Spinning Out

by R. T. Martin

  “I propose a new game,” he said. “Would You Rather.” Leo and CJ started bouncing questions off of each other, and after a couple rounds Katrina started quietly responding as well. Soon the three of them were cracking up over the most ridiculous questions they could come up with. Even Alex joined in laughing.

  Katrina turned to CJ. “Would you rather be rejected from every college you’ve applied to or be accepted to your dream school but have Ms. Moen as your professor for every class?”

  CJ chewed the side of her lip at that question. She didn’t want to talk about college—not when it was still so uncertain for her and when it was causing so much conflict between Katrina and Alex. CJ tried to keep things as casual as she could. “I’ll take the rejection,” she said, forcing a smile. “One class and one year of Ms. Moen was more than enough.”

  “Agreed,” Leo said.

  Katrina giggled. “I guess that one was kind of easy.”

  “Your turn, CJ,” Leo said.

  “Alex,” CJ started. “Would you rather lose all your books or never be able to use the internet again?” This wasn’t exactly a difficult question, she knew, but she was just desperate to come up with something quickly. Anything to move the topic of conversation away from college and future plans.

  “Please,” Alex said. “I’ll keep my books and lose the internet any day.”

  Katrina snorted. “You’re, like, the only person I know who would choose books over the internet. Give me the internet any day!”

  “Or you can try talking to people in the real world instead of following their posts and pictures on social media,” said Alex.

  “You know what I mean,” Katrina snapped. “God, you make me sound so shallow.”

  Leo turned around to give CJ a look—they both knew they had to act quickly before this turned into another argument. “Hey, guys,” CJ said. “How about another question? Alex, I think it’s your turn.”

  “All right, I’ve got a question,” he said. Judging by the tone of his voice, CJ had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what he had to ask. “Katrina, would you rather go to New York by yourself or go to college with the guy you’ve been dating for three years?”

  Chapter

  3

  “Real mature, Alex,” Katrina spat at him.

  “Answer the question,” Alex said, shrugging.

  “Honestly, you’re making New York look really appealing right now.” CJ could see Katrina’s face flushing.

  “So, you’re fine going four years without seeing each other? That’s what you want to do?”

  “Whose turn is it?” Leo said, trying to change the subject.

  “Don’t be so dramatic!” Katrina snapped at Alex. “We’d still see each other on breaks and during the summer. And we could see each other all the time if you just agreed to go to NYU!”

  “Why should I have to agree to go to NYU if you won’t agree to go to UCLA?” Alex turned back in the driver’s seat to look at Katrina.

  “Watch the road,” CJ said, but Alex didn’t seem to hear.

  “I could ask you the same question,” Katrina said, leaning forward as if she were trying to get into Alex’s face.

  “Twenty Questions was more fun.” CJ couldn’t tell if Leo was joking or if it was a legitimate attempt to break up the argument. “I’ve got one. You’ve got—”

  “I’ll bet if Adam Weis were going to UCLA, you’d go.” Alex was still glaring into the back seat while driving.

  “Watch the road!” CJ said a little louder.

  “Oh my god,” Katrina hissed. “We went to one movie together freshman year. Let it go! I don’t even know where Adam is planning to go, and besides, that has nothing to do with this! You don’t even know why you’re mad!”

  “I know why I’m mad!” Alex said. “I’m mad because you refuse to even think about—”

  “Alex, watch the—” CJ wasn’t able to finish before the van slid and began fishtailing.

  Alex snapped forward and gripped the wheel. The van faced one way, then the other, while Alex desperately tried to correct its path. A car on their left honked and swerved to avoid slamming into the back of the van, which was halfway in the other lane. They swerved the other direction and for a moment, CJ thought they might spin all the way around and end up facing the wrong way in traffic.

  The van slowed dramatically, and the car behind them had to quickly slide into the left lane to avoid rear-ending them. CJ heard the honk of the second car as it drove by.

  Once the van was under control, Alex pulled over onto the shoulder. CJ realized her fists were clenched around the armrests. She was squeezing them harder than she’d thought she was capable of. The moment the van stopped moving, they all exhaled in relief.

  “Everybody okay?” Leo asked.

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” Katrina answered.

  “Me too,” CJ said.

  “I’m good,” Alex said, although over his shoulder, CJ could see he was still gripping the steering wheel like his life depended on it.

  “You nearly killed us!” Katrina shouted.

  “Well, if you hadn’t been yelling in my ear, I wouldn’t have—”

  “Enough!” CJ cut Alex off. “You’re both to blame for what just happened. You started the argument, Alex, and then you nearly drove us off the road because you were arguing. And I don’t know if you know this,” she turned to Katrina, “but it takes two people to argue!”

  Katrina looked down and started wringing her hands together. Alex went silent in the front seat.

  CJ took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t mean to yell, but the whole point of this trip was to avoid talking about stressful stuff like college decisions. None of us are going to have a good time unless you two remember how to get along.”

  “Maybe we should just call it off,” Katrina said quietly.

  “We’re already over halfway there,” Leo said. But he sounded disappointed, like he might have preferred turning back.

