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Chapter Twelve

Walmart in the middle of the night is like an entirely different world. It always reminded Nick of how he imagined Neil Armstrong feeling when they landed on the moon. The droning hum was the only real noise besides the occasional sound of a forklift moving a display or two employees shouting to each other. Bree and Nick made their way past them toward the automotive section in the farthest corner of the store, passing only a couple other late-night shoppers with their reet-ra-reeing carts.

When they reached the automotive section, Nick went to look at the tires while Bree wandered along the long aisle that stretched up the entire length of the store's wall. She passed the hunting and sports gear and found herself standing in toys. She glanced back at Nick, who was still studying the tires, and, satisfied that he wasn't going anywhere any time soon, she ducked down one of the aisles.

She'd happened to pick the novelty toy aisle and she picked up a Magic 8 ball, shaking it as she walked, looking at the bins of plastic lizards, bubbles, jump ropes, connect-the-dot game pads, and keychain-sized Etch-a-Sketches. She looked at the answer the 8 ball gave - though she hadn't even asked it a question. Most Likely, it claimed. She wondered what was most likely. She wished she'd asked it if Nick was going to be able to change the tire without hassle, or if the rain would stop before they had to walk back to the car, but she didn't dare to ask it now. It was her experience that Magic 8 balls never gave positive answers twice in a row and she'd rather not get a negative response to either of those questions. She put the 8 ball down on a random shelf and spotted a dog with a Try Me sticker on his paw and pressed it, making it start barking at her. With a laugh, she turned the end of the aisle and started up the next one - the Barbie Dolls aisle.

She laughed when she found a new style Ken doll with an explosion of blonde hair that they'd named Nicholas. She picked it up and snorted. It was dressed in boxers with tiny hearts on them. Or maybe they were supposed to be swim trunks. She wasn't sure. His chest was bare, at any rate, and they'd drawn on these ridiculously perfect muscluar features. As she stared at the doll, she realized that somewhere between ridiculing the Matel/Barbie corporation, she'd fallen into the dangerous territory of wondering if Nick's chest was shaped like that. She quickly dropped the doll back onto the shelf and bolted for the aisle that ran along the backwall, glancing back toward the tires at the far end.

Nick was rubbing his chin, still inspecting the tires, deep in thought, and probably hadn't even noticed she'd walked away, so she wandered off down the next couple aisles.

Once when she was little, she'd wandered away from her mother in Toys R Us while her mom had been arguing with Baylee about whether he was big enough for a particular bicycle or not. She'd made her way to the Littlest Pet Shop aisle and become so enamoured with the display that she didn't notice her mom's voice floating through the aisles calling her name until it had risen to degrees of panic that Leighanne didn't normally reach. "Don't you ever walk away from me again," Leighanne had reprimanded her, clutching Bree to her chest, practically in tears, "Don't you ever go away."

Thinking of Leighanne and Baylee, Bree pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and opened Baylee's text again. Mom's pissed, he'd written.

What'd u do now? Bree tapped out as a response, followed by a smiley face with it's tongue sticking out.

As she pocketed her phone, she heard Nick's voice. "Bree?"

"I'm right here," she called out. She returned to the side aisle and found Nick carrying a temporary spare tire towards her.

"This will get us to a hotel at anyrate and we can find someplace to mount a new tire in the morning," he said. He had a flashlight tucked under his arm and a couple ponchos he'd probably gotten out of the camping supply aisle. Bree couldn't help but look at his chest where his gray t-shirt clung to his skin, still damp from the rain outside, and wonder if it was as well defined as the doll's chest was. He raised a eyebrow as she stared at him. "What?" he asked.

Bree snapped out of her reverie. "Nothing," she answered.

"Ooo-kay," he laughed, "You ready to go?"

"Yes." She turned too quickly and knocked a handful of bug spray bottles off a display on the endcap, sending the bottles to the floor. One burst open and the liquid sprayed across the floor. "Oh God," she moaned. She bent down and started picking up the bottles quickly.

Nick dropped the ponchos and the flashlight and bent to help her. No employees were around, so Nick just picked up the now half empty bottle of spray and put it on the bottom shelf. "What they don't know won't hurt us," he muttered as he picked up his stuff and started wheeling the tire away quickly. Bree's face flushed, but they scampered away from the scene of the crime quickly, leaving behind the overwhelming citronella scent that had begun to gas the entire sporting goods area.

