What's Your Story?

Conner drove first which meant he got to choose the music. Kylie hooked up his iPod and he told her to put on the “Lenox Ride Playlist”. The first song was BoomBoomPow by the Black Eyed Peas. Kylie looked through the playlist as the song played.

“Do you have enough popular songs on this playlist?” Kylie asked.

“What’s wrong with having popular music?”

“Nothing.”

“What?”

“It’s just that I thought you would want more of a music choice for a five hour drive.”

“Nah, it’s hilarious to see your expressions. So,” he reached over and lowered the volume of the iPod which was now playing Poker Face. “How ya doing?”

Kylie gave him a look. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to have a conversation with you. So, once again, how ya doing?”

Kylie giggled and playfully shoved his arm. “Fine, I guess. Yourself?”

“I’m like so totally excited!” Conner exclaimed in a valley girl accent. “This is going to be like the most awesome trip evah!”

“Wow, you’re a freak.”

Conner looked shocked and scoffed. “Don’t hate on me just because you aren’t this cool.”

“What is in your coffee?” Kylie picked up Conner’s coffee cup and sniffed the lid.

He laughed and took the warm cup back. He took a quick sip and put it back in the cup holder. “It must be the vanilla. So where am I supposed to go?”

Kylie reached into her laptop bag and pulled out the MaqQuest directions she had printed out. She glanced over them and then looked out on the side of the highway where the signs were going by.

“Um…” Kylie bit her lip as she looked over the papers. “I think you should go to the next exit.”

“You think?” Conner asked.

“It says something about the west side Highway? What the hell? Do you understand this stuff?”

Conner reached over and took the paper that Kylie was waving near his face. He alternated between looking at the road and the paper. “How can you not understand this?”

“The directions just confuse me sometimes, okay! Just tell me if you know where you’re going.”

“Yes, I’m taking the next exit. Keep a look out for the exit and tell me when it comes up. It shouldn’t be for a little while.”

The exit came up a few minutes later and after they got off of it they hit early morning traffic.

“Really?” Kylie glared out of the windshield at the teal minivan in front of them. “It’s Sunday! All of you should be sleeping or at church!” she groaned and leaned back into her seat.

Conner chuckled. “Calm down, Ky. We’ll get to Lenox eventually. We’re not scheduled for any stories and we were bound to hit traffic eventually. Do you have a list of hotels or inns or anything that we can look through while we wait?”

“Yeah, hold on.” Kylie placed her half eaten bagel back in its bag and then got her laptop out.

“How much power does that have?” Conner asked as Kylie turned on the laptop and logged onto her name.

“It can last about two or three hours.” she pulled up Word and clicked on the link to Lenox Places. She went to the hotels list and scanned through it. “Okay, there’s a Holiday Inn the town over. It’s a few minutes away from Lenox. That should be good enough for four days, what do you think?”

“Sounds good. Do you have the number?”

“No. Hold on.” Kylie took out her cell phone and dialed four-one-one. Once the woman asked what she needed Kylie said, “I need the phone number for the Holiday Inn in Madison County, New York.” The woman rattled off the phone number and Kylie typed it next to the hotel name. “Thank you.” She hung up and dialed the number for the inn.

“Holiday Inn, Rachelle speaking. How may I help you?”

“Hi, I would like to book a room for two for four nights.”

“All right. We have a room with a queen sized bed that is one-thirty a night.”

“Um, do you have any rooms that have a single bed and a couch or even a recliner chair?”

“This is a room for two people?” Rachelle asked.

“Yes. I prefer sleeping on couches instead of beds and my friend is with me and he needs a bed.”

“Let me check.” Over the phone Kylie could hear the faint click of nails against the keyboard, a mouse clicking, and a few people talking and laughing. “Okay, we have one room like that. When would you like it for?”

“From tonight to the eighteenth.”

A few more clicks happened. “So that would be three nights and checkout would be on the eighteenth by eleven A.M. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“All right then. The room is available during that time and the cost is one-seventeen a night.”

“Sounds good.”

“What is your name?”

“Kylie Shett.”

“How do you spell both your first and last name?”

“K-y-l-i-e and S-h-e-t-t.”

“Okay then. And you’ll do everything else when you sign in.”

“Okay, that should be in a few hours.”

“All right, I will speak with you then. Goodbye.”

“Bye.” Kylie shut the phone and smiled at Conner. “There we go. When we get there I’ll update the posts. We can’t stay in hotels too often, they’re pricey.”

Maybe we should have rented an RV or a tour bus,” Conner said.

