by Amy Sparling
April texts me and I reach down to grab my phone. Aunt Donna slaps my hand.
Like, not a playful smack the way my mom might do if I’m reaching for one of her blueberry muffins before they’re ready, but an actual slap.
“Ow!” I jerk my hand back and shake it trying to wring out the sting. “What’d you do that for?”
Aunt Donna’s lips flatten and she glares at me and I’m reminded of that very mean second grade teacher we had back in elementary school.
“You are driving a car, Ella Lockhart!” She punctuates each word as if she thinks I’m slow and I need the extra attention to understand what she’s saying.
“We’re going twenty miles an hour,” I say, glancing forward at the traffic. When we left Kountry Korner, we were going at a pretty good speed, but over the last ten minutes the traffic has gotten thicker, and with it our speed has dropped significantly. It’s still moving though, so that’s good.
“You can still die at twenty miles an hour,” she says, still glaring at me. “And even if you don’t die, getting in a wreck right now would be an awful inconvenience. You think the cops will show up soon?” She snorts. “Hardly. We’ll be waiting for hours just to file an accident report that will most definitely raise your insurance rates and get you in trouble.”
I’m trying so hard not to roll my eyes. I mean, I get it. I do. I don’t text and drive and I don’t play with my phone under normal circumstances. But we’re going so slow, and I’m pretty sure I’m capable of glancing at April’s text without dying.
My phone gets another text from April.
“Don’t even think about it!” Aunt Donna says.
“I just want to read them!” I say, as another text comes in. “That’s no different from reading the GPS instructions!”
“It’s completely different. The GPS talks to you and tells you where to go.”
I can tell she’d be pissed if I tried to take my phone again, and I’d really like to avoid any more unpleasantness. I don’t really know my aunt very well anymore. She used to be fun and sweet and charmingly eccentric. But now that I’m not a kid anymore, she’s not treating me like one. This is just so awkward.
We drive in silence, those texts from April going ignored. Then I get another text from her, and I don’t even bother trying to see what it says. I wish I had one of those fancy new cars that display your texts on the screen while you drive. Ethan’s truck does that, and it’s the coolest thing ever. You can press a button to talk and tell it what to reply back.
But I’m stuck in my crappy car that’s technically my dad’s, and there are no futuristic texting features to help me out. The GPS says we are nearing Blackwell again, which means I’m finally back to where I started. I shouldn’t be more than an hour away from the hotel if traffic stays good.
There’s no point in listening to the radio because all the stations are talking about the hurricane and the horrible devastation it’s caused along the coast. I listen to it for a while, but then I get overwhelmingly sad for the people on the coast, and my fear for my little town grows too big to handle. I don’t want to think about my parent’s meager possessions they’ve acquired in our new rental home. I don’t want to think about it all getting wiped away and making them start over again. I don’t want to think about Evan’s house or his family losing all of their things too.
I shut off the radio and listen to the sounds of Roscoe panting in the backseat. Aunt Donna stares out the passenger window, and she’s so quiet I almost forget she’s in here.
We drive for half an hour longer and then my mom calls. Aunt Donna grabs my phone before I can even consider it.
“Hi Samantha,” she says. “We’re almost there. Got like maybe twenty minutes left. Mmhmm… Yeah.”
She glances over at me. “Ella’s driving so she can’t talk right now. Wouldn’t be safe. I’ll tell her. Okay. Bye.”
She ends the call and puts my phone back in the cupholder. “Your mom says to call her when we get to the hotel. She’s a smart woman, and she knows it’s better to be safe and only talk on the phone when you’re not driving.”
I’m pretty sure my mom said none of that last part, but I nod anyway. “Okay.”
“You don’t need to be sarcastic,” she says. “I’m just looking out for you. When you get my age you’ll understand.”
I take one hand off the wheel to rub my forehead. The traffic had started to ease up and we got to drive up to fifty miles an hour, despite the speed limit being sixty-five. But now it’s slowing down again. You’d think all these people would be eager to evacuate, but they drive like they’re taking a casual Sunday morning stroll.
