And that's exactly what this chapter is. A detour, if you will, from the main story. Don't worry, it won't take the focus off our usual characters. It will, however, take the focus off their present. That's right, my friends. We're going back in time.

✩✩✩

The year was 1984. Jump was constantly on the radio. People were flocking to theaters to watch and re-watch Ghostbusters and The Terminator, and everyone who'd liked The Godfather was reading The Sicilian. Big hair and leather jackets were in and Chevy Cavaliers and Sony Walkmans were selling like crazy and The Transformers and G.I. Joe were a real rage. Everything was exciting, and life was good.

But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked--wait. Wrong fanfiction. Well, that's embarrassing...roll back the tape and go again! And three, two, one, action!

"What do you mean, pretty much? 'Are you ready' requires a yes-or-no answer!"

"Okay, then the answer is no."

"Seriously? Come on, Charlie! We're gonna be late!"

"Does it matter? We watched that movie last week!" Charlie was talking, of course, about The Terminator, a movie she liked but wasn't lying about already having seen.

"Does that matter? It's a good movie."

"I know it is, I just mean that we can afford to miss the first few minutes."

"Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up already!"

"I'm trying! Hang up now so I can finish doing my hair."

"Alright. Hurry up."

"You already said that." Charlie hung up and put the phone down before her friend could come back with another quip. She put her hair up and pulled on the Peterbilt jacket Alex had given her even though they both knew Charlie couldn't tell a Pete from a Mack and grabbed her wallet and keys and left her room.

"Fill the tank up, will you?" Ben requested as he handed Charlie the key to his '74 K5. "And don't wreck or I'll push your first car off a cliff."

Charlie laughed. "I'm not gonna wreck. And yeah, I'll fill it up." She gave her brother a suspicious look and added, "I bet you emptied it earlier just so I'd have to do that."

"Yeah, I saw him do it," their mother said as she walked into the room. "Have fun at the movies, Pea. Don't stay out too late."

"I won't." Charlie hugged her mom and smacked her brother on the back before walking over to the door. "In case I get back after he goes to bed, tell Dad I said hi."

"Yeah, sure. Leave now," Ben said, and so Charlie did just that.

She walked over to Alex's house (it was right next to hers) and knocked on the front door. It was answered by Alex herself, who greeted her with a loud finally! and walked out and threw the door closed behind her.

"We're not going to the store first, are we?" Charlie asked as they walked to Ben's Blazer.

"Nah, we'll just buy food at the theater."

"Alright." They got in the truck and slammed its heavy doors shut. Charlie started the engine and started to drive off their block while Alex turned the radio on.

"What do you wanna listen to?" she asked as she turned the dial.

"That," Charlie said when she heard Culture Club's Do You Really Want To Hurt Me come on.

"Seriously?" Alex laughed. "This was on last time we were heading to the theater."

"Well, we're going to see the same movie. It makes sense."

"Yeah, true." Alex turned the volume up and leaned back in her seat. "So, how's the hunt for an apartment going?"

"Ugh, don't remind me. I can't find a thing within my budget. I wanna move out before my parents leave so I don't have to cart my stuff halfway across the country with them just to come back when I finally do find something, but at this rate I might as well just go and stay too."

"Man, you'll find something in time. I can help you look. Pure luxury, right? Ten rooms and five bathrooms and a wrap-around balcony, right?"

"Yeah, exactly. Nothing less than the best."

Alex laughed and nodded. "Don't worry. You'll find a place. You won't have to go to anywhere. Now floor it."

Charlie continued at just under the speed limit the entire way to the theater.

The movie hit just as hard as it did the first time they'd seen it and they talked about it all the way to Donna's. They were still talking about it as they walked up to the counter, and they were still talking about it as they waited for their milkshakes.

"Are you guys talking about the Terminator?" someone asked from behind them. They turned to see it was Dallas, Donna's son, and Charlie immediately scooted over to make room for him in their booth.

"Yeah," Alex said, shuffling her deck of cards and dealing herself, Charlie, and Dallas seven cards each. "Have you seen it, Stickers?"

