you can't fight cancer 🖤

New Friends and Long Drives

Zach's POV:
"i didn't kidnap her, she wanted to run away and i wasn't letting her go alone." i say to the cop. "you have the right to remain silent." he said closing the door on me. he walks over to alex, who was still sitting in the passengers seat of my mom's car. i'm pretty sure he just asked her to step out of the vehicle but she has the doors locked and she turned the music up. he knocked on the window and said pretty loudly "ma'am if you don't get out of the car, you're going to be towed with it." and with that she stepped out of the car and walked over to the cop car. he gestured for her to get in the front seat but she came into the back and sat next to me. "ma'am, you can't sit there." she stayed quiet. "alex, just get in the front." i say. she turns to me and shakes her head. "i want to sit with you." i look at the cop and shrug. he sighed and closed the door. the drive started off silent, but then alex opened her mouth. "you know this is bullshit. i'm pregnant, i have cancer, both my parents are dead and i'm sitting in the back of a fucking cop car." the cop looked at her in the rear view mirror. "you could've sat in the front." i tried not to laugh but i couldn't help it. she gave me a death glare so i turned to the window. i don't really know how we ended up here but i'm glad we were caught.

~3 weeks earlier~
we had just left alex's house and we were aimlessly driving on the highway. "alex we need to go back-" "no! i'm done, i want to travel, get out of the house, be with you." "you're not gonna get better by leaving. you need to be home, with the nurses, getting treated so you can get better." "zach do you not understand that if the treatment doesn't work, and i die i will have so many regrets. i will never get the chance to live." "but you don't know if your gonna die. not doing the treatment at all, you're just asking for it." "if you don't wanna come with me, fine. drop me off at the bus station and i'll runaway myself." "you know i would never do that. but eventually we're gonna get caught. i'm driving with a permit for christ sake. i've only ever been allowed to drive in town since my mom is friends with the cops. omg my mom, she and grace are probably calling them as we speak. i have to call her." alex took my phone. "you cant." "why not?" "i don't want anyone knowing where we are."

after 10 hours of driving, alex fell asleep. i pulled over to get some gas and took my phone back. i stepped out of the car and started calling jack. "jack, hey it's me. yeah we are driving to cali. alex said she wants to live before she dies and i told her she's gonna kill herself by doing this. no jack, you can't. because i promised alex i wouldn't tell anyone where we are going. yes i know i only have a permit. oh shit she's waking up. tell my mom i love her. bye." i put my phone back and continued to pump the gas. "where are we?" she said wiping her eyes. "arizona" she said she needed to pee and i told her to wait for me, but nope she headed towards the 7-11. i stop pumping the gas and go in after her. "you really aren't good at taking directions" i say holding the door for her. "i'm done being told what to do" "i see that" i waited outside the bathroom door while looking at the cashier. he looked kinda familiar. alex stepped out of the bathroom and headed towards the snack aisle. she began piling chips, pop tarts, granola bars, bread and peanut butter in my arms. "alex-" "we need food for the road." she said, lifting a case of water. we put everything on the counter and i finally realize who the cashier was. "jonah? jonah marais?" i ask. "do i know you?" he replied with a stare. "i'm zach herron!" i say putting my arm out to shake his hand. "no way! you're jack's friend!" he shook my hand. "oh uh this is my girlfriend alex." "hi." she said with a half smile. "so what are you doing in arizona?" i ask. "i'm just here for the month, checking out some colleges with my sister. thought i'd make some money before going back home. what about you guys?" "we are headed to cali, here's my number, maybe we can hang when you get back?" "of course! i go back next week! oh and this'll be $5" "only $5?" i ask shaking my head. "that cant be right" "hey! any friend of jack's is a friend of mine" he smiled. i thanked him and we headed out the door. "well great! now he's gonna tell jack where we are." alex said getting into the car. "hey! he just gave us all this food for free, be grateful." i pulled out of the lot and we were back on the road. she turned to me. "yeah okay zach. i'll be grateful that i'm on the run and now we're gonna have people following us." "hey! i'm doing this for you because i love you. and if you're not happy, why are we even doing this?" "i don't know" she sighed. "i just want to get to cali. maybe see if the doctors there can tell me another way to get through this, i'm sick of being on house arrest." "it's okay, the car gps says we'll be there in another 10 hours, try and rest." "okay, i love you zach herron." "i love you too"

