Go West
Spoilers: Season 3 finale
Summary: Hunter, Michael and the long road ahead.
They stopped at a McDonald’s in some town called Muddy Ridge, Pennsylvania. Population: One-hundred forty-seven. Plus two, Michael added mentally, as Hunter slurped loudly on his Coke. Brian’s borrowed corvette caught the stares of many of locals, and Michael was pretty sure they were gazing inside and wondering about the two lunatics eating Big Macs in the parking lot in a car that probably cost more than these people made in their entire lives.
“You figure out where we’re going yet?” Hunter asked. His cheeks were still flushed from the quick dash to the car from the restaurant, and he had a smear of mayonaise on the tip of his nose. Brian was going to kill them both if his car got messy. The stench of fast food alone was enough to send Brian into heart palpatations; Michael could already hear the lecture: “What sort of drug were you on that made you go to MCDONALD’S in my ‘VETTE?” Well, it wasn’t like Brian really needed his boyfriend-replacement car any more, with the boyfriend being back and all, and besides, they’d probably be caught as soon as they crossed the border into — what state was next to Pennsylvania? he knew he should have paid more attention in high school — wherever it was they were going.
“We’re going…” Michael squinted back out at the highway. “West. We’ll keep going until–”
“Until we drive into the Great Lakes?” Hunter said dryly. He threw himself back against the seat, rattling the ice in his drink. “Great! Super! Fan-fucking-tastic!”
So that’s what bordered Pennsylvania. Michael needed a map, and he needed a plan even more. He glared at the kid. “Listen, smart ass, I’m keeping your sorry butt from getting stuck in a state home. Or worse, with your mother. Remember?” Hunter frowned sweetly, and Michael was reminded just why he was throwing his life away for some street kid, some hustler, he had almost given up on a few weeks ago. “If you’re so great at geography, you tell me where to drive.”
Hunter gaped. “I knew you didn’t know where we were going!”
“I know exactly where we’re going: we’re getting away from Pittsburgh.”
He snorted. “The devil is in the details, huh, Mikey?”
Michael stuffed his mouth full of fries before he smacked the boy. This had been a bad idea from step one; Ben had been right. Either they would be caught, or Michael would push Hunter out of the car while speeding down the highway, and he’d really didn’t want to explain to Ben why their kid was dead.
“We should’ve just hid at Brian’s until the cops went away,” Hunter muttered. He rolled down the window and threw his empty soda on the ground.
Michael blinked. They should’ve– fucking hell, they should have. “Oh my God,” he said loudly, and Hunter looked at him funny. He cleared his throat. “We’d have to hear Brian and Justin fucking though.”
“Mmm,” Hunter said. “I could live with that.”
Maybe, but Michael wasn’t quite sure he could. Brian naked, sure, but Justin? He had to draw the line at voyeurism somewhere. Not that Justin wasn’t a good-looking kid, but Michael already had enough Brian issues. “Brian never has any food.”
“Ben could bring us left-overs from dinner.”
Hunter smiled thoughtfully, and their eyes met.
“Where to, Flash?” Michael asked, putting the corvette into gear. He wanted to see Ben. He wanted to see Brian. He wanted to go home, to his comics and his DVDs and his warm bed, and Hunter did too, but they couldn’t. And Hunter knew it just as well as he did.
Hunter fastened his seatbelt and turned up the heater. He pointed to the highway. “West.”
*
Disclaimer: Not mine. Everything belongs to Cowlip.
Sidenote: There really is a Muddy Gap, Wyoming, and I’ve been there several times.
