Keep Driving | A Short Story From 10th Grade

Jack In The Box, the best milkshakes, the best churros, the best food really, and it isn't in my state. It's already the second week of summer break, I still have no job and my friends are either busy or on vacation. I'm bored and need sunlight and am hungry. Alas, all the restaurants in Michigan are tired, I want something forbidden, a food I only had when my family and I lived in California for my dad's job until we moved back here. So what else is a bored 17-year-old to do if not take an almost 7-hour car ride to... Ohio. 

I actually kind of enjoy some places in Ohio but that would be disgracing my state so, ew. Anyway, this was kind of silly and a very last-minute Idea, but my hotel in Cincinnati has already been booked so I have the rest of today to pack and get ready for a long day of driving tomorrow! I'll probably start around 5, I still have to eat today y'know.

I in fact did not pack my bags until 12am and now it's 8:50am and I have to configure how I'm going to eat, brush my teeth, and shower within ten minutes so I can get to Cincinnati at 3pm. Spoiler, I didn't and I left at 9:55am instead, that's just how life goes sometimes. 

The drive is going well, I'm an hour and 25 minutes in and need gas, so I stop at the nearest one I could find. The sign read "Sunny's" and had a cheerful green cricket underneath. I pulled my car up to the pump and got out. The sun was beaming earlier, but since then it's cooled down, so I took down the roof of my cherry mini cooper when I noticed a familiar person. 

She was walking up the sidewalk with a burnt orange suitcase behind her, it matched her headband keeping her bushy hair from her face, and her two-piece set which was a red crop top cut at the shoulders with thin orange stripes and a sun in the middle, her maxi skirt matched and it was sparkly.

"Solaria, hey!" I called out to her. She is a classmate of mine and though we aren't extremely close, we have known each other for the greater half of 5 years.

"Oh, hey Dani!" She replied and made her way over to me.

"What are you doing here without a car?" 

"Oh just getting some food, I forgot to pack snacks, where are you headed to?"

"Oh, Cincinnati!" I purposefully ignore the reason behind my visit.

"Oh cool, can I come?"

The confusion on my face became evident. "Oh, I'm just carrying this around, I'm not going anywhere." She nudged her head toward her suitcase.

"I guess, it isn't anything important I'm going for," I answered honestly and her wide smile gleamed with excitement.

"Awesome!" She threw in her bag and asked me to wait for her as she went into the store. After about 7 minutes I was done pumping the gas and saw her skipping towards my car, two slushies in hand, one blue, the other red, a few bags of chips, and yellow star-shaped sunglasses.

"I got you a blueberry blast, that's your favorite right?"

"Yeah, I can't believe you remembered!"

After she got in and fastened her seat belt we began our journey. She put on Golden by Harry Styles and we poorly sang along, then came Put Your Records on by Corrine Bailey Rae and more of her favorite songs she felt fit road trips perfectly. 

In the middle of one song she stopped singing to ask me something, "So, why are you going to Cincy in the first place?"

I quickly glanced in her direction before turning my eyes back to the road, "Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah, otherwise I wouldn't have asked"

I rolled my eyes at her comment, which is what I presume she'll be doing once I give my answer.

"Michigan," I started and dramatically paused, "Yes, the great state for fishing!" She added.

"There might be good fishing spots, but there is no spot for Jack and the box he sits in."

"Wait, the restaurant?" She questioned, shifting up in her seat. "Wait, how long are you staying?"

"Two days."

"WHAT! Why didn't you say that before, dude?" Her voice was broken a few times through laughter.

"Well...you never asked."

She looked at me in disbelief. “I do not believe you, Dani!” She laughed more.

“Well, do you want to go home? I’ll drop you off if you don’t like my choices, miss girl!” I joke, 

“No, no, just keep driving, weirdo!”

(Yes, this was based on the Harry Styles Song, lol)