Now we’re back down to creeping along at a snail’s pace and the GPS updates, saying it’ll take us an hour to get there at this speed. Hopefully it won’t be that long. I’m not sure I can last any longer in this car with my aunt and this dog.
I don’t even know what to do with them. I don’t know if the hotel will allow dogs, or if there’s room for my aunt, or if this whole thing will blow up in my face. But De Sota is pretty far north from the hurricane so maybe there’s more rooms available and my parents can just pay for her to get her own room.
“I need to make a phone call,” I say. “You can dial the number for me and hand me the phone that way it’ll be safe.”
Aunt Donna laughs. “Honey that’s not safe. Talking on the phone and driving is never safe!”
“It’s literally the same thing as me talking to you now!”
She shakes her head. “No it isn’t. You have to concentrate more on the phone than in real life. You just focus on what you’re doing and your phone calls can wait.”
“No, they can’t,” I say a little snippier than I’d like. “I need to make a call to see if there’s even room for you and your stupid dog at this hotel that my friends are paying for.”
Her eyes widen. I can tell my comment hurt her feelings, but good. Maybe I wanted them to hurt her. She’s being a complete burden on me and Ethan’s family and I need to warn them that she’s coming before we get there.
Her shoulders straighten. “You don’t have to make any calls on my behalf. Roscoe and I will sleep in the parking lot. We just needed to get further away from the storm, so that’s all you have to do. Certainly don’t go out of you way on my account.”
Dammit. Now I feel bad. If it were my parents who had the hotel room, then it wouldn’t matter because she’s family. But my parents are gone and they’ve left me with the responsibility of figuring out what to do.
“I’m sorry I was rude,” I say, staring at the road again. “I just really need to make a call. You can even put it on speakerphone if you want. Hell, you can do the talking. But we need to call Mrs. Poe.”
“No we don’t. I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
This time I do roll my eyes.
Ethan’s name flashes across my phone, alerting me that I have a new text from him. I look at the phone, and then at Aunt Donna. “Don’t even think about it,” she says.
I don’t think. I just act. I swerve the car over to the right and slam on my brakes, jerking us to a halt on the side of the road. Roscoe flies forward and licks my face, leaving a fog of his nasty dog breath in the air.
“Happy?” I say, putting the car in park. I even go so far as to turn off the engine and take out the keys just to make a point.
And then I grab my phone and look at Ethan’s text message.
There are so many things I want to say. But nothing will make this better until I’m finally with him. Ethan will help me figure out what to do. He can tell his parents about the two unexpected guests I have in my car and he’ll figure out a plan. It’ll all be okay once I get to him. So I don’t write out all the words I’m thinking of. I just tell him one thing. The only thing that matters.
Soon.
While I’m at it, I might as well read all of my other messages. I go to April’s name and see what she’s been freaking out about. It’s not like her to send a million messages at
once. I can only remember her doing that when we had the tornado lockdown in school last year.
April: holy shit, are you okay?
April: Like, seriously. Talk to me.
April: Ella! Please tell me you didn’t see it and drop dead and that you’re a ghost now.
Confused, I type back: see what?
Images of my whole town being demolished, wiped away with the storm, float through my mind. I mean, she must be talking about something I would have seen on the news, right? But then she replies just a few seconds later and I realize she’s not talking about the hurricane at all.
April: Kennedy’s snap? Uh oh, El. Did you not know?
What the hell does Kennedy’s Snapchat have to do with anything? Now that we’ve graduated, we don’t even see her anymore. And I certainly don’t follow her online. Maybe my house got demolished and she somehow took a picture of it and posted it online?
No, that doesn’t make sense… Kennedy would have evacuated too.
I pull up Snapchat and find her profile, which is pretty easy to do because she uses the same username she’s had her whole life. I click on her story and watch as a bunch of lame evacuation photos play on my screen. Boring.
And then, suddenly, it’s not so boring anymore.