  “Also, we already paid for the lift tickets, and they don’t do refunds unless you give forty-eight hours’ notice,” CJ added. “Besides, you two should be able to get along. I feel like you’ve kind of lost sight of why you’re fighting in the first place. It’s because you care about each other and want to spend as much time together as possible. Which is sweet, but it’s not exactly bringing out the best in you. I know it’s hard to think about anything else. But please don’t take out your frustrations on each other and on us right now. Please don’t ruin this trip.”

  Both Alex and Katrina looked a little ashamed, and for a moment, CJ felt bad for scolding her friends, but she shook the feeling off. Their bickering had gotten out of hand, and someone had to say something.

  Suddenly, there was a rapping against the driver’s side window. Everyone jumped.

  CJ’s head whipped toward the window. A police officer was standing outside and motioning for Alex to roll the window down. He did, and bitter cold wind blasted into the car. CJ shivered in her seat.

  “Everything all right here?” the officer asked. She peered through the window to look at everyone in the van. CJ held her breath, wondering if the officer had seen the spinout and suspected Alex of reckless driving. “Having car trouble?”

  “No, Officer,” Leo said. “We hit an icy patch of road and pulled over to collect ourselves for a second.”

  The officer nodded. “Where are you all heading?”

  “A cabin on Split Peak Mountain,” CJ said.

  The officer frowned. “Wouldn’t go that far if I were you. The storm’s going to get a lot worse. Is there somewhere else you can stay? Somewhere closer?”

  “Not really.” Alex shrugged.

  The officer looked down the road in the direction they were headed. “You already spun out once. In an hour or two, you might not be lucky enough to make it onto the shoulder. The roads on the mountain get a lot worse than these highways, and there’s a lot less room for . . . error.” She put extra weight on the last word. “You can probabl
y make it to town, but I’d advise you to grab a room at the motel there and stay put. You can make the rest of your trip when the storm has passed and the plows have had a chance to clear things up a bit.”

  “Thanks for the advice,” Alex said. “We’ll think about it.”

  She nodded. “Smart thing to do is stay in town. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She slapped the bottom of the window frame twice. “I’ll let you get on your way. Have a good trip, and above all else, be careful.”

  “Thanks, Officer,” they all said, not quite in unison. Alex rolled the window back up and started driving down the shoulder until he’d gotten up to speed. Then he merged back on to the highway, and the police car disappeared in the snow behind them.

  Chapter

  4

  They’d been silent for nearly a half hour. Even Leo was quietly looking out his window at the pure white landscape flying by.

  The storm had gotten worse. Much worse. The wind had picked up and kept blowing snow across the road. There were moments where CJ was sure they were going to drive straight into a ditch because there was no way Alex could see the road. He had decreased the speed of the van, but CJ was worried they were still going too fast. At its best, visibility was down to about thirty feet, and she kept picturing red brake lights suddenly appearing in front of them and the van being unable to stop in time.

  “Maybe we should slow down a little more,” she suggested.

  She half expected Alex to protest. He’d seemed pretty wound up since the argument. Maybe he was just stressed because of the drive, but she thought something else might be bothering him. Either way, the van’s speed decreased from thirty-five to twenty-five, and CJ felt better.

  Leo pulled out his phone and typed the cabin’s address into the GPS app. “We’re about fifty miles out,” he said. “Normally, I think we’d be able to see the mountain from here, but . . .” He gestured out the window.

  “At this rate,” CJ said dryly, “we’ll get there in two hours.” She regretted saying it the moment it came out of her mouth. She’d just been thinking out loud, but all she’d done was remind Alex that he had two hours of this miserable drive left. Not only that, but according to the timeline they’d planned, they should already be sitting on a lift on their way up the mountain.

  They all fell silent again, and CJ considered the possibility of turning around. It would be a waste—a waste of time, effort, and the money they’d paid for the lift passes, but maybe it was the right thing to do. The worst part of the storm was supposed to pass right over Colorado, so if they turned around, the driving would remain dangerous for a while, but it would only get better.

  No, CJ thought. Everything will be fine. There’s no reason to call off an entire trip just because of a little discomfort. Once we’re there, we’ll be happy we stuck with it. She decided the worst-case scenario would be that they stayed in the motel in town like the police officer had suggested. They could head up to the cabin the next morning and only lose a day of hitting the slopes. That wasn’t so bad.

  “Anybody want to play another game?” Leo asked. “Get our minds off the storm?”

  “I’d rather not,” Katrina said flatly.

  “Yeah,” CJ said. “We should let Alex focus on driving.”

  Leo nodded. “Fair enough.”

  A few more minutes of silence went by. CJ watched the storm get worse and worse. Either the snow was falling harder or the wind was blowing more. It was hard to tell which, but it was definitely becoming a disaster out there. Alex had slowed to twenty miles per hour, and he was still passing a few cars. One or two had even pulled over to the side of the road, their taillights glowing as the van passed.

  CJ wondered what their plan was. Are they going to wait out the entire storm on the shoulder? By the time it’s over, their cars will be completely buried. As quickly as the cars appeared in the storm, they vanished from her sight.

