Chapter 3 – Runaway Rentals and Ratty Roommates

                “795 miles?! Are you actually kidding me?!” I had both my hands supporting me on the desk with Hunter sitting below me on the computer.

                The guy that owned the motel had said that we could use the computer behind the desk as long as we didn’t take too long. I’d explained the situation but he told me that he didn’t give a ‘merda’ and when we Google translated it; turns out he wasn’t being too polite.

                “This is ridiculous,” Hunter muttered, zooming in on the map.

                The AA route planner was our first website visit and it had been extremely helpful. It didn’t come bearing good news, but it was helpful all the same.

                “Tell me about it. How did we manage to travel all of the way out here?” I mumbled so quietly that I was surprised Hunter heard me.

                “Andy, it’s us. I have no idea.” I dropped my forehead against the back of Hunter’s head. He made a sound of disapproval but didn’t say anything.

                “It says that it’s going to take us about 12 hours of straight driving,” Hunter replied, his voice vibrating through his skull. I looked up at the screen and the blue line that showed us where we would have to go. Turns out, Lee wasn’t lying when we said that we were on the other side of Italy.

                “We don’t have a car,” I said flatly. Hunter took a deep breath, tapping in some keywords on the Google search.

                “Somebody isn’t going to rent us a car for three days for less than 100 Euros, Hunter. Besides, how are we meant to get it back to them? We’ll be 800 odd miles away by the time we get back!” I exclaimed, moving to sit on his lap.

                Hunter grunted, moving the office chair back so that I could sit down.

                “I’m not looking up rental cars, I’m looking up buying one,” he corrected, reaching around me to use the computer.

                “Move your head, it’s in the way,” he complained. I chucked, leaning back so that he could see over my shoulder.

                “You whine like a little girl.” Hunter just tapped my bare thigh lightly in answer, looking extremely interested in an article on the computer screen.

                “What about this one?” Hunter asked, clicking on a picture of a small car that just about big enough to fit the little Italian man that owned the B&B in, let alone us. He was only about four feet tall; I was shocked as to how we could see him over the top of the desk.

                “I don’t think we’d fit and it looks like it’s about a hundred years old.” Hunter sighed, knocking my head with his.

                “Stop being so picky,” he grunted. I sighed, kissing his cheek.

                “I’m not being picky, I just want to make it back alive!”

                “I think we should try a rental just until we can find somewhere to buy a cheap car,” Hunter replied, talking over my argument.

                “We’re not exactly in a highly populated area,” I mumbled, resting against his chest which was moving with his deep breaths.

                “No, but according to this map, Alessandria is only fifty six miles away,” Hunter said, leaning forward, making my stomach catch on the desk.

                “What’s in Alessandria?” I asked.

                “Well, a lot. It’s more populated than here and there’s this car there, as well.” Hunter clicked on an advert for a small ford focus. It wasn’t amazing but it still looked like it could take us the distance and wasn’t too expensive.

                If we had a day of money making like we had the day before then it wouldn’t take long before we’d be able to buy it. Getting to Alessandria was a different matter, though.

                “How are we going to get there without spending any money?” Hunter shrugged, strolling along beside me with his hands in his pockets.

                One of the positives of getting lost on the other side of Italy without any money or belongings is that you don’t have to lug any bags around with you.

                “Right, you go and do whatever illegal activity it was that you were doing and I’m going to find somewhere to dance,” I instructed. Hunter grinned, looking me up and down before meeting my eyes again.  

                “Aye, Aye, Captain. Oh, do me a favour and bring us back another condom?” he asked with a wink. I tried to scowl but couldn’t hide the smile as I shoved Hunter in the opposite direction and went to try and get some money.

                My dance spot that morning was right next to a bus spot. I took it upon myself to check out the bus times and see where it was going. As suspected, it wouldn’t go fifty odd miles so we were stuck with finding a rental car or a donkey or whatever it was that we were travelling with.

                I earned more that time, not much more, only twenty Euros but it was something to put towards our travelling.

                Hunter wasn’t where I was meant to meet him, either. I was standing there like a lemon for about half an hour before he actually showed up. Well, drove up.

                He had found us a car. It wasn’t exactly brilliant but it would get us fifty odd miles.

                “Where did you get that?” I asked, walking up and leaning on the window. I backed off immediately after it made a small sound of protest.

                “I... found it. Get in.” I didn’t have the heart to start another argument and I couldn’t give a toss where he found the car, as long as we started our journey back. I wasn’t sure how many extra lifeguarding sessions we’d have to do, but I didn’t like the sound of it.           

                “So, where did you ‘find’ it?” I inquired when Hunter had started driving again. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye before looking back at the road.

                “At the rental place,” Hunter answered, not looking at me.

                “So you found it at a rental place?” Hunter smirked, tapping his fingers on the wheel.     “Yes. They won’t miss it, don’t worry.” I was sitting there gaping at him and he looked over at me expectantly.

                “You stole a rental car?!” I exclaimed, twisting in my seat to glare at him. We’d been warned by the police, a stolen car wasn’t going to help our case.

                “Not exactly. I just took it for a joy ride,” he said with a shrug. Instead of arguing with him, I sat back in my seat and looked out of the window at passing Italy.

