Beyond This Moment

11 Day Five- 8:51 P.M.

"I'm going to take Mac on a walk," I tell Elias as we arrive at our hotel room for the night. We're still an hour behind schedule but we're all exhausted and after a lot of debating, Cassie was finally the one to talk Gabe into forfeiting and instead of spending an extra hour on the road, we're cutting our losses tonight in Glendive, Montana which is right on the other side of North Dakota.

"Mind if I come with you?" Elias offers. "I could stretch my legs and get some fresh air."

"Yeah, sure, let's go," I confirm as I'm getting Mac on his leash. Elias picks up a bag that he usually keeps in the trunk and I've never really known what it was for and I've never asked.

"I'm bringing booze," He adds, tossing the bag over his shoulder and I grin at him because that sounds like a wonderful plan.

"If you're bringing booze then maybe I'll just have Cassie take Mac and we'll take a walk ourselves," I suggest and in the back of my mind, I wonder if that sounded like I was hitting on him and after the day that we've had, how I kissed him one state over, I wouldn't blame him if that's how he took it. I don't clear that up though because I'm just going to pretend like it didn't happen. "I'll be right back."

Leaving our motel room, I walk Mac down the outside corridor to Gabe and Cassie's room, careful that nobody else is around to catch Mac here because they have a no pets rule but we're fine as long as nobody sees him. I know that it's risky but it's worth it. I'm about to knock on their door when I hear Gabe yelling inside, which isn't very shocking because it's so easy to hear Gabe when he's yelling, his voice is very loud.

It is shocking, however, because he and Cassie rarely ever fight. I mean, Gabe is pretty strung out about this road trip but I don't think that's any reason for them to be getting into such a fight. I don't want to eavesdrop because it's obviously none of my business... or so I thought until I hear my name come up.

"If Peyton finds out, she'll fucking lose it. Even more than she already is," Gabe is saying with a lot of force and volume in his voice. Cassie's voice isn't as loud or as demanding and I can't really hear what her response is. I hear her responding but through the door, it's all just muddled and high pitched.

"She's going crazy because of this Kellan drama and this is just going to make it worse," Gabe continues after Cassie is finished talking. Although I want to know what secret he's keeping from me, I don't want to know right now. I just want to have a good night with Elias. I want to take a walk and get buzzed and hang out with a pleasant person and look at the stars. I don't want to deal with family drama so I just knock on the door and silence their argument.

"What are you doing?" Gabe asks me when he answers the door.

"Can you guys take Mac for a while?" I ask him but without waiting for an answer, I just hand him the leash and Mac invites himself into the motel room, walking right into the room like it's already his. "He doesn't have to sleep here but I'm going to go get drunk with Elias so I don't want him to be under my care."

"You're what?"

"Fingers crossed he doesn't knock me up, right? Wouldn't be surprising with how crazy I am so I guess we'll see how things go," I mutter bitterly before turning around and walking away from their room. "Don't mess with his bandages."

Gabe calls my name back to him but I ignore it. We can fight tomorrow, he can say whatever he wants to say then. I don't want to deal with him right now.

Meeting Elias at the front of the motel, we start walking down the dark and empty street. We're on the edge of the town with the only things around us being an iHop, a Walmart, and then fields of grass. In the dark and street lights, Elias pulls out a bottle of vodka from his bag of mysteries.