Six: Midnight Rider

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"That was fun," laughs Emmett, his wavy hair poking out the collar of his striped T-shirt as he pulls it on. He throws Lucy's old white blouse onto the floor of the bus and shivers. "But I'm never doing that again."

"Oh, don't worry," says Levi once he's dressed. He slides across the floor and delves into a search through my duffle bag. I take a peek over at the driver's seat where Lucy sits, sunglasses on, hair tied back. She sings along to the song playing blissfully on the radio. I smile and look back at Levi. He's found my phone.

"Okay, let's see," he hums, tapping in my passcode. I scoot over, wiping the makeup from my face with a tissue I had taken from the hotel room. The Instagram account shines brightly through the eyelashes clinging on to my halfway-closed eyes. "Dude!" He scrambles over next to Lucy.

"What is it?" asks Emmett, who is copied by Antione, who is still wearing a dress.

"Joey's account's blown up!"

Lucy drops her glasses on her lap and stops singing along to the radio. "What?"

"Yeah!" He shows us the page, and my eyes grow wider than a dozen Olympic pools. Wow. Wow. Wow. We have a ton of messages from people at our school, and messages from people we don't even know.

I hadn't noticed that Levi had smuggled my phone out of my bag last night, as there was a post that read, "Colorado- Day Two!" that had a picture of the mini fridge, this time filled with little bottles of liquor. I swipe and see another picture- a selfie of Lucy and Levi (also, just to get this clear, I HATE selfies). Actually, now that I think of it, I kind of hate social media in general. Hey- if it makes me famous...

"I thought this was supposed to be my account," I say in a salty voice. Levi shrugs and tosses me the cell phone.

"Okay, then. Answer a few calls, and they'll know for sure." I accept the device and click on a random username. The cell phone rings until a boy I'm familiar with picks up.

"Hey, man," I say in a mock-cool tone. "What's up?"

"Adrian! Put down the phone! I found a Pokemon!" I chuckle.

"Adrian, are you still chillin' with that crazy redhead?" Adrian's a senior as well, but much shorter than all of us. And the kid's obsessed with octopi, I'm telling you.

"Yeah... um... Joe?"

"Yeah?"
"How'd you get your friends to go on this trip with you?" I can hear him trying to quiet down his enthusiastic comrade. "I'm just asking because I'm trying to get a search party together- I'm trying to find the octopus."

"Good for you!" shouts Lucy from the front seat. I hadn't noticed that the volume was that high. Adrian's always been trying to find sea creatures and stuff. Before I know it, he's gonna be on Animal Planet.

"Thanks," says Adrian through the microphone. He's on a boat. I can now hear the ocean. "Good luck on your mission, man. Hope the parents don't catch you!"

"Thanks, man." He hangs up and I lean back against the side of the bus. I have to be honest here- I kind of wanted to bring Adrian. The thing is, it's senior year for Adrian. Time for his own activities before he's shipped off to some other school. He's been researching his whole life, and I wouldn't want to take his one chance away from him.

My finger presses the cool metal button on the side of my cell phone, and I let out a deep sigh. Next up- Oklahoma. I was planning to keep a low profile and stay in Colorado for another lazy spring day, but succeeding our little dress-up rendezvous, we had to scurry. Today, I'm planning to curl up in the backseat, wrap myself in a beach towel, and dream about a scenario where we actually keep our heads during this unpredictable escape.

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