A picture of Ethan, my Ethan, is on Kennedy’s Snap story. He looks like he’s asleep, and Kennedy is laying against his chest, her eyes staring right at the camera and her lips making a pouty face. The caption reads: poor Ethan is passed out!
My blood runs cold. The next picture is of Kennedy snuggled under a white comforter in what looks like a hotel bed. Behind her, you can see Ethan, clear as day. It’s the back of his head, but I’d recognize it anywhere.
I watch the picture again and again. I go back to the pictures before that and realize that the selfies she posted earlier were taken inside of Ethan’s truck. My throat feels like it’s going to close up.
My aunt watches me, but she doesn’t say anything. I am so confused I can’t think straight. How is Kennedy with Ethan? We left at the same time and she wasn’t with him. She wasn’t even in the picture at all. I just don’t get it. I play the Snap story one more time, even though my hands are shaking and my heart is pounding. My vision blurs, and I blink back tears. But my eyes don’t stay watery for long. Pretty soon I only feel one thing.
Anger.
Chapter 18
It feels like a dream as I pull into the parking lot, drive into a space, and put my truck in park. Is this real? Am I finally here, finally after all this time, in De Sota, Texas?
“Thank God,” Kennedy mutters under her breath, echoing exactly what I’m thinking. She throws open the passenger door and jumps out. I get out too, and I have the sudden urge to drop to my knees and kiss the ground. Luckily, I restrain myself.
I’ve been on solid ground this whole time, but there’s something about finally being at the hotel that feels like a dream come true. Or, rather, a nightmare that’s finally ended.
I glance around, wondering if Ella happened to get here before me, but then my curiosity turns to fear. I hope she’s not here. I can’t walk into my parent’s hotel room with Kennedy. I need to play this the right way and make sure I’m able to talk to Ella before I bring her inside.
“Let’s go,” I say to Kennedy.
We walk into the hotel’s lobby, and I’m surprised to see my parents sitting in an overstuffed red leather couch eating from white and red striped popcorn bags.
“Mom?” I say, lifting an eyebrow. She’s eating popcorn. The kind with butter and salt. “You okay? You know that’s junk food, right?”
She rolls her eyes and hands her bag of popcorn to my dad, then stands up and hugs me. “Ethan, baby, I’m glad you’re okay.”
With her arms still wrapped around me, she stiffens.
I can smell Kennedy’s perfume as she walks up. “Hi, Mrs. Poe,” she says, her voice all sickly sweet. “I hope I’m not a huge inconvenience.”
Mom pulls away and gives me a wtf look. I shrug. “I found her in a Walmart parking lot. Her car broke down and I couldn’t leave her stranded.”
Mom’s expression goes from alarmed to calm pretty quickly. I can tell that she and my dad are freaked out, but they’ve put their polite faces on for Kennedy’s sake. “Of course not,” Mom says. “She can stay with us.”
Mom doesn’t even bother asking about Kennedy’s parents and why they aren’t here. I guess she remembers from when we dated that her parents were hardly ever home. I know she feels sorry for my ex-girlfriend in that regard, but I don’t have much sympathy for her. Kennedy is a rich spoiled brat who only cares about herself.
“You want some popcorn?” Dad says, in what is clearly an attempt to lighten the mood. “They have a popcorn stand in the lobby.”
“Maybe later,” I say. “I want to drop my stuff off and then go wait for Ella.”
“Where is she?” Mom asks. “Samantha said she’d be with you.”
“She’s almost here,” I say, hoping I’m right. “Traffic was a nightmare.”
I don’t bother telling them any more details because admitting just how screwed up this entire trip has been will mean admitting that I’m a terrible boyfriend who lost his girlfriend when I should have been looking out for her.
My parents show us the hotel room which is up on the fourth floor. It’s actually a three bedroom suite, and it’s pretty big. I only wish it was big enough to keep Kennedy in one side and Ella in the other so they’d never have to see or know about each other.
