Page 4 of Road Trip

I shrugged. “I just wanna spend some time with him, you know, before it’s all different.”

She sighed, but there wasn’t as much disapproval in it as I’d been expecting, and she looked almost sympathetic. “You’re going to Norfolk, Jacob, not Mars.”

“Yeah, but Matt’s not,” I said. “C’mon, Mom, please.”

I was eighteen already, but if I was going to do this, I actually wanted my parents’ permission. It was another new and awkward thing, asking permission for stuff even though I was technically an adult now, when both me and my parents knew they couldn’t really say no. Like, they didn’t have the leverage anymore or something. Not that my parents had ever been hard-asses or anything. Just, it was weird, was all. Just another thing that was changing and I hadn’t figured out how to feel about it yet.

Mom tossed a bag of dry pasta at me, and I caught it against my chest and then put it in the pantry.

“Talk to your father when he gets home,” she said, and she shook her head before smiling. “Because there is no way in hell your shitty car will make it all the way to California and back.”

“Seriously? Thanks, Mom! You’re the best!”

“I know,” she said. “I know. Now unpack the rest of these groceries before I change my mind.”

It took the weekend to negotiate with my parents, but on Sunday night I called Matt.

“Okay, the road trip is on,” I said, “and we can take my dad’s RAV4, but there are rules.”

“Rules?” he asked, his voice wary with suspicion.

“Yeah,” I said. “I have to keep my location tracking on.” I waited for him to snort at that, but he didn’t. “And I have to check the tire pressure before we leave here and before we head back.”

“How do you check the tire pressure?” His voice was suddenly echoey, as though he’d put me on speaker.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll fucking look it up on YouTube or something.” I stepped outside onto the back porch, pulling the door shut behind me and dimming the sound of Luke and Charlie talking shit as they loaded the dishwasher. “I have to be back a full week before I’m due at college.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m not allowed to spend any of the money I saved for when I’m at college unless it’s an emergency,” I said.

“Okay.”

“And I have to check in at least once every twenty-four hours,” I said, saying the last of it in a rush because I figured Matt would make a big deal out of it. When he didn’t say anything, I said, “What?”

“What?” he asked right back.

“You’re just holding back some smart-ass comment, I can tell.”

“I am not!” he protested.

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Fuck off. I was writing it all down!”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. On the lame birthday card you got me.”

I would have protested, but yeah, it was pretty lame. I’d just gotten it at the grocery store. In my defense, his actual present—some Japanese pencils he wanted—more than made up for the shitty card.

“Well, okay then,” I said, finding myself off-balance because Matt wasn’t being a dick about my parents’ rules. He was probably just as happy as I was that we’d be taking the RAV4 and not my piece-of-crap car.

“This is gonna be so great,” he said. “When are we leaving? Are you picking me up, or will I meet you at your place? Are you packed yet? What are you taking?”

“Dude, I haven’t even started to think about packing.”

“We definitely need snacks,” he said, and I grinned to hear the excitement in his voice. “And drinks. And a good fucking playlist. It’s gonna be awesome!”

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