Take Me There

Road Trips and Second Guesses

Chapter Four

 "I have to get out of here," I whispered into my phone, another tear sliding down my cheek. I glanced over at the clock sitting on top of my night stand.
 It was almost five in the morning.
 At around twelve, my mom finally left the outside of my door. I'd heard her soft footsteps padding down the hallway and down the stairs. An hour later, I knew they were both asleep.
 I'd spent the past few hours reading over all of the papers in the folder my dad had handed me. I'd learned more things about myself in those few hours than I had in my entire life.
 My birth's mom name was Hollie Morris.
 She was only eighteen when she gave birth to Austin and me.
 My birth certificate had no father listed.
 My place of birth was a small town right on the outskirts of Memphis, Tenessee. Whenever I googled it, I realized that the population of the town was smaller than my graduating class.
 "Just take a few deep breaths," Sadie said from the other line, pulling me from my deep thoughts.
 I walked over to my closet and grabbed the suitcase off of the top shelf. I dropped it on top of my bed and headed towards my drawers, beginning to pull out pairs of shorts and shirts.
 "Dallis, what are you doing?" Sadie asked, her voice laced with sleep. She'd been on the phone with me for the past hour, crying with me whenever I told her the news.
 "I'm packing," I sniffed, throwing the clothes into the suitcase.
 I could hear Sadie rustling around in her satin sheets, the phone making a muffled noise as she readjusted it. "And where exactly are you going?"
 I grabbed a few dressed out of my closet, along with a couple pairs of shoes. "On tour with Crossing Lincoln."
 "Wait, Dallis, what?" Sadie took a deep breath. "You are the most rational person I've ever met. So what the hell are you even doing?"
 I tossed a few bikinis into the suitcase. "The last stop on their tour is in Memphis. I can meet Hollie and possibly find Austin."
 "Are you going to tell your parents? Or at least talk to Drew about this?"
 I slowly opened my bedroom door and crossed the hall to the bathroom. I grabbed my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and toothbrush before heading back to my room. "No, I don't want anyone to try and talk me out of this."
 "Dallis, I understand that you're upset, but you're doing exactly what Austin did."
 I stopped walking, closing my eyes for a second. "This is different," I breathed, "I'll be back in two weeks."
 Sadie was quiet for a minute. "I'm going with you."
 I started to zip up my suitcase. "I'll pick you up in thirty minutes."