"Not yet. I want to, though." Dallas peeled the Autobot sticker off the front of his shirt and reached out and put it on Alex's forehead. "What game is this?"

"Crazy Eights, because someone here still hasn't gotten the hang of poker."

"I mostly got it," Charlie tried to argue. "The order is...high card, one pair, two pairs, uh..."

Alex patted her shoulder. "It's okay. You'll get it one day."

"Dallas, are you bothering my favorite customers again?" Donna asked as she walked up with two milkshakes on a tray.

"No, he's not," Charlie said with a smile. "We're talking about the Terminator. How do you feel about the Terminator, Donna?"

"Too violent," she said, ruffling Dallas's hair. "He can watch that when he's old enough to buy himself his own ticket. For now, it's time for him to head on home."

"But mom!" Dallas protested. "We're not done with the game yet!"

"Sweetheart..."

"And...I win," Alex said, placing her final card down. "Sorry, Dallas. Looks like you gotta go home."

Donna grinned at her as Dallas mumbled a quiet "dang it" and stood up. "See you next time, guys," he said to Alex and Charlie.

"Goodnight, Stickers," Alex said.

"See you, Dally," Charlie said.

The boy left the shop and Alex and Charlie started another game. They left the diner when they finished their milkshakes, wishing Donna a good night as they went and taking care to not let the door slam on their way out.

The drive back home seemed to last only five seconds. It couldn't have, because they listened to four entire songs on the way, but it still felt like that. "God, I wish I didn't have to go inside," Alex said once they were outside her house. "If I have to stand there and listen to my mom yell for more than ten minutes, I'm going to lose it."

"Call me if that happens," Charlie said. "I'll bring some comfort chocolate over."

"Alright." At least Alex was smiling now. "If not, I'll see you tomorrow, probably."

"Yeah. See you."

Alex grabbed Charlie's hand, put a half-empty bag of Pop Rocks in it, and got out of the car. Charlie stared down at the candy for a moment before laughing and looking up to wave at her friend. Then she put the truck in reverse and backed into her family's driveway.

She opened her front door and went up the stairs and into her room as quietly as she could, knowing her mother was a light sleeper who would've gone to bed by then. Still being quiet, she changed into her pajamas and got into bed...

...only to be startled out of it only a few seconds later by her ringing telephone. She leapt out of bed and scrambled to grab it and answer. "Hello?"

"Charlie?" It was Alex.

"Yeah? Do I need to bring the chocolate?"

"Uh, I don't know. I think you should, and I wanna tell you why, but I feel like this is something I need to say in person."

"What? Why?"

"Well, it's kind of a big thing."

"Just tell me, so I know whether to bring my sad mixtape or my even sadder mixtape."

"Ha, okay. Um, my mom says we're moving back to Chicago."

"What?"

"Yeah. So which mixtape does this call for?"

✩✩✩

Yes, life was good...unless you were Alex Kinney. She'd said good-bye to her friends hundreds of times before--after school, after hanging out, before trips--but this was different. This was a bit more permanent than that. This felt like the end of the world.

Up until about a month before our new present, her life had been more or less charmed.

Now it sucked.

Her mom had dragged her back to Chicago (something about "yOu'Re nOt EiGhTeEn yEt, yOu hAvE tO dO wHaT i sAy") and she was simply miserable. One of the first things she'd learned upon her arrival was that her old best friend had moved to another continent, which was another serious gut punch on top of a week that had already felt like a match against Muhammad Ali. Her Seattle friends were basically unreachable thanks to the facts that the new house had no landline and all the payphones in town were smashed. She'd written Charlie a letter but had yet to receive a response. With her luck, her letter had gotten lost in the mail.

Beyond bored with the design she'd been working on for far too long now, Alex tossed her notebook onto her pillow, grabbed her portable radio, and left her 'room' (it wasn't a real room--the wall separating the space from the rest of the house was made up of a bunch of unfolded cardboard boxes, an old refrigerator, a small chest of drawers, two mirrors, and a large piece of glass Alex had painted black). Her mother wasn't home, which Alex was glad for, because it meant she didn't have to hear her recite her fake caring mother spiel. "Don't stay out too late," she would say. "It's dangerous to be out when it gets dark." As if there was anyone alive who didn't know that. The only reason she even cared, Alex was willing to wager, was because she would have to go through the trouble of going to the store and buying cigarettes herself if Alex wasn't around.

