"How are we going to get out of this town?" Sleep filled Maple's voice. Her head lay in Staton's lap; slowly his fingers laced every red strand cascading down his thigh. A shallow sigh and a couple breaths later she sat up sitting on his lap leaning...
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"Can we get going now? It's really cold out here." Aria shivers, holding her arms tightly around her body. Breygan stares at her, biting his lip as if that would stop him from holding her close to him. Yet he never moved. Maybe he noticed I was staring, or maybe he just simply chickened out but he should have made a move.
"Yeah, let's head to the truck. Who is the wettest and coldest? We need to try and shove all of you girls in the truck to keep you guys warm. Breygan do you trust one of them to drive the truck?" Staton tried to make a plan, but everyone seemed staggered in thought.
"No, absolutely not!" Breygan nearly shouts, his fiery personality growing bolder in the cold frosty air. It'd gotten dark while we were talking. The waves were the only thing reminding us where we were as we worked through our thoughts.
We had to continue on, going home would mean we were giving up. Maybe everyone didn't believe that, but we were a team, a new family. We had to stick together.
"It's fine, the other two girls can sit in the front and I'll sit in the back with you." My voice was much softer than the others. I was mostly just speaking to Staton hoping he would just go with it. We needed to get back on the road, or else we would be spending the night here, on the beach, freezing our asses off in the midst of the waves.
Staton looked at me as if I had kicked him in the gut. I could see the worry in his eyes, having me in the back of the truck with him. I rubbed my hands across my sleeves. I had a sweatshirt I could throw on that had been in the truck. It'd be warmer than the wet shirt I was currently wearing. After you count all the blankets that we had gathered, we should be able to manage a few hours drive in the back of the truck without freezing. I shrugged my shoulders closing the distance between the two of us. Whatever it took to make sure he knew I was serious. We needed to get back on the road before we could really do anything else.
"Well then let's get to California," Breygan mutters, much softer than before. We never really got along all that well, but things had never been this bad between us. It was easy for us to just ignore us. Usually, Breygan was the joker of the group and I was the mother. Staton and I were always teased that we were the parents, trying to take care of everyone.
The group heads towards the truck, assembling our things before taking our seats. Off in the direction towards hopefully a sunnier state.
~*~
The sun was bright, nearly burning my skin.
"We are going to have amazing tans after this." I groaned.
I stare up at the bright blue sky, amazed at how different a state line could make things. We'd crossed the California border hours again, heading towards one of the bigger cities. Praying that we could make it there by lunchtime. Our snacks were running out, spending most of our time chowing down while driving, but nothing could satisfy our hunger.
We needed to sit down somewhere to eat. To find a place we could nourish our bodies and relax. We would have to figure out a place to live, which would mean we would need jobs. Eventually, we would have to find somewhere to settle down. Whether that was here in California or across the country.
