’t wine, it was whisky.
We drank all night and it was almost dawn when Noelle asked if she could have a ride to the car and so, she hopped on my back for a piggybacked ride.
It’s a wonder how whisky makes you feel high and happy but brings you down in an instant.
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NOELLE
“Noelle.” I hear. I woke up to the sound of Zack’s voice calling me and looked around.
We weren’t moving and the rain was heavy outside.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“I don’t know but we ran out of gas and we’re stranded.” Zack said.
I smiled.
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