Long Rides

“What’s our next destination?” I asked to whoever wanted to answer.

“We decided to be with FTSK and ATL until they’re done touring,” Arne answered. “Basically we’re just gonna tail ‘em.”

“Okay cool,” I said, leaning my back against the car door and put my legs on Vincent’s lap.

“Before tailing us, where did you guys wanna go?” Jonathan asked.

“We don’t really have a destination, really. We love travelling a lot and we travel without destination which makes it more exciting,” Verion answered.

“Where do you guys come from?” Caleb asked.

“I’m from California, Arne’s from Ohio, Verion’s from Oklahoma, and Athe’s from New Orleans. They all moved to California,” Vincent explained.

“That’s interesting,” Kyle commented. “How old are you guys?”

“Arne’s 20, Verion’s 21, Vincent and I are 19,” this time it was me that answered.

“Your parents don’t have a problem with you travelling that young?” he asked.

“Like they ever care about us,” I snorted.

“Travelling’s basically our way to forget about home,” Arne said. “Home is where we gather with our family. In our case, we don’t have any home.”

No one said anything. The van turned into silence. No one knew what to say.

“Home sucks,” I muttered before pulling my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “Parents suck. Especially ours.”

“They basically dump us,” Vincent said.

“They love their jobs more than us,” Verion replied.

“Getting drunk and fucking each other every night were their routine,” Arne added.

“They never care about us. In fact, they love it without us,” I added again.

The three guys at the back remained silent, staring at us with sympathy. Verion reached the radio and turned it on, breaking the silence.

“Oh my god!” Verion suddenly shrieked. “Athe did you see a hot guy was driving a shiny Volvo?!”

“You mean Edward Cullen?!” I responded.

“STUPID SHINY VOLVO OWNER!” we both shouted in unison before laughing.

“No, but seriously, I saw a super hot guy driving a Volvo,” she said.

“Pft, no one’s hotter than Peter Wentz. I don’t care if he already has a wife and already has a baby son; he’s forever hot for me. He’s my secret lover too, you know.”

Verion didn’t say anything after that; I think she was rolling her eyes. “Zac Efron is hotter.”

“EWW! You did not just say that! Evan Lester is way hotter, no joke.”

“Alright. How about… Matt Prokop?”

“Oh my god – Jimmy ‘the Rocket’ Zara? He’s hot!”

“ALL I WANNA DO IS BE WITH YOU!” we sang before bursting into laughter.

“You guys should stop watching HSM3,” Arne said.

“Oh shut up. It’s your guilty pleasure,” Verion said, smacking his head, and Arne grinned.

“Yeah, they’re this random,” Vincent said to the three guys at the back that were confused. I mean, we were all gloomy and such and a moment later we were in a happy mood.

My stomach then growled. “Fuck I’m hungry. I hadn’t eaten lunch yet,” I told everyone.

“That’s bad,” Jonathan said. “I think there’s a diner around here.”

“GREAT!” Arne shouted. “I’m hungry too!”

“I’m just gonna tell the others we’re gonna stop at the diner,” Caleb said, shuffling in his seat to get his phone in his pocket.

“Kyle, show Arne the way!” Jonathan said.

“Why me?” Kyle protested.

“Just bee-cause,” Jonathan replied, extending the ‘e’ in ‘be’.

“Bee causes honey causes yummy causes healthy…” Arne suddenly rhymed.

“Since when did you rhyme?” Verion asked.

“Since Jonathan said beecause.”

“Hm. That makes sense.”

“It doesn’t for me,” I said.

“It does for me,” Vincent responded. “3 versus 1. We won.”

“Oh my god another rhyme!” Caleb exclaimed.

“Roadle doodle boo,” I randomly said.

“What’s that?” Kyle asked.

I thought for a moment. “Something random and unimportant.”

“She often makes weird words that most of them have no meaning,” Vincent said.

“And you mister, are jealous,” I said proudly.

“Please,” he scoffed.