The Wilderness Chapter 3

Travis and Jolleen start to search for one another.

Chapter 3

Jolleen was excited. For the first time in over a month she was going out with friends. She had been working a lot of Overtime lately to pay for the new car she had bought a few months ago, she had been sick for a few weeks with the flu, and she just hadn't had the extra cash to go out. Tonight, she got dressed up like she hadn't been dressed up for some time. Se was wearing a short, revealing, floral summer dress which only seemed to begin to cover her. She had also spent a lot of time on her makeup late this afternoon, and since she had been rigorously exercising five or six days a week in the early mornings she felt confident in her look. Jolleen also had teased her long dark hair in a way that she hadn't for a while. Jolleen wanted to meet someone tonight. True she was out with her friends, but finding an interesting man to talk to was priority number one. Jolleen had for the past few months been interested in someone at work. She really hadn't talked with him much, he was really nice looking and he didn't try overly hard for her attention. To Jolleen the sexiest part of a man is his hands. (and of course what he decides to do with them at the right time).  Jolleen has heard through talk in the break room that this special someone from the plant liked to visit the area nightclubs quite a bit during the week. Jolleen and her friends decided to go to JP Mulligans for a few drinks to start off the night. Jolleen was the one who had suggested it because she knew that there was a chance that her new interest might be there.  The man she is interested in is someone she had worked on a project at the plant with earlier in the day. After starting on their second round of drinks at JP's, Jolleen walked up to the bar. She had hoped that a good looking guy or two would be in the bar tonight, but all that Jolleen found at the end of the bar was an abandoned wallet. Imagine that, she said to herself when she grabbed the wallet and immediately started to go through its contents.

 

Jolleen thought this must be some kind of weird joke. She found herself in this particular bar mainly because she wanted to possibly see Kevin, a guy from work. Instead she finds Travis’ fricken' wallet! What are the chances of that? Am I being set up? What in the hell is his wallet doing here but not him?  Too bad I’m not the least bit interested in Travis!  I think he’s got a girl already for one thing. Kevin seemed more interesting to Jolleen.  He was very tall with a wild side to him.  He hardly ever shaved and he appeared to be a challenge to Jolleen.  Kevin just might be a player Jolleen thought, but tonight that particular red flag didn’t seem to bother her in the least.   It took Travis longer than expected to find Jolleen's house. He thought it was a short five minute drive across town and just over the bridge, but a highway accident and three annoying cop cars clogging up traffic made the trip longer than expected. Travis thought to himself, “Don't these cops have anything else better to do than this? When Travis finally found her house he felt a little silly. “What am I going to do now? Wait outside her house for her to come over to my car and invite me in? I will probably just creep her out! Crap”! It suddenly dawned on Jolleen. Why don't I just go straight to Travis’ house and return his wallet? That might be just the break I have been looking for in starting something with Kevin, since Travis and Kevin are friends. Besides this girl talk tonight is starting to get old already. Jolleen didn't want to waste anymore time. She was an aggressive girl and waiting around for something to happen in this God forsaken bar was not really getting it done. Within one minute flat Jolleen made up a story to her friends about how she needed to take are of an errand pronto and out the door she went. Jolleen knew enough of this town of Dunlap to know that a cab would be waiting just outside the bar for her. Especially the way she was dressed tonight! Travis had now been waiting in his car across the street for about 15 minutes and was starting to feel pretty conspicuous. He worried that someone in the neighborhood would call a cop on him. But then he thought, the cops in this town are too busy handling other important matters like clogging up traffic, or hanging out at the local donut shops! Jolleen was lucky in that she was able to find a taxi right away and that her driver was actually able to understand basic English and that his cab didn't smell like a sewer. It was only minutes before Jolleen found herself in Travis' driveway. She started to feel a little silly about leaving her friends at a bar to go to his home and possibly create a bit of a scene with his girlfriend especially given the short, slinky summer dress she was wearing. But Jolleen figured, What the hell? She might not even be home, maybe Andrea is out tonight with her boyfriend!

Reviews

[Danielle Wesley]

What an interesting twist - these two are going to keep missing each other. I really thought that Jolleen had an interest in Travis, not Kevin. This could make for some interesting upcoming chapters. I'm still curious where the title of the book comes in. Will they end up meeting in the Wilderness? I'm intrigued!

Here's my grammatical corrections:
Travis had now waiting in his car across the street for about 15 minutes and was starting to feel pretty conspicuous. (I think you meant to add the word "been": Travis had now been waiting)

I also noticed that sometimes the character's thoughts are italicized and sometimes they're not; this may be a writerscafe error but if not, you may want to italicize the ones you missed.

[Celeste21]

Wow... Very creative. Jolleen is an interesting character. I though for sure the man she was trying to see was Travis... but no it's someone named Kevin. How strange that they are at each other's houses. The plot thickens!

[KAREN]

This is getting to be so good! Excellent chapter!