The ride home was so quiet that it was deafening. She wouldn’t even look in her direction which led her to believe that the topic of conversation was about her. What had happened between them that caused Erika to get so angry? One thing was for sure, Roxy was afraid to ask. Erika’s mother’s word kept resounding loudly in her head, “Get her to talk to you.” She wanted so badly to know what was going on in her head but she froze every time she tried to open her mouth. It wasn’t until she pulled over to the shoulder of the road that she finally spoke to her. “Can you drive? I’m having a headache.” Even as she spoke, she still didn’t look at her. “Yeah, sure.” Those were the only words that managed to get out.

     They both got out of the car. Roxy got behind the wheel while Erika was taking a longer time getting in the passenger seat. She stood at the back of the car and took a couple deep breaths. It was driving Roxy even crazier that she wasn’t in the car already. She started to get out of the car when Erika finally moved to the door and got in. “Are you sure it’s just a headache? Maybe you want to lie down in the back seat and sleep.” All she said was, “I’ll be fine.” Erika wadded up her coat and used it as a pillow, leaning her head against the window. Roxy pulled away from the shoulder and on to the road. This was going to be a long trip home with all the silence. 

     She didn’t dare turn on the radio while Erika’s head was hurting. Hopefully she would sleep the whole drive home. Roxy wanted to disappear. She never wanted to go on this trip in the first place. Erika had pushed her to go on this trip and now it seemed like she saw this as a rejection because she didn’t want to date her brother. She had started the conversation awhile ago but they never really got into it. Roxy couldn’t see it being anything else but that. It’s not like she gave Erika a reason to get mad at her… at least not lately. What progress they had made since being partners seems to have fallen from the way side.