The Searching Secret

Chapter 6

The next day, it didn't take long for us to get back on the road. I still felt bad for how I acted last night, but, from what I could tell, Jay was over it. We filled the car with music and even put the top down. I had to admit, the back roads weren't bad. It did seem to take a lot longer, but there were hardly ever other cars on the road. I would never tell Jay this. I still would have rather taken the highway and be there faster, than take the back roads and enjoy the view. I didn't open my mouth on this matter again, not after what I did. I hated how I made him feel, and refused to make him feel that way again.

Instead of sitting there sulking with a bad attitude, I made an attempt to be enjoyable company. We played a few games, but it didn't take long for those games to get boring. By noon we couldn't think of any other game to play, so we soon fell into a conversation like normal friends would. We started to talk about what had been going on in our lives since Jay moved. I talked about things like, how Corey and I had been able to fix our friendship. Jay talked about what his new school was like. We stayed away from any sensitive topic. That was until I opened my mouth and asked about what I had been wondering about since we left his house. Hannah.

"So how'd you and Hannah get together?" I asked. I couldn't explain why I wanted to know this or even why I kept thinking about it. I couldn't even explain the feeling I got whenever I did think about it.

Jay took his eyes from the road and glanced at me for a second, as a small smile formed on his face. Then he brought his eyes back to the road and started to tell his story. "She befriended me on my first day of school. Showed me around, introduced me to her friends. She was nice. When I finally asked her out she laughed." Jay glanced at me, as he smiled again remembering what happened. "She said 'took ya long enough' and I couldn't help but laugh along. Oh we'd have so much fun together. Sometimes we'd go on crazy adventures like getting in the car and just seeing where we end up. But it was just as fun just hanging out doing nothing. We enjoyed so many of the same things. James said she sounded like the female version of me."

"James knew about her?"

Jay nodded. James was an old friend from back home, who just like Corey I haven't seen or talked to since I took off.

"Oh, well I'm glad you were so happy," I said softly, feeling a little left out.

"Things were just easy with her," Jay continued. "We didn't have to try so hard to make things work between us, to be happy. In fact we never actually got in a fight until. . ." Jay stopped talking and glanced quickly at me.

"Until I showed up," I finished for him. "Why did you end it then? It was only one fight."

"I didn't end it because of the fight," he answered softly.

"Then why?" I asked.

He looked away from the road for a moment and locked his eyes on mine. "You know why."

He was right. I knew, of course I knew, more then he could ever know. I hated that I was the reason he was unhappy, but what I hated even more was how happy it made me knowing Hannah was now out of the picture. "Jay I-"

"Shoot!" Jay said, as the car made a strange noise and slowly came to a stop on the side of the road. Jay tried to start the car again. When it wouldn't, he breathed in then slowly exhaled. He turned to me and said, "Something's wrong with the car."

"No duh, Sherlock!" I yelled, motioning to the front of the car, were smoke had started to appear.

"Look, its fine," he said, as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. "I'll call someone and we'll get it fixed, then be back on the road in a few hours."

"A few hours! Are you kidding me?!" I yelled again, knowing there was no way we were going to make it to Miami today. Jay's eyes left his phone and slowly found mine. He felt bad and nervous, and I knew there was more bad news. "What!?" I shouted, wishing he'd just say it already.

"I don't have any service," he informed me. Without saying a word I snatched the phone from his hands. Sure enough there were no bars. "And you never got another phone," he added, only making the situation worse.

I quickly got out of the car and started moving around hoping I could find some service somewhere. After a few failed attempts I walked back to the car and tossed the phone in the back seat. "This is all your fault!" I yelled at Jay, who was now out of the car.

"My fault?" he yelled back. "How is this MY fault?!"

"It's your fault that we are on one of these back roads with no cell phone service and nothing around for who knows how far!"

Jay rolled his eyes as he grabbed his phone and wallet from the car.

"If we had stayed on the highway at least we'd have a better chance of getting help!" I screamed. Without answering Jay turned and started to walk down the road. "Where the heck are you going!?" I screamed again. My anger was through the roof at this point and I couldn't stand him ignoring me.

He turned around sharply locking his eyes on mine, then very calmly he replied "I saw a sign a while back, a town shouldn't be too far from here."

"So you're just gonna walk?!"

"You said it yourself." He said, throwing his hands slightly in the air. "We aren't gonna get much help here."

"And you're just gonna leave me here!"

"No," he said, turning his back to me again. "You're gonna come with me."

I crossed my arms over my chest, "humph" and didn't move from my spot.

When he noticed I wasn't moving he added, "Unless you wanna stay here by yourself."

"What about the car?" I asked. "And our stuff? We're just gonna leave it here?"

"Cause there are so many people around to steal it," he replied sarcastically, as he started walking again. "But if you wanna stay here be my guest."

"Ugh, wait for me," I mumbled, as I grabbed my purse and my sketchbook from the car.

"You take that thing with you everywhere," Jay said, when I reached him and he saw what I was holding.

I shrugged, knowing he wasn't asking a question, just pointing something out. We walked for a while not saying anything to each other. I was still mad about the car breaking down, even though I knew I couldn't really blame that on him. I could, however, blame the fact that we didn't have any cell phone service on him. After all, if he hadn't insisted on taking the back roads we wouldn't be in the middle of nowhere.

"You know if you took any care of your car, we might not even be in this mess," Jay eventually said.

"Oh, no. There is no way you are blaming this on me," I snapped.

"It's your car," he pointed out.

"You were driving it!"

"Well, you were distracting me!" he replied playfully.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't be so easily distracted," I played along.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't look at me the way you do," he joked back, giving me a light push on the shoulder.

"What way?" I asked, unsure of where he was going with this.

"A way that gives a guy some hope."

I stopped walking and turned to face him, "Jay I-"

"Don't," he replied. "I get it, okay. But you can't knock a guy for having hope." I opened my mouth to respond but didn't get a chance.

"Look," Jay said, pointing a head of us. I followed his hand and saw the small town that sat on top of the hill in front of us. "We're almost there."

A/N Hey guys! So glad to be back and able to share more of Riley's adventure with you all! its been awhile since I last posted so be prepared for many updates over the next couple of days. My time away gave me plenty of time to write.

I spent the last two months in a very rural area in Kenya working with orphaned children. It was such an amazing time and I miss them all already. I hope you have all been enjoying your summer. In the comments share a little about what you have been doing this summer. I would love to hear about it!

Love you all! don't forget to comment, vote, follow and share if you are enjoying the story!