The car was a hybrid, a mesh of both gas and electricity with dirty white paint staining the walls and windows. I strode past it as he turned the key and rolled down the windows. While he put the car in drive, the girl in the passenger seat urged me to get in. These were my friends, but I was too stubborn for them to convince me to hitch a ride.

“Just come!” she yells, stretching her arm past the seat to open the backdoor rumbling steadily along now. 

“No thanks.” I respond. 

“It’s not that far!” 

“Exactly why I’m walking.” I counter with a finger raised in the air. 

We were near downtown, my house a mere two blocks away. A safe and straightforward way it was to get there too, so why they felt compelled to give me a ride home was absurd. I’d already walked this path dozens of times, the spindly trees by the left and the dark drab houses by the right of the sidewalk already second nature. What happened the other time didn’t matter. I was drunk. Today I am not. My friends apparently thought differently.

“Look I’m okay. I can actually walk alone, you know?” arching my eyebrows to counter their babying.

“Fine. But we’re just gonna trail behind you then.”

“Great!” I exclaim with a smile pasted on my face. 

I continued strolling on the sidewalk to my house studying the rusted pinwheels to the side as they creaked with the wind. Slowly, I began to linger and become more engrossed in the decor of the houses. Sure enough, my friends gave up on me and sped forward, leaving me alone once again.