 About forty-five minutes later, I was headed to Jase's house, Sadie sitting in the passenger seat. I glanced at myself in the rearview mirror again, pissed that my eyes were so red and puffy.
 After I'd gotten off the phone with Sadie, I took a quick shower and changed into a pair of yoga pants and a UCLA tshirt. I'd pulled my hair up into a twisted bun and slipped on a pair of flip flops.
 I'd taken all of my things out to my car, being as quiet as I possibly could, before I decided that I should write a note. I'd grabbed a piece of stationary from my mom's desk in her office and wrote just a few words.
 Don't worry about me. I'll be back in two weeks.
 I'd left that on my night stand and walked out of the house, the ring on my finger feeling heavier than ever.
 "You're sure you want to do this?" Sadie asked for the tenth time.
 I nodded my head, pulling into Jase's neighborhood. I was more sure about this than anything else in my life at the moment.
 "This just isn't like you, Dallis," Sadie sighed, "Everyone is going to be worried about you."
 I shrugged. "It's only two weeks. They can all wait for two weeks."
 I parked in front of Jase's house, all five of them turning around to look at us. Jase immediatley grinned whenever he realized that it was us, jogging over to the car.
 "You guys came!" Jase said just as Sadie opened her door.
 Sadie gave him a smile. "Yeah, Dallis over here had a change of heart."
 "What are you doing here?"
 My head snapped up whenever I heard Kiptyn's familar voice. I shut my car door, giving him a fuck you smile. "Nice to see you too."
 Kiptyn looked over at Jase, his brows raised. "Really, Jase, what is she doing here?"
 "They're both going with us," Lincoln suddenly said, resting a hand on Kiptyn's shoulder.
 "What th- Lyle did you know about this?" Kiptyn yelled over his shoulder.
 "I knew they were invited!" Lyle yelled back, stuffing a suitcase into the trunk, Cealy standing beside him.
 Kiptyn turned his attention back to me. "You can't come."
 Jase nudged him as he walked over to my trunk. "Stop being a dick, man."
 "Is prince charming okay with this?" Kiptyn asked, completely ignoring Jase, "I thought he liked to keep his bitches on short leashes."
 Lincoln gave Kiptyn a cold stare. "That's enough, Kip."
 "You are such an asshole," Sadie said, carrying her suitcase to Lyle's SUV.
 I walked over to wear Lincoln and Jase were grabbing stuff out of my trunk. Lincoln gave me an apologetic smile as I took a bag out of her hands. Jase shut the trunk and I hit the lock button as we headed towards the SUV.
 "Hey Dallo," Lyle said whenever we approached, giving me a huge smile.
 I handed him my bag. "Hey Lyle."
 "Dallis," Cealy said from her postion beside Lyle. Her extremely long blond hair was in a top knot on her head and she was wearing black leggings and a Crossing Lincoln tshirt.
 Gag me.
 "Cealy," I said back, giving her a fake smile.
 "Okay," Lyle finally said, "We're ready to roll."
 Cealy immediatley headed to the front of the SUV, jumping into her position in shotgun. Lincoln headed to the backseat, the other four of us following.
 "I wanna sit by my woman," Jase said, wrapping an arm around Sadie.
 "I'm not your woman," She grumbled, climbing into the car. Jase followed her, then Kiptyn, and lastly me.
 Fortunately, this meant that I had a window seat.
 Unfortunately, I was sitting beside Kiptyn Cross.
 I turned around, giving Lincoln a death glare. She shrugged, smilling slightly. I hoped she caught some sort of PDA virus sitting in the third row with Sadie and Jase.
 I leaned my head against the window as Lyle backed out of the driveway, speeding past all of the houses in Jase's neighborhood.
 "Okay gang," Lyle said after a few minutes of silence, "our first stop is Carson City."
 "Hell yeah!" Jase yelled from the backseat, causing Lyle and Lincoln to laugh.
 "If anyone aboard the Crossing Lincoln Express needs to empty any sort of bodily fluid, please let me know," Lyle glanced at all of us in the rearview mirror, "If you piss on my seats, I will kick your ass."
 "Better watch your boy back there," Kiptyn smirked, "I have a feeling he's gonna end up getting some kind of bodily fluid on your seats."
 Lincoln smacked Kiptyn in the back of the head and Lyle chuckled. "That's funny coming from the guy that has an extreme amount of sexual tension with another female in this car."
 Kiptyn rolled your eyes. "I fucking told you that I'm not interested in Cealy. She's not even a good lay."
 "Hey!" Cealy yelled from the front seat, turning to glare at him.
 Jase and Sadie were both laughing from the backseat. "I'm pretty sure Lyle is talking about the hot babe sitting beside you," Jase said, making my cheeks turn a dark shade of red from embarrasment.
 There was no way in hell that Kiptyn Cross would ever have the chance to even touch me with a ten foot pole.
 Kiptyn finally turned to look at me, a smug smirk on his face. "I probably wouldn't even be able to get it up."
 My mouth opened slightly, my eyes widening. Even though I was still a virgin, I had confidence that I could at least make a guy get a hard on. Drew had a million different times, all I had to do was touch the right spots.  
 "He's lying," Lyle said, turning to look at me for a split second, "He'd bang you in a heartbeat."
 "Okay," I said, putting a hand to my forehead. "Can we please not talk about this?"
 Kiptyn laughed. "She probably has a chastity belt down there that you can only unlock with an access code."
 I narrowed my eyes at him. "Shut the fuck up."
 And just like that, everyone in the car was silent. Kiptyn's eyes widened slightly before he looked away from me, plastering that damn smirk on his lips again.
 A few minutes later, Cealy broke the silence. "You guys like One Direction?" 
 This was going to be a really really long ride. 

