If Summer Never Ends

Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

The summer sun heavily beat down so that I could feel the rays dancing on the surface of my skin. Sweat slithered down my back and across my forehead, ultimately making me feel groggy and disgusting. I looked along Florida's Turnpike route, and no cars were in sight. It truly was a deserted desert road.

"What do you mean the car stopped working?" Valarie yelled, her hands shaking above her head in rage.

Scott drew back with an unsure expression. "This car has a tendency to stop working for no reason."

"What the hell is wrong with you? It didn't come across your mind at all? My God, how stupid can you get, Scott?"

Maria stepped in. "Hey, let's be civilized. And don't talk to him like that. It was an honest mistake. We'll figure this out."

"Just because you're boning him doesn't mean you have to stick up for him. It's his fault that we're stuck in the middle of nowhere!" she retorted.

Dylan and Hayden interjected between all the bickering with a wave of positivity. "We're not stuck. We've just had a bit of a setback."

"Cecily!" Valarie screeched. "Come tell your boyfriend to stop being such an idiot and admit that we're stuck."

"Okay first of all Val, you need to chill because your bitching is getting us nowhere. Second, the fact is that we are stuck and I'm beginning to freak out just a little bit because this feels exactly like a Criminal Minds episode!"

Everyone began to bicker again, pointing fingers and yelling again and again incessantly. Luke's voice boomed when he finally decided to speak up. "Everyone, shut up. It's not like the car is completely broken and like we're completely screwed. We'll just have to call a tow truck or something."

For a while, the seven of them were silent, awkwardly looking at the ground until Valaire starting to whine again. "Who's idea was this trip anyways?"

Suddenly, I found seven pairs of eyes deadly staring at me.

48 hours ago

"No," Aunt Julia blatantly spat as she wheeled the cart down the cereal aisle at Publix, obviously missing the big picture I was getting at.

"Why not?" I whined, stomping my foot like a child. "You let me go crazy downtown Chicago but you won't let me and three others girls spend one night in Miami? One of our favorite bands is going to be at a venue in Miami and we figured we would crash in a hotel afterward."

She shoved a box of cereal in the cart. "Which band?"

"Legendary Lights," I said, making a name up off the top of my head. "You've probably never heard of them. They're indie and not really popular."

Aunt Julia sighed. "You know how we were starting a clean slate and that I would give you some slack? This is me doing so. You can go but you text me when you get there, when you get to the hotel, and when you're on the way back. If you don't or I find out you're doing something you're not supposed to, I'm driving over there, dragging you home, and grounding you. Understand?"

I jumped up and down with exuberance. "Oh my gosh, thank you so much Aunt Julia! I promise I will be a responsible young adult."

She stopped wheeling the cart and stared at me. "Please, just be safe." I kind of felt bad about lying to her. I understood why Aunt Julia kept me on a leash. She didn't want to lose me like she lost my mom. I felt terrible for taking advantage of this new trust thing we were doing, but I needed to live out my youth while I still had it in me. Besides, she wouldn't let me drive 3 hours with an unsupervised coed group of teens even if hell froze over.