“Now you think of this! We’ll just have to get used to sleeping in the car. We can stay in a hotel every so often. Maybe we can stay with friends sometimes. I know someone from college who lives down in Virginia and someone else in Georgia.”

“I have a grandma in Florida. There’s also my cousin in North Carolina, we’re like brothers. We’ll call everyone when we have a state before we get to their state, how does that sound?”

“Good. Okay, we have a hotel and a plan. We’re good for a few days.”

“Any idea where you want to go after Lenox?”

“I say we stop in Pennsylvania. That will bring us to next week. We can go to two cities and then we can head to Jersey. We can do north Jersey and down the shore,” Kylie didn’t notice Conner’s frown when she said where they would go in New Jersey. “After that we can just head on south. Are we taking any break days?”

“I think those would be great. I’m sure you’ll need a break eventually and we’ll be able to sight see. Maybe we could find an amusement park or a zoo or something!”

“Conner, it’s almost winter,” Kylie said. “Do you really want to go to a zoo or an amusement park in this weather?”

“Hey as we go farther down south it’ll get warmer.”

Kylie rolled her eyes and took a sip of her cooling coffee. “You are an odd boy.”

“Yep! And you’re stuck with me.”

“Yay,” was Kylie’s sarcastic reply. “Well at least you’re a good editor, that makes up for everything else.”

They passed through a toll booth and the highway ahead cleared up. Kylie relaxed and stopped glaring at the cars in front of them.

Kylie and Conner fell into silence; the music, which was now playing The Waiting by Tom Petty, filled the car. Every so often Conner would ask where he was supposed to go next and Kylie would read off of the MapQuest directions.

“There’s a rest stop coming up.” Conner said after they had been in the car for almost three hours. “Do you want to stop?”

“Sure, rest stops have good stories sometimes.”

Conner put the right blinker on and pulled into the next lane. “Do you ever think of anything besides the possibility of finding good stories?”

“Of course I do!” Kylie replied indignantly.

“Uh-huh.”

“Hey, don’t mock me just because I care about this book so much.”

“I wasn’t mocking you.” Conner said as they pulled into the rest stop. Conner found a parking space about ten spots away from the door.

“Yeah, whatever.” Kylie slipped the strap of her bag, which held notebooks and pens, over her shoulder; she picked up her empty coffee cup and the bagel bag and left the car.

“Are you really bringing your writing bag inside?” Conner asked in disbelief.

“Yes, now let’s go.”

They entered the crowded rest stop. Smells of Starbucks, pretzels, hot dogs, and cookies assaulted them.

“I want a cookie!” a child shrieked. Kylie’s head whipped around to the David’s Cookie stand. A young girl was yanking on her mother’s arm, pulling her towards the deserts.

“I can’t stand it when children do that,” Kylie complained to Conner.

“They’re kids; all they want is junk food. It’s normal for them to complain once in a while. They’re fine when they’re not like that.”

Kylie scrunched her nose. “Eh.”

“What, you don’t like kids?”

“Not really.” They moved to the Starbucks line.

“I always just thought you didn’t like when they were loud.”

“I’ve never been big on kids.”

“So you never want to have any?”

“Probably not. I mean if I find the right guy and he really wants kids then maybe but if he doesn’t want them then I won’t feel like I’m missing anything.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“You just seem like you would be a good mother, especially to a teenage daughter.”

“Oh God. That’s another thing I wouldn’t be able to handle. They go from screaming, annoying kids to shouting, annoying teens. I shared a room with Sierra from when she was one to when I moved out. I hated it when she turned into a teenager. God, I wanted to rip my hair out sometimes. I wouldn’t be able to go through that again.”

They ordered their coffee and Kylie left without a story. Conner could tell she was disappointed by the amount of cream she had put in her coffee.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Conner told her once they were in the car. “Rest stop stories aren’t the best anyway. Just wait until we get in Lenox.”

“Yeah.”

Conner was silent for a moment then said, “Do you want to choose the music for the ride?"

“Are you trying to make me feel better?”

“Yep.”

“Well thanks but no, it wouldn’t be fair. You’re driving, you pick the music.”

“Hey do you still have that list of car rules from like two years ago?”

“Yeah, somewhere. I might have the file saved; I’ll check when we get to the hotel.”

“Those might be good to have in here. Maybe we could fine a printer and tape the list here.”

“Sounds good. Oh, turn here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Conner,” Kylie sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’m not completely incompetent I can read the simple instructions on here.” she shook the MapQuest page and then placed it on her lap.