Alex rolled her eyes at the sight of her mother's empty chair and quickly left the house. It was a hideous old matchbox house the owner was renting out for cheap because it had caught fire a month before and no one wanted to live in it. Alex and her mother weren't exactly the exception; Diane spent most of her free time at bars and Alex went on as many walks as she could just to be anywhere else.

She caught one bus, then another, then walked until she was somewhere around the shores of Lake Michigan. Standing alone by the water she was reminded of Elliott Bay in Seattle and of her friends and of the times she and those friends had sat near that bay and watched the same sun she was staring at now sink down into the horizon. She blinked the memory away and turned her radio's volume up as a song she really liked (These Eyes) began to play and stepped up onto some random beam of wood and began walking along it.

Fog began to creep over the lake and toward her, but she didn't feel ready to go. Who would? Who would want to go back to that house, back to that tiny fake room, just to continue on with that same stupid, sad, pointless existence?

She wanted to go home.

She laughed as that thought occurred to her. It played in her mind again, first in her voice, and then in a thousand others, then appeared in the form of a giant neon sign. I WANT TO GO HOME! That was exactly what she had thought to herself the first night she spent in Seattle. Chicago had felt like home then. She'd been born there, she'd done so much there. It was everything. And now...it wasn't. How she longed to look up and see the Space Needle, how she wanted to go to Barry's or Donna's, how she wished she was at Jack's picking out a new album. How she wished she was with her friends.

Even though she felt depression set in just like the fog she observed at the simple thought of going back to the house, Alex switched her radio off and began to head back home as soon as she realized it was time to. Secretly she hoped that her mother wouldn't be home when she arrived, but there was no such luck in store.

"And may I ask where you have been?" Diane Kinney asked as soon as Alex walked in.

"Out running errands," Alex lied.

"Oh, yeah? What errands?"

Alex stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "I got these for you."

Diane narrowed her eyes but said nothing in favor of holding her hand out. Alex walked over to where she was sitting and deposited the pack in her hand.

"I'm...tired," Alex said. "I'm going to bed."

"Whatever. Happy birthday."

"What? It's not my birthday."

"Yes it is. Haven't you looked at a calendar lately?"

"We don't own one."

"Oh. Right. Well, there's one at work and I saw the date. It's your birthday."

"It is?"

"Yeah. So...happy birthday. Now get lost."

"Okay." And so Alex went to her makeshift room, wondering if this counted as one of her worst birthdays since she hadn't known what day it was.

She hadn't lied to her mother about being tired. As soon as she was ready for bed she settled down on her mattress on the floor and closed her eyes, feeling just a little bit lame for going to sleep at 8 p.m. on her birthday.

She was just drifting off to sleep when an extremely familiar rumble coming from up the street caught her attention. Wait. She knew for a fact that those engines all sounded similar, but there was no way it could be anything but the exact vehicle she was thinking of. No other car sang that tune in that voice...but...no. There was no way. She shook her head and turned over to get back to trying to sleep.

Only now the rumbling was creeping closer. Could it be? No, no. That was ridiculous.

And then it was right outside the house, and whoever was driving shut off the engine and opened and closed the door (the slam of which was also too familiar). Footsteps were now making their way up to the house.

Alex jumped out of bed and waited with a pounding heart as she heard a knock at the front door and her mother get up to open it. "Charlotte? What on Earth are you doing here?"

Alex's heart just about burst then. Suddenly the color was restored to everything around her and she felt like climbing that stupid refrigerator and diving onto her stupid mattress and it wouldn't even matter if she broke all of her stupid bones, because her best friend in the world was there.

"Hi, Ms. Kinney. I'm here 'cause it's Alex's birthday. I just wanted to say hi."

"Oh, okay. Go on, then. She's back there."

An odd wave of anxiety washed over Alex then. She was wearing her faded old Mazinger Z shirt and her even older sweatpants with tears along the seams. Charlie would probably take one look at her and hop back in the Blazer and head right home. She glanced at her pile of clothes and wondered if she was really as fast as she thought she was at changing...

