Chasing Fireflies

“Is he dead?” Garrett asked.

“Yes. Eighteen.” Rebecca sat forward in her seat, her seatbelt pulling farther out of its socket, and waited for Garrett to continue their innumerable game of 20 Questions.

“Did he have black hair?”

“No. Seventeen.”

Garrett flicked at a flyaway piece of car seat, obviously stalling for more time. After a minute, he looked back up at Rebecca. “Did he have blonde hair?”

“Yes. Sixteen.” The game continued until Garrett found out that the guy was an actor who was attractive and young when he died. “Come on, Garrett. It’s really not that hard,” Rebecca said.

“Easy for you to say,” Garrett retorted. “You know the answer.”

“Actually,” Stacey interrupted, “I think it’s suffice to say that all the girls in this van know who she’s talking about.” Stacey glanced at Rebecca. “Especially me. I’ve had to live with her constant droning over him and how horrible it was when he died every time she comes over to my house.”

Rebecca slapped Stacey on the shoulder--albeit slightly--and, ignoring her cousin, turned back to Garrett. “Come on. You have nine guesses left.”

“I give up,” Garrett said, throwing his hands in the air. “I hate this game.”

Rebecca gawked at Garrett. “No. I’m not letting you give up that easily. Keep going.” Rebecca shifted in her seat, still looking at Garrett.

“Um…is he a film actor?”

“Yes. Eight.”

After eight questions, Garrett still had absolutely no idea who Rebecca was talking about. “This game is shit, Rebecca. Seriously. If I haven’t guessed it by now, I probably never will.”

“One guess.” Rebecca said. “Can you think of one guess?”

Garrett paused for a minute, and I could tell that he was trying really hard to figure out the answer. After another minute of silence, John called out, “Oh for God’s sake, Garrett! It’s Heath Ledger!”

Garrett watched Rebecca’s face contort into a weird shape, and then she laughed, a laugh so loud and obnoxious that the whole rest of the car erupted into laughter at just the sound of it. Even Garrett, however mad he must have been that John knew the answer and he didn’t, let out a big laugh. “I feel so dumb,” he commented, and we all shook our heads.

“You should,” said John. “I knew about six questions in.”

“I think it was the ‘yes’ in reply to ‘Did he play any cool characters?’ that got me,” Pat added.

“What?” Stacey asked. “Patrick Verona from 10 Things I Hate About You?”

The whole car erupted in laughter, and John told Stacey that he had no idea she was that funny. Stacey shook it off, adding that it came in waves. Pat blushed, an action that you must know by now isn’t a rarity. “No. I meant the Joker from Batman.”

“Of course you did,” I said, turning around in my seat and smirking at him.” He sent me an evil glare, but couldn’t keep the act up and ended up laughing. I smiled at him. “So, Rebecca,” I moved my gaze toward the backseat, where she and Stacey were sitting, “Top Five Favorite Foods, go!”

Rebecca looked taken aback, but then regained her composure and smiled, before saying, “Macaroni and cheese, chicken, fish sticks, peas, and mint chocolate chip ice cream.”

All of the heads in the car nodded, each of them obviously agreeing with at least one of her choices. I laughed and turned towards Stacey. “Alright, Stacey? Top Five Favorite Pizza Toppings.”

Stacey grimaced. “Does cheese count?” she asked.

“Sure,” Jared replied.

“Okay, then…cheese, pork sausage, jalapeños, onions, and bacon.”

“You like jalapeños?” Kennedy asked. Stacey nodded her head. “I love jalapeños!”

Stacey laughed. “Yeah, they’re pretty good.”

“Hey!” Jared called out. “Laurel!”

I turned back around to face the highway. “Yeah, Jared?”

Not taking his eyes off of the road, Jared asked, “How far are we going today? I mean, I know we’re going a lot farther than this, but if we keep heading east on Interstate 15 we’re going to go straight through Las Vegas--”

“Can we--?”

“No,” Jared said, interrupting John. “We are not stopping in Las Vegas. Anyway,” he turned to me and rolled his eyes, “If we take Interstate 15 through Las Vegas, it would take us into Utah, right?”

I grabbed the atlas from under the seat, the same one John had refused to grab the day before, and flipped it open to Utah. “Yeah,” I told Jared, my finger following the line that represented Interstate 15. “We’d eventually have to take the exit to Interstate 70.”

“So how long until we get there?” Jared asked

I calculated the mileage and how fast we were going and eventually came up with an answer. “We’d get there around four in the morning.”

Jared laughed. “So we should probably stop before then.”

I nodded. “Besides, with John, we probably wouldn’t get there until six or maybe even seven.”

Jared laughed again and looked at me. “You’re probably right.”

I felt a poke on my shoulder and turned around to find a grinning Pat holding out a Capri Sun. “You’re going to make me have to pee, Pat.” He raised his eyebrows. “But of course I’ll drink it!” I said, fiercely grabbing the Capri Sun out of his hands and smiling at him.

“Do you like Capri Suns?” Rebecca asked me.

“Yeah,” I answered, pushing the straw into the pocket. “I’m literally addicted to them. Well, the Fruit Punch kind.”

Rebecca nodded her head. “I prefer the Mountain Cooler ones, but the Fruit Punch ones are pretty good.”

“We could get some when we stop for the night,” I suggested.

“No, it’s fine. Really, I don’t want to hassle you guys. Stacey and I are only along for the ride.”

“Nonsense,” I said. “You’re part of our group now. Besides, we have nine more days to get to New York and I’m pretty sure Pat has eaten all the Oreos,” I shot Pat a look and he smirked, “and I’m positive that we need more M&Ms, thanks to John’s unthoughtfulness when it comes to saving them for the rest of us.”

“Hey!” John called out. “The only one of you guys who wanted them was you and Pat and that was only because you wanted to play fucking tic-tac-toe with them.” John turned towards Rebecca and whispered, “Pat sucks at tic-tac-toe.”

“I do not!” Pat yelled.

John laughed. “Bro, I’m pretty sure Laurel beat you five times in a row.”

Pat shrugged. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Except that you suck at tic-tac-toe,” Kennedy said. Everyone laughed.

Pat sighed. “Forget you guys.”

“You’re such a wimp,” I told him, poking him in the chest. “Seriously, man up.”

“Yeah,” said Garrett. “Act like a manly-man. Like me!” Garrett lifted his hand up for a high-five. No one did anything. “Oh, come on!” Garrett shouted. “Seriously? No one?”

Stacey high-fived him and just as Garrett let go, she grasped onto his hand and held it. A dreamy face come over her and she said, “Oh, it’s just like I thought it would feel like.”

Garrett looked at her funnily. “What?”

Stacey let go of Garrett’s hand. “Oh, I was just showing you what your fans will say when you guys make it big. Because let’s face it, you guys are going to be HUGE.”

“But you’ve never heard us play,” Garrett argued.

Stacey rolled her eyes. “So what? You’ve never heard me sing. Does that mean that you don’t think I’m going to be HUGE?”

“Well, uh…” Garrett stalled. “No. It just means, that, uh--”

“Exactly,” Stacey said. “We have blind faith in each other.” No one said anything, until Stacey said, “Hey, Pat. Give me one of those Capri Suns. And Jared?”

“Yeah?” Jared asked as Pat grabbed a Capri Sun and handed it to Stacey.

“I hope you know that you and I are playing 20 Questions next.”