Paper Towns (A 5H Fanfic)

F o u r t e e n

Day 1: The Rest Stop

It was around two in the morning and the girls had just passed a sign that said 'welcome to North Carolina'. Lauren was driving now and felt like she could probably fall asleep at the wheel at this point.

The rule in the car was the person in the passenger seat was supposed to stay up if the driver was still up. Ally had fallen asleep though and it was just Lauren awake. She saw a sign for a rest stop and drove until she got to the stop. She pulled the car into a parking spot in front of the bathrooms and the second the car stopped she heard someone stir in the back seat.

"Did we find Camila yet?" Dinah groggily asked as she sat up.

Lauren laughed to herself. "No. But we're in North Carolina now. We have another two hours until we get to Raleigh though. I'm just kind of tired and everyone else is asleep." she whispered, trying not to wake any of the other girls.

"Are you ok?" Dinah asked.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? What about everyone else? Why just me?" Lauren sighed then laid her head against the head rest of the seat.

"It's just.. Mila was getting close to you again. I just thought-"

"Whatever. It doesn't really matter." the older girl cut Dinah off and shook her head, slightly annoyed. Everyone kept asking her if she was ok. No one asked if Dinah was ok and she was probably closer to Camila than Lauren was.

"Someone's cranky." Dinah smiled and reached over the seat to grab Lauren's face. Lauren instinctively bit Dinah's finger and her hand retracted quickly. "Damn, and you're up to fight too." the two girls tried to muffle their laughs for the sake of the others in the car. "Do you think those bathrooms are open?" Dinah laughed.

"Go check yourself. I'm going to sleep." Lauren replied, shifting in her seat and closing her eyes.

A few moments of silence passed then the back door opened and shut. Lauren figured Dinah had decided to go check if the door to the bathroom was unlocked when instead she heard the drivers door being opened and Dinah's hands tugging on Lauren's arm.

"Louser lets go on an adventure." she tugged on Lauren's arm once more and the girl still didn't budge. Lauren groaned and tried to turn away from Dinah again. "Lauren. It's dark over there. I don't want to go by myself." Dinah begged, still tugging at Lauren.

"Take your phone. Open snapchat. Call it good. Goodnight." Lauren groaned.

Dinah let out a long sigh. "I didn't want to do this to you but you're leaving me no choice." the taller girl practically pulled Lauren out of the car and over her shoulder.

"Dinah what the hell?!" Lauren whisper yelled as she was being lifted from the car seat. "What the fuck? Put me down."

"Fine, fine." Dinah laughed and put Lauren down onto her feet. "Now that you're up and out of the car come with me to see if the doors are open."

Lauren rolled her eyes and started walking towards the bathrooms.

"You really are cranky aren't you?" Dinah chuckled as she followed behind Lauren.

Lauren pulled on the woman's bathroom door and found no luck. It was locked. "Well I got up for some bullshit so thank you Dinah. I'm going back to sleep." Lauren shot.

"Hey the men's is open." Dinah said abruptly. "Come in here with me. It's scary."

Lauren stopped in her tracks and turned around to follow Dinah into the bathroom.

"Oh my-" Dinah managed before stopping in the doorway, causing Lauren to ram into her back. Lauren looked up and saw a homeless man sleeping on the floor of the bathroom.