...but it was too late. Charlie knocked twice on the cardboard door leading to that cursed room and Alex said, "come in."

The door was slowly pushed open and in walked Charlie. She stared at Alex for a moment, and Alex stared back, and then she glanced down at Alex's shirt. Much to Alex's dismay, she burst out laughing, but then held out a gift-wrapped box. "Open it, open it!"

Alex, feeling way too self-conscious now, took the box and unwrapped and opened it without a word. And then words failed her for real: sitting on his shiny black rear in the box was a Mazinger Z action figure. Alex laughed out loud and carefully lifted him out of the box before looking back at Charlie. "What--"

Charlie didn't let her say anything. She stepped forward and wrapped her friend in the biggest and tightest hug in the history of hugs and said, "happy birthday. You didn't think I was going to miss it, did you?"

"I...well, I mean...just...HOW?"

"I'm going to be indebted to Ben for the rest of my life," Charlie said with a smile, "but it's worth it. I would've brought Andy and Stone, but their moms said no."

"You mean your mom agreed to this?"

"Nope. She just doesn't know yet. That's part of what I owe Ben for."

"Won't you be in trouble when you get back?"

"Aren't you the one that always says it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?"

"And aren't you the one that always says that's stupid?"

"Do you want me to go back? 'Cause I'll go, I swear I will."

"No, no," Alex said with a laugh. "Are you kidding me? This is the first time I've felt happiness since I got here. I can't believe you really came."

"Of course I did. I might not have my license, and I might have been paranoid the whole way, and I might have run someone over, and I might have gotten lost a few times, but there was no way I was going to miss--"

"Wait, what?"

"What? That I got lost? It's a long trip and I took directions from some old map. Of course I was bound to get a little turned around."

"No, not that."

"That I don't have a license? I swear I'm going to get it soon, I just need someone to come with me to the DMV."

"No, not--never mind. Come on, let's go to the store. We can get snacks and stuff."

"Alright. Should we walk or drive?"

"Drive, so we can go to the better one in town. Go start the truck and I'll change and tell my mom where we're going."

"Okay, sweet."

Charlie left and Alex changed into newer pants and put a sweater on, then grabbed the Mazinger Z figure and went to find her mom. "Hey, Mom, me and Charlie are gonna go to the store in town. We'll be right back."

"Okay." Diane looked up. "Are you going to go back to Seattle with her?"

"What? I thought you said I had to stay here."

"I said you had to come back with me because you were seventeen. And you're not anymore, are you?"

Alex didn't--couldn't--say anything.

"It's up to you." Her mother shrugged and went back to watching TV.

Still without saying anything Alex left the house and went to the truck. Charlie reached out and opened the door for her. "What happened? You look like you've either just gotten some really good or really bad news."

"Uh, no, nothing happened. Let's go."

Charlie didn't believe that, of course, but she didn't push it. They went to the store in town and loaded up on all kinds of snacks, then headed back to Alex's and spread them all out to create some sort of buffet to talk around. And talk they did; there was a lot each wanted to catch the other up on, and between Alex's inability to tell just one story at a time and Charlie inserting jokes in between every other sentence, it took a while. They finally settled down to sleep at some early hour of the morning, neither even really wanting to but knowing they had to.

The next day, Alex took Charlie on a tour of the city. She showed her the best restaurants and record and gear shops and where to go for isolation and where to go to be surrounded by people. There was more she wanted to show, but time didn't permit and they had to head back to the house much too soon.

"I guess I'm gonna have to go back home tomorrow," Charlie said as they once again settled in for the night.

"I assumed as much," Alex replied. She sighed and crushed her can of Coke and tossed it into the bin in the corner of the room. "I wish I could go back with you."

"Me too. When is your mom going to let you move out?"

"Well, she already said I could leave. It's just that I'd have no place to live; I hate it here, but I wouldn't rather be homeless."

"Wait. Your mom said you could leave?"

"Yeah. She said I could now that I'm eighteen."

"Then that's all you need! You won't be homeless, you can live with me. Or take the guest room."

