It takes about ten minutes to convince Hannah's older half-sister Kimmy that I'm not a crazy psychopath ready to harm her sister in anyway. In that time, Hannah manages to get a huge bag and backpack packed and into my car, along with a red ukulele, two sleeping bags and some blankets. I raise my eyebrows as she comes out again, holding a bunch of medical supplies.

"That's an insurmountable amount of stuff you're bringing." I say as she puts it in the boot. I've never seen the back of my car look so full before.

"That's a big word." She says, putting her hands on her hips.

"Thanks." I grin. "My mom taught it to me."

"Ah, of course she did." Hannah smirks. "Hyeon thinks you're super cool by the way."

I grin and look at Kimmy, who is standing by the front door with Hannah's niece beside her. She waves when she sees me. "Bye Kimmy! Bye Hyeon!"

She blows me a kiss. Kimmy waves. "Y'all be safe out there!"

Hannah makes a big show of rolling her eyes and rushes round to the other door to get in. I wave back at Mrs. Lee and then get in, tapping New York into my google maps. Like Chloe said, it's about a twenty hour drive. Not bad.

"I didn't know you were serious about this." Hannah admits. "Can I plug in my iPod?"

"You didn't know I was serious about this, yet you had all this stuff in my boot lying around just in case I was?" I ask.

"Oh yeah, all that." She plugs her iPod into my aux cord anyway and starts bobbing her head to the beat of the familiar pop song playing. "I had a hunch."

"A hunch?"

"You love repeating the things I say, don't you? Yes, Nate, I had a hunch that you were impulsive enough to randomly leave the city in the middle of the afternoon, and it proved to be true. Now, are we gonna go or not? Because I think Kimmy's tired of waiting for us to get outta here."

I stare at her. She raises her eyebrows pointedly, but the corners of her lips are turned upwards. I face the front of the car and shrug, feeling the excitement return and settle in my chest.

"Let's go!"

Hannah lets out a cheer as I start my car. With one last wave at Kimmy and Hyeon, we pull out of our parking spot. I avoid looking at Reese's house as we drive off, first through the suburbs, then through the familiar streets and suddenly we're on the highway.

"Wow, this is gonna be so cool." Hannah says. She's practically hopping out of her seat. If she wasn't wearing a seatbelt, I'm pretty sure her head would be hitting the roof of my car right now. "Hey, I have an idea!"

"Would you like to share your idea?"

"Well... it's kinda ballsy of me to ask." She drags it out, no longer hopping. When she sees that I'm not going to say anything, she continues speaking. "Are you set on driving straight to New York? Or do you wanna make some stops on the way?"

"I'm down for whatever." I say, shrugging. Chloe doesn't even know I'm coming yet, so nothing's set in stone. Plus, the longer I'm away from my mom, the better. "What place did you have in mind?"

"Washington D.C." She says instantly. "I've always wanted to go to Washinton D.C, see all the sights, get all the touristy pictures in, you know? Plus... Nevermind. I just wanna be a tourist."

"Sounds good." I grin, trying to match her energy. "We can go to the Space Needle!"

There is a sudden silence. When I look over, Hannah's staring at me with a crease in her brow and her mouth open slightly. It makes me nervous.

"What?" I ask.

"Was that a joke?" She asks.

"No..? You don't wanna see the Space Needle?"

"The Space Needle is in Washington." She says slowly. I frown, not understanding what she's trying to say. "As in, the Washington on the Olympic Peninsula, in the Northwest."

"Oh." I scrunch up my nose as she stares at the side of my face, eventually giggling once she's sure I'm not offended. I smile and shake my head. "Look, I was never good at geography."

"I'll start calling it D.C so as not to confuse you, 'kay?" She says, grinning.

"Oh, I know that one." I play along. "The one with Obama and the White House and Abe Lincoln and the big long white rock with all the water, like in Forrest Gump."

"That's the one, Nate." Her grin doesn't falter as we speed along. "Hey, did you bring my book with you?"

"Actually, I did." I grin along with her.

"That's great!" She sits up, excited again. "When I'm driving you can read it out loud and we can talk about it!"

