Permanent Vacation // 5SOS

01. Tess

"Destination: permanent vacation." Ugh, I hate that band. They're so gay.

"Cody, please stop." I say through my teeth.

"Why?" My sister whines. I groan and let my head flop down onto the window sill of the car.

"You've been singing the same stupid song over and over for the past four and a half hours. I'm getting a little sick of it." I inform her. She just chuckles.

"We're all so proud." She sings. Even a hater like me knows that she's not singing it in the right order; she's doing it just to annoy me.

"If you're gonna sing that stupid song, at least do it in order and to the right tune." I grumble. She laughs happily and starts from the very beginning. I'd love to zone out right about now but I spent the first three hours of the trip listening to my own music with the volume of my headphones turned up as loud as they can go and now I only have twenty percent of the battery left on my phone.

"You say that I'm too complicated, hung up and miseducated. I say nine to five is overrated and we all fall down. I can't-- ooh look a shortcut." Say what now?

"Cody, no. Stay on the highway. Shortcuts never work." I say urgently. She gives me an 'innocent' shrug.

"Too late." She smiles as she turns off the road.

"What the fuck? No, turn around. We're gonna get lost and die. You can't do that to me. I refuse to put my life in your hands. I'm too young to die." I say quickly. This is me in panic mode. I've been lost before and it really didn't end well.

"Tess, chill. We'll be fine. We've got a GPS on our phones if we need it." Cody assures me. I sigh.

"Fine, but I'm writing you out of my will." I grumble. She just rolls her eyes and keeps driving. I'm beginning to regret this road trip. Sure, it was my idea and we're too poor to travel any other way, but Cody's been nuts since we left home almost five hours ago. Texas to California is a long trip, and I'm seriously considering jumping out of the car right now.

"Go to sleep, that way you don't have to watch me do anything else that's too scandalous for you." Cody says before going back to singing. I sigh and put my headphones back on before blaring some Nirvana and closing my eyes.

* * *

I wake up when my music suddenly stops. My eyes shoot open and I look down at my phone, finding that the battery's finally dead. Fuck. Now I'm stuck with Cody's singing.

But Cody isn't singing. She isn't even in her seat and that's what makes me realise that the car's stopped. I look around as I take off my headphones, but our stuff's in the way and I can't see her anywhere. I open the door and try to get out but my seatbelt's still on. Of course. I forgot I was wearing it because normally I don't, but Cody's a bit of a reckless driver.

"Cody?" I call as I finally get out of the car. It takes me a few seconds to find her, but eventually, I see her coming towards the car as if she's just gone for a walk. "What're you doing? Legs sore?" She shakes her head and I can tell that something's wrong as she opens the trunk and starts digging through it.

"Uh, we um... We're out of gas." She says. My stomach drops and I start to freak out.

"What? We got a full tank before we left and you put the emergency fuel in the trunk, right?" I ask, running my hands through my hair.

"I thought you were putting it in." She looks up at me and I can tell she's starting to panic now too.

"No, I gave it to you." I say slowly. I can see tears welling up in her eyes as she pulls out her phone.

"It's okay. I'll just call Tony and tell her where we are." She explains, trying to calm herself down. I'm about to grab my phone too but then I remember that it's dead. Fuck. "Oh shit."

"What?" I ask urgently, coming over to look over her shoulder at the phone.

"I don't have any service and my battery's almost dead." She says quietly. Oh god. Fuck. Shit. We're stuck. Cody starts crying and it's clear that we're both scared. I try not to cry, knowing that one of us has to think clearly.

Okay, think Tess, think. Um... Got it. Maybe we can walk back to the highway and ask someone for help.

"Dakota, how long have we been off the highway?" I ask, trying not to sound panicked.

"Um, a few hours I think." She explains. Fuck fuck fuck. I run my hands through my hair again and start chewing my nails - something I only do when I don't know what to do. "You were right. Again." I know what she's talking about and I mentally agree; I'm not the kind of jerk that would rub something like this is her face.

"You couldn't have known that we'd run out of fuel." I say slowly. She only sobs harder, and I know the reality of the situation is hitting her hard. I know I'm about to cry too so I hug her, not wanting her to see me losing hope.

"What're we gonna do?" She asks quietly. I don't know what to say. I can't think of any other way we could possibly get out of this.

"I guess... I guess we'll just have to wait for someone to come past and hope that they'll help us." I say. She sobs harder; she understands that we'll be waiting for a while. "We'll be alright. Someone'll help us."

I don't know if I said that more for myself or for my sister.