one for the road

one; our journey begins

june 17th, 5:36am
keegan's pov

i viciously cram the last couple tee shirts into my suitcase.

i always leave packing to the literal last minute.

my friends from high school and i, have been saving money, and working double time, to go on a road trip this summer. today is finally the day we've been waiting for. ...but evidently if i expect to get in the car with them, i really should be ready at the door once they pull up.

oh!

i haven't even told you about my friends.

okay,
well,

i'll start off with luisa stein. okay, so i've known her since elementary school, and we've been best friends since. luisa is smart, and super sweet don't get me wrong, but she's definitely the most organized out of the group. she loves having all her ducks in a line before we do anything. i'm not kidding. she calculated the budgets for food, gas money, and on top of that, she has all of our passports together in a folder. on top of that, she's vegan, and a huge animal rights activist. she even is an admin for a forum dedicated to vegans and vegetarians.

next is deshreeni pandoor, and julia johnson. deshreeni and julia have been super close with luisa and i since junior high. they're best friends, and share the same love for several bands and music artists. you'd never spot them without earbuds in. julia's pretty quiet, though deshreeni is a lot smaller than julia, she's the loudest out of the pair.

lastly we have dylan walker. he's always been the most distant out of all of us, since we first met him during our senior year in high school. dylan is really tall, with dark brown hair, and pale skin. he also has these bright green eyes, that just pop. dylan may be quiet, but he has an awesome sense of humour as well as style.

the five of us hung out every day after school, and eventually found that through all of our unique differences, we had one thing in common. we wanted to see the world, specifically, the golden state. california. luisa wants to see the national parks, deshreeni and julia want to check out hollywood and downtown LA. dylan wants to see the desert, and i want to do some sightseeing, and check out some historical museums.

it's taken us two years.

but now we're ready.

i glance in the mirror. damn it. i'm not even dressed yet! i grab my suitcase by the top handle, and run it to the front door. after glancing out the front window, i skid back to my bedroom. i grab a grey tee shirt, and a pair of dark jean shorts.

honk honk

they're outside waiting.

once i make sure all of the lights are off, i slip on my black vans, and grab my suitcase and my iphone. with one hand, i lock my apartment door, and walk outside. the air is cool and wet, and the sun hasn't risen quite yet, so it's dark. luisa's most prized possession, matilda, as we have always called it, has pulled up on the side of the road. matilda is actually a grey beat up, minivan that used to be her aunt's. luisa is in the front seat, motioning me to get a move on. i throw my suitcase into the trunk with everyone else's. i jump into the front seat, next to luisa.

"come on," she says "we still have to pick up julia and deshreeni."

dylan taps on my shoulder and i swivel around to greet him.

"hey, man" he says quietly.

dylan looks like he hasn't slept yet.

"hey." i grin back at him.

dylan nods his head and puts his earbuds in. i turn back to luisa as she pulls out of my apartment block. she has her hair tied into a loose snail bun on the top of her head. she's wearing no makeup. i notice that she's wearing her bruno mars concert tee, with grey sweatpants. she'd never go out like this in public. but, it's going to be a long drive so we might as well be comfortable.