CHAPTER 3

We stopped for burgers for dinner, then I took over the driving. Lee had eaten so much at the diner that he fell asleep after maybe ten minutes, so I switched our playlist to a podcast instead. We’d sung so much during the first part of the drive that my throat was actually kind of sore. (It was so worth it, but I needed to rest my voice before the next epic singalong.)

The roof of the car was back up, and I put my window down a little. The night air was cold and refreshing. Without the lights of the city, the sky was inky black and scattered with stars winking silver and white.

Sometime around midnight, my phone rang. I pressed the Bluetooth button on the stereo and answered the call.

‘Hello?’

‘I can’t believe you guys are driving all the way from California to Boston,’ said a deep, smooth voice that made my heart skip a beat. My face melted into a smile.

‘Noah. Hi.’

‘You know, if you guys had just got on a plane to Boston and given up on the road trip, you’d be here already.’ Noah gave a soft sigh. It was even later for him. I guessed maybe he’d been at a party or something. I pictured him lying on his bed, one arm propped behind his head as he stretched out, a slow, slanted smile on his face that showed off the dimple in his left cheek. I imagined his eyes half-closed, how easily I could slot in beside him and kiss his neck.

I kind of wished I was there already.

‘You’re on speaker,’ I told him.

‘Hi, Lee.’

‘He’s asleep right now,’ I said after a beat. ‘But, you know. He might wake up. Or, knowing him, he’ll be pretending to be asleep so he can eavesdrop and use this conversation to tease me for the next few days while I’ve got no escape. So don’t say anything that’ll embarrass me too much or be too soppy.’

Noah laughed. ‘How’s it going so far?’

‘Pretty great! We’ve even got leftover snacks from today. Honestly, I thought we’d eat through the entire trip’s worth before we even got out of the state. And we’ve only almost crashed once.’

‘What?’

I waved a hand dismissively, frowning with irritation as I remembered. ‘Some guy swerved across our lane to take an exit off the interstate at the last second. There were a lot of cars honking. We didn’t tell your mom that part when we called her from the diner.’

‘Probably for the best.’

‘How come you’re up, anyway? It’s, what, two in the morning for you?’

‘There was some late-night bowling thing. I tried to bail before the karaoke started.’

I sat up straighter, grinning. ‘Please tell me you did karaoke. There had better be videos.’ I could not imagine my badass motorcycle-riding boyfriend doing karaoke. ‘Tell me you got roped into singing something totally corny, like, like, I don’t know, “Blue Suede Shoes”.’

There was a home video from when we were kids of Noah and Lee’s mom singing along to ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ on the radio. Noah was in it too, at maybe eight or nine years old, dancing along and imitating all of Elvis’ classic moves and singing half the words wrong. His parents had found the video a couple of weeks ago and Lee had saved it to his phone in case he ever needed to blackmail Noah.

‘What’s wrong with “Blue Suede Shoes”?’

‘Are you telling me you sang “Blue Suede Shoes”?’ I teased, grinning.

‘I definitely did not do karaoke,’ he told me gravely. ‘But I did definitely get videos of the other guys doing it. Great blackmail material.’

Noah and Lee were scarily alike sometimes, for all their differences.

‘So, are the other guys … um …’ My fingers drummed on the steering wheel. I gulped. ‘Are they doing anything for spring break?’

‘A bunch of people went down to Florida.’ I could practically hear his eye roll that went along with that statement. He perked up a little when he added, ‘Including Steve.’

Well, that was welcome news. Up until a couple of days ago, Noah’s room-mate still hadn’t decided how to spend spring break. I was relieved we’d have the room to ourselves.

‘A few people went home, but a lot are still around. Some of the football guys, a few people from my class …’ Noah cleared his throat. ‘And, uh, Amanda’s sticking around, too.’

