I felt the sunlight beating down on my face, there was a slight breeze, but it was hot out, it must be morning I thought. I opened my eyes, and squinted into the distance, for miles all I could see was flat plains, and a single dirt road. Steven coughed beside me, I had almost forgotten he was there, “Hey, your up,” he gave me a soft smile, reaching over to touch my hair. “How long have we been driving?” I asked looking at the broken clock on the dashboard. “I’m guessing about 7 hours? Its almost 8.” I was surprised, we had left at around 1am, and I hadn’t realized how early I must have drifted off. “God, aren’t you tired? I would be exaughsted.” I exclaimed, watching him.
I could see the light purple circles that were forming beneath his eyes and that his lids were drooping. But, I could also see how his whiskers had grown out, like he hadn’t shaved in a while, and that there were more wrinkles around his lips when he smiled. And when he did smile, it didn’t reach his eyes, they didn’t twinkle like they used, they just looked sad. Now that I think about it, we’ve all changed, aged, grown up a little bit faster than we should have. I couldn’t say that it was all because of Lucy’s death but I thought it. She was our best friend, and she always would be. I looked up into the mirror. My dirty blonde hair was a mess, it flew all around my head form the wind, my makeup was caked underneath my eyes, and my dress was crinkled. “Beautiful, even with a bed head,” Steven smirked at me. I glared at him and crossed my arms over my chest. Up ahead I saw a building, “Steven! Look! There’s something out there!” he squinted, and nodded once he saw it.

We arrived at the gas station, and I skipped inside to the counter. “Excuse me sir, but do you have a bathroom by any chance?” I asked the grumpy old man half asleep at the counter. I nodded, and pointed to the keys hanging on the wall. I grabbed one and slipped out the door. “Need ta pee?” I jingled the keys in front of Steven’s face, while he filled up the tank. He shook his head, “just hurry up, we got to get moving,” his lips tight with worry. I looked up at him strangely, shrugged and walked over to the bathroom. I peed, washed my face, and slipped my knotty hair into a ponytail. When I came back out, Steven was already in the drivers seat. I walked over to the window shaking my head at him “nuh-uh, no way in hell am I letting you drive this car, you can barley keep your eyes open, you’ll get us both killed, for Christ’s sake!” I exclaimed. He chuckled at me and slid in the back, stretching out across the seats. I got in the drivers seat and sped off, leaving the old gas station far away in our tracks. As I was driving, I had time to think. Were they looking for us already? Had they called the sheriff yet? Who knows? I didn’t really care, my home life sucked, and so did Stevens. Loosing Lucy, even after what she had done to me, still made life that much harder. I needed to get out of there, I was done being sad, I needed something so we could both just be happy for once.


“Welcome to Henderbrook falls” read the rusty sign up ahead. As I glanced around, I could tell it was one of those old run down places. A place that barley any tourists ever come to, and everyone in the town knows each other’s business; kind of like ours. So when I pulled into local diner at about 5 o’clock, there was a lot of question in people’s eyes. I parked, and pulled the keys out of the ignition, turning around to shake Steven. He had been passed out for hours, ever since we left the gas station. He grumbled at me, “hey Steve, rise and shine!” I sang playfully. His eyes opened, he grinned lazily at me and swung his legs over so he was in a sitting position. We got out of the car and headed up toward the diner. There was no one at the host’s table so we seated our selves. And over to our table bounced our waitress. Which could have been one of the sluttiest versions of a cowgirl id ever seen.
“Hiya Mr. I’m Betsy Lou, may I take your order?” she asked grinning at him and batting her eyelashes, practically ignoring me. Steven didn’t notice, he barley glanced up at her as he put in our orders; she seemed disappointed, and walked away. I realized that who ever that Betsy Lou girl was, she bothered me because she flirted with Steven. I don’t think that I had thought about it before, but I might have feelings for him. This was going to be one interesting road trip. “Hey space case, where are ya?” joked Steven swatting my arm. I guess I had been zoning out, “ah sorry, I’m a little wiped from driving all day” I looked up smirking at him. “Hey! You forced me to sleep, I was all willing and ready to drive the rest of the way,” he argued. “And if I had let you, we probably would have both been dead by now,” I glared at him jokingly. Then I saw the hurt creep into his eyes, and my smile fell. “Oh” was all that came out of my mouth. It was easy to forget about everything that happened when I was with him. When another waiter, thank god not Betsy Lou came back with our order we were both looking at our hands in awkward silence. He put down our plates and started on about some country dancing and singing in the diner “hey y’all look like you could use some singing and dancin’ come on up fellas!” he said grinning, and yanking us both up onto the stage by our hands. “Oh no, I don’t-“ I started to say as Steven put his hand over my mouth and laughed. I took this as a sign that we were okay now.

We danced for about and hour, then inhaled all of our food, until we both were so exaughsted we could barley stand up. We were laughing so hard that my stomach hurt. It was one of the best nights of my life.
“Hey miss, don’t forget your picture!” called one of the waiters, as he ran over to us and handed us a shot of me on Stevens back, laughing, while Steven wore a cowboy hat and boots. “Thankya” I turned to Steven and showed him the picture. He laughed, so did I. “so where in the hell are we going to sleep” he asked looking down the street. “Umm, I think I saw a motel just back up the road when we were driving in,” “okay, sounds good to me, I’m all ready to pass out on a bed for once,” he laughed. “Me too,” I agreed slipping into the passenger seat. We drove down the road to the motel, got a room, with two double beds and checked in.
It was quiet, almost eerie, but at the same time, it was peaceful. I looked out the window at the starry sky, it was beautiful. I shivered, feeling a chill go up my spine from the ac. “you cold?” Steven asked slipping his arm over my shoulder, and turning to look at the sky with me. “Mmhmm a little but,” I mumbled. He rubbed the side of my arm, and squeezed me close. “Its beautiful isn’t it?” he asked, his eyes trained on the sky. Then I said something I never thought id admit to anyone “Sometimes, I think she’s out there, she’s one of those bright shining lights, looking down on us, somehow watching us, I don’t know, its kind of stupid,” I shrugged out of his grip and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Trust me, its not, I think about her all the time.”
Neither of us knew what to say now, we weren’t good at talking about her, so we both said goodnight and switched off the lights. I was completely dark; all I could see was the vague outline of the swirls on the ceiling. I could hear Steven’s breath, but I knew he was awake.
“I loved her,”
He whispered into the dark, but the way he said it, I knew he had never said it before. I had known all along, but I had never said anything, fearing it would mess up our friendship. I didn’t know if he thought I was awake or asleep, but I thought it was better if he could stay alone with his thoughts, so I turned over and drifted off to sleep.