Overlooking The Moonlight Eye

Interstate 47

My mum calls as I'm packing up for a roadtrip I plan to take with my friends while on our short break. She asks if I'm coming home for thanksgiving, then she tells me how disappointed she is when I tell her that I'm not going to make it this year.

"My friends and I are going out on a roadtrip"

"Oh? Where are you going?" she interrogates.

"Um, I don't really know, Pete just said he knew a great camping spot down in Florida."

"Pete's going? How has he been?"

"Fine I guess.  I don't see him too much anymore."

"Well I would say that's a shame, but I think it's for the better, he's going to get you in trouble"

"Yeah. I guess"

"So who else is going?" she questions

"Danielle, Ryan, Gabe, Pete, Alex and me" I list off.

"I haven't heard of an Alex before"

"Yeah, he's new, from London or something I guess."

"Hm, well I hope he's better than the rest of them"

I roll my eyes even though she can't see it. She hates all of my friends, mostly because of the internet. I would love to know who the hell gave my mother a facebook. "They're good people"

"They look like they get into a lot of trouble"

"Nah, you just know know them" I argue.

"Whatever you say, honey" she doesn't sound pleased "Have fun on your trip"

"Will do mum"

"Okay, bye, I love you"

"Love you too"

I throw my phone off to the side and zip up my suitcase then, since I have some extra time, I decide to go bother Dani. Sneaking into her room, I sit in her beanbag chair and groan loudly.

"You should be happy" She says around the Tootsie Pop she's sucking on. And it's true, I should be happy. It's the end of November and we have a whole week off to go back to family and celebrate thanksgiving. I mean, that's not what we're doing; Danielle, Ryan, Gabe, Alex, Pete Wentz and I are going on a roadtrip. But it's impossible to be excited because just last week Alex kissed me.

"What's going on?" Dani stops throwing seemingly random clothes into her bag and looks at me.

I sigh, knowing that Dani would never let it go if I didn't tell her. "Alex kissed me" She's the only one I'd tell this to, she's like the older sister in the house (I would've said mother but that's totally Ryan) in the way she's got all this good, non judgemental life advice. This, along with the fact that I know she's bisexual, she having confided in me a while ago.

She snorts "I'm not surprised"

"What? I totally was!"

She goes back to packing. "I think gay people can just tell when other people are gay, I could totally tell that Alex wanted to suck you off the moment I met him."

"What am I going to do?" I groan, flopping back onto the bean bag.

She shrugs. "Kiss him again. You'd be cute together"

"I'm not gay"

She hums in what sounds like a way of holding back a chuckle. "Whatever Barakat. I'm just saying if you didn't like the kiss then you wouldn't be thinking about it so much"

"I'm not-"

She cuts me off my throwing a towel at me "Don't lie to me"

After that, I just keep my mouth shut.

After the van (yes, we rented an eight person, white, passanger van) is packed and ready to go, we all hop in. Mama bear Ryan is driving with Danielle navigating. That leaves Pete and Gabe in the first row and Alex and I in the back with all the camping gear stacked behind us.

The first hour or two is fun, we sing along to Blink-182, goof off, piss Ryan off, all the fun roadtrip stuff. But after a while we all settle down too much and all you can hear is the grind of the tires against the road, the buzz of the radio and the small chatter of Gabe and Pete. Needless to say, it was awkward between Alex and I, considering we haven't spoken a word to each other since... well, you know.

A text buzzes into my phone from Danielle reading: 'Talk to him or no s'mores 4 U'. I type back a kind, 'fuck you', but decide to take her advice anyways. The only problem being that I have no clue what to say.

"Have you ever been camping before?" I ask, mentally slapping myself because of how awkward it sounded.

He chuckles, and it slightly offends me because, um, excuse me, I'm trying here. "Yeah, oddly enough you can find large clumps of trees in England."

"You know what? Fuck you, man" I growl

"What's your problem?"

I look at Gabe and Pete to make sure they weren't listening, they both had headphones in. "You're a fucking faggot"

"I've seen you with your tongue down more guys' throats at one party than I've ever had in my entire life."

"I was drunk and joking." I defend

The van rolls to a stop and Ryan announces that this will be our stop for dinner. I unbuckle quickly and am the first one out of the van, stretching with a moan. "Fuck"

As a group, we all huddle into the Taco Bell and order, then we all sit at a big rounded table with our tacos. Personally, I think the Doritos Locos Tacos are the best, which is exactly what I got.

I try to stay angry at Alex, I really do, but he starts cracking jokes and it's all downhill from there. The warm feeling of friendship returned. Danielle smiles at us from across the table, clearly satisfied with the loss of tension between Alex and me.

After dinner the insomniac duo, Danielle and Pete, took over the front seats with Dani driving and Pete navigating (No one really trusts Pete to drive anymore because last time he managed to drive straight through someone's house.)

I don't sleep well in the van, even with Blink playing in my headphones. At one point Alex's head fell to my shoulder and instead of pushing him off, I just left him there. Though I was awake enough to tell that an iPhone camera went off and the only person I could blame for that is Dani. She has a lot of black mail on all of us, she always tells me she's saving it for the perfect moment,  which I find rather scary. I mean, was is she waiting for?  World War Three? When she murders someone? Literally no one knows.