Hitch Hiking • WHY DON'T WE [#1]

one

{idk a whole lot about Florida but we're gonna go with it.}

Week 1

"Florida really is a beautiful place." My aunt Tayla admires as we drive down the highway. Currently we were on our way to our beach home that was too big for the three of us including my baby brother. It was originally a family vacation home but family takes another meaning when it comes to mine.

"Yeah it is." I agree staring out the window. I felt my aunt's eyes boring into the side of my head so I turn to look at her. "I know you're upset-"

"I'm not upset." I state quickly. She gives me the 'I know you're lying' look and I sigh. "Maybe I am just a little." 

"You know I'm here if you need me, right?"

"I thought the whole purpose of this vacation was to forget everything." I cross my arms. Tayla frowns and constantly looks from me to the road ahead of us. "It is, but Anslie you haven't talked about anything that's happened and it's incredibly unhealthy." 

I roll my eyes and stare down at my phone. No new calls or texts, what a shock. "What is there to talk about? It doesn't really matter considering everyone back home already knows, Dad just had to broadcast the fact that my mother cheated on live television." 

Long story short my mom has been cheating on my dad for years and my dad is a news anchor so he decided that out of heartbreak he would expose her on the news and then fell into a pit of despair and now my aunt Tayla is taking my baby brother and I to Florida to 'forget about things'. What a life, am I right?

What neither of us realized during our chat was that my brother, Zander, had woken up from his nap. "Auntie T look!" He calls from the seat behind us. We both glance over to where he's pointing. 

On the side of the highway five guys stood waving their arms about as other cars drove past. They looked desperate and almost as if they had been there for a couple of hours. One of them was sitting on his suitcase with his shirt tied around his head like his bandana, another was holding his cellphone up to the air probably trying to find service, while the other three were waving their arms. It was a pitiful sight honestly. 

"Oh honey, I bet they're dying out here in this heat." My aunt says. She turns on her right blinker (literally no one uses their blinkers anymore and it's so annoying) and moves to the shoulder. "What are you doing?" I question as she puts our minivan in park. "They look like they need help." My aunt replies. One of the guys makes his way over to us. "They could be murderers for crying out loud! Has our countless Criminal Minds marathons taught you anything? They could-" My aunt hushes me from ranting as she rolls down my window and the guy peers in. 

He wasn't that bad looking, so if he was a murderer at least I was murdered by an attractive person.

"Thank you so much for stopping." The guy was red in the face. They had definitely been out here for a while. "Yeah, no problem. What are you kids doing on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere? Also how long have y'all been out here?" Tayla questions. He shrugs, "A couple of hours, I think. We're on our way to Florida for vacation and our Uber driver kicked us out because he had things to do or something stupid, we've kind of been stranded out here for a while. I thought people had Southern Hospitality down here but I guess not, no one has stopped or anything and to top it all off our phones are either dead or out of service." The boy frowns. My aunt nods as she takes in everything the guy had just told us.