~10 hours later~
once we saw the Los Angeles exit, alex's face lit up. i was completely exhausted. i guess we'll be using the car as our hotel. i wish we had planned this out. brought clothes, blankets, and stuff- wait a second. "alex, open the glove compartment." "it's locked." i pull over and try looking for a key or anything i could to open it. she then took a bobby pin out of her hair and she opened it. "you're a genius" i say as i take out the box that was in there. inside was a stack of my moms emergency money, credit cards, and gift cards. "jackpot! did you know this was here?" "no, i just remember my mom would always keep it locked and before we went out somewhere in my dad's car she would say she forgot something in hers. now i know. i'll have to pay her back somehow" "let's find a hotel." alex suggested. we drove to the nearest hotel and when we started walking inside, alex stopped me. "we aren't 18, how are we supposed to get in?" i then pulled out my fake ID from my wallet. "you- i don't even wanna know what you use that for." i laughed and put my arm around her. we got checked in, no questions asked and headed up to our room. "i'm gonna shower real quick okay?" i say walking into the bathroom. "okay" she said starting to eat some of the snacks we had brought in from the car.
i quickly showered and when i came out, she was sleeping. i got into the bed next to her and she put her head on my chest and wrapped her arm around me. i love her so much. i then drifted off into sleep.

when i woke up, it was about 11pm and alex was gone. "shit!" i whisper yelled to myself while jumping out of the bed. i ran to the bathroom, she wasn't in there i picked up my phone to call her but it was dead. i looked out the window trying to remember where we even parked and the car was still there. where could she be? i put a shirt on and grabbed the second room key and went down to the lobby. i saw her sitting in the lounge, charging her phone. i let out the biggest sigh of relief and went over to sit with her. "there you are! gosh i almost had a heart attack" i say. "zach, i left you a note on the desk." she says. "oh. i didn't look for a note." she laughed. "so i've been researching the doctors around here, and i found one that i think can help me." "that's great, we'll go see him after we go shopping and buy some new clothes." i say. "do you wanna go find like a in n out or something?" she asks. "yes!" i say a little too excitedly. we went out to the car and drove around until we found one. we went inside and sat at a table. i thought i recognized the two guys sitting at the table by the window. i got up and told alex to wait there. i went over to their table and said "hey i don't mean to sound creepy but i feel like i know you guys." they both looked at each other than back at me. "yeah you look really familiar too." the blonde one said. "wait i know!! he's jacks friend!" the brunette said. "it's zach right?" "yeah and you guys are daniel and corey-?" "corbyn!" he said laughing. they both stood up and gave me a bro hug. "i thought you lived in texas?" daniel asked. "i do but i'm on a road trip with my girlfriend. "oh jack told us about what happened bro. how he and her were like a thing and then she took you back." corbyn said. "yeah but we're still cool" i say feeling awkward now. "but it's kinda crazy i bumped into jonah in arizona!" i say to them. "oh yeah he's visiting colleges with his sister." said daniel. "well when he gets back the 4 of us should hang out!" corbyn said. "and alex can hang with our girlfriends." daniel added. "sounds great! can i give you guys my number? i forgot my phone at the hotel." "yeah of course!" they took my number and i went back to alex. "so how many more of jacks friends are we gonna bump into on our trip?" she asks. our food had come while i was talking with them. "i think he's only friends with those 4. i don't really know a lot about his friends since he's known them for years whereas i met him on instagram." i say biting into my burger. "okay, so tomorrow," alex loves to plan things out, it's so cute. "we are gonna get up, go shopping, then we're gonna go to the beach-" i cut her off. "what about the doctor?" she thinks. "i don't know if i want to see him right away. maybe we'll wait a week or so?" i sigh. "okay, whatever makes you happy." a huge smile grew on her face while she planned out the rest of the next couple days. we headed back to the hotel and watched netflix until we both fell asleep.
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i figured i would try and incorporate the boys into the story since they're in LA. hope you guys like this part! sorry it took so long to update :)