Ready To Go (14 page)

Daniel grinned, but noticed that Nicole rolled her eyes at him. He shrugged, and focused on driving. This road looked the same as every other road they’d driven on. He was getting tired of it.

“I can’t call you again,” she continued, still on the phone. “I need to get a new phone, and then I will. Tell Dad not to worry, I’m not using the emergency credit card. I still have it, so you don’t need to worry either. I can’t tell you that. You need to ask him. Please stop worrying, I’m
fine
. I promise I’m going to be okay. You know I needed to leave home at some point.”

She was silent for a while. She might have been crying again, or it might have been old tears still on her face. She spoke softly. “I love you, Mom. And tell Dad that I love him too. I just…I can’t talk to him right now. I’ll call again, okay?” She gave a small sniff, and then pressed a button to end the call.

Daniel glanced at her inquisitively. “You still love your dad?”

“Of course.” She gave him a look like he was an idiot. “I can’t face him right now, but he is my dad. I can’t change that. I don’t even want to. He was always a great dad.”

Now the tears in her eyes were clear. He didn’t know how to comfort her anymore, but he knew what to say. “Let’s go do something else fun. Get your mind off of this.”

“Can’t we just go to the next hotel?” she asked. She sounded tired, but they both knew it wasn’t a lack of sleep that made her weary.

“No,” he replied. “Because you need to do something. Remind yourself that you’re not just running from that, you’re running to awesome things. Like…” He searched for nearby attractions on the GPS, an awkward pause settling over the conversation as the device searched the area. “Like whatever this Devil’s Tower is!”

“Okay,” she mumbled. “Let’s just go.”

They drove on until they reached a large flat-topped mountain. Daniel got out of the car as soon as they parked to get a better look at it. “That is awesome.”

“I thought you weren’t interested in mountains,” Nicole said. “We didn’t go to Mount Rushmore.”

“There’s no pictures of this one,” Daniel replied. “Hey, look, people are climbing it. You want to do that?”

“Not really,” she replied. She headed down a trail that led to a small building labeled Park Ranger Station. Daniel followed her.

“There’s gotta be other things to do here,” he said. “We can just walk around it.”

“I don’t want to take that much time,” she replied. “Sorry, but now that I have a place to go to, I’m just not as interested in this stuff anymore.”

“Let’s just walk for ten minutes,” he said. “We’ll get a map and find a really short trail.”

“Okay,” she said. She still sounded upset, and Daniel was getting frustrated that he couldn’t yet cheer her up.

Once inside the building, he picked up a map showing all the trails around the mountain. There was a little inset that talked about some of the history of the site. “Hey, this thing used to be a volcano. It’s not really a mountain.”

“Cool,” she said, but she didn’t sound that impressed. “Let’s just walk already.”

“And the trees around here have their bark stripped from the bottom because porcupines rub against them.”

“I don’t see any trees.” Nicole just kept walking.

It turned out the parking lot was so far away from the tower that they couldn’t get close in ten minutes. Nicole barely looked up from the ground as they walked. When they were some distance out, away from any people, Daniel suddenly stopped walking. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

She nodded. “It just hit me, before we came here, that it’s going to be a long time before I see my mom again. If ever again. That’s not something I can get over in five minutes. I’m sorry if I’m making this less fun for you.”

“You’re not,” he said. He was lying, but he wasn’t exactly mad at her for being upset. He stepped a little closer to her and wrapped an arm around her before kissing her forehead gently. “It’s going to be okay. You talked to your mom. You don’t think she’d want to visit you when you’re settled wherever?”

“Can we please just get on to the hotel?” she mumbled. Her voice sounded choked, like she would start crying again.

“Okay,” he said.

The hotel that night was part of some chain, a name they wouldn’t remember. It looked the same as every other hotel, but with one redeeming difference. The sign out front advertised free wireless internet.

Daniel sat cross-legged on his bed. The laptop was just in front of him, and Nicole was just behind him, looking over his shoulder. He opened Facebook and checked his messages. There was a new one from an Ethan.

“hey dan! yeah no prob your girl can stay here. nice of you to finally talk to me haha. call me when you get to town n ill clean up the apartment. i only got one xtra room so you cant stay unless your staying with her. is she hot?”

Nicole made her excited little squeaking sound again. “That’s amazing! Tell him I say thank you a million times, and thanks a million times to you!”

Daniel grinned. “It was nothing. I forgot all about this guy, I barely talk to him except getting his jokes that he sends in mass private messages. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t understand what his wall is for.”

“Well, not everyone understands Facebook,” Nicole said. “But I have a place to stay!” She gleefully hugged him, throwing herself onto him and actually making him lose his balance for a moment.

“I guess you’re excited,” he deadpanned.

She gave a sheepish grin. “Sorry. It’s just that something is finally going right, and it feels great.”

“What, me offering to drive you the whole way wasn’t going right enough?” he asked.

She shrugged. “To be honest, I really had no idea what you might do to me. The worst crossed my mind, but I wouldn’t admit it. Now I trust you, but I couldn’t then. I didn’t have any reason to.”

“True,” he agreed. “As long as you trust me now.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I
just
said that.” He shrugged, smiled, and then kissed her. He noticed that she welcomed the kiss as she melted her body against his.

He could recognize the change in her, the fact there was a little less resistance now than before. He wanted her so bad that it hurt to be so close but not quite with her. And every time her guard came down a little like this, he hoped that tonight would be the night.

But this night wasn’t it. They slept chastely side by side again, and the night passed like any other. Daniel dreamed of Nicole.

