some people see the revolution

 

Anna's curled up against Katie in the back seat, iPod in her ears, when the car stops moving. She wakes up slowly, still yawning as she glances out the window.

"Jared." There is no response from the first seat but the slam of car doors, and she sits up straighter, grabbing a few of the nastier items littering the front seat with one hand as she cranks down her window with the other. "Jared, this isn't a hotel!" she calls out the window, dumping the trash into a plastic bag. Beside her Katie stirs and Anna sighs and opens the door, crossing barefoot to where Jared and Owen are standing in the sand on the edge of the road. "Jared," she begins again, but he grabs her wrist and pulls her forward.

"Oh, Anna, shut up and look," he says.

"It's the desert," she says, and he circles her with his arms and rests his chin on her hair.

"I know. Look," he says softly, and she obliges him. Beside her Owen is silent, and the only sound is the car door closing as Katie comes out to join them, eyes rimmed in mascara that's rubbed darker than she intended and hair tangled. Anna relaxes and leans back into Jared's arms. The night air is cold here, and he is warm and comforting. The desert is bigger than she had ever thought, and it is unsettling to look at. But she's unwilling to break the hush that's fallen over them, and there's an almost full moon (waning, she thinks, analytical as always) coloring the desert silver. Everything is completely silent for several minutes. She digs her toes into the sand and wishes she could take out a cigarette without disturbing Jared's arms.

"It looks like it goes on forever," Katie says finally, wide-eyed, and Anna smiles at her.

"Who knows? Maybe it does," she says, and Owen grins at her. She can feel Jared smile against her hair, and she turns around.
 "That doesn't mean I'm not exhausted," she says more practically, and Owen gives a sigh of exasperation.

"Sometimes I think you don't have a romantic bone in your body," he says.

"Ask Jared," Anna says with a wicked smile and heads back to the car, taking out a cigarette and lighting it as she opens the door and slides in, avoiding the view out her window.