There’s a shared living room and kitchen area, which is were my sister is lounging, watching TV. Her eyes widen when she sees Kennedy and me walk inside. She looks at me, eyebrows raised, but doesn’t say anything.
“Hi, Dakota!” Kennedy says.
My sister ignores her and looks back at the TV. I hold in a laugh. Kennedy was never very nice to my little sister when we were dating. Dakota isn’t about to let her off the hook now.
“Okay, let’s figure this out,” Mom says, clapping her hands together as we all stand awkwardly in the small living room. “Me and your dad are staying in that room over there,” she says, pointing toward a closed door. “Dakota is in there.” She points to another door. “But since we’re expecting Ella…”
I hold my breath while Mom works out the plan in her head. Surely she won’t make Ella and Kennedy stay in the same room. Mom glances at me. “Kennedy, you can share that room with Dakota. There’s two twin beds in there.”
“Okay, great,” Kennedy says. She grabs her suitcase and rolls it toward Dakota’s room. I hear my sister groan under her breath, and I know I owe her big when this is over. Sharing a room with Kennedy is annoying as hell—I know from experience last night.
Mom gives me a pointed look. “You and Ella can share the third bedroom. You’re technically adults now, but I trust you’ll be…respectful.”
I roll my eyes. “Mom, I’m not going to hook up with my girlfriend in a hotel room I’m sharing with all of you.”
“Good,” Mom says, but I know the topic is uncomfortable because she turns around and starts talking to Dad about the hurricane.
I head off to my bedroom and close the door behind me. This third bedroom has one queen sized bed, a TV and a recliner. The window faces the main highway I took to get here, and I immediately walk over to it and look for Ella’s car.
An uneasy knot forms in my stomach. This is going to suck. There’s no easy way to break it to her that Kennedy is here. She’d be upset under normal circumstances, but now it’s even worse. She had to sleep in an old cabin last night. She’s been lost all alone and stuck without me.
I can’t sit here and watch for her car from the fourth floor of the hotel. I need to be down there to see her the second she arrives.
I grab a hotel key card from the coffee table next to Dakota. “Where you going?” she asks.
“Downstairs to wait for Ella.”
She gives me a look. “Good luck.”
Out in
the lobby, I see the free popcorn machine my parents were raving about. There’s also a nacho stand and a candy bar. Ella will love this. She’s a huge fan of nachos. But even though I want this to solve my problem, I know that saying, “Babe, my ex is here but guess what? There’s nachos!” won’t solve this problem.
I go outside and wait for her. I don’t care how long it takes. I need to be here the moment she arrives so I can hug her tightly and tell her how much I love her and then prepare her to hear the news about Kennedy.
I take a deep breath and try to picture it all in my mind. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe she’ll laugh and say I did the right thing, not leaving Kennedy stranded without a car. We’ll make some snarky jokes about my ex and then it will all be fine. The hurricane should be over in another 2 days and then we can go back home. This will all be over soon, and hopefully our houses are okay back at home, and then we’ll go back to normal life. I’ll help Ella move into her dorm and I’ll focus on my T-shirt business and things will be fine.
I stand here for half an hour, repeating these thoughts in my mind. I’m feeling pretty good about it all when a voice interrupts my thoughts.
“Hey there,” Kennedy says.
I jump. My legs feel sore, probably from standing tense in this same spot for so long. I take my eyes off the road to look at her. “What are you doing here?”
She runs her fingers down my arm. “Just thought I’d see what you’re up to.”
I shrug her hand off me. “Don’t. Go back to the hotel room.”
“It’s boring up there,” she says, rolling her eyes to the sky. She reaches for my arm again. “I’d way rather be here with you. You’re my hero, you know. You saved me.”
I take a step backward to put some distance between us. “I’m not a hero. I just took pity on you. Seriously, you need to go.”
She pouts her lower lip. “Why are you being so mean to me?”
“I’m not being mean to you,” I snap. “I’m asking you to freaking leave so my girlfriend doesn’t get pissed when she arrives and sees you standing here trying to put your slut hands all over me.”’