"No way. I mean, I'd love to go back and all, but I can't do that. Your parents, Ben...I can't just move on in."

"Then why don't we move in somewhere? As in just the two of us?"

"What?"

"Remember how we used to say we would make good roommates? Let's go for it! We'd be doing each other favors: I get to move out, and you get to come back without being homeless or feeling uncomfortable about it. You'll have to stay with me while we find a place, but I doubt it'll take long. Think of it as a sleepover."

"What about the cost? I think I could make half the rent on a one-bedroom once I get a job, but right now I can't afford to keep a cactus alive, much less to pay the first and last months or whatever the hell it is that they ask for."

"I can ask my parents for help with that before they leave; we'll pay them back, don't give me that look. Come on. We can do this."

Alex found herself pondering too much at that moment. Could they, in fact, do this? Could she really leave? Did it truly make no difference to her mother whether she went or stayed? Should she stay or should she go? And why was Charlie taking on her role and encouraging her to do something actually quite reckless? There was lots to ponder indeed. Could they really--

"Yeah, fuck it. Let's do it."

Charlie pumped her fists and hugged Alex so tightly the younger friend thought her eyes might pop out. "Alright. We have to make a plan."

"A plan? For what?"

"Well, for what time we're going to leave, for which route to take, for the whole driving thing--would you prefer short or long turns?"

"Uh, long turns. Let's--"

"ALEX! Come here!"

Alex shot up at the sound of her mother's voice and hurried to answer her call. "Yes?"

"I'm going to spend the night at a friend's house. I'll be going straight to work from there." Diane looked in the direction of Alex's room, then at Alex. "I'll be seeing you."

Alex looked her mother in the eyes and nodded. "Okay. See you."

"Yeah."

And that was it. She left the house and Alex went back to her room. "It's a good thing I don't own a lot. It makes packing super simple."

Charlie watched her cross the room and start to load things into a box. "Does your mom know you're leaving?"

Alex shrugged. "I'm pretty sure." She picked up Mazinger Z and moved to put him on the bed. "He's riding up front with us."

With a laugh Charlie nodded and sat him up. "For sure. He's an important part of this journey." She stood and grabbed a box and began to fill it up with random things from around the room. "Is the stuff in those drawers yours?"

"Nope. None of the stuff on that wall is mine. Just everything in the room."

"Alright. Let's hurry so we can rest up before we hit the road. What time do you wanna leave?"

"Six."

"Done deal." They worked quickly and went to bed as soon as they were done. Somehow, even though Charlie was nervous about the trip ahead and Alex was a little anxious about leaving, they both managed to fall asleep.

The first of the two to wake back up was Alex. It was still pretty dark out but there was no way she'd be going back to sleep, so she got up and started to take the boxes to the truck. As there weren't many, it only took three trips, and when she was done she knelt by the mattress and gently shook Charlie's shoulder.

"Hm?" Charlie opened her eyes and sat up. "What?"

"It's time to go." Alex's eyes gleamed in the dim light and she said, "let's go home."

✩✩✩

Here we come, Seattle! We return from Chicago victorious and happy! was the general tone when they drove out of Chicago and Illinois and into Wisconsin. Some Bee Gees song played on the radio while Alex and Charlie discussed He-Man's hair. It was in the middle of that riveting conversation that Charlie realized they were low on fuel, so they turned off the freeway and pulled into a gas station.

"I'm gonna get some coffee. Do you need anything?" Alex asked as Charlie tried to decide between filling the tank completely or rolling the dice and going with just enough to last them until the next (hopefully cheaper) station.

"Tea, if they have any. If not I'll take a coffee too."

"Alright."

Charlie finally made up her mind and went up to the cashier to pay for the gas. She was handing over the money for it when Alex walked up holding two cups. "Here," she said, placing them both on the counter, "add these to the purchase. Here's the money for 'em." She handed Charlie a fiver and turned to look at the sunglasses. "Hey, Charlie, look." She put some on and faced Charlie again. "Dirty Harry."

Charlie laughed. "Put those back before you break them."

