“Will you take this exit?” Maia was sitting next to me in the passenger seat as I drove my beat-up, piece of shit truck across West Texas. My band was doing a show at ACL in Austin, but I’d driven my truck instead of riding on the bus with them…partly to drop it off at my mom’s place since I didn’t have anywhere in LA to park it while I was on tour…and partly because it gave me an excuse to bring Maia along since she wouldn’t have been able to ride on the bus with us.
I took the exit, pulling onto a feeder road. “You need to pee?” I spotted a truck stop where we could pull in.
She stared straight ahead, being weirdly serious. “No, just couldn’t drive by without stopping somewhere real quick. Do you mind?”
I had a million questions about why she’d want to stop somewhere in podunk Texas, but kept them to myself. She was throwing off vibes like she’d spook if I pushed the issue.
“Take a left at the stop sign,” she said softly.
She guided me through a series of turns through a town that looked like a living museum. The mostly shuttered shop fronts of the Main Street whispered of the glory days of the American Dream. It felt like a relic of a bygone era.
She eventually asked me to pull into the small parking lot of a cemetery. This was getting weirder and weirder, but I was even less inclined to ask questions now. She’d gone quiet and pale, but looked determined as she plastered a smile on her face and said, “I’ll just be a second.”
I nodded and let her get out of the truck and walk away, even though all I wanted to do was go with her and hold her hand. What the fuck was she doing?
Was this where she’d grown up? Nothing about her suggested to me that she’d come from an oil town outside of Midland, but what the hell did I know?
I tried to give her privacy, but couldn’t help noticing she stopped at a particular grave and bent down to clear some debris away. When she stood back up, devastation marked her gorgeous face and I gripped the steering wheel, trying to overcome the urge to go to her.
I was being a creep watching her like this. If she wanted me to know what she was doing, she would’ve asked me to come. I pulled up a social media app on my phone and scrolled mindlessly for long minutes without processing a single picture that was going past.
When I glanced back up to check on her, I threw the truck door open before I’d even figured out what was going on. An older guy was pointing a finger and yelling at my girl and I didn’t give a fuck why, I was going to put a stop to it.
I thought she might be bothered I’d come over to interfere, but she looked at me with vacant eyes as I got closer, arms wrapped tightly around herself.
Once I was within earshot, I heard the man say, “You got no right to be here!”
She hung her head. “I’ll leave.”
Maia turned and placed her hand on the gravestone like she was saying goodbye. The man smacked her hand away violently. I ran the last few steps and put my body between them, moving Maia behind me.
“Back the fuck off,” I said slowly, trying to talk myself out of hitting him.
He looked me up and down and squared his shoulders, blatantly sizing me up. I was at least four inches taller than him, but he looked like he’d seen a few fights.
Maia was standing to one side behind me, and he addressed her. “This your boyfriend? He know you’re a no good whore?”
I tensed to knock that word out of his vocabulary, but Maia’s voice behind me whimpered, “Stop.”
I froze, turning my back on the asshole to check on her.
She shook her head. “It’s not worth it. Let’s just go.”
I put my arm around her shoulders and walked her back to the truck without a backwards glance at the man. When she’d climbed in and I shut her door, I got into the driver’s seat and took a few deep breaths to dispel the adrenaline. I’d never been in a real fight in my life, but I’d been fully prepared to deck that dude.
He was still standing there mean-mugging us, so I started the engine before I did something stupid. I made it past a few streets before pulling into an empty lot and just sitting there for a second.
“I’m so sorry,” Maia said, putting her face in her hands.
I gently pulled them away and lifted her chin. “You don’t have a goddamn thing to be sorry for.”
She let out a breath. “I shouldn’t have brought you here…I just…” She shook her head.
“If talking about it will help, I’m here, but don’t feel like you have to explain anything.”
She nodded.
“Do you want me to get back on the road?”
