It was only fifteen minutes later, and her eagerness put a smile on my face. Throwing my bag on my back, I glanced at Roy, who had no clue what he was about to encounter in the morning, and tiptoed my way through the door. I twisted the knob, praying that it would make no cracking sound in the void that accidentally woke Roy up, and my prayers were soon answered as the door opened, and I managed to step out of the room.

Abby was standing by the door then, flashing me a grin as she adjusted her bag and walked closer. "Did you get the car keys?" She asked first, her voice in a whisper. I answered her question with a nod. "Okay," she breathed, beaming at me. "So, we are leaving."

Indeed, were we. After taking the elevator to make our way to the parking lot, she followed me to the car. It was still a bizarre thing: we were ditching them—Roy, actually—and continuing the trip on our own as we were meant to do. I doubted she would second guess our decision at the last moment, but Abby looked content with our departure, claiming the passenger seat as I took the driver's seat.

After taking a deep breath, I started the engine. We were leaving them behind. It was still dark before dawn; since it was also chilly, we rolled up the windows and turned on the heat. Abby turned the stereo on, and after swapping channels, she stopped an instrumental song. The low tune filled the atmosphere in its wake, rendering a soothing effect.

I hadn't known I was holding my breath until I'd released that resigned sigh. My body started to relax, making me realize that my shoulders had been stiffened for a while now. I felt on the edge when they were around, and I could only see it now that they were gone—or we were gone.

I stole a glance from Abby after a while as we were heading toward Vega. She was looking out of the window, the very first sunrays of the day gleaming over her skin and reflecting on her blonde hair like diamonds. She was unaware of my glances, which were innocently fixed in her direction now and then.

I almost believed she had fallen asleep before she suddenly lurched toward me enthusiastically. "George, do you see that?" I slowed down and looked in the direction she pointed out to see an old sign outside Amarillo. Bates Motel: Each room with a shower, knives sharpened, look for sign. Though I hadn't watched Psycho, I knew what Bates Motel was. "Can we take a photo there?"

Pulling over, I obeyed her wish. Though the light wasn't optimal, as Abby stood by the sign, it added a new dimension to the photo, creating a horrifying aura. After a dozen trials, she finally liked one of the pictures and agreed to go back to the car.

Once we were inside, she opened the map and looked over her notes in the post-its. "Vega," she said, pointing at the place with her finger. "The midpoint of Route 66 is considered between Vega and Adrian."

"Wow," I replied smilingly, "we reached the half, huh?"

"I know right," she replied, looking at me. "It's crazy."

When the silence kicked in, I was thinking of how right it was—we started together, and we reached halfway through together. And if everything went in line, we would also end it side by side. I felt a lump in my throat, feeling a lingering regret for not acting faster to complete this road at a very different stage.

If I'd learned something from my earlier experiences, it was that regret didn't do anything other than make you feel down. If I had to bury this love down in the depths of my heart, that would be so. As if my brain plotted conspiracy theories when I looked at Abby, I saw an older version of her. She was married to another guy, and she was holding a baby. She suddenly raised her gaze from her, her eyes meeting mine with a grateful smile.

"George."

"Hmm."

"You're driving. Focus on the road." Her voice brought me back to the present, the woman with a baby in her lap, suddenly transforming back to Abby. I had a nightmare while awake. "Do you want me to take over?"

"No," I said, feeling slightly shaken after the daydream. How would I simulate being okay with her marrying another guy? "I'm fine." I saw her shrug from my peripheral vision as she turned back on her screen.

After Vega, Adrian was our next stop. As she said, it was the middle of the route, for which I had another break to get some great shots with the sign on the ground. The halfway sign simultaneously marked the halfway through our trip. I couldn't believe I had only one week left with her.

We had done everything together until now. We went to the same high school, and we often spent the nights together except for the ones I'd attended the parties. Though our circles differed, I also made time for her and vice versa. This time, she was going for good, on the other side of the country, and it wasn't going to be the same. She was going to meet new people, make new memories without me, and evolve on a different path.

I had applied to New York University. I didn't tell Abby about it not to raise her expectations for my chance to be admitted very low. I hadn't received a rejection from it yet, but it didn't mean I would receive an acceptance letter anytime soon. That would change everything—if only I could study in the same state as hers.

In Glenrio, the last town in Texas, Abby decided to take a walk after hours of driving, and I filled the gas in a station. I looked around the old vibe, breathing the historical era of Route 66, and felt nostalgic. This trip allowed me to see my country differently—and made me wish I could rewind the time to those times. I think I was born in the wrong century.

