The Pact We Once Made

Road Trips and Promises

After I waved to Skye and turned to unlock my door, a hand pressed itself against the window and stopped me. My hand was already halfway to reach for the pepper spray on my purse when I looked in the reflection and saw Camden.

I turned around and crossed my arms. "Did you need something?"

"Yeah, I do, actually," he said but I leaned against the door to block his reaching hand.

"What is it?"

"I rode here with Jude cause he crashed at my house but now he wants to ride alone." I looked down and saw a duffel bag sitting on the ground.

"Were you planning on staying in town?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, I always have a bag always packed in case I need to go somewhere and..." he trailed off.

"Of course," I sighed resignedly. "Okay fine, put your bag in the backseat."

I unlocked the door and he threw it on the seat then closed the door. I tried as hard as I could to not think about all the times I had seen him do that before.

We got in the car and I just sat there staring at the steering wheel, laughing at myself internally. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. Another part of me wanted to cry because he was sitting there next to me, and I couldn't do anything about it. Yet, another part of me was saying that he said he still loved me and I could just tell him that I still did too.

But then I'd always have that constant knot in my stomach, the worry that he'll go off again and it won't work out. And I don''t know if I could live like that.

I finally started the car and tuned the radio to Air 1, 96.1 when suddenly memories of us listening to the station filled my mind.

This was our station.

I realized I never actually stopped listening to it.

I felt him looking at the side of my head. I turned and looked at him. "You can turn the radio station if you want," I breathed out and turned back to the windshield.

"Okay," I heard him whisper, barely understandable, and I backed out of the parking lot, following Skye and Bentley.

~ ~ ~

An hour and a half later, we all stopped at a gas station for pee breaks and for us to get overpriced and way too unhealthy gas station food.

"I'm leaving in 15 minutes," I said without looking at him and got out the car.

Skye obviously saw Camden and I getting out of my car and she lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "You two in the same car?" she asked and I shushed her.

"He needed a ride since Jude didn't wanna bring him." I shrugged my shoulders like it's no big deal.

It really wasn't. Just two people who were still in love with each other, riding in the same car. What could have gone wrong? Everything, actually.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure of that," she said sarcastically and I just shook my head.

"Skye, I'm fine. Really," I straightened my shoulders and smiled widely even though it was probably forced and painful to look at.

Everyone hung out in the gas station for about ten minutes before heading back to the cars to set off on the road again.

Half an hour later, we pulled into the hotel that Aliyah booked us rooms during the drive. She had sent us screenshots of the options on Hotwire and we had all given her our opinion on which hotel to pick. With that in mind, she completely ignored everyone's input (including Jameson's) and picked the one she wanted. Luckily, Aliyah was thrifty, but not cheap, so we had a pretty nice hotel, with lots of amenities, that didn't break the bank.