All My Lasts

Chapter Two

"Callie! Come on!" I yelled, honking the horn. I was sitting in my running car, waiting on Callie to come outside and get in the car so we could leave for school.

"I'm coming!" She yelled, trotting out of the front door and down the porch steps. She had a knapsack on her back, and she was wearing one of my sweatshirts and some jeans that previously fit, but now had to be held up by a belt.

She rushed down the driveway and practically hurdled into my car.

"Logan, I feel amazing today," she grinning, squealing as she threw her bag into the back seat before buckling up excitedly and clapping. I smiled- it wasn't often that Callie felt this good this soon after chemo. I prayed that meant that maybe the treatments were working.

"You and those sneakers," I shook my head glancing down at her shoe choice before shifting the car into drive.

Callie had a yellow pair of Converse that she kept meticulously clean and wore religiously, no matter what she was wearing. Today, the bright yellow outshone my pale blue sweatshirt from some baseball team I didn't even play for anymore.

"They're happy Logan. Sometimes the world needs more happiness. Especially on days like this," Callie leaned forward and looked up at the sky through the windshield at the dark grey sky. Fat rain drops began to plop on the windshield and I flipped on the windshield wipers. They groaned and squeaked as they swiped away the water droplets.

"I love rainy days," I said. A low rumble of thunder echoed around us, and I turned off the car radio that was playing some pop song for the billionth time.

"Me too," Callie said, her tone softer. "It reminds me the sky has bad days too."

I glanced at her for a brief second before returning my eyes to the road. Her long, sandy blonde hair was tucked partially under a baby blue beanie, probably in attempt to hide some of the bald spots she had been discovering recently.

"I want to dance in it," she said suddenly. "That's something I've always wanted to do, but never have. I want to dance in the rain."

I nodded, and we sat in silence, listening to the sound of the rain pitter pattering on the car and the occasional sound of the windshield wipers moaning.

"What else have you always wanted to do?" I asked, breaking the silence. She pursed her lips, something she did in thought.

"Hmm... can I make you a list?" She asked. "There's a lot of things, but I think my top one would be, I want to go on a road trip."

"A road trip? Where to?"

"No where," she answered immediately.

"How do you take a trip to no where?" My eyebrows furrowed and I slowed down the car, signaling that I needed to turn.

"I just want to drive. I want to hang lights in the back of the Jeep and just sleep in the car. I want to just drive and when we want to do something, we just stop and do it," she paused for a moment. "I have always wanted to go to Oregon, Washington, Alaska- all of those places with oceans and forests."

I slowly entered the school parking lot, thinking about everything she had just said. Before I could say anything, though, Callie jumped to another subject, blabbing about nothing in particular.

Slowly, I eased the Jeep into a parking spot and Callie stopped talking.

"You know the drill," I said. She reached into the back and grabbed her bag, pulling out a paper mask and looping it over her ears. She looked at me and rolled her eyes before holding out her hands, and I squirted some hand sanitizer into them before doing the same to my own.