Abby returned, talking to someone, and she continued her conversation after we settled in the car. I couldn't pick up what they were talking about since I hadn't heard in the beginning, but I assumed that it was a girl. "Yeah, I'll intern for a month before the term. Thank you so much, May. You're a lifesaver."

She hadn't mentioned anything about the internship. Keeping this question to ask later, for the time being, I focused back on the road. En route to San Jon, we had to decide which path to take—the new one or the historical one. I'd take the latter, but I decided that it was the right thing to ask for Abby's opinion. "Abby," I murmured, though she was still on the phone, chatting about Columbia's social life with the girl. "The road diverges soon. Should we take the post-50s one or the historical one?"

After a moment of consideration, she replied, "What do you think?" Then, she quickly added, "George asked a question, May. No, he isn't," she said, her cheeks painting into crimson red. "Yeah."

"Historical," I replied smilingly.

"Okay," she mouthed at me before she added louder, "He's my best friend."

When the thing the girl asked on the phone became crystal clear, a wide grin spread across my lips. She was so cute. How she could still blush was beyond me, but I loved her shyness. After that, she ended the call, putting the phone on her lap as she turned her back toward me, looking out of the window.

"Did she ask about me?"

"Yeah," she murmured. "She's May, from Columbia. I met her online and asked a few questions about the college. She also helped me find a summer internship near Columbia."

"That's cool," I replied. "What kind of internship is that?"

"Her father is a neurosurgeon, and he allowed me to intern at the hospital he's working. I'll do elementary stuff since I haven't even started yet, but I'll spend the last month productively this way and thought it's a cool thing to put in my resume."

"It is," I agreed. "I know you'll ace it."

"Geez, thanks for the confidence vote."

"I'm serious, Abby. You're the most intelligent person I've ever known."

When I threw her a sideways glance, I saw the appreciation in her eyes, and that was everything. Would she look at me the same way if I told her that I was in love with her? Or would dark clouds spread around her blue eyes? It was high risk, and I wasn't willing to danger our friendship for that anymore.

Losing her tasted bitter, and the only sour taste I could tolerate was dark coffee.

The path was full of gravel, causing the car and us to wobble. Abby started laughing out of the blue, and I joined her soon after without an idea of why we started laughing in the first place. The wobble created tickling friction in my stomach that made me uncontrollably laugh, and I reckoned that Abby was dealing with the same.

She tried to talk, but when her words faltered, she just gave up and leaned back. Luckily the road became less rocky after a mile. That was when I finally felt the growl in my stomach. "Can we find a good diner in San Jon?"

As if she hasn't looked up for that, she replied in confusion: "No idea."

Once we crossed another state, New Mexico, Abby announced that the time zone has changed, and we were in the past by one hour. "This is fab," she said laughingly. "We gained an extra hour to chill."

However, when my chilling expectations were to discover a good diner in San Jon and have a long lunch unhurriedly, it didn't take us long to figure out that the towns were mostly ghosted.

"Can we halt somewhere?" Abby asked. "I need a break."

Nodding, I drove into a ghost town and parked in a gas station. Though it was empty, at the small shop nearby, someone told us that we could use the bathroom there. I also asked the woman if there was a place, we could have lunch, but she said it would be wise for me to drive straight to Tucumcari before dusk. Since it was three in the afternoon, I didn't think it was a problem. Tucumcari was only 25 minutes away, but since we skipped breakfast initially, we were both starving.

After I was out of the bathroom, which was clean, I found Abby mingling with the woman. She was giving her beauty tips about hair and face: women and their beauty talks. As if Abby had suddenly forgotten about her hunger, the conversation lingered for fifteen minutes. The woman was originally from Tennessee but moved here after she married her husband. Now, Abby was running this shop with her twenty-one-year-old son. When Abby asked her about her husband, she just gave us a sad smile.

For someone people shy, Abby outdid herself by chatting with this woman. She pressed the right notes and asked the right questions, leaving me in awe, watching her laugh and chatty with this Tennessean woman. Once they were done talking, the woman asked whether we were hungry, which she probably figured out already by my repeated diner question, and offered to prepare us sandwiches. I could have said no, for that sickening pride, but Abby accepted it way faster before I could even form a sentence.

"I'm dying, Georgie," she said, once the woman disappeared somewhere to get us the sandwiches. "I know you don't trust people easily, and you know, neither do I, but this woman is nice, and I could even eat you right now." An awkward silence crept between us after that, and she blushed again once she noticed the innuendo. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure," I replied, unable to contain the smile.

"I'm serious," she demanded. "Get your mind out of the gutter."

"I only said sure," I replied defensively but burst into laughter next. "I know I'm very edible."

