The Road Trip

Chapter 1

It's been roughly 2 weeks since the ending of it all. The ending of what should've been the best years of my teenage life, high school. But they just weren't. Far from it actually. 

For the past four years all I could dream about was getting out of my small hometown. All through high school I would stare at the clock in all of my classrooms and countdown the hours until the final bell rang. Despite my strong dislike for school, I was actually pretty intelligent. I somehow managed to be one of those students who could daydream all period long and still get an A on an exam. 

Struggling in school wasn't my issue- it was the people in it. In this town you can't go anywhere without running into someone you know. Everyone knew everyone, and knew everything about everyone. The people in this town were all the same with no sense of originality. Like everyone is content with being in this 1 square mile of a town forever. Everyone but Austin.

Austin Goodwin was my best friend, and has been ever since we started messing around in kindergarten. He always had the need to steal my crayons. I don't even remember how or why we started talking in the first place. But we were stuck with each other now. Growing up with a guy best friend though definitely confused things. I think we both have a fear of someone not feeling the same thing. Or the possibility of wrecking a 16 year old friendship. So no one ever said anything. 

 This is Skyler by the way. I don't think I mentioned that. I'm 18 years old from ass-crack New Jersey. I won't even bother telling you the name, no one's heard of it. Growing up here, you would understand my and Austin's need of wanting to leave it. So the last couple of months of school Austin and I started coming up with a plan. A brilliant plan if we do say so ourselves.

We were going to drive from New Jersey all the way to California. We had no idea what we would do when we get there but that was the beauty of it. Not knowing. The last two months were spent making lists of everything we would need. How much food we would need, how much money we needed to bring and how much we needed to save. We even calculated how many times we're going to need to stop for gas so we never run out. It was also probably the most math i've seen Austin do all year.

Although we were 18 and legally allowed to do what want, we still wanted to ask the old parents. Austin's was pretty cool with it as long as we don't do anything stupid. This was one of the many times I wished his parents were mind, as weird as that would be. It was just me and my mom Debra all alone in the house. My father ran before they could try for baby #2 and my mom was always too work crazed to look for someone else. 

It sounds pretty sad I know. But my mom was brought up in a wealthy family and she was very well off without my father. But she had this image of me and expectations she wanted me to reach. So when it came time to asking her about the road trip I already knew what her answer would be.

"But Austin's parents said they're cool with it. They actually trust their 18 year old son". I said bitterly at her.

"I don't care what the Goodwin's think, they're not your mother, I am. I'm not about to let my daughter put her life on hold just to go on little kiddy joy ride." she said back to me. That was that. Once she gives you an answer there's no changing her mind. But that didn't mean I had to accept it.