The ride took another two hours and they hit traffic. Conner had to lock the windows so Kylie couldn’t scream at everybody. She pouted and threatened to just open the door and shout at the world but besides that nothing happened.

When they were getting close to Madison County Kylie was supposed to keep an eye out for any sings that could tell them where to go. After two failures she let her guard down. When they passed by a third sign her head perked up.

“Stop!” she shouted.

Conner, shocked by Kylie, almost stomped on the break. He gained control of the car and received a few honks.

“What the hell, Kylie?! You do not shout at the driver! That’s one of the most basic rules!”

“I think I saw Holiday Inn on one of the signs. Pull over!”

Conner made his way over to the shoulder. “Now what?”

“I’ll walk to the sign and see what it says.”

“No, I’ll go. You just wait here.” Conner unbuckled his seatbelt.

“Why do you get to have all of the fun?”

“Because you could get hurt and then your family would kill me and frankly I’m afraid of the women in your family. Plus Ben has construction tools and Peter can just talk the family out of any lawsuits. So I’m going out there. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Conner left the car and Kylie impatiently waited for him to come back. When he finally reentered the car, a gust of cold air following him, Kylie was itching to leave.

“Okay, I know where we’re going,” he said, starting the car. “And I think we need to add another rule to the car rules. ‘When you’re the passenger, if the driver tells you to keep an eye out for something then listen to the driver’!”

Kylie bit her lip. “I actually think that’s already a rule.”

“And is ‘no yelling at the driver and giving them a heart attack’ a rule?” Conner asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Possibly,” Kylie said in a tight voice.

“Then follow the rules! You make them up, practice what you preach!”

“Yeah, yeah. Just pay attention to the road.”

They made it into the city without any accidents. Conner pulled into the nearest gas station to get directions to the Holiday Inn. The ride through the city was quick and painless.

They made it to the Holiday Inn a little over five hours after they left Conner’s apartment. Conner went inside to get a cart while Kylie began to take out the bags. When Conner came back they loaded the cart as tightly as they could, packing all of the bags closely together.

Conner brought the cart inside and Kylie went to sign in while Conner parked the car. Kylie left the cart near the front counter and she walked over to the tiny silver hand bell. She hit the top once and waited for an employee to hear the ding.

An older woman with dyed blonde hair, her roots were beginning to show, and tired eyes came from a small back room. She held a stack of papers in her hands.

“I’ll be right with you,” she said to Kylie who nodded and looked around the lobby.

The woman came over and plastered a worn smile on her face. “Hello, welcome to the Holiday Inn. I’m Rachelle, how may I help you?”

“Hi, I’m here to sign in.”

“All right,” Rachelle did something on the computer. “Have you already booked a room?”

“Yes, one room for Kylie Shett.”

“Ah yes, you wanted the odd room.”

“That’s me.”

“Okay.” Rachelle got all of Kylie’s information and by that time Conner had already come back inside. “All right,” Rachelle said once everything was done. Kylie figured ‘all right’ was Rachelle’s favorite saying because she said it at the beginning of almost every sentence. “Here is your room key and a spare just in case.” Rachelle handed over the two key cards, Conner and Kylie each took one. “You’re on the second floor, room fifty-two. Will you need any help with your things?”

“No thank you,” Conner told her, speaking for the first time.

“All right,” Kylie stopped herself from laughing, “I hope you have a wonderful stay here. If you need anything don’t be hesitant to ask.”

“Thank you,” Conner said, taking Kylie’s hand.

Kylie led the way to the elevator, pulling the cart while Conner pushed and steered it. The elevator was empty when they went up and Kylie was gratetful for that. She hated being in very crowded elevators.

The walk from the elevator through the hallway to their room was very short. Kylie opened the door and helped Conner bring the cart in. As Conner took his clothes suitcase out of the pile Kylie looked around the small, generic hotel room. The curtains and comforter were floral patterned and both the carpet and couch were pale blues. There was one long dresser in the room which held a small TV and a large mirror sat behind it.

The tiny kitchen was direcly where you walked in and the bathroom was across from it. The hotel was similar to every other hotel.

Kylie turned to ask Conner a question when, without warning, he had stripped off his long sleeved shirt and threw on a tee shirt.

“Okay,” Kylie said after a moment. “What happened to giving warnings?”

“Sorry but that shirt was so Goddamn itchy I just needed to get it off. Next time I’ll tell you.”

“Thanks. So now what are we going to do?”

“Search the town?”

Kylie smiled. “Sounds like a good plan.”

She grabbed her shoulder back and switched the sweatshirt she had worn for the ride for her warmer coat.

“Let’s go!”