The morning woke them with bright light shining through the open curtains. There was a little discussion of what they might do that day, but no plans were set. The only thing they really agreed on was to have Mexican for lunch, but not Taco Bell. That didn’t count as ‘real’ Mexican. They argued over if either of them had ever had ‘real’ Mexican food, both being from the northeast. It was decided that no, they actually hadn’t, but they both wanted to try.

Everything seemed to have settled into a comfortable normalcy for them, until Daniel tried to start his car. The engine gave a weak sputter before it roared to life. The sound of the car trying to go was deafening. “I think we might be stuck here,” Daniel said.

“What is it?” Nicole asked. “How can you tell it’s that bad?”

He turned off the engine, and the car quieted once more. “It’s the muffler. I’ve had this happen before. We can drive on it, but that’ll make it much worse.”

“Can we get it fixed?” she asked.

“I’m going to ask for the address of the nearest auto shop,” he replied, getting out of the car. He headed back into the hotel and got an address from the desk clerk, then returned to the car with a small scrap of paper in his hand. As he got back in the car, he sighed. “Apparently we’re in such a tiny town there’s only one mechanic.”

“What
state
are we in, anyway?” she asked. “I don’t even pay attention anymore.”

“I think Nevada, maybe Idaho,” he replied. He turned on the GPS, that little device that had come in so handy, and typed in the address on that scrap of paper. “I’m not paying attention either, but I know we stopped going west and started heading south yesterday.”

“Why did you do that without knowing where we were?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I did see a sign. I just forget what state it said.” He turned on the car again and slowly drove it out of the parking lot.

“Well, at least Nevada means we’re almost there,” she said, raising her voice to be heard over the engine.

He nodded. “That’s if the car makes it. I’m just old enough to rent a car, but I
like
this one.”

“It’ll be fine,” she replied. “The mechanic will take care of it.”

When they finally arrived at the auto shop, twenty minutes and five miles later, and the mechanic had a chance to look at the car, the news wasn’t too good. “Two hundred dollars,” the man told them, wiping the grease from his hands. “And it won’t be done till tomorrow. I gotta get a part for this. Sorry for the inconvenience.” He didn’t actually sound that sorry.

Nicole glanced at Daniel. “I guess we shouldn’t have checked out of the hotel yet.”

“Yeah,” he said. “All right, we’ll be back tomorrow. Thanks.”

The mechanic nodded before turning back to the car.

“Let’s go get breakfast,” Nicole suggested as the two walked out of the store. “We’re apparently in the downtown area, if you can call it that in this town. There can’t be a restaurant too far.”

“Okay,” Daniel agreed. The pair started walking, not really sure of where they were going, just picked a direction and went. They passed a fast food restaurant with a sign in the window advertising new breakfast sandwiches. “How about here?”

“Sure,” she said. “That sandwich with bacon looks good enough.” There were few people in the restaurant, and so Daniel and Nicole were soon at the counter, placing their order.

When Daniel swiped his card through the reader in front of him, a message flashed on the screen: CARD DENIED.

“Do you have another card, sir?” the cashier asked. Daniel shook his head and tried again. CARD DENIED. “Sir, our system is not recognizing your card as valid. We cannot accept it.”

Nicole knelt down beside the suitcase that she still had with her, unzipping one of the pockets. She pulled out a few crumbled bills and handed them to the cashier. “Here, I’ll pay.”

“Thanks,” Daniel replied. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Call your bank,” she suggested as the cashier handed them cups for making their own coffee. “Go find a seat, I’ll wait for the food, and you call and figure out why the card didn’t work.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.” He headed to the nearest empty table and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He couldn’t remember the bank’s number off the top of his head, so he called his parents.

“We heard from your roommate,” his mother said stiffly. Not even a hello or how are you.

“What did you hear?” he asked.

“He hadn’t seen you in a while, and was wondering if you were all right,” she replied. “Have you been ill? Are you in the hospital?”

“No,” he said. He hesitated, but continued, “I’m in Nevada.”

“Why? We went to so much trouble to get you into this school, and you blow it off for
Nevada
?”

“Because I needed a change in my life,” he said. “I know it might set me behind a little, but I’m trying to keep on top of my homework online, and I’ll make up the classes I had to drop. I’m going to graduate.”

“Are you in Vegas?” his mother accused.

“No,” he replied. “I’m north of there. I’m not stupid enough to run off to Vegas and blow through all my savings.”

“You mean
our
savings,” his mother said harshly. “Your father and I put that together for you. We meant for the money to help you in life, not so you could go on a road trip and gamble it away.”

“I’m
not
gambling,” he argued. “You know I’m not that stupid.” It was true he bought scratch cards every so often, but he wouldn’t throw away everything his parents saved just like that.

“Then there’s a girl.” His mother could be very shrewd.

He glanced over to Nicole, tapping her foot as she still waited for the food. She caught his eye and smiled. “Yeah,” he admitted. “There’s a girl.”

He thought that the reception on the phone was lost, but after a minute, his mother spoke again. “I hope that she’s worth giving up your future for.”

“I’m not giving up anything,” he argued. “I’m going back. She just need some help for a while.”

“And
when
you go back, you will have access to that account again,” she said. “Right now, your father and I do not feel that you deserve it.”

“You’re cutting me off?” Daniel asked incredulously. “How do you expect me to
ever
get back, then?”

“When you’re ready to return to your school that we’ve paid a lot of money for, then call us and we’ll open the account to you again,” she said. “I know you have your own savings. Use
those
to get to Vegas.”

He sighed. There was no use fighting her on the Vegas issue, and no use telling her that he didn’t have as much money as they thought he did. “Okay. Fine. I gotta go, we’re eating breakfast. I’ll talk to you some other time.”