I digested that news for a moment. I could understand why he sounded so awkward and stiff: Amanda was part of the reason we’d broken up for a while last year. A picture of Amanda kissing Noah’s cheek at a party, her arms wrapped round him, showed up online. I found out Noah was hiding a secret from me that she was in on, and I became convinced he was cheating on me. I’d broken up with him, breaking my own heart in the process.

And then he brought her home for Thanksgiving.

Obviously, we worked things out. Noah wasn’t cheating, but he had been hiding that he was struggling with a lot of his college classes from me. He and Amanda were just friends.

Sometimes I still had to work on being cool about it and not overreacting. They were close. Amanda was an affectionate person. But, I’d remind myself, Lee and I were close too, and there was definitely nothing romantic between us. I had to trust Noah when he said that his friendship with Amanda was similar. He gave me space to let that sink in, too, which I appreciated.

I’d seen Amanda a couple of times when I’d been on FaceTime to Noah. We followed each other on Instagram. And she was so darn nice that it was impossible to hate her even if I’d wanted to. (I’ll admit, sometimes I did want to. I was jealous that Amanda got to spend so much time with Noah, and that she had a connection with him I’d never have.)

I guessed this was how Rachel felt about me and Lee, though. I swallowed my pride and jealousy, and said, ‘That’s great! We’ll have to all grab dinner together. It’ll be nice to see her again.’

Noah didn’t do a good job of hiding how relieved he was by my reaction. His sigh whistled down the phone, and he said quietly, ‘Thanks, Elle. She’s really excited to see you again too, you know.’

‘She didn’t feel like going home for the holidays?’

Amanda was British and her parents lived somewhere in England, which was why Noah had invited her to the Flynns’ house to celebrate Thanksgiving. (Although, at the time, I didn’t know that. I’d believed they were in a relationship.)

‘She’s signed up for some volunteering project throughout spring break. You know, to boost her résumé for when she starts applying for internships. Besides, her folks are off on some cruise round Europe. She said she didn’t fancy being stuck on a ship with them for two weeks straight.’ He laughed at some joke I clearly didn’t get.

‘Ha-ha. Right. Well, hey, if there’s another bowling-and-karaoke night, we should go. I bet me and Amanda can drag you up on stage.’

‘You wish,’ he chuckled. ‘Ugh, I can’t wait to see you. Can’t you just pull in at the nearest airport and take a flight?’

‘It’s only a couple more days. We’re making great time, you know. We’re already in New Mexico. Besides, do you really want me to give up the spring break of a lifetime, driving cross-country with my bestie, just so I can spend more time making out with you?’

He didn’t even hesitate. ‘Absolutely.’

I laughed. ‘Shut up.’

‘I’m serious. You know what, when you do get here, forget about seeing Boston. Uber Eats exists. We don’t even have to leave the room. We’ll spend the whole time together.’

I flushed, then shot a quick look at Lee. His head was tipped back and he was drooling with his mouth wide open.

‘I guess I’d better let you go,’ Noah said, yawning and mumbling his words. ‘Don’t wanna distract you too much.’

I rolled my eyes, grinning. ‘Oh, please. Just admit you’re sleepy.’

‘Could stay up all night talking to you, babe.’

‘You want me to take you up on that?’

‘Goodnight, Elle,’ he said. ‘I love you. Get here soon, okay? Drive safe.’

‘Love you, too. Now get some sleep, you big goofball.’

Noah hung up and the stereo switched back to my podcast. I felt the ache in my chest I got when I really missed him. It felt like forever since I’d last seen him, even if we talked every day. Knowing I was only a couple of days (and a few thousand miles) away from seeing him somehow made the ache worse than ever. Being apart so much was so difficult. And, after spring break, I wasn’t sure when we’d next see each other.

I squared my shoulders and adjusted my hands on the steering wheel. No. It was no good thinking like that. I didn’t want to waste any of the next few days moping over how much I’d miss him afterward.

Right now, I was on the road trip of a lifetime with my best friend. I wasn’t going to let what-ifs about Noah get me down. I was going to make this the best spring break ever.