Being stranded in the middle of a highway wasn't exciting. Alex considered the fact that places between highways were potentially the places least touched by people after the highways were built but, it was not how she had planned on spending her day, so it was of little consolation.

In fact, Alex had planned on driving the Ferrari until she got bored of its speed. Then she planned to find a mall. Not because she particularly liked malls, they were usually too full people during the weekend and during the weekdays they were still too full of people, just the older types or the types with young children and nowhere else to go to that had free air conditioning and enough room for the little beasts to run off leash.

Still, Alex had wanted a new purse. Hers was at least two weeks old and she was bored of the purple leather and light trim, it was worth over two thousand dollars, but she hardly ever paid for anything and if she did pay it wasn't with her money, so price tags never mattered. She would leave her 'old' purse somewhere for a lucky person to find, she was like Robin Hood, except she didn't steal from the rich and give to the poor. She just stole stuff, got bored of things and discarded them for someone to find, rich or poor.

After escaping into the woods Alex watched the traffic pile up behind the site of the accident until it was well out of eyesight. No one, it seemed, had noticed the teenager standing dumbfounded on the side of the road before running into the trees, so no one knew to look for her. There did, however, seem to be a lot of confusion as to where or who the owner of the Ferrari was. The red car was efficiently smashed on both ends and the driver side door had been forcefully removed during the accident and now rested some feet away on the shoulder. The door was markedly less impressive when it wasn't attached to the rest of the car, which now looked like a pair of sunglasses with one lens.

The police showed up, along with ambulances and firetrucks and that's when Alex decided she better start walking. To pass the time she imagined what sort of phone call would be made to the Ferrari's owner. The police would run a search of the license plate and find the information connected to it. If she closed her eyes she could imagine the owner answering his cell phone in the middle of his expensive meal with his wife or girlfriend or paid escort. There would be confusion, panic, and anger when the man realized his precious car had been stolen and then subsequently crashed.

Alex had intended to leave the car parked somewhere nice when she was finished with it, like at a Chick Fil A. She hadn't meant to destroy it, it wasn't the cars fault it was away from home, it was only doing what it had been asked.

"Fuck!" Alex snapped an unfortunate stick in half when she realized her bottle of tequila was still sitting in the passenger seat. What a waste of damn good tequila.

She wasn't worried about fingerprints or DNA found on the bottle. She didn't have a license, passport, or any sort of ID, nor did she have a bank account. She'd never been caught in a crime and so there were no records of her. Her parents were also non existent in her life so it's not like they'd be asking after her if she ever managed to get her face on national news. But her face never got on any news because she operated outside the unstable and wobbly rules of time. She'd never known her dad anyway, he got her mother pregnant during a one night stand so, and her mother had been a drug addict right up to the day that Alex ran two years ago.

"Stop it. Stop it. Stop it!" A memory echoed in her head.

Alex could have gone to the police, she was underage, only fifteen and she had enough proof that she was being abused and her mother wasn't fit for being a parent. But even at that age she was independent enough to know she didn't want an adult to help her. Running away was just an excuse for her to leave and stay gone.

She had lived on and off with different boyfriends and now almost two years later, she hardly remembered going to school had been like or having a semblance of a place to call home. Alex probably wouldn't have been able to find her mother now even if she wanted to, the woman had had a bad habit splitting time between new apartments and sleeping out of her car. Well maybe if Alex really wanted to find her she could, but she didn't. In fact she was annoyed that she was even thinking about her mother, the woman didn't deserve her thoughts. She shoved the memories into a closet and locked the door again.

Alex walked three miles before the woods took a steep dive between two bridges. After some maneuvering and a few dozen cuss words, she managed to climb down the hill, over a wire fence that was meant to keep animals out of the highway, and onto a road. The only casualty in the endeavor was Alex's pride and a small tear in her black jeans above her left knee. She recalled that the price tag of the jeans had been somewhere around three hundred dollars. Again, she hadn't paid for them and the tear only added to grunge-esq look she had going on today. She counted herself lucky that she was in a pair of only slightly heeled boots and not a pair of actual heels.

She shook her head. Fucking time.

