Many Chance Summer

You-Know-Who

     I miss the exit entering Harvey and everybody groans and scolds me for it. I keep going, left with no other choice. The GPS on Caressa's phone recalculates.

     15 extra minutes. We would've been there by now.

     "Oh, great!" Kendra exclaims from the back seat.

     I shoot her a glare through the rear view mirror but she doesn't see it because she's too busy complaining to herself.

     "I honestly don't know why you guys are complaining," I say.

     "My legs are numb!" Kendra sighs.

     "We've stopped, like 3 times in the last hour!"

     "Bruh, I just gonna find me a bed and crash," Six mumbles. He's always mumbling. He yawns and stretches his arms to his sides, smacking Kendra and a sleeping Erick in the face.

     Erick jumps out of sleep and Kendra smacks Six back. They continue quarreling and I watch while driving.

     "Hey, hey." Caressa touches my arm. "You'll miss the exit again."

She points ahead at the exit that I already knew was coming up.

I keep far right and slow down a bit.

After a few minutes, I can practically smell the salt water. I hear laughter and the atmosphere is just less fast-pace than it was on the interstate. The roads become smaller and more scarce as we're nearing the beach. People are walking left and right, carrying beach chairs and wearing sun hats. This is suddenly becoming so real to me. We're here, without my parents.

The motel is a small place but it's just a place to sleep and keep our things. Plus, it fits our budget. It's honestly really old and rugged-Y, but our parents only minimally helped us pay for our trip. Erick and I saved up money from our part-time jobs,  and Kendra babysat when she could since she's so busy with sports. Six does football but worked in weekends in his parent's landscaping business.

     So we all hustled and made this fantasy of mine come true.

The receptionist at the motel, Susanne, compliments me on my unruly curly hair. She asks if she can touch it which is kind of annoying, but I let her. I tell her I'm mixed and she laughs, telling me that I'm really beautiful.

"Um, thankssss."

"You remind me of my daughter, is all." She types away at her computer. "Well, how I imagine she'd look, at least."

I eye Kendra. She sends me a look that says, oookkkkkaaaayyyyyy?????

I glare at her, telling her in response to be nice.

Susanne gives us the keys to our two separate rooms. We all walk up the narrow stair case. At the top the boys turn right and us girls go left. We pass an overweight man trudging behind a cute little girl in a yellow polka dot bikini who I assume to be his daughter. He barely acknowledges us.

"I've never been in a motel before," I say as I fidget with the key. I slide it in the narrow slit but red lights pop up. Even without trying the handle I know that's not supposed to happen if you want to get in.

"Will you hurry up?" Kendra says impatiently. I glare at her as I turn the key the other way in my hands.

"Sorry." She shrugs. "This time I'm usually in bed so I'm experiencing a bit of a withdrawal."

She huffs like a baby, and the key finally works.

"Yes! Finally-" Kendra pushes past me and storms into the room, releasing her back pack and letting it fly across the room. She halts in her tracks, causing me to almost slam right into her back.