The first sign of trouble was when Jeff swiveled his seat to the right and slid the door open.
A gust of wind came crashing through the van, sweeping all the candy wrappers and empty bags of chips into the environment. I had to yell over the deafening wind “What are you doing?” He pulled out a large knife and yelled back “They hate it when you do this.”
He then started pointing the knife in a threating manner at a trucker that was in the next lane, then he made the motion with his finger to imply that he was going to slit the trucker's throat. I yelled out “Why are you doing this?” He shut the door and said “Did you see how pissed he was? He's gonna radio all the other truckers and tell them about us, I only need to piss off a couple more before we get some real action.”
I was in shock, but strangely none of this seemed abnormal to anyone else, the only time that they even hinted at danger was when Kenny reached over the seat saying “Lemme get one of them knives” and everyone yelled “No.”
I couldn't fathom what Jeff meant by real action
and in an attempt to help me understand my mind began showing me a weird scene of a trucker opening the back of his truck to find that one of the babies had escaped from it's cage. The trucker became so enraged that he yelled “Fuck this cargo” as he drop kicked the baby into a field and leaving it for dead.
The baby was so angered that the trucker robbed him of the opportunities at the baby mill, that he set a course for revenge. Living off of wild gofers and fueled by rage the baby escaped the field, grew into a man and that man was now sitting in front of me with a very large knife.
But the vision ended abruptly when I saw Andy's penis.
Andy stood up, dropped his pants and was screaming at Ryan who was driving “Get us closer.” Jeff quickly switched seats with Andy to avoid the view and I scooted back in my seat asking “What the fuck?”
Andy said “What! You never seen a mangina before?” while he tucked his penis between his legs and displayed nakedness to the next trucker and concealing his upper body. I could hear the enthusiastic sound of an air horn as it beeped twice. I looked up to see the trucker was bouncing up and down with excitement, I imagined that from his perspective, he was seeing the bottom half of a naked girl with long sandy blond hair that was flowing in the wind.
When they were sure that the trucker was masturbating,
Andy whipped out his manhood and the trucker's horn began to squeal in agony. Andy squatted down to reveal his face and to point and laugh at the trucker while screaming “You big faggot!” Then Steven who was sitting shotgun rolled down his window and began pointing and laughing too.
I looked out the window to see that the trucker was furiously screaming at Andy and then began throwing stuff at us. To avoid the incoming projectiles Andy slammed the door. Then the van erupted in laughter as Andy's bare ass grazed Jeff's face which caused Jeff to scream “Fuckin fuck!”during the seat swap. Andy then attempted to sit on Jeff's face and Jeff proclaimed “I've got a big fucking knife here!”
Jeff shook off his brush with mangina
and continued his trucker assault, after he threatened a few more truckers I knew that we were in for some real trouble. Up ahead two eighteen wheelers began slowing down blocking both lanes, then I heard the menacing horn of another as it came up from behind, like a giant land shark that had caught our scent.
Andy began pointing with excitement and said “Look! They're playing Traffic Jam,” as if that was a game that he was familiar with. The three trucks boxed us in to the left lane and I could hear the frightening sound of air horns and random objects dinting the roof and the side of the van, while my travel companions cheered with excitement. Andy turned back toward me and gave the most sinister laughter I had ever heard while staring at me with his brown, lifeless eyes, like a psychopath.
Then the truck on the right's left blinker began to flash like an ominous warning
as he slowly drifted in our lane and forcing us off the road. I was terrified, so I looked at Kenny and he had the same stupid smile that he had worn for the last hour, blissfully ignorant of the situation. Andy was still staring and laughing at me, I could tell that he was feeding off my fear almost never blinking so he could savor every second of it, so I averted my eyes hoping that he would stop.
I heard Ryan who was driving yell “Oh shit!” as we went over the noisy bumps and began sliding in the grass. I could feel my body surging with adrenalin when I heard Jeff say “Dude, that fucker was pissed off” and everyone was laughing and cheering except for Kenny who mentioned something about Electric Jesus.
About an hour later we stopped at a hotel for the night.
Jeff got out and we pulled around back to hide because Jeff was only getting one room for all of us. Steven turned around and said “let's go smoke this joint by the pool.” As I collected my things I noticed that there were dents on the top of the van and I wondered what the trucker threw at us and why none of my traveling companions cared.
As we walked over to the pool I was dreading the thought of smoking marijuana. I was born with HPPD which causes mild hallucinations and marijuana tends to exaggerate it, but at that time I didn't know anything about HPPD and I pretended that I was normal, even though I knew something was wrong.
Having marijuana induced hallucinations would normally be fun, but I felt that I didn't really know any of them, I couldn't understand why they were paying for everything and it seemed like Andy was sizing me up, looking for any weakness that he could find.
We sat at a table by the pool and they began passing the joint.
When it came around to me I said “No, I need something else, I'm feeling too paranoid right now.” All the attention turned toward me and they were asking why. My paranoia escalated to code red, my mind began racing, looking for the best answer, but my mouth went rogue and began the attack “Andy you have been laughing in my face the entire time, like a fucking asshole, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
Everybody stopped,
Andy looked shocked and said “Dude… I'm sorry, I was just trying to show you a good time.” He paused for a moment and said “I'm gonna go see what's taking so long,” and walked away. Ryan said “You think Andy is an asshole now, you should have seen him a few years ago” and they began laughing.
Ryan was the most charismatic of the group, he looked like a clean cut kid that you would find at a sporting event, but Steven was a mess. His face was destroyed by acne scars and hard living, he was tall and dressed like a white kid that was attempting to be black, although he never used a fake accent.
Ryan said “Help me get some beer”
and motioned for me to follow him to the van, so I did. At the van Ryan explained “Don't worry about Andy, he's been in therapy working threw some issues and I think you hurt his feelings.” “Why was he in therapy,” I naively asked. Ryan shrugged his shoulders, hesitated for a moment and then said “Andy has some issues because he was adopted.”
Ryan grabbed two cases of beer and asked me to get his bag, so I did. As we walked back he said “Be cool with Steven he has been through a lot and he just got out of rehab,” “OK” I replied. Then Jeff and Andy came around the corner and Andy asked if we could talk, so we walked around the pool.
Andy said “I know I can be an asshole, but I am really trying to change that. I wasn't trying to be an asshole to you.” “It's cool,” I replied. Andy stopped walking and said “You have to tell me when you see me being an asshole, sometimes I don't know,” “OK, I will let you know” I replied. As I shook his hand, it felt like a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders and now I could finally let go of all the stress and have fun.