"Shut up, Shaw." I was testing if she could get any redder, but she was surpassing my emotions each second. I continued to stare at her until the woman came back with two packages of sandwiches.

"Here, kids," she said, handing us the packages. "Stay safe." "Thank you, ma'am."

By the time we were out of her shop, Abby was still burning red. I slanged an arm around her neck and pulled her under my arm. "Come on, don't be mad," I whispered to her ear, to which she responded with an ungrateful glance, and added, "I just love teasing you." She lingered her gaze on me for a bit until her face finally broke into a wide grin.

Before wending off to Tucumcari, we devoured the sandwiches. They were delicious, or we were too hungry to criticize the taste objectively. If she didn't make such an offer, we might have starved our way to Tucumcari. I regretted not stopping by for breakfast before Vega, but we were so focused on escaping that I missed that tiny detail.

The word escape reminded me of the victims we left behind. I hadn't checked my notifications since the morning and figured out Abby didn't receive any messages since she was always on her phone. Sliding my hand into my pocket, I pulled out my cell and looked at the screen.

There was a message from Roy and none from Rachel. She was already flying today, so she probably didn't give a damn about what we had done. I swiped the message rightward to read it: Fuck you, George Shaw. Get the girl, bro xx

"Who's that?" Abby suddenly asked, moving my hand to stare at the screen. Realizing that she shouldn't read the message, I quickly locked the phone, shoving it back into my pocket.

"Roy. He says, fuck you."

"Ouch." After a pause, she asked, "What about Rachel? Did she text something?"

"Nope."

When she slowly nodded, I tried to read her feelings but couldn't tear my gaze from the road to analyze her well enough. I didn't know why I still dwelled on her reactions. I guess I didn't want to be alone in this—I was still searching for bits from her to prove that our feelings were mutual.

To stop the everlasting thoughts in my mind, I turned the stereo on and let it fill in the gaps as I dropped my hand on my side, accidentally covering hers. The sudden contact got me on the hop, but her hand didn't flinch or even slightly move.

The universe never delayed its message: Leave it or take it. I went for the latter, this time. My hand moved in confidence, nesting on her both delicately but firm enough to show that I was staying. No matter what happened, I would be waiting by her side.

When we arrived at Tucumcari, the first thing we did was book two rooms in a 3-star hotel. Abby was the one who suggested that we should spend the night in separate rooms, and I didn't dare question her offer, for I exactly knew what she was thinking about. Maybe she was right; it was for the best.

Since we didn't sleep all night, she said we could nap and set our alarms to 8:30 PM to go to one of the lounges in the town and enjoy a drink or two for the night. That was indeed an excellent suggestion because when I went to my room, I threw myself on the bed and was asleep within seconds.

I snoozed the alarm twice, so it was around 8:50 when I woke up. By the time I was dressed and out of my room, Abby was outside, leaning against the door with a bored face. "How long have you been waiting?" I asked, surprised that she hadn't messaged me that she was already ready.

"Not too long," she murmured smilingly. "Let's go."

After a short stroll, we found a lounge with a rooftop and immediately climbed upstairs to sit there, taking in the fantastic view of the downtown. The glowing neon signs were lighting up the surroundings, giving the whole town a different kind of beauty that we hadn't encountered ever since we started this trip. Yeah, we crossed big cities and crowded cities, but there was something about this time.

Abby was in a tight black dress, her blonde hair hanging from one side as she sat across from me and gazed at the city with her natural curiosity. I thought, what a lucky beast I was— and how I had taken this luck for granted for so long. She was always here with me, but I only recently figured out what having her around actually meant for me.

"Abby."

She turned at me in awe, taking a sip on her margarita. "Yeah."

"Thank you for staying." She kept her eyes on me as I went on, "Without you, it wouldn't be the same."

Leaning forward, she set her drink on the table and propped herself against it. "It wouldn't be the same without you, either."

The neon lights illuminated the half of her face, creating a rainbow against her skin and rendering a shadow in the other half. She looked breathtaking, integrated with the environment as if she was a part of the town itself.

***

Hello beautiful people!

It's Friyay 💃🏻. I've had a hectic week and it still goes on. I'll have to cram for my midterms at the weekend but nothing can take me down because...I FINISHED NANOWRIMO.

Yes, you heard right, your gal wrote over 50,000 words in a month. I can't believe it either.

Another exciting thing is, that I have only a few chapters left to complete this novel and I'm really so excited to share with y'all: I'm emphasizing I'm almost done with writing, posting. We've still got a long way to go with you. 😉

❤️

Please ⭐️ to support the story and don't hesitate to comment on what's on your mind. I'm really eager to learn what you all think about the story.

See you next Friday,

Sev xx