 
 Please talk to me.
 What is going on? Where are you?
 Your mom is hysterical. Call me.
 Seriously Dallis, I'm worried.
 Just call me.
 Please.
 These were only about half of the text messages that I'd been recieving from Drew since about nine in the morning. He'd also called me about eleven times, and I hadn't responded to him at all.
 I wasn't really sure why I was ignorning Drew, but for some reason it just felt easier that way. It almost made me giddy to know that he was so worried about me. I'd always been exactly where everyone expected me to be at the exact time they expected me there.
 And suddenly I wasn't.
 For some reason, that was a really damn good feeling. Especially since I suddenly felt so far away from everyone, everyone except for Sadie. She was the only person in my life that had never expected anything from me other than what I had to offer.
 I felt really overwhelmed though, especially as I twisted the huge ring around on my finger. Even though it was just my immagination, I swear the ring suddenly weighed a hundred more pounds than it should have. It was such a burden being on my hand, reminding me of how fake my life really was.
 And it wasn't even that I didn't still care about Drew. Hello, I was still wearing the ring. Obviously I still loved the guy. It wasn't his fault that my parents had lied to me my entire life.
 But he was a part of it; that entire lie I'd been living. I'd always felt like something wasn't really right with my life, like I was just treading water, always trying to one-up someone else.
 I just wanted to feel like me. But I also had to find her first.
 "Dallis?"
 I looked away from the window, not really even sure what I'd been looking at to begin with. I'd been so deep in thought that I hadn't even realized we'd come to a stop.
 Sadie was standing outside of the car, her brows furrowed. "You okay?"
 I nodded my head as I unbuckled my seatbelt, climbing out of the SUV. I walked over to the other side of the car where Sadie was standing, her eyebrows now raised.
 "You were thinking really hard," She started as we headed towards the McDonald's entrance, "I mean, you didn't even realize everyone had gotten out of the car."
 I felt my phone vibrate inside the wasitband of my yoga pants, causing me to sigh. "Drew just won't leave me alone."
 Sadie gave me a look. "Can you blame him? His girlfriend just up and left without telling anyone goodbye."
 I grabbed the handle on the Enter door and pulled, stepping inside the fast food joint. Like every other McDonald's in America, the smell of burnt french fries was overwhelming.
 "I just have a lot going through my head right now," I sighed, "Talking to him will only make it worse."
 "You could at least send him a text. Let him know you're okay."
 I shrugged, stopping at the back of the food line. "I think it will do him some good to realize that he doesn't have me on a leash."
 Sadie rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me you actually listened to what that dipshit said to you."
 "It's true though," I said, staring blankly up at the menu, "I've always been exactly where Drew wants me," I held up my left hand, "I'm wearing his grandmother's wedding ring for Christ's sake."
 "Because you love him, Dallis. That's not unusual."
 I glanced at her. "Can we please drop it for right now? I'll talk to him whenever I feel like the time is right."
 She let out a deep breath, but nodded her head anyway. We were both quiet as we stood in the line, quickly ordering our food and heading over to the large table where everyone else was sitting.
 "Took you guys long enough," Lyle said, shoving a few fries into his mouth.
 I started to unwrap my hamburger, my stomach beginning to grumble at the sight of food.
 "They were obviously having girl talk," Jase said, nudging me with his elbow. "Am I right?"
 "Like always, Jase."
 He pointed to me with his thumb. "At least somebody realizes my credibility."
 Kiptyn leaned back in his seat, staring at me with his icy blue eyes. It was like he was looking right through me, causing me to squirm in my seat.
 I hated the fact that he effected me so much.
 "So what's the game plan?" Lincoln asked, breaking the awkward silence. "I know Carson City is our first stop, but what are we doing when we get there?"
 "I guess we'll find a hotel and go ahead and check in," Lyle said, running his hand through his hair, "We can all take a nap and then meet back at my car around seven."
 "What time do we go on?" Jase asked with a mouthful of hamburger.
 "Eight-thirty," Kiptyn answered, earning a look from Lyle who obviously liked to answer all of the questions.
 "Babe," Cealy whined, "When are we going shopping? You promised we'd go shopping."
 "We've been on the road for six hours and all you can think about is shopping?" Lincoln asked, her eyebrows raised.
 "All I can think about is Vegas," Jase said, grinning from ear to ear.
 "Vegas?" Sadie asked from beside me.
 Lyle nodded his head, leaning forward. "We're stopping in Vegas around Tuesday. I figured we could do a little partying."
 I smiled to myself. Partying in Vegas was something the old Dallis would never do, that was just too risky.
 But for the new Dallis? Partying in Vegas was exactly what she needed.