Explosions

Charlie picked Olivia up at the airport a little after three on Wednesday afternoon. Her flight had been delayed, and she looked exhausted. She slept almost immediately when they got in the car to begin their drive.

They stopped first in New Orleans for some beignets in the French Quarter. Charlie had compiled a list of things to see between Houston and Boston. They agreed to take turns driving and napping during the 27-hour car trip. Though if they did anything on Charlie’s list, it would likely be stretched longer than that.

Olivia watched her sister stir her coffee for the third time in the last five minutes before she grabbed her hand. Charlie looked up at Olivia and smiled.

“Charlie, are you sure you’re okay?” asked Olivia.

“I’m fine, Liv,” said Charlie.

“You don’t seem fine,” replied Olivia.

She eyed Charlie for a moment before Charlie sighed and shook her head.

“Okay, you win,” she said. “I’m a broken woman. I’ve got no boyfriend and no house. I’m traveling almost two thousand miles with my sister so I can hopefully not live with my parents when I get there.”

“Char, tell me about the breakup,” said Olivia. “I know it’s on your mind.”

Charlie shrugged and said, “I’d rather not. I mean, I’d like to get it all off my chest, but maybe a café in New Orleans isn’t a place to do that.”

Olivia nodded and took another bite of her beignet. Charlie stirred her coffee again and looked around. She had never been to New Orleans, despite living only five hours away for the last five years. She had always wanted to take a swamp tour or visit during Mardi Gras, but it had never worked out. The beignets were delicious, though, and she was savoring them while she could.

When they left New Orleans, they headed through Mississippi. Olivia slept through the night while Charlie drove through Hattiesburg and Birmingham, Alabama. In the early morning, she decided to stop in Gadsden, where she’d read about a national park with a beautiful waterfall.

They got some coffee and donuts in a town called Fort Payne in Alabama and got to the park just in time for it to open. The sign read Little River Canyon Preserve. Charlie and Olivia trekked the falls boeardwalk, and when they got to the end of the trail, the site was breathtaking. Charlie sat down on a rock formation, her feet hanging over a twenty-foot drop. Olivia sat down next to her, and they looked over the small pond where water was flowing rapidly over the drop.

“I never thought Alabama looked like this,” said Olivia. “I never thought anywhere could look like this.”

Charlie nodded and listened to the sounds of the falls hitting the water. No one else was here yet, but she was sure it would start filling up with people closer to lunchtime. Olivia wrapped her arms around Charlie and rested her cheek against her sister’s shoulder. Charlie put her head cheek on Olivia’s head and sighed.

“I thought you and J.J. were going to be forever,” said Olivia.

“Me too,” agreed Charlie. “He didn’t trust me anymore. I don’t blame him.”

“Okay, but it’s not like you cheated on him,” Olivia said. “There was no sex. There was no sneaking around. Right?”

“I didn’t tell him at first,” Charlie said. “I told him about the first kiss a little too late, and I felt horrible. I didn’t tell him about the second one at all, and it came out on its own.”

“I guess I see both sides,” replied Olivia. “I just don’t get why you couldn’t work past it.”

“We were in different places,” said Charlie.

Olivia looked up at her sister. She turned and crossed her legs, and Charlie leaned back on her palms.

“I’m going to tell you something I haven’t told anyone,” she said. “Not June or J.J. or anyone.”

“Okay,” said Olivia.

“I did try to have sex with Ryan,” Charlie said, taking a deep breath. “When I was in New York and he brought me back to my hotel room, I tried to have sex with him. We didn’t, obviously.”

She paused, watching a frog jump around about ten feet from her. Olivia glanced over at the frog as well, waiting for her sister to finish. Charlie smiled half-heartedly and turned to her sister.

“I was so confused about all of it,” she said. “J.J. hadn’t done a damn thing to deserve any of this, and here I was, breaking his heart.”

“He will be fine after a little bit, Char,” replied Olivia.

“I felt so terrible, Liv,” Charlie said. “I fell out of love with J.J. and back in love with Ryan, and I felt so terrible.”

“Charlie, he destroyed you,” said Olivia. “He crushed your heart, and you were still broken when you met J.J. That’s why you fell in love with him. You fell out of love when Ryan came back into your life. You were confused about all of it because your mind was telling you you were in love with J.J. when your heart was telling you to love Ryan.”

Charlie looked at her sister and blinked back a few tears.

“Five years younger than me, and you’re still way more intuitive,” she chuckled.

“We’ve all got our strengths,” said Olivia. “You’d kill me in book-smart.”

She stood up and helped her sister up. Charlie brushed herself off, and she looked around again. They began walking back toward the welcome center, following the little river flowing next to them. Halfway down, Olivia stopped and turned to Charlie.

“If you love Ryan,” she said, “no one should stop you from telling him that.”

“I already told him,” said Charlie.

“It was a half-assed apology, Char,” Olivia explained.

Charlie nodded and continued walking.

Charlie slept in the car next as Olivia drove to their next stop – Dixie Caverns in Salem, Virginia. They would make it in time for the last tour. Charlie and Olivia stared in awe at the approaching Appalachian Mountains. They half-heartedly laughed about pitching everything to go live in a cabin in the summit of one of the mountains, then decided against it as winter was approaching.

The mountain air was crisp and refreshing, a fresh breath of air after living in Houston for so long. As much as Charlie had grown to love Texas, there was too much to love about the approaching East Coast. She and Olivia stopped at an observatory near the mountains and joked again about living there. They took a picture together and sent it to Wendy.

Dixie Caverns was small but beautiful. Neither Charlie nor Olivia was particularly an nature-driven girl, but the tour down into the cavern was eerie. They decided to find another cavern to stop at on the way through the mountains, and they settled on Shenandoah Caverns a few hours away. They would have to wait until the next morning for the tours to start, so when they got there, they decided to sleep in their car.

The Shenandoah Caverns were way more beautiful than the Dixie Caverns, only because they were about three times larger. Both had been incredible, but where the first had been haunting, the second had been colorful.

The air was getting chillier outside the closer they got to Massachusetts, but Charlie couldn’t help but roll her window down as they passed the mountains again. She and her sister laughed and reminisced about the days when they would try to take family road trips around the New England area. Charlie took lots of photos of places they drove by and places they stopped. She took photos in the car of the two of them, of just her, and of just her sister. Sometimes she would sneak photos of Olivia while she was drooling in the passenger seat. After they left the caverns, they traveled to some place called Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum, where they toured what must have been a thousand elephant collectables. They left there with two pounds of fudge for the trip home.

They stopped in New York City a few hours later and toured the city. That night they decided it was better to get a hotel and leave in the morning, so they had dinner and went shopping. Charlie stopped at a corner store, seeing a forest green shirt with the number 14 on it. Olivia touched her arm and smiled.

“Buy it,” she said.

“Yeah, right,” laughed Charlie. “Could you imagine me walking into Boston – into dad’s house – wearing a New York Jets shirt?”

“Fuck ‘em,” replied Olivia. “Buy it, Char.”

Charlie shook her head and walked away from the store. Olivia shrugged, and she followed after her sister.