"I was thinking," Nick said, once they'd cleared the toys and were rounding the corner by housewares and were well out of the danger zone of the bug spray, "I know you don't wanna walk through the rain - did you want to stay here while I go back and change the tire and I'll drive back to pick you up? Then we can go to a hotel."

Bree shook her head. "I'd rather stay with you," she answered. "Walmart's kind of creepy at night." She smirked. "Besides, I apparently have to show you how to change the tire."

"I can figure it out," Nick argued, feeling stupid.

"I'd just rather go with you anyways," Bree answered.

They trudged to the register and Nick paid for the spare, ponchos and flashlight. They stopped in the vestibule headed outside to pull the ponchos on over their heads before stepping into the rain. Bree clutched her poncho hood onto her head and followed Nick as they sloshed back across the parking lot, Bree carrying the flashlight in a bag and Nick rolling the spare tire at his side.

"So what happened to the spare that came with your car anyways?" Bree asked as they walked. She had to shout over the rain.

"It's in my garage."

"Lot of good that does you," Bree joked.

Nick laughed, "Yeah... well."

The walk back through the rain took a lot longer than it'd taken getting to Walmart in the first place, and by the time Nick's car loomed in the distance Bree felt a bit like a drowned rat. Her hair was hanging in long strings down her face, clinging to her skin. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. The moment they got there, Nick unlocked the door and moved to turn on the car, planning on blasting the heat. "I'll warm it up before I change the tire," he said, "That way you'll be more comfortable while I battle the beast."

"I can't sit in the car while you do it," Bree said, "You gotta put the car up on the jack."

"The jack?"

Bree stared at Nick for a long moment. "Please God, tell me you have a jack."

Nick bit his lip.

"You're kidding me."

"My hair isn't blonde for anything."

"Do you have tools?"

Nick hesitated.

"When you took the spare out of the trunk did you take the tool kit out too?"

"It came with a tool kit?"

Bree let out a sigh of relief. "Pop your trunk, let me show you."

Nick followed Bree around to the trunk and she opened the trap door on the bottom of the trunk bed after pushing aside the variety of crap that Nick had collected over the years he'd had the car. She found the tool kit and- mercifully -the jack inside and held them up. "Behold - tools and a jack."

"Damn," Nick said, now feeling extra stupid. He imagined himself standing next to Jeff Foxworthy, a neon sign flashing saying he was, indeed, not smarter than a fifth grader.

Bree closed the door of the trunk, "Here, flash the light on the tire, I'll show you how it's done."

Baylee had gotten a junk car when Bree was ten and fixed it up himself. The car had run okay, but it was a bit of a clunker and had a tendency of getting blow outs on a regular basis. Despite Leighanne's persistance that Baylee just get a new car, he'd insisted on keeping his junk wagon - at least until he'd moved to Orlando. The junk car was now stowed away in the garage where Leighanne threatened to have it towed from at least once a month. The result of this, however, was that Bree had learned from her older brother how to change a tire on a car.

Bree knelt down on the cement, Nick's emergency flashers sending gold reflections across the puddles under the car. She pried the plastic hubcap off the rim. Nick turned the flashlight on and laid it on the ground beside her, watching as she loosened the lugnuts, then lined up the jack and twisted the handle. The car slowly rose off the ground, tilting slightly. She turned back to the tire, removing the lugs completely. She looked up at Nick. "Ever seen that movie A Christmas Story?" she asked.

"I watch the 24-hour marathon on TBS every year," Nick answered.

"Don't have a fuuuudge moment," Bree said, handing the lugnuts to him. Nick laughed, but stuck them in his pockets because it was just like him to do something like that.

Bree pulled the flat off the threaded bolts and leaned it against the car, rolled the spare over and mounted it onto the bolts and held out a hand for the lugnuts. She tightened them as much as she could, then looked at Nick. "These gotta be really tight," she explained. He nodded and reached for the tool, tightening them further than she had.

Bree stood up and wiped her knees while Nick finished up tightening each nut. When he stood up, they stepped back and Nick shone the flashlight on the freshly replaced tire. He looked at her. "Impressive," he admitted. "You should work for Nascar."