We drove almost nonstop through Illinois (where there was barely a hill or a mountain in sight), past the cornfields of Indiana, and along turquoise Lake Erie in Ohio (which we decided we definitely couldn’t miss seeing) to make up for all the time we’d spent in Missouri. Each state seemed even greener than the last. It was a different world from what we were used to in California.
We drove almost nonstop…We did hang out for a while at Lake Erie, watching the sunrise and eating breakfast before I took over the next driving shift.
I could tell from Noah’s texts that he was a little annoyed by our detour in Missouri. I confronted him about it over the phone at a gas station while Lee used the bathroom and bought more drinks, and Noah gave in.
“I’m sorry. I know you guys had a blast, and I’m glad you did. The deer picture was cute. Amanda loved it. I just—I miss you, Elle.”
I softened at how quiet and sad his voice had become. “I miss you, too. But, you know, how many times are we gonna be in Missouri?”
“You get me a souvenir, at least?” he asked, and I knew all was forgiven.
We had, in fact, been buying plenty of souvenirs. We’d bought refrigerator magnets in every state—two in each so we both had one, of course. And we’d taken pictures at every state line, or as near to it as we could stop.
After I hung up, I went into the gas station and bought Noah the lamest thing I could find: a keychain that said O-hi-o there.
We climbed back into the car and I checked the map. The quickest route to Boston might have been to keep going along the lake and drive up past Buffalo, but we were trying to hit as many states as we could (without being overambitious), and we really wanted to visit New York City, just like we’d planned from the start. We were still planning to see a play on Broadway. So instead of traveling farther north, we added a couple of hours to our trip by heading back south toward Philadelphia. That way, we’d be going through Connecticut and New Jersey on the way to Boston, too, and we could add a couple of extra magnets to our collection.
I zoomed out a little too far on the map by accident, and something caught my eye.
“Hey! We’re not that far from Detroit!”
Lee raised an eyebrow. “What’s in Detroit you wanna see?”
I shook my head, screenshotting the map and then going into my text messages. “Nothing, I guess. It’s just where Levi’s from.”
Our buddy Levi had been new to school at the start of senior year after moving from Detroit, and he had easily fallen into place in our group. While Lee was focusing on football and Rachel, and while Noah was all the way across the country, I’d grown pretty close to Levi. Very close, I guess, since he’d had a crush on me, and I’d kind of made out with him at Thanksgiving. But that was water under the bridge, and he was one of my best friends. I mean, he was no Lee, but nobody ever would be.
I’d actually thought it would’ve been kind of nice to have Levi along for the road trip, but I hadn’t even considered suggesting it. This trip was about me and Lee, and Boston was about me and Noah. Adding Levi to the equation would have been…messy.
I texted Levi after sending him the screenshot. Check out where we are! Totally going to detour to your old place to stalk your old friends and find out embarrassing stories about you.
Lee just nodded. I’d told him there was nothing between me and Levi and that I wasn’t interested in him, but whatever I said, Lee remained unconvinced.
He bit the inside of his cheek in silent judgment, which reminded me that I really had no right to get mad about Noah and Amanda’s friendship. They, at least, had never kissed.
“Don’t,” I told him.
“I didn’t say anything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please. Like you even had to.”
Lee shrugged, holding up his palms in surrender.
My phone buzzed with a reply. Please, Lake Michigan is waaaay more interesting if you do head out that way.
And then: BTW, hung out with Brad earlier. He’s missing Lee. Like, a lot. I’m teaching him lacrosse this afternoon. You guys so owe me.
I showed Lee the message, and he laughed. “He’s such a pushover.”
“He’s just nice. Brad really likes him.”
“Buuuut not as much as he likes me.”
“Hmm, you have abandoned him for spring break to drive cross-country with yours truly. I dunno. Last time you ditched an Evans for a girl, they got pretty close with Levi….”
Lee shoved me. “Get driving, Evans. We’ve got places to be. And I did not ditch you for Rachel.”
“You so did.”
“All right. Maybe a little. But you know I love you.”
“I do. Did you get me a Diet Coke?”
Lee paused. “Shoot.” And just as I put the car in gear to drive off, he unbuckled his seat belt and leaped out the door to run back inside.
Lee took over driving right before we got to New Jersey. I fell asleep somewhere near Newark, and when I woke up, I was completely disoriented. It was late afternoon, and the Manhattan skyline was nowhere near as close as it should be.
But—it was totally breathtaking.
Fluffy gray springtime clouds gathered in the sky above the city, reminding me of a snow globe.