I don't reply first, too focused on following the directions to think up something to say. Hannah relaxes in her seat, and when I look at her, she's got her hand to her face and is biting her bottom lip. Her expression makes me laugh out loud, and her head turns to me, trying to gauge my reaction.

"Was that too geeky?" She asks shyly.

"Yup." I smile. "But let's do it, you can help me figure out what the heck the mariner guy is saying while I read."

Hannah beams.

☼ ☼ ☼

The phone calls start coming in three and a half hours later.

I've never driven for this long before, not all at once. I didn't anticipate the stiffness in my legs from having them in one place for so long, or the way my fingers ache from holding the steering wheel too tightly. Plus, I'm really hungry.

Lucky for me though, Hannah's into car games. So between playing I-spy and hearing her sing along to her playlist, I've been pretty distracted from all my aches and pains.

Well, that is until my mom calls three times. And then there's a call from an unknown number. And another one from my mom.

"I think someone's trying to reach you." Hannah says when the ringing gets awkward.

"Yeah." I agree.

I'm surprised it took my mom this long to call me, but then I remember the look on her face when I told her I wasn't staying at home. She was the most furious I've ever seen her, but she was also speechless, and it was oddly satisfying leaving her like that. So maybe she's finally figured out what to say to me, and I know it can't be anything positive.

"You don't wanna talk to them?" Hannah asks slowly.

"Not at all." I say. It comes out sharper than I mean it to. "It was your turn at i-Spy, by the way."

"Alright." She hums in time to the music. "I spy with my little eye something that begins with the letter... R."

I frown. "R? What?"

"Don't pull that face, it's easy." She says.

With the frown still on my face, I glance around at the road ahead, wondering what she's seeing. "Rest stop?"

"Ding! You got it!" She hollers and I smile, relaxing into the sound. "Can we stop over there? My legs feel like jelly and I haven't eaten since breakfast time."

"Oh. Okay, sure."

My phone begins to ring again, another unknown number. Hannah and I share a brief look, but we ignore it, letting the sound fill the space between us until it's over. And then she's talking to me again like normal.

I pull up into the rest stop and park my car, grateful for the opportunity to find some food and stretch my legs. As we get out, Hannah gasps.

"Oh they have a mini Barnes and Noble her! With a Starbucks inside!" Hannah says, stretching. She turns around and looks at me with an excited smile on her face. "Tell me you love coffee, Nate."

"I don't drink it." I admit. "But I like iced tea?"

Her smile doesn't falter. "Good enough for me! Come on, let's go!"

I let her drag me into the book store, ignoring the sudden rumbling coming from my stomach now that we're in the vicinity of food. She goes into hyperactive mode as we look through their shelves, talking to me about her favourite books, like yesterday in the library.

"You really like books." I comment when we're in line for some overpriced coffee and sandwiches. It's barely even five in the afternoon, but I'm so sure my stomach is about to concave on itself that I don't even care about the price tag.

"You don't?" She raises her eyebrows at me, totally unashamed.

"Not as much as you do." I admit. "Reading's cool, I guess. Not really my thing though."

"What's your thing then?" I open my mouth with the only answer I know but then she puts her finger up. "Don't say swimming, that's such a cop-out."

"That's not fair." I protest. "Swimming's my thing."

She rolls her eyes. "Whatever Ariel. You've got to have other interests other than just swimming all day."

We step forward in line. There's only one person in front of us now, which pressures me to think up something to say. So, I open my mouth and the first thing that comes out is:

"I like fish."

I think there's something wrong with me.

"You like fish?" Hannah says. The sides of her mouth start quirking upwards despite her best efforts to keep them down. "Like, eating them?"

"No... like... I like looking at them."

There is definitely something wrong with me.

"You like looking at fish." She repeats, grinning now.

I sigh heavily, annoyed by the fact I can't get my words out properly. "Not like that. I mean fish are pretty. And they're nice and - stop laughing at me."

Hannah dissolves into giggles as the last person in front of us finishes their order. I leave her standing there and step up to the counter, ordering an ice tea lemonade and a bunch of food. She isn't far behind me, and it leaves me enough time to figure out what I actually want to say to her without sounding like an idiot.

"Look, I don't mean to laugh." Hannah says as we wait for our drinks, giggling some more. "But you gotta admit, that was funny."