Alex took the glasses off and began to say, "how on Earth would I—" before immediately dropping them. "Shit." She knelt and picked them up. "They didn't break," she sheepishly said to the unamused cashier before putting them back. But she seemed to forget what had just happened when she spotted another pair of familiar glasses and felt the need to try those on as well. "Hey, Charlie. Look. Terminator."

Charlie sighed as the cashier gave her the change. "Lord, give me the strength...are you going to buy any of those?"

Alex took the Terminator glasses off and put them on the counter. "How much for these?"

"Five bucks," the cashier said. "And they're buy-one-get-one-free."

Alex gasped and snatched the Dirty Harry glasses back down so fast they almost flew across the store that time. "I'll take both."

They walked out of the gas station with Charlie wearing the Terminator glasses and Alex the Dirty Harry ones. Charlie threatened to terminate Alex after a comment along the lines of "wow, I didn't know the Terminator liked tea" and Alex replied by telling her she had to ask herself if she felt lucky.

Charlie insisted on continuing to drive, so Alex dug through her box of tapes looking for something good to put on. She tried asking Charlie what she wanted to listen to, but all she got was 'whatever you wanna listen to' in response. So she pulled out their ol' reliable: a Beatles mixtape they'd made together.

An hour out of Minnesota they switched places. The vibe then was a little less energized, but it was early yet and the two were excelling at maintaining a good air overall. They just needed more...coffee. Yes, more coffee. They stopped near St. Paul to refuel and get more coffee. Too much coffee.

"Hey, how fast do you think this baby can go? Does even Ben know its full speed? I bet it makes at least a hundred. Hey, I'm just asking, I'm not actually gonna take it over the limit, don't get all scared--"

"I'm not scared! I think you should try it! Just not here. There's too many people around. Let's wait until we get to flatter and less populated land. Then we can see if it does make a hundred after all."

"Alright, yeah, that makes sense. Also, can you open a can of soda for me?"

"Yeah. Hang on. Where are they?"

"The...back? Check now, while there aren't any cops around."

"Found 'em. Wait, I'm gonna grab two. Hey, we still have chocolate."

"Cool, give me some of that too."

"Okay. Lemme open your soda first. Here. Drive faster."

"I'm going the speed limit."

"To directly quote you, the limit is just a suggestion."

"I think you'd feel differently were you not running on about a gallon of caffeine and sugar alone."

"Talk to me about that when the effect wears off. For now, drive faster, dammit."

"I am, I am. Give me the chocolate already."

"Wait, I'm getting out some other stuff."

"Okay. Find me the chips while you're at it."

"Got it."

Too much coffee.

"Hey, turn it up! This is my song!"

"Really? Mine too!"

It was a miracle that on a sunny Friday at noon in August in 1984 they did not get pulled over for going what had to be eighty-five on the freeway while blasting Should I Stay Or Should I Go at near full-volume and rocking out just a little too much. It was a miracle, but they made it--past the song, out of Minnesota, and through the hyperactivity...

"I'm not mad, I'm just saying that I told you not to merge there and now you're acting like it's my fault."

"It kind of is. You waited until the absolute last second to say anything."

"Because I thought you knew what you were doing."

"That's not on me--shit. We're running low on gas."

"And I'm running low on patience. We're nowhere near anywhere thanks to you."

"Hm. I volunteer to stay with the truck while you find someplace to bring gas back from."

"Yeah, sure. Don't get too mad if I veer a few hundred miles off course back to Chicago and stay there."

"I'll go back and get you, I don't give a shit."

Alex was about to say something else when the truck coughed and began to slow. Charlie pulled it off the road, mumbling curses as she did. "Ben told me it might do this."

"Do what?"

"It's out of gas. It just took a moment for the gauge to catch up with that fact."

"Great." Alex undid her seatbelt and leaned back before taking a deep breath and opening her door. "Do you have a can?"

Charlie blinked and held out an empty Coke can.

Alex facepalmed so hard the impact was audible. "A gas can."

"Oh. No."

"Alright. I guess I'll be back soon."

"What? Where are you going?"

"To Seattle on foot. Expect a tow truck within...a while. To the nearest gas station, Charlie, where do you think?"