  Watching conditions worsen was only making CJ more nervous. She didn’t want to distract Alex, but she figured they could all use something to get their minds off the storm. She leaned forward between Leo and Alex and changed the station on the radio. This one played an old blues song, and she only had time to hear a wailing lyric about a girl who’d done the singer wrong before she turned the knob again. The next station was playing pop music, and she sat back in her seat.

  The distraction of music helped a bit, but it was impossible for them to forget about the storm. It was literally all they could look at unless they chose to stare at the floor of the van.

  The music only played for a couple minutes before it cut out. Three loud beeps played through the radio, followed by a voice. “This is an urgent message from the Colorado Department of Transportation,” the voice said. “A travel advisory has been issued for all counties due to severe weather conditions. Citizens are advised against travel of any kind until ten a.m. tomorrow morning. Again, a travel advisory has been issued . . .” Leo turned off the radio as the message repeated itself.

  “We should turn back,” Katrina said.

  “We’re not turning back,” Alex said. “I can get us there.”

  “I’m with Alex on this one,” Leo said. “It’s the whole state. If we turn back, we’ve still got a good chunk of Colorado to drive through. We’d just be on the road even longer. The safest thing to do now is just to push through.”

  “I agree,” CJ said. “But I don’t think we should go all the way to the cabin. If the roads are this bad on the highway, they’re going to be a lot worse on the mountain. We should stop at that motel. I’ll call my parents and ask if I can use the credit card they gave me. How far from town are we?”

  Leo checked his phone. He was quiet for a moment, then said, “ “Umm, I don’t know.”

  “What does the map say?” Katrina asked.

  “Well,” Leo said. “If this is to be believed, we’re currently right around connection lost and maybe a few minutes from searching for service.” He held the phone behind him for them to see. Sure enough, the phone screen showed a pixelated map that had frozen before it could fully load. A small wheel turned over and over as the phone struggled to catch a signal.

  CJ and Katrina each pulled out their own phones. The little triangle that indicated the strength of her signal was completely empty. “I guess I’m not calling my parents,” CJ said.

  “I’ve got nothing,” Katrina said, tapping at her screen.

  “It’s got to be the storm,” Leo said as he slid his phone back into his pocket.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Alex said. “I told you all I can get us there.”

  CJ glanced over Alex’s shoulder and looked at the gas gauge. They had a little less than a quarter of a tank left. “When we get to town, we’ll need gas anyway. Stop at the first gas station you see, and we’ll just ask where the motel is.”

  “I thought you needed to get your parents’ permission to use that card,” Katrina said.

  “They said it’s for emergencies,” CJ replied. “I think this qualifies. Let’s use it, and I’ll explain later. The motel’s landline phones probably work.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Leo said.

  CJ felt a weight lift off her shoulders. She was nervous enough about being out on the highways during this storm—she didn’t even want to think about what driving up those narrow mountain roads would be like. She remembered them from last year. Even in good conditions, they could be terrifying in places. There were steep drop-offs and outright cliffs. One wrong move or an unfortunate slip could send them all falling to their deaths. Waiting out the storm in the comfort of the motel was easily the better option.

  Within twenty minutes, they saw the glow of a gas station’s tall sign just off the highway. Alex carefully steered the car down the exit ramp and headed toward the station. He pulled the van up to the first pump, and they all got out.

  The storm was somehow worse than CJ had thought. From inside the car, everything had looked so evenly white that it had been difficult to t
ell how much snow had actually fallen, but when CJ stepped outside, the snow nearly reached her knee. Some of it fell into her boots, immediately soaking her socks. The wind had gotten colder and stronger than when they’d spoken to the police officer. It tore at CJ’s skin like a knife, and she buried her face in her coat to protect herself from it.

  While Alex filled the tank, the others went inside the station, startling the one employee, who obviously wasn’t expecting anyone to arrive in the awful weather.

  “Excuse me,” CJ said to him. “Is there a motel nearby?”

  He blinked at her for a second but then replied, “Yeah, it’s just down the road.” He gave them directions.

  They bought a few snacks and drinks, and Leo grabbed a board game from one of the shelves. “Got to do something while we wait out the storm, right?” he said when CJ saw he was actually going to buy it.

  They piled back in the van just as Alex finished refilling the gas tank. CJ told him where to find the motel, but he didn’t respond, just started up the van and pulled out of the gas station.

  CJ breathed a sigh of relief. The worst parts of this journey seemed to be over. They’d wait out the storm, and tomorrow, once the plows had cleared the road, they could drive the rest of the way and get on with the fun . . . assuming Alex and Katrina could control themselves.

  Up ahead, CJ could just make out the road where they were supposed to make a left through the snow. But then, much to her surprise, the van kept going.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Leo said. “It’s a left—a left!”

  Alex turned to the right. He didn’t say anything, didn’t slow down, didn’t even acknowledge what was happening. As they passed under a green highway sign, CJ realized he was going to keep driving up the mountain.

  Chapter

  5

  “I think you missed the turn there, buddy,” Leo said. His tone was caught somewhere between jokey and irritated. “You got a plan . . . or something?”