“Not enough, let’s use my playlist for the rest of the trip since you’ve had your choice for over half the time already.”
He got out his phone, unhooked my phone from the aux cord and hooked his up instead.
“Hey, don’t do that. You were asleep the whole time. That doesn’t count.”
“It does count, and now that I’m awake, I’m invoking the shotgun rule. That’s what it’s called, right? The person who sits shotgun gets to pick the music.”
“No, that’s not the rule at all. Driver always controls the music; everybody knows that.”
“Nope, not where I’m from. Everyone knows that the shotgunner is responsible for the music on a road trip, so I get to pick now.”
“Dude, you’re so full of shit. That’s never been a rule, and I don’t care where you’re from. Besides, you can’t call shotgun rules because you’ve already broken the biggest one.”
“What are you talking about? I haven’t broken any rules. The music one is the only rule that counts.”
“Ahhh, no, sir. You’re so wrong. There are several rules, and the first and most important is that the shotgunner always has to stay awake and look out for problems. They also are responsible for navigation, making sure the driver stays awake and, in the off chance we hit up a fast food place, they have to unwrap the driver’s food and make it easy for them to consume it while on the road.”
I cut my gaze over to Sebastian, and the look on his face was pure astonishment. His mouth was even open a little, and he seemed to be trying to come up with words but couldn’t figure out what to say. I had a smile on my face because I knew I had him now. I didn’t even know what kind of music he liked, but I was driving, and there were rules,dammit. After a mile or two, Sebastian finally seemed to get his thoughts together.
“That’s bullshit. I’ve never heard of any of those rules. You just made ’em up thinking I’m not from here and wouldn’t know the difference.”
“Nope, big guy. You’re wrong. There’s even a website with the rules. Go ahead, Google it. Search shotgun rules, and it should come up.”
Sebastian shook his head and mumbled under his breath as he pulled out his phone and did the search.
“Bunch of bullshit. It’s definitely not a thing. Who would know all that shit about something like this anyway?” He typed in the search, and then when I could catch a glimpse of his screen and saw the results, hekept mumbling, “Huh, no shit. There’s a shotgun rules website? Seriously? I’ll be damned therearerules. I’ll be fucked.”
He was silent, reading screen after screen, then when he got to the fourth screen, he gave a loud whoop and held up the screen so I could see it.
“Hah, here it is. It says that the shotgun is the DJ for the trip. So, I get to play my music.”
I hated to burst Sebastian’s bubble, but. Okay, I was really happy to burst his bubble on this one. “Keep reading, mate.”
“No, that’s what it says.”
“Dude, keep reading. I guarantee you I’m right.”
I saw him click to the next page and read what was there, then watched his shoulders fall. There it was. “Read it out loud.”
“No, that’s okay.”
“No, read it to me. Tell me what it says.”
He heaved a sigh and did as I asked. “For the safety of all of those in the car, the music choice of the driver trumps all other music requests.”
“Yep, just like I said. So, I get to choose.”
“I can’t believe there’s actually a website about this shit. You’re such a nerd to know this crap by heart.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you very much. Tell you what. I’ll give you a shot. Play your favorite song, and I’ll see if I’m willing to let you stay in charge.”
“Okay, let me pull up my favorite.” He fiddled with his phone for a minute, and thenSweet Home Alabamastarted blaring through the speakers.
“My, God, really?”
“Yeah, it’s a classic, and I love classic rock. What’s wrong with it?”
“I might live in Fairpoint, Alabama, but I get so tired of hearing this damn song. I hear it all the time, everywhere I go. What else you got?”