                It was a beautiful country and that wasn’t even giving it enough credit. The part that we were driving through was countryside and apparently there was a main road that Hunter would get us onto eventually, just before we get to Alessandria.

                “I need a wee!” I complained, thumping Hunter’s leg. He ignored me again, turning the radio up to block me out.

                “Princess, we will stop when we get there,” he tried to assure but I shook my head.

                “We have 45 minutes left, Hunter, I will pee on the seat,” I warned but Hunter just shrugged.

                “It doesn’t matter to me, it’s not my car.” I groaned, flumping back. It made the car shake, both Hunter and I stayed put, not moving an inch and looking at each other out of the corners of our eyes. We had 45 minutes left and I didn’t fancy walking it or finding myself back in Crimea in the hospital and then in the police station for stealing a car.

                “Don’t do that again,” Hunter warned. I blew out through my lips, looking at the road ahead.

                “Stop so I can pee, Hunter.”

                After another five minutes of continually whining, complaining and singing at the top of my lungs, Hunter stopped and let me use a bush.

                Hunter got out of the car as well to stretch his legs and go to the toilet whilst I went off in the other direction to relieve myself. 

                “I’m telling you, it’s a good job that I’m a dancer because squatting for that long is one hell of a work out,” I rambled when I walked back to the car. Well, where the car was about a minute ago when we left it.

                I jogged over to Hunter, who was standing on the other side of the road and looking down the hill on the other side.

                “That’s not good,” I muttered, my heart rate picking up.

                There was our car, sitting at the bottom of the hill without a wheel.

                “What happened?” Hunter shrugged, running his hand down his face as he started walking towards it.

                “It ran away,” he stated, cursing under his breath as he made his way towards the car.

                “I gathered as much,” I commented, running after him.

                “Yeah, well if you didn’t need the toilet, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Hunter exclaimed, bending down to pick up the wheel.

                Raising both of my eyebrows, I stopped and folded my arms over my chest.

                “My fault? The car disappears down the hill and it’s my fault because I needed to pee?” I exploded. Hunter turned, his eyes narrowed.

                “You’re the good little church girl, this sort of thing shouldn’t have happened!” Hunter exclaimed and I scoffed.

                “Please, you’re the badass gang leader; you shouldn’t have gotten us lost!” I retorted, only to be rewarded with a scowl.

                “I’m a gang leader, not a navigator!” he hissed. I took a deep breath, groaning and then turning back to his angry eyes.

                “I don’t give a toss what you are; you can’t pull this all on me. The train ticket was in your name.” Hunter grunted, turning away and leaning one hand on the car, obviously trying to calm down.

                “I don’t want to fight with you, Andy.” I closed my eyes, breathing in the fresh Italian air.

                “Then don’t. Just... stop making out like this is my fault. I only needed a wee.” My voice came out weaker at the end. That was probably our first official and real argument. The only other time we’d properly argued, it was fake and only for Seb’s benefit.

                Before I could ponder on it anymore, Hunter’s arms came around me and pulled me tight against him. I leaned into his hold, leaning up and kissing him softly.

                “Let’s just get the car up and running, shall we?” I nodded, following him over.

                “Anything you need me to do?” I asked and Hunter nodded.

                “See if there’s a jack in the boot. I’ll just need to put the wheel back on.” I went into the boot and opened it carefully, peering inside.

                “What does it look like?”

                “You don’t know what a jack looks like?” Hunter’s voice was incredulous.

                “If I knew what it looked like, would I ask?” Hunter laughed, walking to the back to look for me. He took out a metal thing that I actually thought was part of the car and waved it in front of my face.

                “This, is a jack,” he said with a smirk.

                “He seems like a lovely chap, fancy fixing the car so we can go?” I asked sarcastically. Hunter chuckled, pulling me to him and kissing the top of my head.

                “Oh, I missed your bitchy side,” he remarked. Grinning, I sat on the floor next to him whilst he got to work on fixing the wheel.

                “How much did you manage to get today?” I asked, perving on his arms and how they flexed when he spun the lever on the jack.

                “300 but I was nearly caught by the patrolling policeman, the last wallet I took belonged to a noisy bugger.” I laughed, looking up at the cloudless sky.

                “Well, if he catches you stealing his wallet, he’s not gonna be quiet about it, is he?” Hunter shrugged, rubbing his hands together and wiping them on my legs, leaving a slight black mark on my upper thigh.        

                “You’re disgusting,” I mumbled, trying to rub some of the dust off. Hunter winked, holding out a hand to help me up.

                “You love me.” I shook my head at his words with a smile.

                “I still don’t know why,” I said with a heave, pushing myself to my feet. Hunter’s hand dropped from where it was and he shot me a look.

                “I don’t know. Could it be my dashing good looks, amazing personality or brilliant talent in bed?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows. I laughed, flicking his arm on my way to the passenger’s door.

                “Get your head out of your ass and drive,” I instructed. Hunter saluted, ducking into the car and starting it up, the radio blasting to life at the same time.

                “Yes, Dear.” Sarcasm was twined through his voice. I just smirked, turning up the radio as Hunter started driving again.

A/N: vote and comment, tell me what you think! Please :)

Question: I'm going to be bringing one of their friends in, who would you prefer: Kenzi, Lee, Alfie or Seb?:)