The Troubles of Growing Up

Chapter 6

The next day my mom woke me up early. REALLY early. She woke me at around 3am. I got up took a shower and got dressed. My mom told me to go get Haylee. So I went to her house and knocked on the door. I felt so bad because of how early it was. I didn't have to knock loud because her dog went ballistic. Her dad answered the door. He looked angry and asked who I was. Then Haylee came out in her pajamas."My mom told me to come here and get you. I think we're leaving soon." she looked alarmed.
"Yeah just let me get dressed." she said
"She's going with you then?" her dad said.
"Yeah, she is." I replied.
"What are you guys going to be doing in Florida?" he seemed concerned.
"I have absolutely no idea. My mom just told me to pack and invite Haylee." I told him.
"Call her Hayl. She keeps talking about how she's always wanted a nickname." he said randomly.
"Ok I guess I could do that." I said.
"Good. it'll be a lot better if you give her a nickname. You seem to mean a lot to her." he told me.
I just looked at him. Faintly smiled and waited for her. She came out with a single suitcase.
"That all?" I asked
"Yeah why?" she responded.
"Just wondering." I said defensively. She giggled. We left and headed for my house.

As we were walking we started chatting about the trip. Haylee was so excited about it. I was still clueless about it. I couldn't tell If I was excited or if I was terrified.
"I've never been to Florida. I've always wanted to go but i've never had the chance." she said.
"Neither have I but I have no idea what we're doing so..." I was definitely not as excited as she was.
"Florida is such a pretty place. You know there's dolphins there right?"
"Yeah."
"Oh my god i'm so excited." she gasped and waved her arms in excitement. "We could see Winter." she smiled. I didn't know what that meant. I would later find out. We got to the house. When we walked in the door my mom seemed confused.
"What?" I asked her.
"You just weren't gone very long I thought it would take longer than that." she replied.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I just thought Haylee would have things to do."
"Nope." Haylee replied with a wide smile.
"How long till we leave?" I asked my mom. We were told what day but never what time.
"About two hours." she said.
"Two hours??" what was I going to do for two hours?
"Oh ok well, I guess I have time to go home and shower then." Haylee said with a smile.
"You didn't before you came?" my mom asked.
"No I got up when Josh came and then got dressed because I didn't know how long we had." she said.
"Neither did I." I said so I wouldn't be to blame.
"Ok well if you want you can go home and shower. Or you could save time and effort and shower here." I placed my palm on my forehead and sighed. My mom was weird.
"I would rather not but thanks for offering I guess?" she replied with a chuckle. I sighed in relief. They both looked at me for a second. Haylee left her bag and went home to shower. I got bored because she wasn't here and... I forgot about Andrew. HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT HIM?????? I absolutely hated myself for forgetting my one true friend. I went to my mom.
"Hey mom?"
"Yes Josh?"
"Is Andrew still alive?" I asked. She looked at the ground and bit her lip.
"I'm not sure. I haven't heard from Linda lately so I would assume he's holding on." she said.
"Ok can we check and see when we get back?" I asked.
"I don't see why not." she said with a smile. She turned to finish what she was doing. I went to my room to make another song for Andrew. My mom came in.
"If you want to work on your music while we're gone you can use the laptop." she smiled and left the room. While I was working Haylee came back. I didn't know she came back and she came into my room when it was time to go. She startled me, I wasn't expecting her to be the one to get me. I thought Paige would come in and yell at me for not being ready. She tapped my shoulder, startling me. I took my headphones off.
"Josh, we're leaving now." she said.
"Aight." I replied.
We grabbed our things and loaded them into the back of the car. Paige had a small cooler for some reason. Then we got in. We drove south. I was so tired I fell asleep. Apparently Haylee was too because when I woke up about five hours later she was sleeping with her head on my shoulder. But then my mom woke her up. We stopped at a gas station to get some drinks because we had forgotten at the store. I got confused because my mom brought out a load of orange Fanta, a bunch of snack foods, and sunscreen with other things. I was thoroughly confused as to what everything was for and then Paige asked Haylee,
"Want me to buy you something?"
"No thanks i'm okay." she responded.
"I'll be right back." she got up and out of the car.
"Where...?" my mom said as she closed her door.
"I have no idea." I responded.
I had my music production app on my phone so I started back on Andrew's song. Paige came back and got in the car. I didn't realise that she was trying to hand me something. "Josh?" she said.
"What?" I replied without looking up.
"Is he looking at his phone?" she whispered to Haylee.
"Yep." she said looking at me with a smile.
"Josh look up." Paige told me. I looked up to see a large light blue can of monster. I grabbed it and Paige let go. "Finally." she said with a giggle. We left the gas station and started for Florida again. Haylee fell asleep again. She rested her head back on my shoulder, but this time she placed her hand on my leg. I rested my head on hers, and tried to sleep again. I couldn't fall asleep but I kept leaning against her. I was unaware that Paige was taking a picture of us. She sent it to Andrew's sister, Stephaney. I always liked her. In a different way. She was a few years older than me but it didn't matter. She was still cute. I know she would never go for me but I tried anyways. We got about an hour of driving before things got bad. We hit a huge pothole in the road and the car started chugging and slowing down. Haylee woke up and we hit our heads together. Paige probably would have laughed if it wasn't her car. Haylee stared at me for a second.
"Umm. was I laying my head on your shoulder?"
"Yup."
"Oh i'm so sorry I wasn't trying to."
"It's fine. I was okay with it."
"Josh?!" I heard Paige yell. "Get out of the car. I need your help."