CHAPTER 2

June Flynn hugged her son tight, then turned to hug me just as closely. ‘Now, drive safe, okay? Stick within the speed limit. I swear to God, Lee, if you come back with a single speeding ticket, you’ll be grounded until your college graduation. And you, miss …’ She turned to me with one eyebrow arched and her arms crossed. ‘You keep him in check, Elle, do you hear me? And neither of you drive if you’re too tired.’

‘We know, Mom.’ Lee sighed.

I’d just had pretty much the same conversation – for the dozenth time – with my dad before I’d come over to Lee’s. Brad, my eleven-year-old brother, had been sulking and complaining loudly for the last few days. Lee and I had only broken the news about our coast-to-coast road trip to our parents after we’d planned our route, decided where we wanted to stop and made a playlist. Brad was desperate to join us – he’d even given Lee the cold shoulder until we were leaving … which was a big deal. Brad idolized Lee.

‘Can’t I go with them, though?’ he’d begged Dad.

Lee had crouched down and clapped a hand on Brad’s shoulder. ‘Hey, buddy,’ he whispered loudly. ‘Look, between you and me … it’s gonna be really boring. We’re gonna be stuck in a car for days. And there’ll be traffic. If you really want to get stuck in a car with your sister for almost a week …’

Brad thought about it for a minute, pouting, before asking, ‘Will you send me pictures if you stop somewhere cool? And get me a souvenir from New York?’

‘Cross my heart,’ Lee promised.

June’s lecture was carrying on in the same way my dad’s had – although she told Lee to listen to me and reminded me to look after Lee, whereas my dad had made Lee swear to watch out for me, and told me to listen to Lee.

‘And if you do get in an accident –’

‘I know the drill, Mom. Dad’s told me what to do a hundred times. I’ve got insurance, and Noah taught me how to change a tire. We’ve got this.’

June pursed her lips for a long moment before throwing her arms round both of us. ‘I’ll be tracking you on Find My Friends.’

‘You never should’ve taught her how to use that,’ Lee muttered to me. I just shrugged. I wasn’t overly sorry. I’d had more than a few texts from June asking if I’d heard from Noah, she hadn’t heard from him in a while and was worried about him, she assumed I would have talked to him and, if I hadn’t, that she was right to worry. Eventually, I’d had enough, and showed her how to use Find My Friends so she’d stop worrying so much.

We finished saying our goodbyes. Lee’s old ’65 Mustang convertible was already loaded up with our bags, plenty of snacks and drinks and some blankets. We’d put together a fifteen-hour, thirty-two-minute playlist for the trip, and Lee had replaced the stereo system in his car a while back, so we could plug in our phones.

June waited on the porch to see us off, her cardigan wrapped round her and one hand up to block the sun from her eyes. Lee checked his mirrors and started the engine as I buckled my seatbelt. He had the roof down so I pulled my hair into a ponytail to save it from the wind. I unhooked my sunglasses from the neck of my tank top and put them on, then plugged in my cell. Spotify was open in one app, our route in another.

My phone buzzed. It was a text from Noah. My heart skipped a beat and I cradled my phone as I read it.

Can’t wait to see you in a few days. Got so much cool stuff planned for when you get here xxx

Lee’s seatbelt clicked into place. The first song started up. It was Lee’s choice: Rihanna’s ‘Shut Up and Drive’. He beamed at me, his blue eyes glittering in the sunlight, his dark brown hair pushed back from his face, and his fingers flexing round the steering wheel. He revved the engine, his eyebrows waggling.

‘You ready, Shelly?’

‘Ready,’ I told him. My mind drifted to my reunion with Noah. ‘Now, shut up and drive.’

When you think about it, driving almost nonstop across the country for four or five days doesn’t actually sound like much fun. I mean, sitting in a car all that time, getting stuck in traffic, grabbing quick bites to eat at fast-food restaurants. Plus, we actually had somewhere to be, so we weren’t stopping to look around every new town, or going to see the World’s Largest Ball of Twine, or visiting the Shoelace Museum or whatever it was we passed.

Brad definitely would’ve hated it.

But four hours in, we’d almost made it to Arizona, and I was loving every second.

Ever since Lee and I had first talked about taking a mini road trip from New York to Boston, I had been picturing it in my head: a cute, mellow indie tune playing (probably featuring a banjo), Lee and I laughing, the windows down, and the sun shining on our faces. I’d told myself it was just a fantasy …

But that was almost exactly how it was right now.

Admittedly, the song playing wasn’t by some banjo-backed indie band. It was a duet from Les Mis, and Lee knew every word. Rachel was in the drama club and Les Mis was this year’s school production, and Lee, always the dutiful boyfriend, had practiced with her a bunch. He’d added a ton of show tunes to our playlist, actually.

‘Come on, Shelly,’ he cried out, his face creased with laughter. ‘You promised you’d sing the other parts!’

‘Why can’t I be what’s-her-name? Why do I have to be Eddie Redmayne?’

‘Because I’m always Marius. I never get to be Cosette. Just give me this, Shelly. Let’s start again. Hand me another Red Vine?’

I passed him one. We’d rationed the snacks carefully before leaving, and I was on snack ration duty while Lee was behind the wheel. I was glad we’d thought ahead – otherwise we’d have easily blown through two days’ worth of snacks by now.

It was the fifth time Lee had played this song, so I was starting to remember most of the lyrics. Lee was actually pretty good, but he sang with a terrible exaggerated French accent. I kept bursting into giggles, no matter how hard I tried to keep a straight face. We’d had to turn up the stereo really loud to hear it over the wind and the noise of other cars, but when Lee couldn’t keep it together any more and broke off halfway through a line, all I could hear was his laughter.

The roof was down and the wind whipped around us, tangling my hair and blowing Lee’s into a total mess. The sun was a little hot, but I didn’t mind at all, and the sky was the kind of bright blue that’s never as nice in a photo, no matter how much you play with the filter. The road stretched out ahead. Palm trees had been replaced by scrubland, and brown-grey mountains lined patches of the horizon.

The sun and wind were in my face, Lee was hooting with laughter beside me, and there was the promise of the trip still to come. I’d never felt so free.