It could be unstable at the most annoying and inconvenient moments. Not that she could complain to much, she was also highly unstable and annoying at inconvenient moments. But one would still expect time to be a little more mature. It had been around a lot longer than her, she was only seventeen after all and time was, infinite.

Pulling a cellphone from her pocket Alex dialed the only number she had saved. It wasn't a smart phone, it wasn't even a pretty phone, it was the type of phone that other teenagers would have made fun of her for if she was friends with other teenagers. It didn't have a camera, it didn't have a touch screen, or even have the capability of connecting to the internet, and it actually flipped open. It was also probably the cheapest thing Alex owned. She had bought it from a grocery store for twenty dollars and loaded it with enough minutes and texting to last a social teenager ten years. Alex wasn't social and the phone would only last her until her next boyfriend, then she'd trash it and buy another one.

Her current boyfriend was who she called now. Brian was a tall handsome twenty two year old who thought Alex was twenty one, because Alex had a fake ID and told him she was twenty one and had no reason to distrust her. Alex also looked mature for her real age. The phone rang six times before he picked up. "I need a ride," she said without greeting. In fact she sounded like she wanted to start a fight, she did, just not with him.

Fucking time.

"Alex? What's up? I'm at work."

"I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere. I need a ride and if you don't come get me we're not having sex tonight and I'm not going with you to that stupid party." It was a douche move to threaten to neglect sex, even to her standards, but Alex was not in the mood to explain or persuade so low blows were permitted given the day she'd had so far.

There was a pause in which the man on the other line mentally debated how badly he wanted sex and now badly he needed to have his gorgeous girlfriend on his arm at the party that night. Alex waited with limited patience as the silence stretched for a total of eleven seconds.

"Fine, but you have to wear that red thing."

"What red thing?" she asked, pleased to know she wouldn't be stranded but also annoyed that he was forcing her to try to visualize her closet. She owned a lot of red things. He needed to be more specific.

"The red dress with the slit in the leg," he clarified. Then a in a lower tone added, "The one you wore when we did it in the closet at my boss's house."

Oh that red thing.

"Fine," she said. "Come get me and I'll wear the red thing."

"Where are you?"

That was a good question and Alex didn't know how to answer right away because she owned a flip phone that didn't connect to the internet or have GPS. "Are you in front of a computer?" She had been heading east on the main highway when time decided to crash her Ferrari, but she hadn't been paying attention to exit numbers or mile markers and there were no street signs in her immediate vicinity. So she had Brian look up live traffic reports, it didn't take him long to find the black and red lines displayed on the highway from the accident she'd created.

That time had created. She refused to take responsibility for the mess it created.

She told Brian to follow the highway past the accident until he found the first road that crossed underneath and told him that's where she'd be and he'd better hurry up and not take all day about it either. She hung up and sat down on the sloped concrete hill beneath the bridge and listened to the sounds of cars passing by overhead. This was one of those moments where Alex wished she could do more than just hit pause. Sitting and waiting for her ride would be far less boring if she could simply hit fast forward. As it was, Alex had to wait thirty one minutes before Brian pulled up under the bridge.

He rolled down his window and whistled. "Hey sexy, you need a ride?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Alex flipped him a finger and got in the the passenger side. Brian owned a Dodge Charger with tinted windows, she didn't care for the car very much. It was not as fast as she liked cars to be or as expensive. But, the tinted windows came in handy when Brian was in the mood to make out or to pull over for other more rated R activities.

"Kiss?" Brian leaned toward her. She complied and then he pulled a u-turn in the middle of the road and headed back the way he'd come. Alex opened the center console an took out the pack of watermelon bubblegum she kept stashed there and popped a piece into her mouth.

One thing she appreciated about Brian was that he didn't ask a lot of questions, even when she demanded to be picked up under a random bridge in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't because Brian was too stupid to ask, he worked with investments at a private firm and made good money, it was because he simply didn't care. He was shallow and simple, and Alex liked that, because that made him easy to understand.

Simple men with simple pleasures were easy for Alex to navigate. She wasn't looking for commitment, she was looking to fill a need. Right now, Brian met her needs with a nice apartment, good sex, expensive friends, and expensive tastes. All things Alex appreciated and in a few weeks or a few months Alex would move onto the next man who caught her attention. In the meantime though, she had to get ready for a party and wear the red thing.