how to catch feelings

63

It was just after eight when my phone buzzed with a text.

"Are you busy?" Cole asked.

"Why?"

"A few of us are going for a drive. Do you want to come?"

"Who is 'us'?"

"Me, Charlize, Amanda, Evan."

Funnily enough, Charlize had been the one to introduce Cole and me in the first place.

"So? Do you want to come?" he asked again.

I bit my lip and then texted back. "Yeah."

"Awesome. We're actually already headed your way."

Dang.

I hurried to get my things together, stopping to check my reflection in the mirror on my way out of my room.

Ew. But no time to fix that. Whatever. It was fine.

Damaris and Meg were in the kitchen, standing over boiling pots of pasta.

"Going out?" Damaris asked.

"Yeah."

"With Cole?"

"Among others." I slipped on my boots and was out the door.

There was a souped up pickup truck lingering at the curb. Amanda waved from the passenger seat.

I went around on the left side, where Charlize had scooted over to make room for me. "Hey, girl!"

"Hey."

"So where are we driving to?" I asked.

Evan laughed from the driver's seat. "Cole told you we were going for a drive?"

"Is that not what we're doing?"

"Well, sort of." Charlize elbowed me, smiled. "Don't worry, it'll be fun."

"Yeah, sure." This was not an anxious person's idea of fun, not knowing what she had gotten herself into.

Too late. We were already zooming out of the parking lot, heading out the back corner of campus, where the pavement ended and gave way to dirt.

It was as we flew down one of these pot-holed dirt roads that I started to form my suspicions. I'd grown up in a small rural town. I knew how these nights went.

Sure enough, Evan slowed the truck next to a field that had already been harvested. "Everyone ready?" he asked.

He didn't even give anyone the chance to answer before he revved the truck again and we shot off the road into the field.

Now, despite growing up in a town whose square mileage was at least half farmland, I had never been part of one of these excursions.

And for good reason.

I wanted to throw up from nerves.

What if we got caught?

What if we went to jail?

Oh my God, what if my parents found out?

"Nat, chill," Charlize said.

Evan did a few more figure-eights before winding his way back to the road. "On to the next stop?" he asked.

"Sure thing," Cole said.

I didn't even bother to ask. I probably didn't want to know.

But to my great relief, we made our way back into civilization, pulling into the Meijer parking lot.