The Road Trip

• Three •

"Do you already have things planned out?" I asked as we pulled out of the gas station.

"Somewhat. I've thought about this for a long time," Luke replied. "I've got our first stop planned already. I called ahead at the diner."

"Surprise me."

I rolled my window down a little at a time with the crank. It was harder than Luke made it look so I had to try to keep up the momentum. I stuck my arm straight out the window and flexed my hand and fingers out. I let the wind push it up and down as I tilted it like a car spoiler.

I smiled at Luke. I couldn't hear the sound of what I thought was a laugh over the rushing wind, but it made me happy for some godforsaken reason. I decided in that moment I was going to try to siphon whatever I could from Luke's untroubled spirit. There was no reason I couldn't.

"Where's your brother going to college?" Luke asked me when I rolled the window back up. "What's his name again?"

"Colin. He's going to Washington State."

"That sucks he'll still be so far away. I assume you two are close?"

"Yeah... we are," I started but paused. "Or we were. I haven't gotten to see him as much as I've wanted the past five years, but we still talk a lot. Sometimes I think I never should have left."

"Really?" Luke furrowed his eyebrows. "I always thought Harvard was your dream."

"My mom went there." It came out of my mouth without me thinking.

"Did it make you feel closer to her?"

Luke had this way to get anyone to speak what they normally wouldn't say. His interest when he asked questions always seemed so genuine and sincere.

I nodded my head slowly. "It did."

"Then you shouldn't feel bad for that. You wouldn't have gotten to experience it otherwise."

"I guess you're right."

"How did she die?"

"A car accident," I responded. "I was in the back seat."

It was a horrible memory of loud crunching noises, a scream that I wasn't sure came from my lungs or my mom's, and a jostling of my body that was so terrifying it still woke me up at night sometimes.

"God, I'm so sorry, Reese," Luke said as he exited the interstate. "I didn't know that."

I studied him. Was he regretting being a closet asshole? Was this what this trip was about—redeeming himself?

It was almost another three minutes before I caught myself admiring his strong profile and buff shoulders.

His voice whipped my head around as he suddenly pulled off on the side of the road and stopped. His tires made a crunching noise on the gravel. "First stop! The World's Tiniest Chapel."

My eyes focused out the window where they landed first on a large white sign looming over a wooden bench that read World's Tiniest Chapel. Out behind the sign, in the middle of an algae-laden pond, sat a tiny white church with a brown roof and white steeple.

"Oh my God," I said under my breath. "How cool!"

I couldn't take my eyes off of it as I exited the car. I wasn't registering what Luke was doing behind me. I walked to the bench and took a seat.

I don't know how long it was before he sat beside me, and we existed in silence for a few minutes before Luke spoke.

"Ready to go inside?"