Page 117 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
Dove held up what looked to be a collapsible kettle. Liv’s nose wrinkled.
Ushering the old memory from my mind, and feeling a smile form on my lips, I walked over just as their conversation met my ears.
“...Why do you think you need it?” Liv asked with a frown. “I have never seen you make tea or coffee in a motel room.”
“Because there’s always a diner nearby!” Dove argued. “I don’t know what this campsite is going to be like. We could be super far away from places. Plus, it’s on sale.”
“We’re camping foronenight,” I chimed in, raising a brow as they both turned to face me. “Do we really need a kettle?”
“What if we want to camp on the way home?” Dove countered, lifting a brow of her own. “We still have the entire drive back, remember?”
She had a point.
Half an hour later, we made our way out of the camping store with one collapsible kettle, two half-decent pillows, a sleeping bag each, a cheap pop-up tent, and some firelighters. Dove was adamant she knew how to build and maintain a fire, so I was leaving that in her domain, along with use of the collapsible kettle.
“We’ll need to stop by a market to get some food—nonperishables,” Dove said as we walked out to the car with our items, Liv dancing ahead of us. “And water. Toilet paper. Maybe wet wipes?”
“This is starting to add up,” I murmured nervously.
“We’ll be fine,” Dove assured me, her voice breezy and confident, immediately lulling me into her sense of certainty.
“Well, you have to make s’mores,” Liv called back to us. “It’s a rite of passage into camping. It’s Ellis’s first time.”
I frowned, my steps almost faltering. “How do you know that?”
Liv shrugged, beating us to the car. “Just do. Load up, lesbians. We need to hit the Cadillac Ranch.”
We somehow managed to make the new additions to our luggage fit, after immense reshuffling. It almost felt like a game of Jenga, with Liv heckling us from the sidelines, providing her usual unhelpful commentary while Dove and I struggled to make everything fit.
“Can I just say,” Liv began as Dove slammed the trunk shut, “you two are totally nailing the whole lesbian road trip aesthetic. Chef’s kiss.”
It wasn’t even that funny, but I snorted a laugh and looked to Dove, who glanced between the two of us in amazement before shaking her head and spinning the keys around her fingers. A weird feeling bubbled in my stomach, fizzing into my chest, and I was surprised.
It wasn’t dread.
It wasn’t fear.
I was… excited.
I was excited to sleep in a cheap tent in a cheap sleeping bag, likely die of insect bites, eat terrible camping food, and try to use Dove’s collapsible kettle.
My eyes stung as I watched Dove head to the driver’s side and Liv throw herself dramatically through the window. I tried to get a hold on my emotions.
But damn… excitement.
That was new.
Dove tossedthe can of spray paint like an expert, catching it with one hand while adjusting her sunglasses on her nose. Our shoes crunched in the gravel as we walked toward the row of upended Cadillacs.
The smell hit me first.
Spray paint and dry, dusty earth filled my nostrils the closer we got. I spotted a few people gathered ahead, tagging the cars, as was the protocol for passing through. I’d seen pictures of the place before, back when I was frantically planning. I knew the cars were buried nose-first in the earth as a public art installation.
It featured ten Cadillacs, all buried bonnet-first into the ground, supposedly representing the evolution of the Cadillactailfin. Over the years, people had added to the art, the cars becoming a canvas, layered with decades of spray-painted graffiti.
Dove had managed to get another tourist to snap our Polaroid in front of the cars, and by the time I tucked the photo into the pocket of my bag—into the growing collection I had yet to review—she was already shaking her can and approaching one of the cars with a determined expression on her face.
Liv, meanwhile, was on top of the tail of the farthest car, hopping from one to the next, arms out as if to keep her balance—even in death—whooping as she ran and jumped across them, pink hair flying behind her and sequins dancing in the sun.