“What…” I rubbed my hands over my face, then sat up and combed my fingers through my hair in an effort to wake myself up. The clock on the dash showed I’d been asleep for almost two hours…during what was supposed to be a thirty-minute drive.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Welcome to the Big Apple,” Lee said, sounding tetchy and jerking his arm around. “The city that never sleeps. Or stops driving, apparently. I’ve barely moved for, like, forty minutes now. You know how I know that? I got through a whole podcast, and we’re no closer to the city. I called my mom. She said there’s been a really bad accident, and there’s roadworks going on, too. This is worse than rush hour.”
“Oh, damn.”
Bumper to bumper and surrounded by honking horns, we weren’t exactly in the movie-worthy scene of the unforgettable spring break we’d been imagining. I couldn’t help laughing at the look of pure exasperation on Lee’s face, though.
“You should’ve woken me up,” I told him. “We could’ve played I spy.”
“I spy…something beginning with ‘s.’ ”
“Hmm…Is it…skyscraper?”
“Bingo.” His chuckle quickly turned into a sigh as he shook his head. “I called Noah, too. He said we should just turn round, avoid Manhattan altogether.”
“Well, I mean, I guess we could—”
Lee cut me a look. “I did not sit in all this traffic to not get into the city, Elle. Besides, my mom’s already looking at Broadway tickets for tonight. She’s gonna call back when she’s found a good deal for something she thinks we’d like.”
“I could’ve done that.”
“I didn’t wanna wake you up,” he said.
I smiled. Lee could drive me crazy sometimes, but he was a sweetheart. And would he even be my best friend if he didn’t drive me up the wall?
Then he added, “Not when you were drooling like that. I grabbed a great picture of you to send to Noah. Mouth wide open, nostrils flared, at least three chins going on…” He mimicked the pose, which was both hilarious and mortifying.
I self-consciously wiped around my mouth and chin with one hand, then smacked Lee’s arm.
Would he even be my best friend if he didn’t embarrass me?
Before I could joke back at him, he was focused on switching lanes and the smile slipped from his face. So far on the drive we’d been loving it, but right now Lee looked more stressed than I’d seen him in a long while.
Gently, I said, “Hey, we could always come back through on the drive home, you know.”
Lee shook his head and tightened his hands around the steering wheel. His knuckles turned white. “No. No, we’re doing this now. We’re not that far away. And—” He cut himself off with a sudden sigh, and his shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. It’s just…this is just how we planned it, you know? This trip is supposed to be perfect.”
I squeezed his hand near me. “I know. I’ll look up parking near Broadway, okay? We can plug it into the map then.”
“Thanks, Shelly.”
I think we both knew, really, that it didn’t matter. We could skip our little stop in New York and visit on the way home instead, or we could plan another trip for the summer. If the trip didn’t go exactly as planned, it wasn’t the end of the world…. Right?
But it was. To look at Lee’s face, it was absolutely the end of the world. This was our big plan and our epic spring break, and we’d loved the idea of going to New York City on the way to Boston. If we didn’t, it would spoil everything and we’d be leaving the state with a sour taste in our mouths. We wouldn’t even be able to sing along to our playlist any more. Sure, being spontaneous was great. When things you can’t control get in your way, well, you’ve just gotta deal and move on…. But this wouldn’t be like that, I thought, determination setting in. We’d be giving up and admitting defeat, and turning our backs on this adventure and all the grand ideas we’d had for it.
Neither of us was willing to do that. We were going to make this trip everything we’d imagined it to be, and nothing could stop us.
So we sat in traffic, inching along toward the city. When Lee’s mom called to let us know she’d grabbed the last two tickets online to Hamilton for an absolute steal, I put the soundtrack on and broke out the emergency snacks to cheer up Lee.
He cheered up pretty quickly. Soon enough, he was talking about spending time with Rachel and her family at Brown and saying, “I could fly into New York. Meet her here. We could see everything. All the plays. Has she ever told you about her pipe dream to move to New York one day? I mean, she calls it a pipe dream, but I think she could do it, you know?”
I had to smile, listening to the way Lee talked about his girlfriend. He was utterly head over heels for her.
“Speaking of seeing everything, I don’t think we’ll get to see the Statue of Liberty,” I told him. I tried not to sound too disappointed. I’d been really looking forward to it. But then, we hadn’t planned on arriving in New York so late. All that time in Missouri had really thrown off our plans.
“Shelly, if you can put up with me singing Wicked when I can’t hit any of the high notes, I can get you to the Statue of Liberty. You just watch.”
An hour before we had to be at Hamilton, Lee was navigating the hellish roads of New York, cursing every other second and flinching whenever a cab swerved around him because he was driving too carefully. We found somewhere to pull in to watch the sun set over the Hudson and admire the Statue of Liberty.
After a nightmare afternoon, the day turned into a total dream.