I have never been able to see things through. It's like a negative superpower. College, jobs, relationships... I quit everything. I abandon movies before the end; I walked out of my sister's wedding. I even quit vacations.
The following is a true story I will try not to quit before telling.
In my mid 20s, some male friends and I bought a used VW camper van and we drove it from London to Morocco. We enjoyed about three weeks of enjoyable but exhausting 'relaxation', with way too much drinking and hashish smoking (especially in Morocco), erratic sleep and dietary insufficiency, and by the time we'd been hanging out for a month at the same campground, I was feeling burned out and longed to return home.
It had been the holiday of a lifetime, but every lifetime comes to an end, and despite the fact our vacation was due to be over in less than three weeks anyway, I decided to quit now; because, after all, that's what I do. I quit everything.
At first I tried to persuade my unruly comrades we should drive home sooner than planned, but they were enjoying themselves more than me, and I couldn't get any of them to agree. I endured another two days of paradisiacal buffoonery, but then one afternoon, after being pushed, partially clothed, into the pool by the most juvenile member of our gang, I decided I'd had enough and resolved to leave for home the next day on my own.
I returned to Spain by boat and hired a car that I could drive back to London. It cost a small fortune, not just because of the distance I planned to drive, but because someone would apparently have to drive it back to Barbate de Franco in Andalusia. There was a surcharge of several hundred Euros, on top of the already inordinate rental fee. But I was committed to being a quitter (I wasn't going to quit that), even if it cost me the limit on my Amex; I figured fuck it, I wanted to get home and sleep in my own bed. I had been living in a van and tent for almost a month and it would be a joy to be home in London, where I could recover and grow bored of my life all over again, as I had before I left. Maybe this time I would even get a job.
The drive home was at first scenic and uneventful. Spanish radio was lively and the roadside snacks horrendous. But the part I need to tell you about occurred on the second day, after I had crossed the border to France and was driving up toward the Loire valley.
As I was stopping to get gas and buy lunch at a rest stop, I noticed two petite young women, whom I presumed were French, at a table close by.
Were they talking about me?
For a moment they seemed to be; stealing glances my way and appearing to confer and laugh about something. They were adorable, especially the one with big sunglasses, and each had smooth, sun-bronzed skin. I drank an Orangina and surveyed them from behind my own sunglasses. They had backpacks beside them on the bench and I wondered where they were going. But beyond noting what a couple of hotties they were, I thought little more about it and left the cafe.
It was a few moments later, as I returned to the rental car, I heard a voice call out something in French. I turned and realized the cutest of the two girls was addressing me.
"No parlez Francais", I called back with a smile, adding "English" for good measure, and pointing at myself weirdly as I said it.
The most beautiful of the two girls beamed back at me, flashing her white teeth. They continued to approach as she asked in broken English, "Please we can drive with you to Nantes?"
"I'm not going to Nantes, I'm going to Calais," I said, emphasizing the word Calais strangely.
"You take us to Nantes?" she asked again, as if I had said nothing at all.
"I can't take you to Nantes", I said, "I go to Calais". Nantes was hours out of my way and northwest from where we were. I was headed north in a more or less straight line.
"Please?" the second girl asked now.
As they drew close it was clear quite how hot the pair were; petite, tanned, scantily-clad bodies, revealing inviting glimpses of flesh, in a mini skirt and hot pants respectively. It would be a joy to have these young women in my car.
"Well, I guess I could take you some of the way", I said.
"To Nantes?" the second girl asked hopefully.
"No. Not to Nantes," I said, "but like, 50 miles closer to it."
They seemed to understand - or did they care - and throwing their backpacks in the trunk, climbed into the car. The hotter and darker haired of the two (they were both brunettes) took the front passenger seat, while her quieter, but no-less gorgeous friend (now I could see her up close), took the rear.
The first thirty minutes of the ride were fun. I tried to quiz them in poor, pigeon-French, which made them laugh, and in their own, not much better English, they only marginally more successfully quizzed me back.
Suffice to say we didn't learn much about one another except that my name was Steve and I was 25, and they were named Matilde (in the passenger seat) and Audre (in the rear); they were 23 and 22 respectively, and from Nantes. They had backpacked to Seville for a (U2?) concert. (I couldn't understand if they were saying U2 with a strange inflection, or naming some French band I didn't recognize. I mentioned Bono and The Edge but they didn't seem to react). They had traveled from Seville, I presumed, by hitchhiking, although that also wasn't entirely clear.
They asked for permission and then smoked a few hits of pot from a vape pen, becoming infectiously giggly. At one point Matilde took a deep hit and, leaning back through the seat gap, blew a curl of vapor into her friend's expectant mouth. I might have crashed the car, seeing the proximity of their soft lips. They were achingly hot. I was extremely happy to be sharing a ride with them, even if it was only for a short distance.
The pot, and whatever they were less frequently sipping from a hip flask (it smelt like Tequila) made them relaxed in my company. They were feeling quite sensual, I think, from the various substances they had ingested, because I noticed Matilde's legs had become spread; her white-sneakered feet up on the dashboard; olive-skinned thighs splayed; a devastating glimpse of her pink thong. She turned up the radio when a song she liked came on and let her mini skirt ride up further, until virtually her entire hips were exposed as she swayed sensually to the beat, legs sprawled. She was quite inebriated but it was mesmerizingly weird and hot. I had to remember to keep my eyes on the road.
Audre, from behind, was also becoming more relaxed and sensuous, at one point running her fingers through my hair from the gap in the headrest. It was brief but electrifying; these two carefree beauties becoming so tactile and familiar with me.