"Whatever." I wrinkle my nose and sigh. "Anyway, I meant that I think marine life is cool and I like learning facts about fish and stuff."

"I get you." She says, still smiling. "You with fish is like me with books, yeah?"

"Right. They're cool."

"You said that already, Fish boy."

My drink comes first and I decide to wait for Hannah before we sit at a table to eat together. That is, until my phone rings again, the first time in however long. I stare at the caller ID, scrunching my face up until I can barely see. It's not my mom, or an unknown number. It's Reese.

"Reese? Why's he calling me?" I wonder out loud.

"Who's Reese?" Hannah says. She's holding her coffee now, glancing at me with a slight indent in her brow.

"My brother." It slips out before I want it to, and when it's in the air, I can't take it back. She raises her eyebrows and I sigh. "I mean, a friend. Kind of. I guess."

"Oh. You should probably take that then." Hannah sips on her big cup of coffee, looking up at me through her lashes. I know she's right, but I don't want to.

"Yeah." I sigh. If he's calling me... "Mind if I disappear for a while?"

"Nah, I don't. I'll go look for another book to buy before we eat?"

"Cool." I raise my fist and bump hers softly, then head outside.

After all this time, the phone is still ringing. I swallow the lump in my throat and pick up, ignoring the fact that my fingers are shaking.

"Nathaniel." It's my mom instead of Reese. She sounds calm, eerily clear in her pronunciation of my name. Maybe this is a good sign.

"Hey." I say simply.

"Hey. Hey? I have called you several times in the past hour and all you can say is hey?!" She says, her voice getting louder with each word. "Where are you?"

"Uh, somewhere outside Jacksonville I think."

There is a silence. I sip my drink, trying to pretend like the growing feeling in my stomach is pride and not guilt.

"Jacksonville. He says he's in Jacksonville, Adrian! What's he doing in Jacksonville?"

I cock my head. "Who are you talking to? Who's Adrian?"

"What the hell do you mean you're in Jacksonville? That's four damn hours away!"

"Is Adrian Mr. Saluzzo's first name?" I cross my arm over my chest, feeling my earlier irritation come back. "Why's he in our house?"

"Because you're missing and he is your father!" She yells. "What do you mean you're in Jacksonville?! What are you doing in Jacksonville? What the heck is wrong with you?!"

"You can't just say he's my father when he didn't raise me. That's not a father. That's a sperm donor."

"Why are you behaving like this?" She asks, exasperated. "How did you even get there?!"

"I drove here." I say.

"Well drive back!"

"I don't want to."

"You need to come home! We need to -

"No. I know what I need and what I need right now is space from you and Adrian and his weird psychology words and his insistence to suddenly be my dad when he's known me my whole life without putting in the much needed effort!"

A woman makes a disapproving sound as she walks past me, and I realise that my voice has gotten louder, to the point I'm almost shouting. Even so, I can't bring myself to be embarrassed. There are some things you just gotta shout about, and it's not like I'm ever gonna see any of these people again anyway.

"I'll come home when I'm ready." I say into the phone.

"When is that gonna be?"

I shrug. "I don't know."

Before she can say anything, I hang up and look down. All of a sudden, my shoulders sag and I start feeling weak, like I've just lost a swim meet or something. My eyes begin to sting, and I blink back the sensation, wondering what's up with me.

Then I take a deep breath and head inside.

Hannah's sitting at a table, reading a book that I'm assuming she just bought. She smiles when she sees me heading over to her. I don't know what my face does in response but she doesn't seem too alarmed by it, so I guess I look okay.

"What'd your brother-friend want?" She says, putting her book down. I sit across from her and shrug.

"It wasn't him. It was my mom."

"Oh, wow." She raises her eyebrows as I sip my tea. "She's really tryna reach you, huh?"

"I guess. But it's whatever. Is your book good?" I ask, unwrapping my sandwich.

Her face lights up. "Oh my God, yes? It's about this girl, and she's writing these letters..."

I feel myself relax as I eat and listen to Hannah's description of her book. After a while, my laughter feels natural and my shoulders stop feeling so heavy, despite the empty feeling emanating from my chest.

a/n:

Hello I have nothing to say so here is my reaction photo of the week

I guess we can say that's Nate's himbo ass at this point in the story