Tomorrow Never Dies

Chapter 34 - "You up for a road trip?"

Michael and I were parked outside Mum's house. I'd told Matty and Toby my plan, so they'd successfully got her out of the house and I was free to go in and find my birth certificate to help me locate my father. I took a few deep breaths as mental preparation, then got out of the car. I let myself into the house to be greeted eagerly by Joey, and I gave him a quick pet before I went to the office where the proof of my birth was kept.

I rummaged around in a drawer in the desk to find the key to the cabinet, then unlocked it. I met Michael's eyes, watched him nod, then pulled open the drawer. I searched through the documents until I found three birth certificates, all kept together. One for Matthew Jack Lighthawk, one for Tobias James Lighthawk, and one for Flora Jessica Lighthawk. All with the same mother and the same father.

My dad was a man named Spencer Wiseman.

"Who's actually called Spencer these days?" Michael burst out laughing.

"Clifford, your middle name is Gordon, shut the fuck up," I told him, and he shrugged. I grabbed my laptop and typed his name into Google in an attempt to find out anything about him. A LinkedIn page came up, and I clicked on it. As soon as I saw the profile picture, I knew he was the right one. He had my nose, and Matty and Toby's eyes. He lived in Perth, with a wife and child, and he was a lawyer. I looked at Michael.

"Perth's almost four thousand kilometres away," I began. "You up for a road trip?"

"Hell yes."

***
We decided to bring the whole band and their girlfriends. Me and Michael, Grace and Ashton, Calum and Phoebe, and Luke and Kiri. Calum and Ashton were driving since we couldn't all fit in one car, and the eight of us had flung a bag together each to keep us going through the journey. Phoebe and I were on last minute grocery shopping, and I was getting to know her better since she was coming with us.

"So how did you meet Calum?" I asked.

"I performed at the showcase," she told me. "After my set I ran into him, he told me he loved my voice and that I was cute, we've been going out since."

"That's adorable," I laughed, picking up a few pasta meals that didn't need cooking. She grabbed a handful of salads and put them in the cart. "Sing for me."

"What should I sing?"

"Whatever you want," I instructed her, reaching for a pack of water bottles and a fair few bottles of Lucozade.

"This is my own song, okay?" I nodded. "So one last time, I need to be the one who takes you home. One more time, I promise after that I'll let you go." The few lines she sang stunned me into silence.

"That was incredible," I said after a while. "Wow." She smiled shyly.

"Thank you." She picked up a can of deodorant and a few other toiletries. We paid for our things and shut them in the back of the cars. The others were waiting in the car, and we came out for a group huddle before we left.

"Okay, the journey should take 41 hours with no traffic. But obviously we're going to stop because I'm sure as hell not driving 41 hours straight and we'll need to pee and eat and whatever," Ashton started.

"Once we arrive in Perth, we stay the night, then Michael and I are going to find my dad while you losers have the day in Perth," I added.

"We spend another night, drive back. The whole thing should take five days but there may be factors we haven't considered, breakdowns, emergencies and whatever," Michael put in. "Is everyone still one hundred percent down?"

"Only if the music in the car is good music," said Kiri, and I laughed.

"We've all got live entertainment," I said. "The guys have got their instruments and you should hear Phoebe's voice!"

"I'm so excited," laughed Phoebe. She had a really cute laugh, and it made me smile widely.

"Let's get this show on the road," I grinned, and after a round of cheers we went to the cars we'd agreed on and set off on our long journey to Perth.

Ash and Michael were riding up front, and Grace and I were in the back. However, Ashton decided that it was up to us to read the map, so after a brief struggle we managed to direct him to the highway.

"Michael, you're in charge of music. Put something good on," I told him, and he pulled out a CD to insert into the slot. All Time Low came on and I nearly screamed in delight. The first song on the album was Satellite, and from then on I did not stop singing along. I almost cried at Missing You and Edge of Tonight, and I kept telling everyone about the time I'd seen the band live on their Back to the Future Hearts Tour. "When they played Missing You, Alex gave this big long speech about addiction and I cried."

"Aw, baby," Michael smiled. "I wish I'd gone."

"It was amazing," I laughed.

"Oi, Irwin, can we stop? I need to pee," Grace laughed, and Ash rolled his eyes.

"Call the others, tell them we're having a break at the next services. You're not allowed to spend more than five dollars each stop," he warned us, and I laughed as I rang Kiri, telling her the plan. We pulled in at the next stop and us girls ran to the bathroom as girls do. We touched up on our makeup, then wandered out to the coffee shop. We each got a hot drink to takeaway and we hit the road again.

The sun began to set on the road in front of us and I decided now was the time to offer around dinner. Me and Grace shared a salad, and the guys took a pasta each, Michael feeding Ashton so he could concentrate on driving. The sun went down, the stars came out and we decided to pull in at the next services to stay the night. We booked four rooms, one per couple, and grabbed some warm food before going up to our bedrooms. I slung my bag on the bed, kissed Michael, then went out to meet Grace on the grass outside the service building. The lights of the road were far enough away for us to be able to see the stars, and we pointed out all the constellations that we knew to each other.

"Are you still sure you want to meet your dad?" Grace asked me, and I nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, I love the feeling of road tripping already, but there's an end point and that's what I've come to do," I shrugged. "I do want to see him, find out what he's like, maybe ask him why he left."

"Go for it then, wifey," she smiled, and I grinned too.

"Oh, I will."

*****
I really want to go on a road trip but i live in britain it takes like two minutes to get anywhere (jokes its like 6 hours from here to dover which is the other end of the country)
Phoebe is played by Ariana Grande :)

Song of the chapter: missing you by all time low (actually my jam, i saw them on bttfh and i cried so much and my mate was there like oh this is quite sad so she cried to and we were just a wreck)