Over 3,000 Miles

Anytime

        (Clara's P.O.V.)

        When I woke up, my ears were flooded with a soft humming noise. I opened my eyelids slowly, having to squint due to the bright light cascading in from the windows. I could feel a hand running gently through my ponytail, twisting it, then smoothing it back to normal. I looked up and the humming stopped when I made eye contact with Luke. He had a lazy smile on his face and his golden blond hair was messy, no longer in the perfect quiff it was in yesterday at the start of our trip.

        "Morning Clara." Luke spoke, his voice deep and scratchy from not using it.

        "Morning Luke." I smiled at him, placing a hand softly on his chest.

        We sat there for quite a while in silence, the only sounds coming from birds or cars outside. He kept playing with my hair as I rested my head on his chest, next to my hand. It rose and fell as he breathed, his heartbeat soft and steady. We were perfectly content just laying there, enjoying each other's company in the peaceful silence.

        "Can we just stay like this all day?" Luke asked me, looking down into my eyes.

        I lifted my head up to look at him better, smiling. "I'd love to, but then our trip would have to take a little break for the day. We only have three weeks." 

        "So what?" He asked. "You can always request more time off." 

        "Yeah, cause that went so well last time." I replied sarcastically.

        "True, but you still have your job." I shrugged at his comment.

        "That's both a good and bad thing." I smiled and he laughed, smiling down at me.

        "Clara, you should just quit if you are that miserable with it." 

        "I can't Luke." I sighed, looking down at my hand.

        "Why not?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

        "Because I have this deal with my parents," I started, looking back up at him. "Where if I help pay for college I can go anywhere I want. If I have no job, I have no money, so I can't help them, and I definitely do not want to stay there for college." 

        "Why don't you just get a different job to help them?" He asked after staying quiet for a minute.

        "It's impossible to get a job when you have barely any experience in anything. I'm lucky I even have the job I do." 

        He frowned, wrapping both of his arms around me. "I'm sorry, Clara. I wish I could get you out of there." 

        "It's alright, you don't have to apologize. I'm taking a year off to look at colleges before I go, so it's not that much longer." I shrugged, resting my head back on his chest.

        "Have you thought about where you wanna go yet?" He asked me, looking at the wall in front of us.

        "Not really. I'm just hoping it will be out of this area." 

        "If you could go to college at any school in the world, where would you go?"

        "I don't know." I thought for a minute. "Maybe somewhere on the west coast. Or maybe somewhere overseas." I looked up at him, seeing a small smile on his face.

        "What about Australia?" He asked.

        "Maybe, but I know I don't have the money for that. Why do you ask?"