Charlie made a face. "If I didn't know it was half your life force I'd ask you to drop the sarcasm." She took the key out of the ignition and got out. "Let's go, then."

"Don't you wanna stay and guard the truck?"

"What? No. There's a steering wheel lock in the back and there's a trick to starting it anyway. And no one's gonna want any of these old-ass parts. Let's just go."

Alex wasn't as sure, but she shrugged and started off at a quick pace. Charlie hurried to get the locks engaged and catch up.

Luck happened to shine on them that night, because they had only walked for twenty or so minutes when Charlie spotted a bright gas station sign not far off. The sight of it and the knowledge that they would not have to travel far drastically improved their moods, and the ugly vibe that had been hanging around them was instantly blasted to hell by synchronous sighs of relief and subsequent laughter. They filled their new can with gas and returned to find the truck still there and in one piece--or approximately 30,000 pieces if technicalities mean anything to anyone.

"Okay, I'm gonna start falling asleep soon," Alex said a couple of hours after they'd started traveling again. "Do you wanna take over or should we find some place to sleep?"

"Hm. Sleep. But we're in the middle of nowhere! I mean, I lost track of what state we're in. How are we gonna find a place to sleep?"

"Easy." Alex took the next exit and drove down the ramp and up to the stoplight at the T-intersection there.

"Turn signal," Charlie said.

"Who says we're turning?"

"What? You have to."

"No, I don't."

"Please don't tell me you're serious."

"Why? Relax, this is an off-roader. And there's no one around. Who's gonna say anything?"

"Uh--" The light changed and Charlie hid her face in her hands as they drove straight onto the grassy little hill in front of the intersection. "I hate you."

"Hey, I'm signing us up for stargazing and guaranteed peace and quiet. What are you hating for?"

"I'm--fine. Hurry up and get us to where we're going already."

They went over another hill and parked behind a few trees. Charlie kept insisting a cop was going to come over the hill to take them to prison at any moment, but she had to admit that the spot was perfect.

"I can sleep on the seat if you want. I know all these boxes are taking up space, sorry," Alex said as she rummaged through said boxes.

"Or we could just move one or two onto the seat. Put that single brain cell of yours to use for once."

"Says the one who seriously thinks the cops are going to come for us for parking on public property." Alex found what she was looking for and opened the tailgate and jumped out onto the ground behind the truck.

"How do you know it's not private?" Charlie asked, climbing out of the truck to join her.

"The lack of signs and fences and other people and any buildings in general kinda make me think it probably isn't. Hand me a water bottle, will you?"

"Maybe they just bought it and haven't had the time to put all that stuff up yet." Charlie got up to grab and deliver the requested water. "What are you gonna do, anyway?"

"That's reaching," Alex remarked as she poured the water into the one pot she'd brought along. "And I'm gonna make hot chocolate."

"Oh, cool. Do you want help?"

"With boiling water and pouring powder into it?" Alex asked with a lopsided smile.

"Yeah...?"

"No, I'll manage somehow."

"Alright. Soldier on, then. I'll get some blankets."

Soon they were sitting on the hood of the truck, wrapped in blankets and holding that morning's coffee cups now filled with hot chocolate as they listened to the radio and looked at the stars. And it was at some point during that moment that Alex realized something rather important: despite being neither in Chicago nor Seattle, she'd never felt more at home.

✩✩✩

the song i imagine them listening to through that last part is Long As I Can See The Light bc vibesss

shoutout to @DaveGrohlWithACat because i saw their comment about waiting for an update and it made me laugh so much and feel so called out that i instantly started writing. this was supposed to be the last chapter, but i hated everything i tried until i started it from scratch (after seeing that comment, lmao) and now here it is at ~6,000 words and maybe third-to-last.

contrary to what it probably reads like, this isn't just a bonus chapter. i wanted to add a mini-prequel type thing at the end of this book but instead i've taken most of the main stuff and put it in here as a kind of flashback. it'll continue into the next chapter and then segue into the end. i'll try not to wait another six months to update again ;)

alrighty then, remember to have fun but be safe, drink enough water, play your jams, be what you wanna be, and stay sober for Layne! keep on truckin' until next time!